Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/68

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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 coöperate 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 deposited on the public wharf, and this is accomplished only after many a hearty pull and a good deal of heave-yo-ing.

March 3, 1860. 2 p. m. 50°+. Overcast and somewhat rain-threatening. Wind south-