From 1841 to 1850 he was more steadily using his pen. He wrote some eighteen stories for the periodicals and, though he worked in defiance of the usual schedule, made his way in journalism to the point of becoming editor of the _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_. In 1848 he moved in a wider orbit, going down to New Orleans through the Ohio valley to work on the new _Crescent_, and coming back by way of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. In 1850 he was living with his family in Brooklyn. By this time he had done a great deal of reading, starting with "The Arabian Nights" and Scott, and moving on by his own choice through the classics. Always, when he could, he read alone and out of doors; but seldom has man more completely fulfilled Emerson's behest to compensate for solitude with society, for he was one of the great comrades of history. He found his society in places of his own selection--on the Broadway stages, in the Brooklyn ferryboats, and in the gallery at the Italian opera. Here is his own testimony: "--the drivers--a strange, natural quick-eyed and wondrous race--(not only Rabelais and Cervantes would have gloated upon them, but Homer and Shakspere would)--how well I remember them, and must here give a word about them.... They had immense qualities, largely animal--eating, drinking, women--great personal pride, in their way--perhaps a few slouches here and there, but I should have trusted the general run of them, in their simple good-will and honor, under all circumstances." And of the harbor: "Almost daily, later ('50 to '60), I cross'd on the boats, often up in the pilot-houses where I could get a full sweep, absorbing shows, accompaniments, surroundings." There was a time when he affected fine clothes, but as he matured his dress and the dress of his ideas became strikingly informal, more like that of his comrades.