Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/131

 friends in the March preceding of how his serious illness began; writing under date of March 22, 1861, as follows:

To tell the truth, I am not on the alert for the signs of spring, not having had any winter yet. I took a severe cold about the 3rd of December, which at length resulted in a kind of bronchitis, so that I have been confined to the house ever since, excepting a very few experimental trips as far as the post-office, in some particularly mild noons. My health otherwise has not been affected in the least, nor my spirits. I have simply been imprisoned for so long; and it has not prevented my doing a good deal of reading and the like. Channing has looked after me very faithfully; says he has made a study of my case, and knows me better than I know myself, etc., etc. Of course, if I knew how it began, I should know better how it would end.

He had not then given up the hope of longer life, though he had in fact been more or less an invalid for some years. On his