One remark in this letter calls for attention,--that concerning the
"bluebird-box" for Mr. Emerson. In 1853 Emerson wrote in his journal:
"Long ago I wrote of Gifts, and neglected a capital example. John
Thoreau, Jr., one day put a bluebird's box on my barn,--fifteen years
ago it must be,--and there it still is, with every summer a melodious
family in it, adorning the place and singing his praises. There's a
gift for you,--which cost the giver no money, but nothing which he
bought could have been so good. I think of another, quite inestimable.
John Thoreau knew how much I should value a head of little Waldo, then
five years old. He came to me and offered to take him to a
daguerreotypist who was then in town, and he (Thoreau) would see it
well done. He did it, and brought me the daguerre, which I thankfully
paid for. A few months after, my boy died; and I have since to thank
John Thoreau for that wise and gentle piece of friendship."
Little Waldo Emerson died January 27, 1842, and John Thoreau the same
month; so that this taking of the portrait must have been but a few
months before his own death, January 11. Henry Thoreau was then living
in the Emerson family.