Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/417

 2ET. 41.] WHITE MOUNTAIN TRIP. 391

move about, and lay there in the camp several days, eating the pork and other supplies they had in their packs, Mr. Hoar going each day to the inn at the mountain summit. This camp was in a thicket of dwarf firs at the foot of the ra vine, where, just before his accident, by careless ness in lighting a fire, some acres of the moun tain woodland had been set on fire ; but this proved to be the signal for which Thoreau had told his Worcester friends to watch, if they wished to join him on the mountain. &quot; I had told Blake,&quot; says Thoreau in his journal, &quot; to look out for a smoke and a white tent. We had made a smoke sure enough. We slept five in the tent that night, and found it quite warm.&quot; Mr. Hoar added: &quot;In this journey Thoreau insisted 011 our carrying heavy packs, and rather despised persons who complained of the burden. He was chagrined, in the Maine woods, to find his Indian, Joe Polis (whom, on the whole, he admired), excited and tremulous at sight of a moose, so that he could scarcely load his gun properly. Joe, who was a good Catholic, wanted us to stop traveling on Sunday and hold a meeting ; and when we insisted on going for ward, the Indian withdrew into the woods to say his prayers, then came back and picked up the breakfast things, and we paddled on. As to Thoreau s courage and manliness, nobody