Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts 2.djvu/19

 get off within a week or ten days. I am so much an invalid that I shall have to study my comfort in travelling to a remarkable degree—stopping to rest, etc., if need be. I think to get a through ticket to Chicago, with liberty to stop frequently on the way: at Niagara Falls several days or a week, at a private boarding-house; then a night or day at Detroit; and as much at Chicago as my health may require. At Chicago I can decide at what point (Fulton, Dunleith, or another) to strike the Mississippi, and take a boat to St. Paul. I expect to be gone three months, and would like to return by a different route,—perhaps Mackinaw and Montreal.

I have thought of finding a companion, of course; yet not seriously, because I had no right to offer myself as a companion to anybody, having such a peculiarly private and all-absorbing but miserable business as my health, and not altogether his to attend to. Nevertheless, I have just now decided to let you know of my intention, thinking it barely possible that you might like to make a part or the whole of this journey at the [ 9 ]