also was very expert in sport. To him had been given calculating skill of remarkable exactness, for distance, number, speed, etc. It was related that at any time, if asked to choose a dozen pencils from a large bunch, he would grasp at once the requisite number. With gun and bait, also, he could quickly surpass his companions.
As boy and man, however, Thoreau had, in marked degree, a poet's love for nature mingled with the delicate, vibrant fibres of a naturalist, in its true meaning of a student-lover of outdoor life, not a dissector of indoor specimens. By inheritance and environment, the influence of Nature, as companion, was basal in his life. He has been compared to Saint Francis in his affinity for flower and bird; both met sure response of animal magnetism to their sympathetic, loving comradeship. Of Thoreau's earnest love and reverence for nature's children, Mr. Bradford Torrey has well said,—"Nature was not his playground but his study, his Bible, his closet, his means of grace." So responsive was he to the moods of the woods and skies that he delighted to be called autochthonous. Not alone did he watch for the blossoming plants, the autumnal tints, and the first note of the hylodes, but there was a subtle revelation to him beyond the reach of ordinary eye or ear, however
