Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 139 



and his rifle. 31 If a girl was well off, and had been 

 careful and industrious, she might herself bring a 

 dowry, of a cow and a calf, a brood mare, a bed well 

 stocked with blankets, and a chest containing her 

 clothes 32 the latter not very elaborate, for a wo- 

 man's dress consisted of a hat or poke bonnet, a 

 "bed gown/' perhaps a jacket, and a linsey petti- 

 coat, while her feet were thrust into coarse shoe- 

 packs or moccasins. Fine clothes were rare; a suit 

 of such cost more than 200 acres of good land. 33 



The first lesson the backwoodsmen learnt was the 

 necessity of self-help ; the next, that such a commu- 

 nity could only thrive if all joined in helping one an- 

 other. Log-rollings, house-raisings, house-warm- 

 ings, "corn-shuckings, quiltings, and the like were 

 occasions when all the neighbors came together to 

 do what the family itself could hardly accomplish 

 alone. Every such meeting was the occasion of a 

 frolic and dance for the young people, whiskey and 

 rum being plentiful, and the host exerting his ut- 

 most power to spread the table with backwoods deli- 

 cacies bear-meat and venison, vegetables from the 

 "truck patch," where squashes, melons, beans, and 

 the like were grown, wild fruits, bowls of milk, and 

 apple pies, which were the acknowledged standard 

 of luxury. At the better houses there was metheglin 

 or small beer, cider, cheese, and biscuits. 34 Tea 



31 McAfee MSS. (Autobiography of Robert R. McAfee). 



32 Do. 



33 Memoirs of the Hist. Soc. of Penn., 1826. Account of 

 first settlements, etc., by John Watson (1804). 



34 Do. An admirable account of what such a frolic was 



