FARMING REMINISCENCES. 7 



curiously carved banisters. On cither side of this entry were 

 largo rooms, opening into a kitchen which, with a small bed- 

 room, occupied the whole rear of the house. Tlic " best room " 

 often had a small Turkey carpet on its snow-white floor, and in 

 its cup-board was the good dame's china tea-set, while the 

 " fore room," on the other side of the entry, contained a high 

 eight-day clock, some framed " samplers," and a large " comb- 

 case " hanging beside the thick plate mirror. But the most 

 comfortable apartment was the kitchen, or " keeping-room," 

 with its low ceiling, its dingy unpainted pannel-work, and the 

 old "queen's arm" reposing on wooden brackets over the 

 mantle shelf. The younger portions of the family had their 

 settles within the jambs of the huge fire place, in the flanks of 

 which yawned the mouths of the great and little oven, the old 

 blue dye-pot faced the pickle firkin, and the well-worn spit hooks 

 on the high iron andirons, testified to the abundance of good 

 cheer. In the beaufat, or corner cupboard, glistened the pew- 

 ter platters, the porringers for the porridge, now replaced by 

 coflee and tea, and the tankard for the generous cider produced 

 on the farm. Tlie " checsc-room " shelves groaned beneath 

 the weight of the products of female industry, and the well- 

 filled presses in the bed-rooms proved that neither the spinning- 

 wheels nor the loom were long idle. 



" Our ancestors lived on bread and broth, 

 And wooed their healtliy wives in home-spun cloth, 

 Our Grand'ma's nurtured to the nodding reel, 

 Gave our good mothers lessons on the wheel. 

 Though spinning did not much reduce the waist, 

 It made the food much sweeter to the taste. 

 They never once complained as some do now, 

 ' Our Irish girl can't cook or milk the cow,' 

 Each mother taught her red-cheeked, buxom daughter. 

 To bake, and milk, and draw a pail of water. 

 No damsel shunned the wash-tub, broom or pail. 

 To keep unharmed a long-grown finger nail. 

 They sought no gaudy dress, no hooped-out form. 

 But ate to live, and work'd to keep them v/arm." 



While the domestic manners and social life of our ancestors 

 were worthy of high commendation, little can be said in praise 

 of their system of agriculture. The meadows were left un- 



