Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/186

 162 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1847,

come so easy, and oh, how thinly it is watered ere we get it ! But the young bunting calf, he will get at it. There is no way so direct. This is to earn one s living by the sweat of his brow. It is a little like joining a community, this life, to such a hermit as I am ; and as I don t keep the accounts, I don t know whether the experi ment will succeed or fail finally. At any rate, it is good for society, so I do not regret my tran sient nor my permanent share in it.

Lidian [Mrs. Emerson] and I make very good housekeepers. She is a very dear sister to me. Ellen and Edith and Eddy and Aunty Brown keep up the tragedy and comedy and tragic-com edy of life as usual. The two former have not forgotten their old acquaintance; even Edith carries a young memory in her head, I find. Eddy can teach us all how to pronounce. If you should discover any rare hoard of wooden or pewter horses, I have no doubt he will know how to appreciate it. He occasionally surveys mankind from my shoulders as wisely as ever Johnson did. I respect him not a little, though it is I that lift him up so unceremoniously. And sometimes I have to set him down again in a hurry, according to his &quot;mere will and good pleasure.&quot; He very seriously asked me, the other day, &quot;Mr. Thoreau, will you be my fa ther ? &quot; I am occasionally Mr. Rough-and-tum-