Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/334

 310 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1855,

There would be no such, place to receive one s guests as that. If old furniture is fashionable, why not go the whole house at once ? I shall endeavor to make Mr. Hosmer believe that the old house is the chief attraction of his farm, and that it is his duty to preserve it by all honest appliances. You might take a lease of it in per- petuo, and done with it.

I am so wedded to my way of spending a day, require such broad margins of leisure, and such a complete wardrobe of old clothes, that I am ill-fitted for going abroad. Pleasant is it some times to sit at home, on a single egg all day, in your own nest, though it may prove at last to be an egg of chalk. The old coat that I wear is Concord ; it is my morning-robe and study-gown, my working dress and suit of ceremony, and my nightgown after all. Cleave to the simplest ever. Home, home, home. Cars sound like cares to me.

I am accustomed to think very long of going anywhere, am slow to move. I hope to hear a response of the oracle first. However, I think that I will try the effect of your talisman on the iron horse next Saturday, and dismount at Tar- kiln Hill. Perhaps your sea air will be good for me. I conveyed your invitation to Channing, but he apparently will not come.

Excuse my not writing earlier ; but I had not decided.