Ellen Sewall writes in her diary:
After breakfast George [Simmons] gave me his Fast day sermon, the Harrison Fast. We had some chat. I read some of Henry Thoreau’s pieces aloud to them. Charles thought them very pretty. The favorite was, “Up This Pleasant Stream Lets Row”. That is the first piece Henry gave me in, “days long passed, in years not worth remembering”. I wonder if his thoughts ever wander back to those times when the hours sped so pleasantly and we were so happy. I think they do. I little thought then that he cared for me so much as subsequent events have proved.
(Transcript in The Thoreau Society Archives at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods; MS, private owner)
