Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/20

4 live here?" Some of these family homes have been removed or remodeled but others remain, including his birthplace, moved from its original site, and his last home, near the junction of Thoreau and Main streets.

The pervasive atmosphere of his memory extends through the town, from the willow banks of the Concord river to the woods encircling Walden, with its monumental cairn of world-wide contributions. Near Emerson's house are shade-trees and shrubs planted by Thoreau. He also beautified, with locusts and fruit-trees, the terraced hillside behind Alcott's "Orchard House." On the very summit of Ridge Path in Sleepy Hollow, overlooking the hills and meadows which he revered, is his plain memorial stone. Here, as in the world of letters, his name rests beside Emerson, Alcott, and Hawthorne. While Concord was loved by this trio of authors, it was in no case an exclusive allegiance. All were born elsewhere, all had lived long in other places, and all had visited foreign lands. In contrast with their broader sympathies, as regards locale, was the intense, restrictive devotion of Thoreau to the village where he was born, where he spent nearly all his life, and where alone he was able to develop and disclose his true character.