"
I remember this also, that long before the play was ended, the Reverend
Theodore and others of the visitors had departed, thinking their own
thoughts, and that the curative effects of that performance lasted so
long the like was never attempted again; and although some were a
trifle disheartened by the failure to reach the summit of their hopes,
yet it was a source of merriment to others, and there are those whose
eyes may meet these pages, who will still smile if you quote these
lines to them: "O'er the glad waters of the deep, blue sea." "List,
'tis the bugle!" (I can vouch that it was nothing but the old trumpet
we blew for dinner.) "Ha! it sure cannot be day! What star, what sun is
bursting on the bay?" (It was only the barn lantern that was raised
outside the window, and an awful poor light at that!).
"Well, how was Drew's play?" said one wag. "All blood and thunder, eh?"
"No; all thud and blunder," was the rejoinder.
The associative movement had now touched thousands of hearts in this
country. The Brook Farm Community, at its formation, was the only
community founded in America on the principle of freedom in religion
and social life--all others being founded on special religious creeds.
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