2 24 HISTORY OF COHASSET. 



softer leather of sheep or of calves or of deer the men 

 had breeches made for the rough wear of the woods. 



Whips and harnesses and saddles and pillions and bags 

 were not articles that necessitated a trip to Boston, for 

 in those days self-sufficiency was the motto of this com- 

 munity. What one man could not make his neighbor 

 could make, and they knew how to exchange their craft 

 to their mutual weal. 



One article of clothing further should be mentioned — 

 hats. The fur of squirrels and rabbits and beavers was 

 easily prepared for the winter head gear, and for summer 

 homemade straw hats were used. Their own rye straw, 

 carefully selected and bleached by sulphur smoke in a 

 barrel, was braided into narrow bands that could be sewed 

 skillfully edge to edge until they made something that 

 passed for a hat. 



The women wore shawls over their heads as frequently 

 as they did bonnets. 



But simple as the clothing was in those days, a still 

 more conspicuous frugality was practiced in the matter of 

 food. Not that hunger was tolerated more then, but that 

 the quality of food in most families was coarse and its 

 variety narrow. The English stomach has never been 

 very modest in its demands ; but these farmer and fisher 

 folk of Cohasset had far less means of humoring their 

 inherited appetites than their descendants have. Never- 

 theless, the housekeepers of those days wrought miracles 

 of cookery, and made from slender means some dishes 

 that are hard to match by any of our modern improve- 

 ments. Their luscious Indian puddings, baked for a small 

 eternity in their brick ovens or boiled in a bag as the 

 Indians themselves had cooked them, would bribe any 

 man into good humor. Moreover, the corn they had was 

 sweeter and fresher, for they took it themselves to the 

 mill at Bound Brood or to the other gristmill at Straits 

 Pond, where it was slowly ground without being over- 



