Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/125

 MI. 25.] TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER. 101

is two or three miles from the Battery, where the boat touches, clear brick and stone, and no &quot; give &quot; to the foot ; and they have laid out, though not built, up to the 149th street above. I had rather see a brick for a specimen, for my part, such as they exhibited in old times. You see it is &quot; quite a day s training &quot; to make a few calls in different parts of the city (to say no thing of twelve miles by water and land, i. e., not brick and stone), especially if it does not rain shillings, which might interest omnibuses in your behalf. Some omnibuses are marked &quot; Broadway Fourth Street,&quot; and they go no farther ; others &quot; Eighth Street,&quot; and so on, and so of the other principal streets. (This let ter will be circumstantial enough for Helen.)

This is in all respects a very pleasant resi dence, much more rural than you would ex pect of the vicinity of New York. There are woods all around. We breakfast at half past six, lunch, if we will, at twelve, and dine or sup at five ; thus is the day partitioned off. From nine to two, or thereabouts, I am the schoolmas ter, and at other times as much the pupil as I can be. Mr. and Mrs. Emerson are not indeed of my kith or kin in any sense ; but they are ir reproachable and kind. I have met no one yet on the island whose acquaintance I shall culti vate or hoe round unless it be our neighbor,