ABSTRACT
The Christmas after Thorstein Veblen was fired was the Christmas he almost lost his life. The plan was that he would take the train to Grangeville, Idaho, bringing along his horse Beauty. He would ride from the station to Nowhere, a few miles away. Veblen had reacted to his Stanford ouster with characteristic reserve. During the Civil War doctors began dosing the wounded and ailing with emetics. The cure was worse than the disease. Veblen recovered from the pneumonia-calomel episode, Babe seemed ten or twenty years older, according to Becky. Thorstein and Babe had moments of enjoyment during his convalescence. Thorstein remained a devotee of Yeats's poetry all his life. He was particularly fond of "The Song of Wandering Aengus", which told of a wanderer who caught a "little silver trout" that turned into a "glimmering girl, with apple blossom in her hair". Veblen needed the Herbert G. Davenports' nurturing atmosphere, because he was still far from well.
