Broodsome

The forest highway was as empty, broodsome, and silent as any spirit grove in a fanciful Deadman's Land; [...]

I con the energy of each and all, I am myself a broodsome cognisance, Watching how this and that by bulb and stem then Leans forth, [...]

Impatient, perhaps, for the child to be born, over the next weeks I was more “broodsome” than ever, as Randall put it — some word he'd picked up in the village.