Old and New Homes. 3 



as the first picking had begun, tlie chests, containing quart-boxes, were 

 despatched to his address per railroad. We had only three chests the first 

 time : but. as they were among the first in the market, they brought the hand- 

 some price of seventy -five cents a quart; and, as each chest contained sixty 

 quarts, this first shipment brought us the snug little sum of a hundred and 

 twenty-six dollars. Next market-day we did better; for they began to ripen 

 rapidly, the weather being warm ; and we sent ten chests to the station, which 

 was fortunately so near our place, that we were able to pick until within an 

 hour of starting-time. The afternoon " market line," as it is called, stopped 

 at every station or cross-road, and picked up the produce that was waiting 

 upon the platform ; and thus our freshly-gathered strawberries arrived at 

 New York before daylight, in good condition for market. Our second 

 shipment brought us sixty cents per quait, the price having fallen somewhat ; 

 so that we received three hundred and sixty dollars. After this, the num- 

 ber of chests shipped every day or two increased considerably ; until, by 

 the close of the strawberry season, we had sent to market, as the proceeds 

 of our ten-acre patch, five thousand quarts, which had netted us an average 

 of twenty-five cents per quart, or about twelve hundred dollars for our 

 crop. This was doing quite as well as we expected ; for our predecessor 

 had not left the strawberry-grounds in clean condition. In fact, nearly one- 

 half of it was fairly run down with grass, weeds, and old age ; and ought, 

 in strict propriety, to have been ploughed under. 



We had all been as busy as bees during the whole time. About a dozen 

 neighboring children had been employed as pickers; the smart ones readily 

 picking seventy-five quarts a day, for which, at two cents a quart, they would 

 receive a dollar and fifty cents. So popular was the business amongst the 

 laboring-classes, that both women and litde children were ready to come into 

 the service. My mother and I found constant employment in assorting and 

 arranging the berries in the chests. This was done in our large shed- 

 kitchen, into which the pickers delivered their quart boxes as soon as filled. 

 As to our own children, little Mary and Johnny, aged respectively ten and 

 twelve years, they had worked so vigorously in the field during all the sea- 

 son, that, by the time it was over, they had quite a little purse between them, 

 which was safely deposited in my keeping to await the addition of further 

 sums. Besides the strawberries, our pease yielded very well ; and they were 



