grew.
Many haps fall in the field
Seldom seen by wishful eyes,
But all her shows did Nature yield,
To please and win this pilgrim wise.
He saw the partridge drum in the woods;
He heard the woodcock's evening hymn;
He found the tawny thrushes' broods;
And the shy hawk did wait for him;
What others did at distance hear,
And guessed within the thicket's gloom,
Was shown to this philosopher,
And at his bidding seemed to come.

These lines fit Henry Thoreau exactly. Most people think
Emerson had him in mind when he wrote them. But as a matter
of fact, they were written before he knew Henry Thoreau.

I wonder how many know the woodcock's evening hymn. I have
known many sportsmen and naturalists who never heard it or
heard of it. When the female is on her nest the male woodcock
flies straight up into the sky, folds his wings and falls
down through the air, coming down within a foot or two of
the nest from which he ascended, pouring out a beautiful song,
which he never sings at any other time. He is said to be
one of the best and sweetest of our song birds.

It is a singular fact that Emerson did not know Henry Thoreau
until after Thoreau had been some years out of college. Henry
walked to Boston, eighteen miles, to hear one of Emerson's
lectures, and walked home again in the night after the lecture
was over. Emerson heard of it, and invited him to come to
his house and hear the lectures read there, which he did.
People used to say that Thoreau imitated Emerson, and Lowell
has made this charge in his satire, "A Fable for Critics";

There comes ----, for instance; to see him's rare sport,
Tread in Emerson's tracks with legs painfully short.

I think there is nothing in it. Thoreau's style is certainly
fresh and original. His tastes and thoughts are his own.
His peculiarities of bearing and behavior came to him naturally
from his ancestors of the isle of Guernsey.

I retained his friendship to his death. I have taken many
a long walk with him. I used to go down to see him in the
winter days in my vacations in his hut near Walden. He was
capital company. He was a capital guide in the wood. He
liked to take out the boys in his boat. He was fond of discoursing.
I do not think he was vain. But he liked to do his thinking
out loud, and expected that you should be an auditor rather
than a companion.

I have heard Thoreau say in private a good many things which
afterward appe