the Thoreau Log.
17 May 1848.

New York, NY. Horace Greeley writes to Thoreau:

Dear Friend Thoreau,—  

  I trust you have not thought me neglectful or dilatory with regard to your business. I have done my very best, throughout, and it is only to-day that I have been able to lay my hand on the money due you from Graham. I have been to see him in Philadelphia, but did not catch him in his business office; then I have been here to meet him, and been referred to his brother, etc. I finally found the two numbers of the work in which your article was published (not easy, I assure you, for be has them not, nor his brother, and I hunted them up, and bought one of them at a very out-of-the-way place), and with these I made out a regular bill for the contribution; drew a draft on G. R. Graham for the amount, gave it to his brother here for collection, and to-day received the money. Now you see how to get pay yourself, another time, I have pioneered the way, and you can follow it easily yourself. There has been no intentional injustice on Graham’s part; but he is overwhwelmed with business, has too many irons in the fire, and we did not go at him the right way. Had you drawn a draft on him, at first, and given it to the Concord Bank to send in for collection, you would have received your money long since. Enough of this. I have made Graham pay you $75, but I only send you $50, for, having got so much for Carlyle, I am ashamed to take your “Maine Woods” for $25.

I have expectations of procuring it a place in a new magazine of high character that will pay. I don’t expect to get as much for it as for Carlyle, but I hope to get $50. If you are satisfied to take the $25 for your “Maine Woods,” say so, and I will send on the money; but I don’t want to seem a Jew, buying your articles at half price to speculate upon. If you choose to let it go that way, it shall be so; but I would sooner do my best for you, and send you the money.

Thoreau, if you will only write one or two articles, when in the spirit, about half the length of this, I can sell it readily and advantageously. The length of your papers is the only impediment to their appreciation by the magazines . Give me one or two shorter, and I will try to coin them speedily.

(The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 222-223)

Thoreau replies 19 May.

Concord, Mass. Lidian Jackson Emerson writes to her husband Ralph Waldo:

  Henry [Thoreau] has helped Colombe remove the Apple tree, and has set out some of the pear trees from the heater-piece, in the garden or yard. He has planted the [?]—of which you, dear husband, will gather and eat the fruit, I hope. He said Colombe might dig the garden and he would plant it. But, Almira F. has done about a week’s work in hoeing and forking the ground and she will do all the weeding, probably, that Henry does not . . . Sunday eveg. Eddy is having his go-to-bed frolic with Henry, & has just informed me that Mr T. has first swallowed a book, then pulled it out of his (Eddy’s) nose, then put it into his (Mr T.’s) [“]pantalettes.” I tell Henry I shall send you word he is in his second childhood, a wearer of pantalettes. he says it is so, according to the younger Edda; the poetic, not the prose Edda . . . By the way Mrs Clarke is now a tenant of our barn house, and after much deliberation and consultation, Henry & I came to the conclusion that a pump costing 6.75 and warrented not to freeze or crack, with a little care, which I believe the pump-maker is to take in part would be better than a well sweep.
(The Selected Letters of Lidian Jackson Emerson, 153)

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