high now; the thin woods flooded, with open water behind. See the marsh pink and apples on a flowered, apple-like tree (thorn-like) through Illinois, which may be the Pyrus coronaria. The distances on the prairie are deceptive; a stack of wheat-straw looks like a hill in the horizon, a quarter or half-mile off,—it stands out so bold and high.
There is only one boat up daily from Dunleith[1][now called East Dubuque] by this line,—in no case allowed to stop on the way. Small houses, without barns, surrounded and overshadowed by great stacks of wheat-straw. It is being thrashed on the ground. Some wood always visible, but generally not large. The inhabitants remind me of mice nesting in a wheat-stack, which is their wealth. Women are working in the fields quite commonly. The fences are of narrow boards; the towns are, as it were, stations on a railroad. The Staphylea trifolia is out at Dunleith.
- ↑ Dunleith has long been known as East Dubuque, opposite the city of Dubuque in Iowa. Here was Thoreau's first view of the Mississippi, on which he embarked for the voyage up to St. Paul, occupying two days.
[ 23 ]
