IXDUSTRIES AND FIRES WES. 225 



heated by the millstones, and was brought home so fresh 

 and savory that one can readily imagine the pleasure of 

 a poor family smelling their newly filled meal tubs. 



Their staff of life was a mixture of corn and rye meal, 

 or as they fondly termed it " rye 'n' injun." The coarse 

 bread made from this meal was heavy, hard, and black. 

 Nowadays it is occasionally eaten as a luxury, but in those 

 days it was upon every table and exercised every jaw and 

 furnished the main amount of all the muscular energy 

 expended in field or forest for generations. 



This "rye 'n' injun " meal appeared in the morning as 

 porridge, stirred into a pot of boiling water that hung in 

 the fireplace. This pasty and wholesome dish was the 

 sovereign of the breakfast table ; from its great wooden 

 bowl it sent up a column of steam into the cold morning 

 air, a cloudy pillar before them leading them on to the 

 labors of the day. Milk was used as a sauce for this 

 hasty pudding, or later and better, molasses from the 

 West Indies. 



Other methods of cooking " rye 'n' injun " were prac- 

 ticed by the proficient and ingenious housewives, for 

 cooking was their pride and accomplishment, Bannock 

 bread or hoecake baked in a frying pan tipped up towards 

 the fire was much relished with bits of crisp ham or 

 bacon. 



Wheat flour was quite rare, so that cakes and bread 

 and even pies were dependent upon rye, maize, and bar- 

 ley. As to the clumsy utensils with which the culinary 

 art was performed much could be lamented and some 

 things praised. It must have taken remarkable skill to 

 manipulate one of those big drafty fireplaces so as to get 

 the best results. 



Their ovens were cavities in the huge brick chimneys 

 at the side of the fireplace. A fire was built inside these 

 ovens to heat the brick walls. The fire was then drawn 

 out or the coals brushed into the corners and the food to 



