Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/196

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172 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1847,

For when one asks, " Why do you want twice as much room more ? " the reply is, " Parlor, kitchen, and bedroom, these make the pal ace."

" Well, Hugh, what will you do ? Here are forty dollars to buy a new house, twelve feet by twenty-five, and add it to the old."

" Well, Mr. Thoreau, as I tell you, I know no more than a child about it. It shall be just as you say."

"Then build it yourself, get it roofed, and get in.

" Commence at one end and leave it half done, And let time finish what money s begun."

So you see we have forty dollars for a nest egg ; sitting on which, Hugh and I alternately and simultaneously, there may in course of time be hatched a house that will long stand, and perchance even lay fresh eggs one day for its owner ; that is, if, when he returns, he gives the young chick twenty dollars or more in addition, by way of " swichin," to give it a start in the world.

The " Massachusetts Quarterly Review " came out the 1st of December, but it does not seem to be making a sensation, at least not here abouts. I know of none in Concord who take or have seen it yet.

We wish to get by all possible means some