8 April 1861 – 14 April 1861

Examine the pitch pines, which have been much gnawed or barked this snowy winter. The marks on them show the fine teeth of the mouse, and they are also nicked as with a sharp knife. At the base of each, also, is a quantity of the mice droppings. It is prob- ably the white-footed mouse.

Small reddish butterflies common; also, on snow banks, many of the small fuzzy gnats and cicindelee and some large black dor-bug-like beetles. The two latter are easily detected from a distance on the snow. The pheebe note of chickadee. White frosts these mornings. Worm-piles in grass at Clamshell.

Purple finch.

Going to law. I hear that Judge Minott of Haverhill once told a client, by way of warning, that two millers who owned mills on the same stream went to law about a dam, and at the end of the lawsuit one lawyer owned one mill and the other the other.