Nathaniel Parker Willis

“ On my favorite curative principle of counter-irritation, I started off, with a stuffed head, for a sharp trot in the snow-storm, a day or two ago, and so chanced to see one of those private theatricals with which Nature makes our country entertainments correspond to the dramatic season in the city. ”

“ Natural History tells us, "is the residence of the young, for the infancy period after their birth, and they go or ascend a tree, they are "taken by her on the back, where they cling to the fur, and likewise hold on by entwining their little prehensile tails with that of the mother." "Wonderful medical virtues are attributed to the tail of the female opossum." ”

“ To almost any gentleman (especially from a foreign country) there would be little doubt as to the outweighing of the comparative attractions—a warm wife in the bed he had just left, or a naked-legged rush, through the snow, after a wild animal. The thinking that can be done in a second, however, by one of our prompt and unchance-losing Yankees, is wonderful to know. The mystery of a month of missing chickens and sucked eggs, was explained to Bell by that dark line drawn over the snow—a fox or a wild-cat, as he took it to be. ”

“ It wasn't a pleasant place to stop and think, though it was awk'ard putting a hand out to take hold of a wild varmint in the dark; but he caught sight of something like a tail, made a plunge at it, and "had hi," safe off the ground. It turned out to be a 'possum (an animal, as you know, that always drops and pretends to be dead when it is close-pressed) , and Bell carried him back to the house, put a string round his neck, tied him to the door-post, and went to bed—first raking open the coals a little, of course, and getting on a dry shirt. ”

“ My family table assembles a half-dozen, varied influenzas—a putting out of tune of its usual accord of voices, which, to one who relies upon it for his only music, is quite an interruption of comfort. ”