Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/106

 82 YEARS OF DISCIPLINE. [1843,

to do: &quot;You want a cab, sir,&quot; or even, &quot;You want a nice cab, sir, to take you to Fourth Street.&quot; The question which one had bravely and hopefully begun to put, another had the tact to take up and conclude with fresh empha sis, twirling it from his particular whipstick as if it had emanated from his lips as the sen timent did from his heart. Each one could truly say, &quot;Them s my sentiments.&quot; But it was a sad sight.

I am seven and a half miles from New York, and, as it would take half a day at least, have not been there yet. I have already run over no small part of the island, to the highest hill, and some way along the shore. From the hill di rectly behind the house I can see New York, Brooklyn, Long Island, the Narrows, through which vessels bound to and from all parts of the world chiefly pass, Sandy Hook and the High lands of Neversink (part of the coast of New Jersey) and, by going still farther up the hill, the Kill van Kull, and Newark Bay. From the pinnacle of one Madame Grimes house, the other night at sunset, I could see almost round the island. Far in the horizon there was a fleet of sloops bound up the Hudson, which seemed to be going over the edge of the earth ; and in view of these trading ships, commerce seems quite imposing.