Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/360

 336 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1856,

stone building, which cost some forty thousand dollars, in which I do not know exactly who or how many work (one or two familiar faces and more familiar names have turned up), a few shops and offices, an old farmhouse, and Mr. Spring s perfectly private residence, within twenty rods of the main building. The city of Perth Amboy is about as big as Concord, and Eagleswood is one and a quarter miles south west of it, on the Bay side. The central fact here is evidently Mr. [Theodore] Weld s school, recently established, around which various other things revolve. Saturday evening I went to the schoolroom, hall, or what not, to see the children and their teachers and patrons dance. Mr. Weld, a kind-looking man with a long white beard, danced with them, and Mr. [E. J.] Cut ler, his assistant (lately from Cambridge, who is acquainted with Sanborn), Mr. Spring, and oth ers. This Saturday evening dance is a regular thing, and it is thought something strange if you don t attend. They take it for granted that you want society !

Sunday forenoon I attended a sort of Quaker meeting at the same place (the Quaker aspect and spirit prevail here, Mrs. Spring says, &quot;Does thee not?&quot;), where it was expected that the Spirit would move me (I having been previ ously spoken to about it) ; and it, or something