The chapter opens with a dramatic dialogue between a Hermit (who seems to represent the narrator) and a Poet. The Hermit sits alone and muses upon a familiar question: "Why will men worry themselves so? He that does not eat need not work." The Poet approaches him and asks if he would like to go fishing, "the true industry for poets." The Hermit seriously considers the proposition. Should he continue his meditation or fish with his friend? "Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing?" Eventually he decides to fish and goes off with the Poet, leaving his deep thoughts for another time.
After this dialogue is completed, the narrator describes the various animals, the "brute neighbours," that harmoniously lived with him at Walden. There is the friendly mouse that climbed up his sleeves and gobbled the crumbs given him. A phoebe built her nest in his shed and a robin dwelt in the pine tree next to his cabin. Partridges filed beneath his window, and beyond his window the woods were busy with animal activity. The narrator gives us lively descriptions of otters, raccoons, woodcocks, turtledoves, squirrels, jays, and many other animals. In such a setting, his ability to perceive natural phenomena was developed to such an extent that he was able to observe and depict in minute detail a battle between red and black ants near his woodpile. While he was doing this, his imagination was so stimulated that he turned the ant fight into an epic war between "the red republicans" and "the black imperialists" — and thus he "skimmed off" another truth for man: is a war between ants any more or any less significant than one between men?
The loon that the narrator observed swimming in Walden Pond is of special interest. He spent much time observing him, listening to his wild, laughing cries, and occasionally rowed out to try and catch him. The ducks that circled above the pond in the autumn also provided a spectacle worth hours of observation.
