300 
RURAL HOURS. 
of Christmas cheer : it was not in the least hke the mince-pie, 
that abomination of their stern old fathers. We hardly know 
whether to laugh or to cry, when we remember the fierce attacks 
made upon the roasted boar's-head, the mince-pies, and other 
good things of that kind, by the early Puritans ; but when we 
recollect the reason of this enmity, we mourn over the evils that 
prejudice brings about in this world. Strange, indeed, that men, 
endowed with many Christian virtues, should have ever thought 
it a duty to oppose so bitterly the celebration of a festival in honor 
of the Nativity of Christ ! Happil}^, Time, the great ally of Truth, 
has worked a change in this respect ; Christmas is kept through- 
out the country, and mince-pies are eaten with a quiet conscience 
and very good appetite by everybody. And what is vastly to the 
credit of the community, while all have returned to the mince-pie, all 
are quite capable of doing justice to a good pumpkin-pie also, and 
by a very happy state of things, the rival pastries are found on 
the same tables, from Thanksgiving to Ash-Wednesday. Mince- 
pies are even more in favor in this country than in England ; some 
people eat them all the year round ; I have been offered a slice 
on the eve of the 4th of July. Those made by the farmers' wives 
about the country are, however, very coarse imitations of the real 
thing ; their paste is made with lard, and always heavy ; coarsely- 
hashed meat, and apples, and suet, Avith a little spice, are the chief 
ingredients, and a dish more favorable to dyspepsia could not 
easily be put together. 
Monday, ISih. — A pair of the golden- winged woodpeckers, or 
clapes, as many persons call them, have been on the lawn all the 
afternoon. These large woodpeckers often come into the village, 
especially in the spring and autumn, and they are frequently seen 
