Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/459

 2ET.43.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 433

top, and heard them converse ; but they did not know that they had neighbors who were compar atively old settlers. We spared them the chagrin which that knowledge would have caused them, and let them print their story in a newspaper accordingly.

Yes, to meet men on an honest and simple footing, meet with rebuffs, suffer from sore feet, as you did, ay, and from a sore heart, as per haps you also did, all that is excellent. What a pity that that young prince 1 could not enjoy a little of the legitimate experience of traveling be dealt with simply and truly, though rudely. He might have been invited to some hospitable house in the country, had his bowl of bread and milk set before him, with a clean pinafore ; been told that there were the punt and the fishing-rod, and he could amuse himself as he chose ; might have swung a few birches, dug out a woodchuck, and had a regular good time, and finally been sent to bed with the boys, and so never have been introduced to Mr. Everett at all. I have no doubt that this would have been a far more memorable and valuable experience than he got.

The snow-clad summit of Mount Washington must have been a very interesting sight from Wachusett. How wholesome winter is, seen far

1 The Prince of Wales, then visiting America with the Duke of Newcastle.