Chapter V

Left Princeton—country finely diversified with sheep and hay-stacks[29]—saw a man riding alone in a wagon! why the deuce didn’t the blockhead ride in a chair? fellow must be a fool—particular account of the construction of wagons, carts, wheelbarrows, and quail-traps—saw a large flock of crows—concluded there must be a dead horse in the neighborhood—mem. country remarkable for crows—won’t let the horses die in peace—anecdote of a jury of crows—stopped to give the horses water—good-looking man came up and asked me if I had seen his wife? heavens! thought I, how strange it is that this virtuous man should ask me about his wife—story of Cain and Abel—stage-driver took a _swig_—mem. set down all the people as drunkards—old house had moss on the top—swallows built in the roof—better place than old men’s beards—story about that—derivation of words _kippy, kippy, kippy_, and _shoo-pig_[30]—negro driver could not write his own name—languishing state of literature in this country;[31] philosophical inquiry of ’Sbidlikens, why the Americans are so much inferior to the nobility of Cheapside and Shoreditch, and why they do not eat plum-pudding on Sundays—superfine reflections about anything.