Page:Some unpublished letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau; a chapter in the history of a still-born book.djvu/18

 the seeker managed to get Thoreau's address and made application directly to him; and there the correspondence begins.

Thoreau and his Western correspondent never met, though at one point of the hopeless journey to Minnesota in search of health one hour's ride would have brought them together; but the doomed pilgrim knew that he must speedily return to put his house in order, for he was not deceived in regard to his bodily condition. "I think," he wrote to Mr. Bicketson, "that, on the whole, my health is better than when you were here; but my faith in the doctors has not increased."

The correspondence with Sophia E. Thoreau arose from a letter of condolence, on the death of her brother, written more than a month