Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/333

 2ET.38.] TO DANIEL RICKETSON. 309

TO DANIEL RICKETSON (AT NEW BEDFORD).

CONCORD, September 27, 1855.

FRIEND RICKETSON, I am sorry that you were obliged to leave Concord without seeing more of it, its river and woods, and various pleasant walks, and its worthies. I assure you that I am none the worse for my walk with you, but on all accounts the better. Methinks I am regaining my health ; but I would like to know first what it was that ailed me.

I have not yet conveyed your message to Mr. Hosmer, 1 but will not fail to do so. That idea of occupying the old house is a good one, quite feasible, and you could bring your hair-pillow with you. It is an inn in Concord which I had not thought of, a philosopher s inn. That large chamber might make a man s idea expand proportionably. It would be well to have an interest in some old chamber in a deserted house in every part of the country which attracted us.

1 This was Edmund Hosmer, a Concord farmer, before men tioned as a friend of Emerson, who was fond of quoting his sagacious and often cynical remarks. He had entertained George Curtis and the Alcotts at his farm on the &quot; Turnpike,&quot; southeast of Emerson s ; but now was living on a part of the old manor of Governor Winthrop, which soon passed to the ownership of the Hunts ; and this house which Mr. Ricketson proposed to lease was the &quot; old Hunt farmhouse,&quot; in truth built for the Winthrops two centuries before. It was soon after torn down.