Note 31 — Chapter XIV

It will be á propos to here quote a letter from Thoreau to his sister Sophia, describing Emerson’s quarters on board the packet-ship Washington Irving, on which he sailed from Boston in 1847: “I went to Boston to see Mr. E. off. His stateroom was like a carpeted dark closet, about six feet square, with a large key-hole for a window. The window was about as big as a saucer, and the glass two inches thick—not to mention another skylight overhead in the deck, of the size of an oblong doughnut and about as opaque; of course it would be in vain to look up if any promenader had his foot upon it. Such will be his quarters for two or three weeks,” etc.

Such were first-class accommodations six years after Leech made his voyage, with a certainty of being at least twenty days cooped up thus, and possibly seventy-five, as we shall see actually occurred on his return. [Ed].