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6 May 1857. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  A beautiful and warm day. I go to build an arbor for R[alph].W[aldo].E[merson] . . . (Journal, 9:357).
6 May 1858. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  P.M.—To Trillium Wood . . .

  A boy brings me to-day an Attacus Cecropia moth which has come out of a cocoon in his trunk . . .

  Minott remembers the Rana palustris, or yellow-legged one, as “the one that stinks so,” as if that scent were peculiar to it . . .

  About 9 P.M. I went to the edge of the river to hear the frogs . . .

(Journal, 10:401-405)
6 May 1859. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Surveying for Willis & Damon at the factory . . .

  This is about the last ofthe very dry leaves in the woods, for soon the ground will be shaded by expanded green leaves. It is quite hazy, if not smoky, and I smell smoke in the air, this hot day. My assistants, being accustomed to work indoors in the factory, are quite overcome by this sudden heat . . .

  At evening I hear the first sultry buzz of a fly in my chamber, telling of sultry nights to come.

(Journal, 12:182-184)
6 May 1860. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  River three and one fourth inches below summer level . Why is it only three eighteenths of an inch lower than last Sunday (April 29)? For we are in the midst of a remarkable drought, and I think that if there had been any rain within a week near the sources of the river I should have heard of it. Is it that these innumerable sources of the river which the springs in the meadows are, are able to keep up the supply? . . .

  2 P.M.—To Second Division.

  74°; wind southeast; and hazy . . .

(Journal, 13:279-282)
6 May 1862. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau dies. Early in the morning, he asks his sister Sophia to read aloud some of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. After she reads from the last chapter, he says, “Now comes good Sailing” (Concord Saunterer, vol. 11, no. 4 (Winter 1976):16-17). His last words were “moose” and “Indian” (Thoreau: The Poet-Naturalist, 336).

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to H.G.O. Blake:

  Henry Thoreau died this morning about 9 o’clock. The funeral will be on Friday P.M. at 3 o’clock (American Book-Prices Current 20 (1914):678).

A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:

  Oversee some hired men about work on my grounds, taking out pipergrass and preparing ground for ploughing. Channing [William Ellery Channing] comes in the afternoon and informs me of Thoreau’s decease this morning at 9, peacefully. Emerson calls also (The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 347).

Sarah Alden Ripley, living in the Old Manse, writes to Sophia Thayer:

  This fine morning is sad for those of us who sympathize with the friends of Henry Thoreau, the philosopher and the woodman. He had his reason to the last, and talked with his friends pleasantly and arranged his affairs; and at last passed in quiet sleep from this state of duty and responsibility to that which is behind the veil. His funeral service is to be at the church, and Mr. Emerson is to make an address.
(Recollections of Seventy Years, 2:368)
6 November 1851. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  I had on my “bad-weather clothes” at Quebec like Olaf Trygvesson, the Northman, when he went to Thing in England (Journal, 3:92).
6 November 1853. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  2.30 P.M.—To Lee’s Cliff . . .

  I saw yesterday for a moment by the river a small olivaceous-yellow bird; possibly a goldfinch, but I think too yellow. I see some gossamer on the causeway this afternoon, though it is very windy . . .

  Climbed the wooded hill by Holden’s spruce swamp and got a novel view of the river and Fair Haven Bay through the almost leafless woods. How much handsomer a river or lake such as ours, seen thus through a foreground of scattered or else partially leafless trees, though at a considerable distance this side of it, especially if the water is open, without wooded shores or isles! It is the most perfect and beautiful of all frames, which yet the sketcher is commonly careful to brush aside . . .

(Journal, 5:479-483)
6 November 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau surveys farmland for James Colburn (A Catalog of Thoreau’s Surveys in the Concord Free Public Library, 6; Henry David Thoreau papers. Special Collections, Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library).

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Surveying on Colburn place . . . (Journal, 7:70).

Providence, R.I. Asa Fairbanks writes to Thoreau:

Dear Sir

  I am in receipt of yours of the 4th inst, You stating explicitly that the 6th December would suit you better than any other time. I altered other arrangements on purpose to accommodate you, and notified you as soon as I was able to accomplish them. Had you named the last Wednsday in Nov. or the second Wednsday in December, I could have replied to you at once or any time in Janury or Feb it would have been the same I shall regret the disappointment very much but must submit to it if you have such overtures as you cannot avoid. I hope however you will be able to come at the time appointed

Truly

A. Fairbanks

(The Correspondence of Henry D. Thoreau, 348-349)

East Princeton, Mass. Daniel Foster writes to Thoreau (Studies in the American Renaissance 1982, 361; MS, private owner).

6 November 1855. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  A mizzling rain from the east drives me home from my walk . . .

  I can hardly resist the inclination to collect driftwood, to collect a great load of various kinds, which will sink my boat low in the water, and paddle or sail slowly home with it . . .

(Journal, 8:12)
6 November 1857. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

  Very warm  but rather cloudy weather, after rain in the night. Wind southwest. Thermometer on north of the house 70º at 12 M. Indian summer. The cocks crow in the soft air. They are very sensitive to atmospheric changes . . .
(Journal, 10:166-168)

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