Here
sat I on a bench before the fire, the other guests of the cabin being
the stevedore, who takes the job of getting the coal ashore, and the
owner of the horse that raised the tackle--the horse being driven by a
boy. The cabin was lined with slabs--the rudest and dirtiest hole
imaginable, yet the passengers had been accommodated here in the trip
from New Brunswick. The bitter zero atmosphere came down the
companion-way, and threw its chill over me sometimes, but I was pretty
comfortable--though, on reaching home, I found that I had swaggered
through several thronged streets with coal streaks on my visage.
The wharfinger's office is a general resort and refuge for people who
have business to do on the wharf, in the spaces before work is
commenced, between the hours of one and two, etc. A salamander
stove--a table of the signals, wharves, and agent of packets plying to
and from Boston--a snuff-box--a few chairs--etc., constituting the
furniture. A newspaper.
February 11. Talk at the Custom House on Temperance. Gibson gives an
account of his brother's sore leg, which was amputated. Major Grafton
talks of ancestors settling early in Salem--in 1632. Of a swallow's
nest, which he observed, year after year, on revisiting his boyhood's
residence in Salem, for thirty years. It was so situated under the
eaves of the house, that he could put his hand in and feel the young
ones. At last, he found the nest gone, and was grieved thereby.
Query, whether the descendants of the original builders of the nest
inhabited it during the whole thirty years.
Pages:
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52