He knew all about Walden Pond; and he knew his Emerson--and was mad with passion to see the man; he had travelled over the world with Scott; had crossed the bridge with Caesar in his father's books; had roamed the prairie and the woods with Cooper's Indians; had gone into the hearts of men with Thackeray and Dickens, holding his mother's hand and listening to her voice; but he knew algebra only as a name, and rhetoric was a dictionary word with him.
Of earthly possessions he had two horses, a bill of sale for his melodeon, a saddle, a wagon, a set of harness; four mouth-organs, one each in "A," "D," "E," and "C," all carefully rolled in Canton flannel on a shelf above his bed; one concertina,--a sort of German accordion,--five pigs, a cow, and a bull calf.

Moreover, there were _two_ rooms in the Barclay home; and the great rock was gone from the door of the cave, and a wooden door was in its place and the Barclays were using it for a spring-house.

The boy had a milk route and sold butter to the hotel.

But the chiefest treasure of the household was John's new music book.

And while he played on his melodeon, Ellen Culpepper's eyes smiled from the pages and her voice moved in the melodies, and his heart began to feel the first vague vibration with the great harmony of life.