flowers, and often searched out the rarest which could be found in the
Walden and Lincoln woods.

It was while the Curtises were living at Hosmer's that they assisted
Thoreau in building his hut at Walden Pond. Thoreau says that in March,
1845, he borrowed an axe and went into the woods to build him a house. The
axe was procured of Emerson, and he says he returned it sharper than when
he received it. He was assisted in building the house, he says, by some of
his acquaintances, "rather to improve so good an occasion for
neighborliness than from any necessity." These acquaintances were Emerson,
Alcott, W.E. Charming, Burrill and George Curtis, Edmund Hosmer and his
sons John, Edmund, and Andrew. Thoreau said that he wished the help of the
young men because they had more strength than the older ones, and that no
man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than he. It was
Thoreau's custom while at Walden to dine on Sundays with Emerson, and to
stop at Hosmer's on his way back to the pond, often remaining to supper.
After the failure of his experiment at Fruitlands, it was into Hosmer's
house that Alcott found himself welcomed; and he was given much of help
and encouragement by the farmer and his wife.


VI

At this time several of the Brook Farmers were living in Concord, and
among them were Bradford, Pratt, and Mrs. Barlow; and later on Marianne
Ripley, the sister of George Ripley, found a home there, and kept a school
for small children. On the third return of the Curtises to Concord, in the
summer of 1846, they found a home in the house of Minott Pratt, who was
living at the foot of Punkatassett Hill, on the top of which was the house
of Captain Barrett. In the same neighborhood lived William Ellery