OLD HOMESTEAD 



about it. Primarily it was what its name indicated, but had 

 other uses also. It had a big arch with a large kettle set therein, 

 which was used to cook feed for the hogs or heat w^ater for 

 butchering, soap-making and other work. With this arch was 

 connected a large chimney, the inner side of which was open for 

 about five feet at the base, thus making a huge fire-place, in 

 which barrels, tubs and pails were heated in making tight-work 

 cooperage. In the spring-time a large cauldron kettle was 

 swung in this fire-place for sugaring-off the syrup brought from 

 the sugar-bush. The attic of the shop was filled with seasoned 

 choice pieces of lumber, suitable for making and repairing all 

 kinds of farm implements. There was a dark cellar under a 

 part of the building, filled with potatoes, apples and other veg- 

 etables, when there were more of them than could be stored in 

 the house cellar. 



The cooper-shop was also a storage-room for carpenter's 

 tools, of which there was a moderate supply of the most com- 

 mon and useful. Frequently, in very cold weather, father would 

 move his light cooper work — that of making cedar sap- 

 buckets — into the south part of the big house kitchen, where he 

 could be more comfortable and sociable. When small, this I 

 thought was a jolly arrangement, and I enjoyed helping ''set 

 up" and "heat off" the buckets and playing with the staves for 

 cob-houses and the shavings for bonfires in the big kitchen fire- 

 place. 



The women of the house never approved of this invasion of 

 their domain. It was a nuisance and an interference with their 

 daily work, but it suited father, and as cedar sap-buckets were 

 a specialty with him and a branch of coopering from which he 

 derived quite an income for his winter work, he had his way 

 about it without any great deal of friction. 



37 



