where you could have a little conversation." Writing to Emerson, Thoreau said of Alcott,—"When I looked at his gray hairs, his conversation sounded pathetic; but I looked again, and they reminded me of the gray dawn." To the end of his life, Thoreau, though conscious of all his friend's defects, recognized his aspirations and his purity of character. He found pleasure in walks and, when strength failed, in long talks with him. In turn, Alcott had a loyal love for Thoreau and a deep respect for his qualities of mind and poetic vision. In a letter to Mrs. Thoreau, (after her son's death), now first printed, Alcott said,—"We may be sure of his being read and prized by coming times, and the place and time pertaining to him shall be forever the sweeter for his presence."
Thoreau was a constant friend to the Alcott family; Louisa mentions his name among the bearers at the funeral of her sister Beth, and other memories by the sisters attest their cordial relations with him and his family. Among the keen characterizations of his Walden visitors, is the excellent pen picture of Alcott:—"One of the last of the philosophers,—Connecticut gave him to the world,—he peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he declares, his brains. These he peddles still, prompting God and disgracing man, bearing for fruit his
