Page:Thoreau - As remembered by a young friend.djvu/80

 find swamp-oak written on my heart”; but under this oak-bark was friendship and loyalty in the tough grain, through and through. He was a friend, “even to the altars,” too sincere and true to stoop to weakness from his noble ideal. Hear his creed of sincere yet austere friendship as he states it in his journal: —

“It steads us to be as true to children and boors as to God himself. It is the only attitude which will suit all occasions, it only will make the Earth yield her increase, and by it do we effectually expostulate with the wind. If I run against a post, that is the remedy. I would meet the morning and evening on very sincere grounds. When the sun introduces me to a new day, I silently say to myself, ‘Let us be faithful all round. We will do justice and receive it.’ Something like this is the charm of Nature's demeanour towards us; strict