140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



make you think it was just going to taste like cof- 

 fee; or sometimes, from roasted corn, rye, wheat 

 or sweet potatoes. When you became tired of one 

 you were not compelled to use it for there were 

 half a dozen others to choose from. We drank of 

 that u war coffee " and tried to believe it was good ; 

 and I trust we have been forgiven for that self- 

 deception. But even after these long years, my 

 stomach rises up in rebellion at so much as the 

 smell of " postum " or chicory give me the 

 drink that cheers but does not inebriate the soldier 

 on his long marches ! We had almost no fruit and 

 lived chiefly on the staple foods raised on the farm. 

 If one has two good cows, as we had, they may be 

 made to furnish one-half of a good living; and a 

 loving wife, if stress comes, will usually manage 

 the other half. 



Many years before this time when quite a small 

 lad, I had set in the front yard of the old New 

 York homestead, with the assistance of my 

 mother, a black cherry tree. When I revisited the 

 old home with my bride I had cut our initials in 

 its bark; now in the fall after we were burnt out 

 there came with other things from home, a half 

 bushel of dried cherries from that tree. Thus 

 dried they appeared to be about nine-tenths pit; 



