Chapter XIII: House-Warming

In October, Thoreau gathers wild apples and chestnuts for the winter, and rediscovers the ground-nut, the potato of the aborigines.

He watches the autumn colors emerge on the trees around the pond and is visited by thousands of wasps seeking winter quarters.

As November approaches, he builds his chimney with second-hand bricks and stones from the pond, lingering over this vital part of the house.

He begins to truly inhabit his house when he needs its warmth, dreaming of a vast, primitive hall of a house with no secrets.

He plasters his house as freezing weather arrives and takes the opportunity to study the first perfect, transparent ice on the pond.

As winter sets in, he collects dead wood for fuel, including a waterlogged raft of pine logs that makes a very hot fire.

He reflects on the universal value of wood, the affection a man has for his wood-pile, and the incense of his morning fire.

He describes how his fire and house protect him from the winter cold, allowing him to maintain a kind of summer indoors.

The next winter he uses a cooking-stove for economy but feels as if he has lost a companion, as the stove conceals the fire's face.