n my youthful days. It was not
uncommon to see farmers, bearing names highly respected in
the town, lying drunk by the roadside on a summer afternoon,
or staggering along the streets. The unpainted farmhouses
and barns had their broken windows stuffed with old hats or
garments. I have heard Nathan Brooks, who delivered the first
temperance lecture in the town, at the request of the selectmen,
say that after it was over he and the selectmen and some of
the principal citizens went over to the tavern, and each took
a mug of flip.

There were great quantities of huckleberries in the pastures
about Concord, and the sweet high blackberries abounded by
the roadside. There were plenty of chestnuts in the woods,
and the walnut, or pig-nut, also abounded; so that berrying
and nutting were favorite pastimes.

When I was a small boy a party of us went down to Walden woods,
afterward so famous as the residence of Henry Thoreau. There
was an old fellow named Tommy Wyman, who lived in a hut near
the pond, who did not like the idea of having the huckleberry-
fields near him invaded by the boys. He told us it was not
safe for us to go there. He said there was an Indian doctor
in the woods who caught small boys and cut out their livers
to make medicine. We were terribly frightened, and all went
home in a hurry.

When we got near the town, we met old John Thoreau, with his
son Henry, and I remember his amusement when I told him the
story. He said, "If I meet him, I will run this key down
his throat," producing a key from his pocket. We reported
the occurrence at the village store, but were unable to excite
any interest in the subject.

Thanksgiving was then, as it is and ought to be now, the
great day of the year. All the children were at home. The
ambition of the head of the house was to get the largest
turkey that money could buy. No Thanksgiving dinner was
quite complete unless there were a baby on hand belonging
to some branch of the family, no bigger than the turkey.
The preparation for Thanksgiving was very interesting to
the small boy mind. A boiled or roasted turkey, a pair of
chickens, chicken pie, wonderful cranberry sauce, a plum
pudding, and all manner of apple pies, mince pies, squash
pies, pumpkin pies, and nuts, raisins, figs and noble apples
made part of the feast. I suppose Thanksgiving customs have
changed less than most others, except in one particular.
I do not believe there is a small boy's st