Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/264

234 was ever a tender memory to him. When he left that home he wrote the poem, "The Departure," not printed until many years later, but expressing his gratitude in earnest, gracious words:—

Outside the Emerson household, perhaps rather closely related to it, was the first Concord friend to recognize the genius of Thoreau, anterior and preparatory to his acquaintance with Emerson. Mrs. Lucy Brown of Plymouth, the sister of Mrs. Emerson, who spent a large part of her years in Concord, was the caller to whom Helen Thoreau showed her brother's journal, with pride that it contained sentences like those of Emerson. As recorded, Mrs.