I
.
I was seated by the shore of a small pond, about a mile and a half south of the
village of Concord and somewhat higher than it, in the midst of an extensive wood
between that town and Lincoln, and about two miles south of that our only field known
to fame, Concord Battle Ground; but I was so low in the woods that the opposite shore,
half a mile off, like the rest, covered with wood, was my most distant horizon. For the
first week, whenever I looked out on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on
the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun
arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees,
its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts,
were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of
some nocturnal conventicle. The very dew seemed to hang upon the trees later into the
day than usual, as on the sides of mountains....
Tarn: a small mountain lake or pool.
Conventicle: a secret or unlawful religious meeting.

1. Why do you think Thoreau used figurative language to describe the pond?