OLD HOMESTEAD 



playing indoor games with the neighbors' young folks. *' Blind- 

 man's buff " was a popular game, for which the great big 

 kitchens at Elder Wilcox's and at father's were well adapted. 

 Checkers, ''cat's cradle," "fox and geese" and "pin on a hat" 

 were quite harmless, orthodox games, which we were allowed to 

 play, although the latter was a straight gamble, as some one lost 

 or won a pin every time the hat was cuffed. 



Dice or cards we knew nothing of — at least, for a long 

 while, and were supposed not to know still longer; yet almost 

 every boy in the neighborhood could, and did, learn to play 

 cards long before his parents knew it. Had they known it, they 

 would have felt scandalized and disgraced thereby. 



The boys sedulously taught one another under most adverse 

 circumstances. John learned first — how long first, I do not know; 

 then he taught me. The first game was "old sledge," played 

 on the hay-mow of the big barn, where we used to feel safe 

 from discovery. If the barn-door opened, we began to pitch down 

 hay right away. There was never such an abundance of hay 

 always on the floor and ready for the cattle as that spring. At 

 the sugar-bush, when we boiled nights, was another safe place, 

 and was one of the real reasons why the neighbors' boys were so 

 good to come and help, which father wondered at but did not 

 understand. I remember going to Uncle Daniel Wise's house 

 in the winter to play with Cousins Bishop and Sidney in the 

 horse-barn by lantern light, and, when frozen out of the horse- 

 barn, on the coverlid after going to bed. 



It was a pursuit of knowledge under serious difficulties. The 

 cards had to be hid. Bishop kept his on a scantling cross-piece 

 over the horse-stalls. An old, greasy pack was a treasure as 

 well as a constant source of apprehension and danger. Just 

 what would have happened if we had been discovered I do not 



I2s 



