Page:Some unpublished letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau; a chapter in the history of a still-born book.djvu/86

 Thoreau had a poor throat for charity soup, no matter how tastefully it had been flavored. "Books and postage, $2.64; Daguerreotype and its postage, .66; Total, $3.30. Balance due you $1.70, and you will accordingly find $1.70 enclosed with my shadow." This holograph presents the poorest chirography of them all, the signature differing markedly from all the others. Yes, there was a shadow on his face when he wrote, for this is the only letter signed, curtly enough, "Yrs." instead of the accustomed "Yours truly" or "sincerely."

A little matter, do you say? Precisely; but did it never occur to you that the significances of life are in just its "little matters"? It is what we do and how, when not the great world is the spectator, but when the