was ever a tender memory to him. When he left that home he wrote the poem, "The Departure," not printed until many years later, but expressing his gratitude in earnest, gracious words:—
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"This true people took the stranger,
And warm-hearted housed the ranger;
They received their roving guest,
And have fed him with the best;
"Whatsoe’er the land afforded
To the stranger’s wish accorded,—
Shook the olive, stripped the vine,
And expressed the strengthening wine.
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"And still he stayed from day to day,
If he their kindness might repay;
But more and more
The sullen waves came rolling towards the shore.
"And still, the more the stranger waited,
The less his argosy was freighted;
And still the more he stayed,
The less his debt was paid."
Outside the Emerson household, perhaps rather closely related to it, was the first Concord friend to recognize the genius of Thoreau, anterior and preparatory to his acquaintance with Emerson. Mrs. Lucy Brown of Plymouth, the sister of Mrs. Emerson, who spent a large part of her years in Concord, was the caller to whom Helen Thoreau showed her brother's journal, with pride that it contained sentences like those of Emerson. As recorded, Mrs.
