Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/481

 *T.44.] TO DANIEL RICKETSON. 455

TO DANIEL KICKETSON (AT NEW BEDFORD).

CONCORD, August 15, 1861.

FRIEND KICKETSON, When your last letter was written I was away in the far Northwest, in search of health. My cold turned to bronchitis, which made me a close prisoner almost up to the moment of my starting on that journey, early in May. As I had an incessant cough, my doctor told me that I must &quot;clear out,&quot; to the West Indies, or elsewhere, so I selected Minnesota. I returned a few weeks ago, after a good deal of steady traveling, considerably, yet not essen tially, better ; my cough still continuing. If I don t mend very quickly, I shall be obliged to go to another climate again very soon.

My ordinary pursuits, both indoors and out, have been for the most part omitted, or seri ously interrupted, walking, boating, scribbling, etc. Indeed, I have been sick so long that I have almost forgotten what it is to be well ; and yet I feel that it is in all respects only my en velope. Channing and Emerson are as well as usual; but Alcott, I am sorry to say, has for some time been more or less confined by a lame ness, perhaps of a neuralgic character, occasioned by carrying too great a weight on his back while gardening.

On returning home, I found various letters