54 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
of a lecture, or enable a lecturer to read, only 
such parts of his lecture as they like. It is like 
a barrel half full of some palatable liquor. You 
may tap it at various levels, in the sweet liquor, 
or in the froth, or in the fixed air above. If it 
is pronounced good, it is partly to the credit of 
the hearers, if bad, it is partly their fault. 
Sometimes a lazy audience refuses to cooperate 
and pull at the ropes because the hogshead is 
full and therefore heavy, when if it were empty, 
or had only a little sugar adhering to it, they 
would whisk it up the slope in a jiffy. The 
lecturer therefore desires of his audience a long 
pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether. I 
have seen a sturdy (truckman) lecturer who 
had nearly broken his back with shoving his 
lecture up such an inclined plane, while the 
audience were laughing at him, at length, as 
with a last effort, set it a-rolling in amid the 
audience and upon their toes, scattering them 
like sheep and making them cry out with pain, 
while he drove proudly away. Rarely it is a 
very heavy freight of such hogsheads stored in 
a vessel’s hold that is to be lifted out and de¬ 
posited on the public wharf, and this is accom¬ 
plished only after many a hearty pull and a 
good deal of heave-yo-ing. 
March 3, 1860. 2 p. m. 50°-f~. Overcast 
and somewhat rain-threatening. Wind south- 
