CONCORD, September 2, 1856.
FRIEND RICKETSON,--My father and mother regret that your indisposition
is likely to prevent your coming to Concord at present. It is as well
that you do not, if you depend on seeing me, for I expect to go to New
Hampshire the latter part of the week. I shall be glad to see you
afterward, if you are prepared for and can endure my unsocial habits.
I would suggest that you have one or two of the teeth which you can
best spare extracted at once, for the sake of your general, no less
than particular health. This is the advice of one who has had quite
his share of toothache in this world. I am a trifle stouter than when
I saw you last, yet far, far short of my best estate.
I thank you for two newspapers which you have sent me; am glad to see
that you have studied out the history of the ponds, got the Indian
names straightened,--which means made more crooked,--etc., etc. I
remember them with great satisfaction. They are all the more
interesting to me for the lean and sandy soil that surrounds them.
Heaven is not one of your fertile Ohio bottoms, you may depend on it.
Ah, the Middleborough ponds!--Great Platte lakes. Remember me to the
perch in them. I trust that I may have some better craft than that
oarless pumpkin-seed[72] the next time I navigate them.
From the size of your family I infer that Mrs. Ricketson and your
daughters have returned from Franconia. Please remember me to them,
and also to Arthur and Walton; and tell the latter that if, in the
course of his fishing, he should chance to come across the shell of a
terrapin, and will save it for me, I shall be exceedingly obliged to
him.
Channing dropped in on us the other day, but soon dropped out again.
CONCORD, September 23, 1856.
FRIEND RICKETSON,--I have returned from New Hampshire, and find myself
_in statu quo_. My journey proved one of business purely. As you
suspected, I saw Alcott, and I spoke to him of you, and your good will
toward him; so now you may consider yourself introduced. He would be
glad to hear from you about a conversation in New Bedford. He was
about setting out on a conversing tour to Fitchburg, Worcester, and,
three or four weeks hence, Waterbury, Ct., New York, Newport (?) or
Providence (?). You may be sure that you will not have occasion to
repent of any exertions which you may make to secure an audience for
him. I send you one of his programmes, lest he should not have done so
himself.
You propose to me teaching the following winter. I find that I cannot
entertain the idea. It would require such a revolution of all my
habits, I think, and would sap the very foundations of me. I am
engaged to Concord and my own private pursuits by 10,000 ties, and it
would be suicide to rend them. If I were weaker, and not somewhat
stronger, physically, I should be more tempted. I am so busy that I
cannot even think of visiting you. The days are not long enough, or I
am not strong enough to do the work of the day, before bedtime.
Excuse my paper. It chances to be the best I have.
* * * * *
In October, 1856, Mr. Spring, whom Mr. Alcott was then visiting, wrote
to Thoreau inviting him to come to Eagleswood, give lectures, and
survey two hundred acres of land belonging to the community, laying
out streets and making a map of the proposed village. Thoreau accepted
the proposal, and soon after wrote the following letter, which Miss
Thoreau submitted to Mr. Emerson for publication, with other letters,
in the volume of 1865; but he returned it, inscribed, "Not printable
at present." The lapse of time has removed this objection.