CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 



1817. 



Dec. 25. mockery to call a man free, who no more dares turn 

 out his tallow into candles for his own use, than he 

 dares rob upon the highway ? Yet, it is only by 

 means of tyranny and extortion like this, that the 

 hellish system of funding and of Seat-selling can be 

 upheld. 



26. Fine warm day. 52 degrees in shade. 



27. Cold, but little frost. 



28. Same weather. Fair and pleasant. The late sharp 

 frost has changed to a complete yellow every leaf of 

 some Swedish Turnips (Ruta Baga), left to take their 

 chance. It is a poor chance, I believe 1 



29. Same weather. 



30. Rain all day. 



31. Mild and clear. No frost. 

 1818. 



Jan. i. Same weather. 



2. Same weather. 



3. Heavy rain. 



4. A frost that makes us jump and skip about like larks. 

 Very seasonable for a sluggish fellow. Prepared 

 for winter. Patched up a boarded building, which 

 was formerly a coach-house ; but, which is not so 

 necessary to me, in that capacity, as in that of a 

 fowl-house. The neighbours tell me, that the 

 poultry will roost out on the trees all the winter, 

 which, the weather being so dry in winter, is very 

 likely ; and, indeed, they must, if they have no 

 house, which is almost universally the case. How 

 ever, I mean to give the poor things a choice. I 

 have lined the said coach-house with corn-stalks 

 and leaves of trees, and have tacked up cedar-boughs 

 to hold the lining to the boards, and have laid a 

 bed of leaves a foot thick all over the floor. I have 

 secured all against dogs, and have made ladders for 

 the fowls to go in at holes six feet from the ground. 

 I have made pig-styes, lined round with cedar- 

 boughs and well covered. A sheep-yard, for a 

 score of ewes to have lambs in spring, surrounded 

 with a hedge of cedar-boughs, and with a shed for the 

 ewes to lie under, if they like. The oxen and cows 

 are tied up in a stall. The dogs have a place, well 

 covered, and lined with corn-stalks and leaves. 

 And now, I can, without anxiety, sit by the fire, or 

 lie in bed, and hear the North- Wester whistle. 



5. Frost. Like what we call &quot; a hard frost &quot; in England. 



6. Such another frost at night, but a thaw in the middle 

 of the day. 



19 



