Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/275

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THOREAU AND HIS FRIENDS
245

which made the two men so congenial;—"He cared nothing for the wealth or fame his rare genius might easily have won. But his ear knew the songs of all birds. His eye saw the beauty of flowers and the secret of their life. His unerring taste delighted in what was best in books. So his pure and quiet days reaped their rich harvest of wisdom and content."

Outside other local friends, among whom Mr. Sanborn has exemplified his friendship by the biographical and editorial work to which all students of Thoreau are deeply indebted, he had a practical adviser and business colleague in Horace Greeley. For Thoreau, Greeley arranged terms for articles in Graham's, Putnam's, and other magazines, advanced him money for literary uses, and tenaciously gained for him the long-deferred remuneration from editors. He was ever appreciative of the ability of Thoreau and somewhat shared the regret of Emerson at the non-fulfilment of a wider literary fame for his young friend. When Thoreau first called upon Greeley in New York, he was impressed by the kindly greeting,—"now be neighborly"—and described this busy, erratic editor as "cheerfully in earnest, a hearty New Hampshire boy as one would wish to meet." ("Familiar Letters," p. 114.)

Among Thoreau's earlier friends, to become also