Heaps of dry
leaves tossed together by the wind, as if for a couch and lounging-place
for the weary traveller, while the sun is warming it for him. Golden
pumpkins and squashes, heaped in the angle of a house, till they reach
the lower windows. Ox-teams, laden with a rustling load of Indian corn,
in the stalk and ear. When all inlet of the sea runs far up into the
country, you stare to see a large schooner appear amid the rural
landscape; she is unloading a cargo of wood, moist with rain or salt
water that has dashed over it. Perhaps you hear the sound of an axe in
the woodland; occasionally, the report of a fowling-piece. The
travellers in the early part of the afternoon look warm and comfortable
as if taking a summer drive; but as eve draws nearer, you meet them well
wrapped in top-coats or cloaks, or rough, great surtouts, and red-nosed
withal, seeming to take no great comfort, but pressing homeward. The
characteristic conversation among teamsters and country squires, where
the ascent of a hill causes the chaise to go at the same pace as an
ox-team,--perhaps discussing the qualities of a yoke of oxen.
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