Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/55

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we had from Ellen; and we have also heard directly from there by John Thoreau."

A slight notice of John's visit also came from Ellen to her aunt, accompanying some flowers pressed in a pamphlet sermon, on the inside of the cover of which the maiden wrote, "I have enjoyed Mr. John's visit exceedingly, though sorry that father and mother were not at home."

How sorry she was for their absence we may well imagine. And now for,—


I.THOREAU'S DIARY OF THE FIRST VOYAGE

On the Merrimac River, September 2, 1839

Early this morning we were again on our way, steering through the fog as before. The countrymen, recruited by the day of rest [Sunday being the day before], were already awake, and had begun to cross the ferry on the business of the week. The fog soon dispersed and we rowed leisurely along, with a clear sky and a mild atmosphere, between the territories of Dunstable[1]

  1. Dunstable was originally all in Massachusetts; but when the courts sustained the right of New Hampshire to a part of

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