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ed plae«B. There were no Miss Prims in those days to repeat the refrain, s« 

 common now 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 with cheerfulness, realizing that to be happy is the object of lift 1 

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

 instruments toward its attainment. They did not constantly inquire if "Farm- 

 ing paid " — that is, if they were laying up as much money as the merchants and 

 manufacturers around them, but their inquiries wore directed to the more es- 

 sential points whether the old homestead was yielding a comfortable mainten- 

 ance for the family under its roof, if the boys and girls were doing their duty 

 in "choring" in the winter and going to school when the opportunity offered. 

 As most of them would swarm and go off when the proper time arrived, the 

 solicitude of the parents was that their bodies should be healthy, their morals 

 correct and their minds sufficiently cultivated to enable them to act their parts 

 well in life and do credit to their bringing up, and the patriots and great men 

 of the preceding generation attest how well these influences worked. Wash- 

 ington loved his farm next to his family; his best General and most intimate 

 friend, Greene of Rhode Island, was a country blacksmith and only laid down 

 the hammer to gird on the sword. Putnam, who so distinguished himself at 

 Bunker Hill and was one of the four Major Generals of the army, was plow- 

 ing in his field at Pomfret, Connecticut, when the news arrived of the battle 

 of Lexington, and leaving his plow on the field hurried to the scene of action. 

 The battle of Lexington was fought on the 18th of April, 1775, and news of 

 it reached Berkshire, not by telegraph nor railroad, nor by mail but by ex- 

 presses, probably at noon. At sunrise the next morning, Col. John Patterson 

 of Lenox, with his regiment completely equipped and uniformed, was on the 

 march to Boston. Fired by the same spirit, the regiment commanded by Col. 

 John Fellows of Sheffield, with equal promptitude and appointment, proceeded 

 to Roxbury. Many of these brave men remained in the service to the^ close of 

 the war, nor did the yeomanry of Berkshire then nor since in any emergency 

 falter in their duty to their country in the time of her needs. Farming paid 

 pretty well in those days when just after the close of the French war and only 

 fifty years after its first settlement Berkshire was able to send to the Beat of war 

 regiments composed mainly of .the sturdy sons of the soil. 



Gen. Stark, whose defeat of the British at Bennington, where he told his 

 men they must beat the enemy, or ' l Molly stark would be a widow that 

 night," prepared the way for the capture of Burgoyne and his army, was in 

 early life a laborer on a farm. In the the night before this battle, a minister 

 (believed to have been Rev. Dr. Allen, of Pittsfield,) who came with a portion 

 of his flock from Berkshire, came to Stark with this communication: — "We, 

 the people of Berkshire, have been frequently called upon to fight, but have 

 never been led against the enemy. We have now resolved, if you will not let 

 us fight never to turn out again." Stark looked at him for a moment in some 

 doubt whether this was a piece of border fun or not, then said: "You don't 



