Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/200

 176 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1847,

cessions, into the ballroom with them ! I hear the bell toll hourly over there. 1

Lidian and I have a standing quarrel as to what is a suitable state of preparedness for a traveling professor s visit, or for whomsoever else ; but further than this we are not at war. We have made up a dinner, we have made up a bed, we have made up a party, and our own minds and mouths, three several times for your professor, and he came not. Three several tur keys have died the death, which I myself carved, just as if he had been there ; and the company, too, convened and demeaned themselves accord ingly. Everything was done up in good style, I assure you, with only the part of the professor omitted. To have seen the preparation (though Lidian says it was nothing extraordinary) I should certainly have said he was a-coming, but he did not. He must have found out some shorter way to Turkey, some overland route, I think. By the way, he was complimented, at the conclusion of his course in Boston, by the mayor moving the appointment of a committee to draw up resolutions expressive, etc., which was done.

I have made a few verses lately. Here are some, though perhaps not the best, at any rate

1 The town alrashouse was across the field from the Emer son house.