Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/479

 JST. 43.] TO F. B. SANBORN. 453

is unscrewable, and I can only direct my letter at the bar. I could tell you more, and perhaps more interesting things, if I had time. I am considerably better than when I left home, but still far from well.

Our faces are already set toward home. Will you please let my sister know that we shall prob- cibly start for Milwaukee and Mackinaw in a day or two (or as soon as we hear from home) ma Prairie du Chien, and not La Crosse.

I am glad to hear that you have written to Cholmondeley, 1 as it relieves me of some respon sibility.

The tour described in this long letter was the first and last that Thoreau ever made west of the Mohawk Valley, though his friend Channing had early visited the great prairies, and lived in log- cabins of Illinois, or sailed on the chain of great lakes, by which Thoreau made a part of this journey. It was proposed that Channing should accompany him this time, as he had in the tour through Lower Canada, and along Cape Cod, as well as in the journeys through the Berkshire and Catskill mountains, and down the Hudson ; but some misunderstanding or temporary incon venience prevented. The actual comrade was

1 I had answered T. Cholmondeley s last letter, explaining 1 that Thoreau was ill and absent.