FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 



ioned snow-shoes to be used in crossing the drifted 

 snows they had in those good old-fashioned winters. 



During the Revolution much of the cherished pewter 

 was melted for bullets. The story goes that in the town 

 of Sharon there was a bullet "bee" and several bushels 

 of bullets were moulded in an evening. Then, the 

 household supply of pewter dishes being seriously de- 

 pleted, there was another "bee" at which the young 

 men carved wooden plates and trenchers to take the 

 place of those patriotically sacrificed to the cause of 

 freedom. 



Aside from the fashioning of the lighter implements 

 by the fireplace and the cutting and hauling of the great 

 piles of wood needed for the year's supply, the farmer 

 and his sons often worked during the winter at some 

 minor trades in small shops built for the purpose. 

 There they broke and hetcheled the flax, made barrels, 

 butter firkins, wash tubs, and buckets for water, for 

 milk or for sap. They put flag or rush bottoms in 

 chairs and the more skilful fashioned some of the plain, 

 strong pieces of furniture out of the great black cherry 

 trees that had been felled and seasoned for the purpose. 



In the towns where there were limestone outcrop- 

 pings, the farmers used to make a rough kiln, piling it 

 full of the pieces of limestone and then burning it. 

 After burning it would be left in a heap until a conve- 

 nient time, when it would be hauled by ox teams to 



09] 



