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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864

"Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1"

There was a general grunting, not
violent at all, but low and quiet, as if they were expressing their
sentiments among themselves in a companionable way. Pigs, on a march, do
not subject themselves to any leader among themselves, but pass on,
higgledy-piggledy, without regard to age or sex.

September 1st.--Last evening, during a walk, Graylock and the whole of
Saddleback were at first imbued with a mild, half-sunshiny tinge, then
grew almost black,--a huge, dark mass lying on the back of the earth and
encumbering it. Stretching up from behind the black mountain, over a
third or more of the sky, there was a heavy, sombre blue heap or ledge of
clouds, looking almost as solid as rocks. The volumes of which it was
composed were perceptible, by translucent lines and fissures; but the
mass, as a whole, seemed as solid, bulky, and ponderous in the
cloud-world as the mountain was on earth. The mountain and cloud
together had an indescribably stern and majestic aspect. Beneath this
heavy cloud, there was a fleet or flock of light, vapory mists, flitting
in middle air; and these were tinted, from the vanished sun, with the
most gorgeous and living purple that can be conceived,--a fringe upon the
stern blue.


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