208 MY FARM. 



as the case may be ; and every spring he higgles 

 in much the same way with the town butcher, in 

 regard to age, to price, and to fatness. Every sum 

 mer I see him in black hat and black dress coat, on 

 his wagon box, with butter firkins behind (the covers 

 closed on linen towels by the mistress at home), 

 driving to the market. And if I trot behind him on 

 his return, I see that his exchange has procured him 

 a two-gallon jug of molasses, a savory bundle of 

 dried codfish, a moisty paper parcel of brown sugar, 

 a tight little bag of timothy seed, and a new hoe, or 

 dung fork. But he never allows his spendings to 

 take up the gross sum of his receipts ; always there 

 goes home a modicum, which grows by slow and 

 gradual accretions into notes (secured by mortgage), 

 of some unthrifty neighbor, or an entry upon the 

 columns of his book at the Savings. 



There is no amateur of them all, who receives as 

 much into a third, for what he may have to sell ; nor 

 any one who spends as little, by two-thirds, for what 

 he may have to buy. It is incredible what such a 

 man will save in the way of barter ; and equally 

 incredible how rarely he finds occasion to pay out 

 money at all. Yet he is observant of proprieties ; 

 his pew-rent at the meeting house, and tax bills are 

 punctually honored. If I bargain with him, he loves 

 deliberation ; he has an opinion, but it only appears 



