Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/449

 T. 42.] THOREA U AND FRANK MERRIAM. 423

now in Boston to raise another party against the slaveholders. He was unfit to lead or even join in such a desperate undertaking, and we insisted he should return to safety in Canada, a large reward being offered for his seizure. He agreed to go back to Canada that night by the Fitch- burg Railroad ; but in his hotheaded way he took the wrong train, which ran no farther than Con cord, and found himself in the early evening at my house, where my sister received him, but insisted that I should not see him, lest I might be questioned about my guest. While he had supper and went to bed, I posted down to Mr. Emerson s and engaged his horse and covered wagon, to be ready at sunrise, he asking no questions. In the same way I engaged Mr. Thoreau to drive his friend s horse to South Acton the next morning, and there put on board the first Canadian train a Mr. Lockwood, whom he would find at my house. Thoreau readily consented, asked no questions, walked to the Emerson stable the next morning, found the horse ready, drove him to my door, and took up Merriam, under the name of Lockwood, neither knowing who the other was. Merriam was so flighty that, though he had agreed to go to Montreal, and knew that his life might de pend on getting there early, he declared he must see Mr. Emerson, to lay before him his plan