urning; and occupied about two months. It had been planned long in advance, for the benefit of Thoreau's failing health; but it was not decided, until within a week of his setting forth, who should be his companion. He had thought of Ellery Channing, and it had been almost settled that Channing should meet him at Niagara. This would have had the advantage that Channing was his best friend, had travelled long with him, and was familiar with much of the country through which they were to go, from an early residence in Illinois near Wisconsin, and frequent journeys and voyages among the great lakes and over the prairies, which Thoreau had never seen. But as everything was uncertain which depended on Channing's variable mood, his friend wrote, May 3, 1861, to another intimate comrade, Harrison Blake of Worcester, modestly proposing that he should go. He said:
I have concluded it will be most expedient for me to try the air of Minnesota, say somewhere about St. Paul. I am only waiting to be well enough to start; hope to
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