Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/196

 172 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1847,

For when one asks, &quot; Why do you want twice as much room more ? &quot; the reply is, &quot; Parlor, kitchen, and bedroom, these make the pal ace.&quot;

&quot; Well, Hugh, what will you do ? Here are forty dollars to buy a new house, twelve feet by twenty-five, and add it to the old.&quot;

&quot; Well, Mr. Thoreau, as I tell you, I know no more than a child about it. It shall be just as you say.&quot;

&quot;Then build it yourself, get it roofed, and get in.

&quot; Commence at one end and leave it half done, And let time finish what money s begun.&quot;

So you see we have forty dollars for a nest egg ; sitting on which, Hugh and I alternately and simultaneously, there may in course of time be hatched a house that will long stand, and perchance even lay fresh eggs one day for its owner ; that is, if, when he returns, he gives the young chick twenty dollars or more in addition, by way of &quot; swichin,&quot; to give it a start in the world.

The &quot; Massachusetts Quarterly Review &quot; came out the 1st of December, but it does not seem to be making a sensation, at least not here abouts. I know of none in Concord who take or have seen it yet.

We wish to get by all possible means some