Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/454

 428 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [I860,

TO HARRISON BLAKE (AT WORCESTER).

CONCOKD, November 4, 1860.

MR. BLAKE, I am glad to hear any partic ulars of your excursion. As for myself, I looked out for you somewhat on that Monday, when, it appears, you passed Monadnoc ; turned my glass upon several parties that were ascending the mountain half a mile on one side of us. In short, I came as near to seeing you as you to seeing me. I have no doubt that we should have had a good time if you had come, for I had, all ready, two good spruce houses, in which you could stand up, complete in all respects, half a mile apart, and you and B. could have lodged by yourselves in one, if not with us.

We made an excellent beginning of our moun tain life. 1 You may remember that the Satur day previous was a stormy day. Well, we went up in the rain, wet through, and found our selves in a cloud there at mid-afternoon, in no situation to look about for the best place for a camp. So I proceeded at once, through the cloud, to that memorable stone, &quot; chunk yard,&quot; in which we made our humble camp once, and there, after putting our packs under a rock, hav-

1 This was Thoreau s last visit to Monadnoc, and the one mentioned in the note of August 3, and in Channing s Wan derer.