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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864

"Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1"

At other times he smoked, and talked sensibly enough
with anybody that offered. He is a man of sense, though not quick, and
seems to be a fair man.
When he walks, he puts the thumb of each hand into the armhole of his
waistcoat, and moves along stiffly, with a knock-kneed gait. His talk
was chiefly of hotels, and such matters as a man, always travelling,
without any purpose of observation for mental improvement, would be
interested in. He spoke of his life as a hard one.
There was a Methodist quarterly meeting here, and a love-feast.
There is a fellow hereabout who refuses to pay six dollars for the coffin
in which his wife was buried. She died about six months since, and I
believe he is already engaged to another. He is young and rather comely,
but has not a straightforward look.
One man plods along, looking always on the ground, without ever lifting
his eyes to the mountain scenery, and forest, and clouds, above and
around him. Another walks the street with a quick, prying eye, and sharp
face,--the most, expressive possible of one on the lookout for gain,--of
the most disagreeable class of Yankees.


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