Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/69

Rh and reserve, with more cheeriness, John was generally the favorite among boyish comrades. With a good education, though not college-bred, he was a most successful teacher. In a letter from Henry, sent to Roxbury, where he was teaching in 1838, is the proposition, that, after John's school was ended, they should go west to seek a school together, or, find individual positions. The plan for this Western pilgrimage failed, however, and the same year John assisted Henry in a little private school at the old Parkman House, where the Thoreaus then resided. During the next two years, both taught at the Concord Academy, then on Academy Lane, now moved to Middle Street and somewhat changed. This was a private school, for the town had abandoned the Academy for a High School four years before. Research among old Concord newspapers disclosed the following announcements in The Yeoman's Gazette, September 7, 1839: