MT. 25.] TO HELEN THOREAU. 87
of every man of business of the country. Of course it is not popular at the South and West. It is an extensive business and will employ a great many clerks.
Love to all not forgetting aunt and aunts and Miss and Mrs. Ward.
On the 23d of May he wrote from Castleton to his sister Helen thus :
DEAR HELEN, In place of something fresher, I send you the following verses from my Journal, written some time ago :
Brother, where dost thou dwell ?
What sun shines for thee now ? Dost thou indeed fare well
As we wished here below ?
What season didst thou find ?
T was winter here. Are not the Fates more kind
Than they appear ?
Is thy brow clear again,
As in thy youthful years ? And was that ugly pain
The summit of thy fears ? l
1 An allusion to the strange and painful death of John Thoreau, by lockjaw. He had- slightly wounded himself in shaving, and the cut became inflamed and brought on that hideous and deforming malady, of which, by sympathy, Henry also partook, though he recovered.
