Walden

English, French, or American prints, ginghams, muslins, &c., gathered
from all quarters both of fashion and poverty, going to become paper of
one color or a few shades only, on which forsooth will be written tales
of real life, high and low, and founded on fact! This closed car smells
of salt fish, the strong New England and commercial scent, reminding me
of the Grand Banks and the fisheries. Who has not seen a salt fish,
thoroughly cured for this world, so that nothing can spoil it, and
putting the perseverance of the saints to the blush? with which you may
sweep or pave the streets, and split your kindlings, and the teamster
shelter himself and his lading against sun wind and rain behind it,—and
the trader, as a Concord trader once did, hang it up by his door for a
sign when he commences business, until at last his oldest customer
cannot tell surely whether it be animal, vegetable, or mineral, and yet
it shall be as pure as a snowflake, and if it be put into a pot and
boiled, will come out an excellent dun fish for a Saturday’s dinner.
Next Spanish hides, with the tails still preserving their twist and the
angle of elevation they had when the oxen that wore them were careering