Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/357

Rh survey of ocean, marsh, and beach, it ranks an easy second to "Walden" in characterizations and entertaining miniatures. Such are the coarse Nauset woman, "who looked as if she had committed infanticide" and "as if it made her head ache to live"; the postmistress, "said to be the best on the road, but we suspected that the letters must be subjected to very close scrutiny there"; the Wellfleet Oysterman, aged eighty-eight, under "petticoat government"; and the lighthouse keeper who read the newspaper by the light of fifteen Argand lamps, while Thoreau suggests that the Bible alone should be read beneath such grand, far-reaching glow. There is pure drollery in his description of the stage-coach and its crowded interior,—a vivid glimpse into earlier travel-customs:—"This coach was an exceedingly narrow one but as there was a slight spherical excess over two on a seat, the driver waited till nine passengers had got in, without taking the measure of any of them, and then shut the door after two or three ineffectual slams, as if the fault were all in the hinges or the latch,—while we timed our inspirations and expirations so as to assist him."

Such characterizations show the peculiar wit and humor that Thoreau possessed. He was master of both keen sarcasm and pungent humor. As the