He is a tall, thin,
hard-featured man, with a sly expression of almost hidden grave humor, as
if there were some deviltry pretty constantly in his mind,--which is
probably the case. His brother tells me that he was driven almost crazy
by the loss of his wife. It appears to me that men are more affected by
the deaths of their wives than wives by the deaths of their husbands.
Orrin S------ smokes a pipe, as do many of the guests.
A walk this forenoon up the mountain ridge that walls in the town towards
the east. The road is cut zigzag, the mountain being generally as steep
as the roof of a house; yet the stage to Greenfield passes over this road
two or three times a week. Graylock rose up behind me, appearing, with
its two summits and a long ridge between, like a huge monster crouching
down slumbering, with its head slightly elevated. Graylock is properly
the name for the highest elevation. It appeared to better advantage the
higher the point from which I viewed it. There were houses scattered
here and there up the mountainside, growing poorer as I ascended; the
last that I passed was a mean log-hut, rough, rude, and dilapidated, with
the smoke issuing from a chimney of small stones, plastered with clay;
around it a garden of beans, with some attempt at flowers, and a green
creeper running over the side of the cottage.
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