Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/243

 MT. 32.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 219

&quot; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring 1 .&quot;

Be not deterred by melancholy on the path which leads to immortal health and joy. When they tasted of the water of the river over which they were to go, they thought it tasted a little bitterish to the palate, but it proved sweeter when it was down.

H. D. T.

NOTE. The &quot;companion&quot; of his walks, mentioned by Thoreau in November, 1849, was Ellery Channing ; the neigh bor who insisted on talking- of Turkey was perhaps Emerson, who, after his visit to Europe in 1848, was more interested in its politics than before. Pencil-making- was Thoreau s manual work for many years ; and it must have been about this time (1849-50) that he &quot; had occasion to go to New York to peddle some pencils,&quot; as he says in his journal for November 20, 1853. He adds, &quot; I was obliged to manufacture one thousand dollars worth of pencils, and slowly dispose of, and finally sacrifice them, in order to pay an assumed debt of one hundred dol lars.&quot; This debt was perhaps for the printing of the Week, published in 1849, and paid for in 1853. Thoreau s pencils have sold (in 1893) for 25 cents each. For other facts concern ing his debt to James Munroe, see Sanborn s Thoreau, pp. 230, 235.