CHAPTER XIII 

 THE SOCIAL SIDE OF COUNTRY LIFE 



COUNTRY people used to get very close to- 

 gether when they lived a mile apart and the 

 woods came up everywhere within sight 

 from the road. The forest held two-thirds of the 

 land in those days and we built our houses along the 

 edges. We fought wild animals in company and 

 we joined forces for planting and harvesting; husk- 

 ing corn together was not only a matter of economics 

 but of social pleasure. In those days nearly all 

 traffic was the swapping of home-made goods, home- 

 made food and home-made clothing; eggs went to 

 the store for sugar and in one way and another we 

 managed to make every little community complete in 

 itself. 



We were pioneering across the continent, appar- 

 ently with no other than individual intent, but some- 

 how groups came about and each one had its dis- 

 trict school by the roadside, its store on one of the 

 corners, and its log church, with a grist mill every 

 fifty miles. Each family brought something out of 

 its Connecticut or Massachusetts home that it divided 

 with its neighbors. One had a few currant bushes, 

 another some apple seeds, while a third had grass 



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