Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/263

Rh life the deepest affection. He was justly popular with them as teacher and story-teller. An incident which showed his tactful method of instruction, is recalled by one of the town children, who was often a member of his huckleberry-parties. When some child, in climbing a fence or scaling a wall, fell and lost his berries, Thoreau tenderly supplied the fruit from his own pail and then explained to the little ones how fortunate the mishap really was, since thus must seed be supplied for future berries. Among all Concord children, the girls and boy of the Emerson home retained his deep love to the close of life. He would tell them stories, replete with fancy and fact from natural history, he would organize and lead their excursions, or would champion their childish causes. He writes, with loving pride, that young Edward "asked me the other day, Mr. Thoreau, will you be my father? I am occasionally Mr. Rough-and-Tumble with him that I may not miss him, lest he should miss you too much." Again, to the absent father, he writes: "Ellen and I have a good under standing. I appreciate her genuineness. Edith tells me after her fashion,—'By and by I shall grow up and be a woman, and then I shall remember how you exercised me. ("Familiar Letters," p. 162.)

Thoreau's friendship with the Emerson family