My Aunt Maria asked me to read the life
of Dr. Chalmers, which I did not promise to do.
Yesterday, Sunday, she was heard
through the partition shouting
to my Aunt Jane, who is deaf,
"Think of it! He stood half an hour
to-day to hear the frogs speak,
and wouldn't read the life of Chalmers."
—Thoreau's Journal, March 28, 1853.
