Lessons of the Wilderness.

Authors

John Muir

Files

Kimes Entry Number

313

Original Date

1-1-1913

William and Maymie Kimes Annotation

Excepting Sundays we boys had only two days of the year to ourselves, the 4th of July and the 1st of January. Sundays were less than half our own, on account of Bible lessons, Sunday-school lessons, and church services, all the others were labor-days, rain or shine, cold or warm. Muir continues, "I was put to the plough at the age of twelve, when my head reached but little above the handles, and for many years I had to do the greater part of the ploughing...We were called in the morning at four o'clock and seldom got to bed before nine, making a broiling, seething day, seventeen hours long, loaded with heavy work..." Muir sadly recalls when Foutain Lake Farm was in "perfect order", after eight long years of drudgery, his father purchased "wild land" a few miles away, compelling them all to begin again to clear, fence, and build what was to be called Hickory Hill Farm. This portion of The Story of My Boyhood and Youth is concluded with the well-drilling episode in which Muir nearly lost his life from choke-damp. See no, 315, pp. 174-234.

Publication

The Atlantic Monthly, v. 111, no. 1

Page/Column

pp. 81-92

Recommended Citation

Muir, John, "Lessons of the Wilderness." (1913). John Muir: A Reading Bibliography by Kimes (Muir articles 1866-1986). 353.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/353