Walden: Baker Farm Summary & Analysis

Thoreau writes that there were "shrines" he visited in the woods, pine groves and other groups of trees "standing like temples." Once, he found himself standing in the end of a rainbow and compares his intense feeling of being dazzled to a feeling described by Benevuto Cellini who, after a nightmare, woke up to see a strange, alluring light over the shadow of his head.

Once, while Thoreau was walking through Baker Farm, he says, it began to rain, so he went into the nearest hut, where he found John Field, an Irishman, and his family waiting out the storm. Thoreau describes John as honest and hardworking but unambitious. When Thoreau describes his simple, independent existence to John and his family and tells them that they do not have to work hard to support themselves but can escape the big expenses that trap them, they see what Thoreau describes as a difficult life to maintain and are not interested. As Thoreau leaves the hut, he says his "Good Genius" seemed to celebrate his adventures and independent spirit and urged him, "Grow wild according to thy nature."