44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



was a better-looking fellow, to court her for him ; and when 

 John, after the usual preliminaries, sneaking about a little in 

 the daylight and wasting tallow in the evening, popped the 

 question on behalf of his friend, the Puritan beauty met his 

 proposal with the characteristic question, "Prithee, John, 

 why do you not speak for yourself? " John could not resist 

 such an appeal, and had to report to his principal the facts, 

 whereupon Capt. Miles was dreadfully put out, but came 

 round about the time of the wedding, after which Alden took 

 his wife home riding on a bull. Longfellow has immortalized 

 the incident of the courtship in verse, but he has made a 

 variance from historical truth by putting the hero upon a 

 steer instead of a bull. In fact, marriage among our fore- 

 fathers was at a premium ; they looked upon bachelors as an 

 expensive luxury, unproductive consumers, and not only taxed 

 them highly, but kept them under supervision, forbidding 

 them to live by themselves or in any family without the con- 

 sent of the selectmen. Children were an important considera- 

 tion — very handy to have in the country — and large families 

 greeted as a blessing. Nearly every household could equal 

 that of Jacob's in sons, and excel it in daughters ; and Reuben, 

 Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, 

 Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin, were not unlikely to have fair 

 counterparts in a Rachel, Adasa, Baruch, Beersheba, Jerusha, 

 Deborah, Hagar, Hannah, Leah, Miriam, Mehitable and Pris- 

 cilla ; and with such help there was no need of foreign labor, 

 and with such companions no hankering after cities and other 

 crowded places. There were no Miss Prims in those days to 

 repeat the refrain, so common among a certain class, "I can't 

 bear children," but plenty of good mothers, who would have 

 replied, as Mrs. Partington did to such a companion, "Perhaps 

 if you could, you would like them better ! " 



So lived the fathers of our fathers and mothers of our mothers, 

 — contented with their lot, performing their duties w T ith cheer- 

 fulness, realizing that to be happy is the object of life, and that 

 health, competence, and children to be reared, were the most 

 efficient instruments toward its attainment. They did not con- 

 stantly inquire if " farming paid " ; that is, if they were laying 

 up as much money as the merchants and manufacturers around 

 them ; but their inquiries were directed to the more essential 



