Documenting the American South

Publisher: The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2011

© This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text

"Vacation.

What a train of pleasing reflections are awakened in the breast of a Freshman by the mention of that simple word? How many sweet recollections crowd upon his memory! The very sound infuses new life into his frame & causes the blood to rush with ten-fold rapidity through his veins. It recals to his mind those happy days, when last he visited the home of his childhood & spent so many pleasant hours of pure & unalloyed felicity, in the sweet society of those whom he loves. It reminds him of the visits he made to his friends & relations—to his Uncles Aunts & Cousins & of the "good old times" he had with the latter, in hunting, fishing, frolicing & the thousand other ways in which Freshmen [1] find enjoyment. All this is very pleasant to his fancy, but his pleasure approaches to ecstacy, when he recollects the variety of cakes that were mad for him, the numerous old goblers & the innumerable duck & chickens that were sacrificed; at the thoughts of all which, even at this time, his mouth waters.

But my joyous Freshman is not yet condemned to look back upon all these enjoyments, as having "gone glimering" [2] never to return. No. Another & a winter, vacation is before him & his heart e'en now [3] beats high with joyous expectations. He looks forward with fond anticipations to the time, when lake & river shall be bound in icy fetters and

transmuted, as it were into "terra firma". He longs to throw off the shackels, with which severe & rigorous pedagogues have so long restrained him & rush with free & rapid strides over the smooth & polished surface of the frozen element. The boisterous shouts of his companions & that strange, inexpressible noise, which always accompanies the skater, in his evolutions, are sounds which strike more agreeably on the tympanum of his ear than the most enchanting music. Skating is at once his pride & his pleasure—when he is engaged in it, all pursuits are swallowed up in the delightful employment. Could you but see him, as, with chest advanced & head aloft, he glides in graceful parabolas, upon the bosom of the deep, you would be struck with his gallant appearance & the air of internal pride & self-admiration that plays upon his features.

But enough of skating. The [4] approaching vacation has other amusements in store for him, besides this. Already in anticipation, he sees his mother earth, clothed in dazzling white, by Winter's stern & blighting hand & himself, armed to the teeth in wool, start forth in search of hares. Methinks I see him too, as, attended by his canine brethren, he scours every old sage-field & beats every thicket, until some terrified hare is driven from its covert & compelled to trust its safety to its heels. Soon as the startled animal is seen, the yelling pack flies off in swift pursuit
"While mongrel, puppy, whelp & hound
And curs of low degree, [5] conspire to raise the sound.

Methinks, I see my gallant Freshman now, nor is he [6] silent amid the general confusion. His voice may be heard above the din & uproar as he cheers them in the flying game. But suddenly all is hushed & I know by the awful silence that ensues that the death of the poor victim has been achieved. He dies without one pang of remorse, or one tear [7] shed to his memory, on the part of the victorious Freshman. Far from it. With relentless grasp, he seizes the poor animal by a leg & returns to his home rejoicing. But here the detail must end. Let a veil be drawn forever o'er the final catastrophe. It is not my business to unfold the last dark act of this most foul transaction. Whether the flesh of this unfortunate animal, was devoured by this the carnivorous Freshman, or whether his body was torn asunder by dogs, I cannot tell. All I can impart, is, that on the evening of this eventful day, something resembling the skin of the deceased, stretched [8] upon a forked stick, was seen in the hands of the Freshman. Be content therefore, with the solemn certainty that poor old "cottontail" has gone the way of all flesh & that every thing will be revealed on the last great day.

But time fails me, or I would go on to enumerate more of the vacation-pleasures of our Freshman,—how he will enjoy himself with the girls next Christmas, for instance, & what fun he will have at hog-killing-time in blowing up bladders & roasting melts & tails.

Nov 19nth 1840. J. L Dusenbery