Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/81

Rh choicest trees, act as extempore mechanic, fond of the pets, the sister's flowers, or sacred Tabby,—kittens being his favorites,—he would play with them by the half-hour." Such were the qualities of heart and mind, during the formative years of boyhood as well as after the tentative experiences of college, teaching, and Walden life. His life record bespoke a deep, sensitive home-love, a practical helpfulness, a pride and reserve which admitted the few rather than the many to his friendship, a tenacity of purpose governed by his own interpretation of moral law, an indifference to the more common social excitements but a plain, unswerving delight in nature-study, music, and classic literature, especially poetry. Such were the basal traits which characterized Henry Thoreau when he entered college in 1833, there to meet certain influences which would further evolve his character and enable him to frame a strange, yet consistent, philosophy of life that would bear the final test of personal application.