tiative
to make him a call! It is easy to compliment a friend upon his children,
but how many of us will allow themselves to be caught and utilized by
them in this fashion? But Emerson's mind was so catholic, so humble, and
so deep that I doubt not he derived benefit even from child-prattle. His
wife rivalled him in hospitality, though her frail health disabled her
from entering into the physical part of social functions with the same
fortitude; in these first months we were invited to a party where we
were fellow-guests with all the other children of Concord. There they
were, their mothers with them, and everything in sight that a child at
a party could require. My new friend Edward mounted me on his pony, and
his father was at hand to catch me when I fell off. Such things sound
incredible, but they are true. A great man is great at all times, and
all over.

Thoreau, Channing, and Alcott were also visible to us at this time, but
of none of them do I find any trace in my memory; though I know, as
a matter of fact, that Channing and my father once permitted me to
accompany them on a walk round the country roads, which inadvertently
prolonged itself to ten miles, and I knew what it was to feel
foot-weary. But another neighbor of ours, hardly less known to fame,
though in a widely different line of usefulness, makes a very distinct
picture in my mind; this was Ephraim Wales Bull, the inventor of the
Concord grape. He was as eccentric as his name; but he was a genuine
and substantive man, and my father took a great liking to him, which was
reciprocated. He was short and powerful, with long arms, and a big head
covered with bushy hair and a jungle beard, from which looked out a pair
of eyes singularly brilliant and penetrating. He had brains to think
with, as well as strong and skilful hands to work with; he personally
did three-fourths of the labor on his vineyard, and every grape-vine had
his separate care. He was married and had three children, amiable
but less interesting than himself. He had, also, a tremendous temper,
evidenced by his heavy and high-arched eyebrows, and once in a while he
let slip upon his helpers in the vineyard this formidable wrath, which
could easily be heard in our peaceful precincts, like sounds of distant
battle. He often came over and sat with my father in the summer-house on
the hill, and there talked about politics, sociology (though under some
other name, probably), morals, and human nature,