Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/133

Rh Emerson and Lane. In The New England Magazine for April, 1900, is an interesting article upon "The Alcotts in Harvard," outlining the life at "Fruitlands." The sixteen members of this family lived through the balmy summer "in harmony with the primitive instincts of man," when fruit and light clothing were acceptable amenities. The cold, dismal winter made such life unendurable and, in dismay, they left "Apple Slump," as Mrs. Alcott called the home that had proved another fiasco for this transmigratory family. Louisa Alcott's story, "Transcendental Wild Oats," portrays well the mingled joys and sorrows of the time, while her little poem, "Despondency," expresses the gloom, yet courage, of this girl of eleven years. Alcott in his journal gives a characteristic comment on this and similar experiments,—"None of us were prepared to actualize practically the ideal life of which we dreamed."

Thoreau visited "Fruitlands" but declined to become a member of the colony. In a letter to him from Lane, June 7, 1843, is a complimentary hint which doubtless preceded more urgent invitation. After describing the general topography of their farm of ninety acres, the writer says,—"On the estate are about fourteen acres of wood, part of it extremely pleasant as a retreat, a very sylvan