The story that Thoreau made one pencil and then stopped takes on quite a different aspect in the light [of] investigation into the history of the business. As Henry and his father brought the lead used for the pencils to a high degree of perfection, it was wanted by a firm in Boston for the stereotype business, and selling it for that purpose was so much more profitable than making pencils that the latter was carried on only as a cover for the other, which it was desirable to keep secret. To keep it a secret, the lead was carried from the mill to the house, and then shipped to Boston from there.
       — Anonymous, Manuscript in the Alfred Hosmer Collection, Concord Free Public Library, Concord, Mass.