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  The elms are now generally in blossom and Cheney’s elm still also. The last has leaf-buds which show the white. Now, before any leaves have appeared, their blossoms clothe the trees with a rich, warm brown color, which serves partially for foliage to the streetwalker, and makes the tree more obvious. Held in the Band, the blossoms of some of the elms are quite rich and variegated, now purple and yellowish specked with the dark anthers and two light styles . . .

  The season advances by fits and starts; you would not believe that there could be so many degrees to it. If you have had foul and cold weather, still some advance has been made, as you find when the fair weather comes,—new lieferungs of warmth and summeriness, which make yesterday seem far off and the clog-days or midsummer incredibly nearer . . .

  Moses Emerson, the kind and gentlemanly man who assisted and looked after me in Haverhill, said that a good horse was worth $75, and all above was fancy, and that when he saw a man driving a fast horse he expected he would fail soon.

  Is it not time to republish “A Week on the Concord & Merrimack Rivers”? You said you would notify me when it was; but I am afraid that it will soon be too late for this season.

  I have, with what were sent to you, about 250 bound, and 450 in sheets.

  Yrs truly
  Henry D. Thoreau

  Immediately on the receipt of your letter, I wrote to Mrs. Greeley its substance. She was then in Dresden, but I wrote to Paris, and she did not receive my letter till the 9th inst. I have now her response, and she is heartily gratified with the prospect that you will come to us and teach our children. She says she thinks it may at least sometimes be best to have instruction communicated by familiar oral conversations while walking in the fields and woods, and that it might not be well to be confined always to the same portion of each day. However, she hopes, as I do, that interest in and love for the children would soon supersede all formal stipulations, and that what is best for them will also be found consistent with what is most agreeable for you.

  Mrs. Greeley will not be home till middle of June, so that I suppose the 1st of July will be about as soon as we should be snugly at home in our country cottage, ready for instruction and profit. Please write me your ideas with regard to the whole matter, including the amount of compensation that you sander fair and just. I Prefer that you should come to us feeling at perfect liberty to leave at any time when you think best to do so; but I hope you will be reconciled to stay with us for one year at least. Of course, this would not preclude your going away to lecture or visit when you should see fit. Please write me soon and fully, and oblige

  Yours,
  Horace Greeley

  Hear a kingfisher at Goose Pond. Hear again the same bird heard at Conantum April 18th, which I think must be the ruby-crowned wren As we stood looking for a bound by the edge of Goose Pond, a pretty large hawk alighted on an oak . . .

  I learn that one farmer, seeing me standing a long time still in the midst of a pool (I was watching for hylodes), said that it was his father, who had been drinking some of Pat Haggerty’s rum, and had lost his way home. So, setting out to lead him home, he discovered that it was I . . .

  See a white-throated sparrow by Cheney’s wall, the stout, chubby bird. After sundown. By riverside.—The frogs and toads are now fairly awake . . .

  Land at Holden Wood. That interesting small blue butterfly (size of small red) is apparently just out, fluttering over the warm dry oak leaves within the wood in the sun. Channing [William Ellery Channing also first sees them to-day . . .

  I notice under the southern edge of the Holden Wood, on the Arrowhead Field, a great many little birches in the grass, apparently seedlings of last year, and I take up a hundred and ten from three to six or seven inches high. They are already leafed, the little rugose leafets more than half an inch wide . . .