Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/386

 360 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1857,

If more convenient, name some other time within tan days. I shall be rejoiced to see you, and to act the part of skipper in the contemplated voyage. I have just got another letter from Cholmondeley, which may interest you some what.

TO MARSTON WATSON (AT PLYMOUTH).

CONCORD, August 17, 1857.

MR. WATSON, I am much indebted to you for your glowing communication of July 20th. I had that very day left Concord for the wilds of Maine ; but when I returned, August 8th, two out of the six worms remained nearly, if not quite, as bright as at first, I was assured. In their best estate they had excited the admira tion of many of the inhabitants of Concord. It was a singular coincidence that I should find

O

these worms awaiting me, for my mind was full of a phosphorescence which I had seen in the woods. I have waited to learn something more about them before acknowledging the receipt of them. I have frequently met with glow-worms in my night walks, but am not sure they were the same kind with these. Dr. Harris once de scribed to me a larger kind than I had found, &quot; nearly as big as your little finger ; &quot; but he does not name them in his report.

The only authorities on Glow-worms which I