One winter morning the narrator woke somewhat confused from a restless and troubled sleep: "I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavouring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what — how — when — where?" It has been a long winter; he has been anxious and disturbed about his spiritual life. That morning he looked out of his window and rediscovered the answer to all of his worries and questions: "There was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight." He obeyed nature's unspoken command, "Forward!" and began to move out of his wintry spiritual state of despondency. Imbued with a new sense of vitality, he energetically began his morning work by taking his pail to the pond and searching for water beneath the ice and snow.
He cut a hole in the ice and, while drawing water, enjoyed looking through this "window" into the depths below. Soon he caught a glimpse of the life moving below the ice. He was overjoyed with the sight and exclaimed, "Ah, the pickerel of Walden! . . . I am always surprised by their rare beauty, as if they were fabulous fishes. . . . They possess a quite dazzling and transcendent beauty."
