Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/375

 *3T.39.] TO B. B. WILEY. 349

had witnessed for many a day, and hopeful for the coming time. At dinner at Mrs. Manning s Miss M. S. was there, curious to see Thoreau. After dinner we called on Walt Whitman (Tho reau and I), but finding him out, we got all we could from his mother, a stately, sensible matron, believing absolutely in Walter, and telling us how good he was, and how wise when a boy ; and how his four brothers and two sisters loved him, and still take counsel of the great man he has grown to be. We engaged to call again early in the morning, when she said Walt would be glad to see us. (Monday, 10th.) Mrs. Tyndale of Philadelphia goes with us to see Walt, Walt the satyr, the Bacchus, the very god Pan. We sat with him for two hours, and much to our de light ; he promising to call on us at the Interna tional at ten in the morning to-morrow, and there have the rest of it.&quot; Whitman failed to call at his hour the next day.

TO B. B. WILEY (AT CHICAGO).

CONCORD, December 12, 1856.

MR. WiLEY, 1 It is refreshing to hear of your earnest purpose with respect to your cul ture, and I can send you no better wish than that

1 B. B. Wiley, then of Providence, since of Chicago, had written to Thoreau, September 4, for a copy of the Week, which the author was then selling 1 on his own account, having