Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/354

 330 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1856,

refreshment perchance ; but I would not like to have a hat carried round for it. I have just been reading some papers to see if they would do for your company ; but though I thought pretty well of them as long as I read them to myself, when I got an auditor to try them on, I felt that they would not answer. How could I let you drum up a company to hear them ? In fine, what I have is either too scattered or loosely arranged, or too light, or else is too scientific and matter of fact (I run a good deal into that of late) for so hungry a company.

I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk and leaves ; but I shall perhaps be enabled to speak with the more precision and authority by and by, if philosophy and sentiment are not buried under a multitude of details.

I do not refuse, but accept your invitation, only changing the time. I consider myself in vited to Worcester once for all, and many thanks to the inviter. As for the Harvard excursion, 1 will you let me suggest another ? Do you and

1 This was the town of Harvard, not the college. Perhaps the excursion was to visit Fruitlands, where Alcott and Lane had established their short-lived community, in a beautiful spot near Still River, an affluent of the Nashua, and half way from Concord to Wachusett. &quot; Asnebumskit,&quot; mentioned in a former letter, is the highest hill near Worcester, as &quot; Nob- scot &quot; is the highest near Concord. Both have Indian names.