The Seeding of New England 69 



hearth, where fires glowed, where ovens were heated and 

 whisked clean with brushes of corn husks; where loaves of 

 yellow bread were laid to bake until golden brown. Women 

 are naturally curious and given to trying things. Show a woman 

 a new flower, and in an hour she will have thought of a dozen 

 ways of using it to ornament herself, to provide herself with 

 a new perfume or a new condiment. It is not likely that the 

 women of Plymouth once in possession of their own hearths, 

 bake-ovens, mortars and mixing bowls could look at the ears 

 of corn hanging from the low rafters and not devise innumer- 

 able new ways of preparing the cereal. From Squanto, and 

 from other Patuxets who hung about the settlement and had 

 a smattering of English words learned from the traders who 

 had touched these coasts before the coming of the Pilgrims, 

 they learned to soak the grains in lye and make hominy. 

 They learned the secrets of suppawn, which was a kind of 

 porridge sweetened with the juice of the crushed green corn 

 stalks; and of succoquatash of corn and beans. Though they 

 drew the line at adding the chopped meat of a young dog, 

 without which, the Indians claimed, the dish lacked its rightful 

 flavor. 



But they had weachin pones and griddle cakes, the last an 

 excellent food for journeys, since they could be carried in the 

 pocket or in the tall hat's crown. For how many generations 

 did New England children start for school on winter mornings, 

 glad of the three or four warm "journey cakes" which were to 

 be their lunch? They were buckwheat cakes, baked on a soap- 

 stone griddle over the open fire in a log cabin in Morris 

 County, New Jersey, when the writer's great grandmother and 

 her eight brothers and sisters made ready for school, four miles 

 away. The girls carried their cakes decorously in their hands, 

 using them for muffs as Bronson Alcott's daughters used their 

 apple turnovers. But long-legged Sam fitted his into the crown 

 of his coonskin cap, and then ran, with wildly waving arms, 

 jumping every stone wall between home and the schoolhouse. 



The Virginia woods gave richly of raspberries, whortleber- 



