10 January 1853 – 16 January 1853

Went a-chestnutting this afternoon to Smith’s wood-lot near the Turnpike. Carried four ladies. I raked. We got six and a half quarts,’ the ground being bare and the leaves not frozen. The fourth re- markably mild day. I found thirty-five chestnuts in a little pile under the end of a stick under the leaves, near — within a foot of —what I should call a gallery of a meadow mouse. These galleries were quite common as I raked. There was no nest nor apparent cavity about this store. Aunt M. found another with sixteen in it. Many chestnuts are still in the burs on the ground. Aunt found a twig which had apparently fallen prematurely, with eight small burs, all within the compass of its five or six inches, and all but one full of nuts. The galleries above named were evidently per- manent and not made by one trip. Jan. 11 and 12. Surveying for John L He says that he saw blackbirds about a week ago. He says that the most snow we have had this winter (it has not been more than one inch deep) has been only a “robin snow,” as it is called, 2. e. a snow which does not drive off the robins. By a bound of his wood-lot in Carlisle, observed a peculiar oak, very smooth and light-colored bark, which his brother, who knows them in Wayland, calls a chestnut oak. I am not quite sure. I did not see a chestnut oak leaf at any rate. Vide again. Says they will split like chestnut and are easy to cut. J. says they have both red and white huckleberries near his house. Described an “ old fort,” about the size and shape of a cellar, which he saw in 1816 perhaps across the river near Heywood’s sawmill. This man is continually drinking cider ; thinks it corrects some mistake in him; wishes he had a barrel of it in the woods; if he had known he was to be out so long would have brought a jugful; will dun Captain Hutchinson for a drink on his way home. This, or rum, runs in his head, if not in his throat, all the time. Is interested in juniper berries, goose- berries, currants, etc., whether they will make wine; has recipes for this. Eats the juniper berries raw as he walks. Tobacco is another staff of life with him. Thinks, with others, that he has metals on his farm which the divining-rod might find, but is convertible on this point.