The Reading Hour

Episode 30 continues our reading from "The Allegash and East Branch," wherein Thoreau wakes in the night to discover "phosphorescent wood," which delights him; following a re-cap of Nan's adventures with George Gerry on the river, we then eavesdrop upon "A Serious Tea-Drinking" at Mrs. Fraley's in ch. 18 of A Country Doctor.

In Episode 29, we venture further up Moosehead Lake with Thoreau and Joe Polis to camp and do a bit of botanizing at Mount Kineo, which rises on a peninsula within the lake. We then continue with Nan's visit to Dunport in chapter 17 of A Country Doctor.

Episode 28 introduces the third, final essay of Thoreau's The Maine Woods, "The Allegash and East Branch," then continues Jewett's A Country Doctor with its 16th chapter, in which Nan acquaints her Dunport aunt and a new friend with her vocational plans.

In Episode 27 (2.15) we conclude "Chesuncook," the second of three essays in The Maine Woods, where Thoreau stirringly expresses how an ecological regard for the wild may promote the health of a democracy. The episode's second half is devoted to chapter 15 of Jewett's novel, in which Nan finally becomes acquainted with her aunt during an extended visit to Dunport.

In this episode, Thoreau tries to determine from several Native Americans in a Maine camp what some of the Abenaki place names mean; then, in ch. 14 of A Country Doctor, we move to Dunport and make the acquaintance of Nan's aunt, Miss Anna Prince.

Episode 25's substantial reading from Thoreau's "Chesuncook" includes some of the most moving prose of the essay as Thoreau moralizes about hunting and poetry; he also expresses Transcendentalist enthusiasm for "the living spirit of the [pine] tree." The episode concludes with Jewett's thirteenth chapter of A Country Doctor, "A Straight Course."

Episode 24 (2.12) includes only a short passage from Thoreau's second essay in The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," to leave time for the whole of Jewett's long chapter 12.

Episode 23 offers a long passage from Thoreau's "Chesuncook," much of it concerning the tracking and hunting of moose, and the short chapter 11 of Jewett's A Country Doctor.

Episode 22 includes only a short passage of Thoreau's second essay from The Maine Woods so that the long tenth chapter of Jewett's A Country Doctor may be shared in full.

With Episode 21 (2.9), we begin the second of the three essays comprising The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," in which Thoreau navigates from Boston to Bangor, then travels by wagon to the foot of Moosehead Lake, then by canoe to its head, before porting to the Penobscot River. The episode concludes with the second half of Jewett's long ninth chapter, "At Dr. Leslie's."