Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/59

Rh given his four children an education of marked liberality for those days. Among books in the Thoreau library a few bore the father's name on the fly-leaf. They represented the best classics in English. Especially valued by the present owner is a much worn copy of The Spectator. A trifling incident interwoven in Henry Thoreau's journal shows the father's deep respect for the studies of his son, long after college days were ended. He gently reproved Henry because "he took time from his studies" to make, rather than buy, maple sugar, though he was assured that the knowledge thus gained was commensurate with "university training."

During John Thoreau's later life his home was resort for noted abolitionists and occasional fugitive slaves. The family name has been closely linked with this politico-reform movement. One who knew the family declared that all were "preeminent and sincere reformers in an era and an atmosphere when reformers were radical by a sort of necessity of environment." Among tributes to the sterling worth and quiet influence of John Thoreau, none surpass Henry's expressions in a letter to his friend, Mr. Ricketson, written just after his father's death, and included by Mr. Sanborn in "Familiar Letters;"—"I am glad to read what you