NEW ENGLAND 235 



were the usual recreations of childhood. I was 

 rather too frail of body to enter with full enthu- 

 siasm into the rougher sports. But in general 

 the sports and amusements of the New England 

 child were of rather a subdued order, as be- 

 came the intellectual atmosphere in which 

 we lived. 



Coasting and skating were among our most 

 boisterous pastimes, and the more usual recrea- 

 tions included such functions as spelling bees and 

 husking bees. 



But the chief occupations of our leisure hours 

 were of a more prosaic character than sledding 

 or skating. My father was an unusually pros- 

 perous farmer, but he was also a manufacturer. 

 With a large family, he found it necessary to 

 supplement the resources of field and orchard. 



And of course we boys were pressed into the 

 service as soon as we were large enough to lend 

 a hand at various of the simpler phases of brick- 

 making. It is recalled by my brother that I did 

 not undertake the turning of brick, which is a 

 work that is rather hard on delicate hands, with 

 unusual enthusiasm. But, on the other hand, 

 my brother Alfred and myself when quite 

 young, perhaps only six or eight years of age, 

 used to drive the oxen with loads of brick to 

 Clinton, Lancaster Village, Harvard, and other 



