388 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1858,
lished (?) or printed by Munroe, which I have hardly had time to glance at. As you may guess, I learn nothing of you from him.
You already foresee my answer to your invita tion to make you a summer visit : I am bound for the mountains. But I trust that you have vanquished, ere this, those dusky demons that seem to lurk around the Head of the River. 1 You know that this warfare is nothing but a kind of nightmare, and it is our thoughts alone which give those ?mworthies any body or exist ence.
I made an excursion with Blake, of Worces ter, to Monadnoc, a few weeks since. We took our blankets and food, spent two nights on the mountain, and did not go into a house.
Alcott has been very busy for a long time re pairing an old shell of a house, and I have seen very little of him. 2 I have looked more at the houses which birds build. Watson made us all very generous presents from his nursery in the spring. Especially did he remember Alcott.
Excuse me for not writing any more at pres ent, and remember me to your family.
1 Near which, at New Bedford, Mr. Ricketson lived.
2 This was the " Orchard House," near Hawthorne s "Way side." The estate on which it stands, now owned by Dr. W. T. Harris, was surveyed for Mr. Alcott by Thoreau in October,
1857,
