This promises
to be an excellent year for walnuts. Chestnuts have been scarce for two
or three years. He had one hundred chestnut-trees on his own land, and
last year he offered a man twenty-five cents if he would find him a quart
of good chestnuts on them. A bushel of walnuts would cost about ten
dollars. He wears a pair of silver-rimmed spectacles.
A drunken fellow sat down by him, and bought a cent's worth of his
butternuts, and inquired what he would sell out to him for. The old man
made an estimate, though evidently in jest, and then reckoned his box,
measures, meats, and what little maple sugar he had, at four dollars. He
had a very quiet manner, and expressed an intention of going to the
Commencement at Williamstown to-morrow. His name, I believe, is Captain
Gavett.
Wednesday, August 15th.--I went to Commencement at Williams College,--
five miles distant. At the tavern were students with ribbons, pink or
blue, fluttering from their buttonholes, these being the badges of rival
societies. There was a considerable gathering of people, chiefly
arriving in wagons or buggies, some in barouches, and very few in
chaises.
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