FURNITURE. 
71 
hear of experiments of this kind being tried; as that a 
young man tried for a fortnight to live on hard, raw corn 
on the ear, using his teeth for all mortar. The squirrel 
tribe tried the same and succeeded. The human race 
is interested in these experiments, though a few old wo¬ 
men who are incapacitated for them, or who own their 
thirds in mills, may be alarmed. 
My furniture, part of which I made myself, and the 
rest cost me nothing of which I have not rendered an 
account, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, 
a looking-glass three inches in diameter, a pair of tongs 
and andirons, a kettle, a skillet, and a frying-pan, a dip¬ 
per, a wash-bowl, two knives and forks, three plates, one 
cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a ja¬ 
panned lamp. None is so poor that he need sit on a 
pumpkin. That is shiftlessness. There is a plenty of 
such chairs as I like best in the village garrets to be had 
for taking them away. Furniture! Thank God, I can sit 
and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse. 
What man but a philosopher would not be ashamed to see 
his furniture packed in a cart and going up country ex¬ 
posed to the light of heaven and the eyes of men, a 
beggarly account of empty boxes ? That is Spaulding’s 
furniture. I could never tell from inspecting such a 
load whether it belonged to a so called rich man or a 
poor one; the owner always seemed poverty-stricken. 
Indeed, the more you have of such things the poorer 
you are. Each load looks as if it contained the con¬ 
tents of a dozen shanties; and if one shanty is poor, this 
is a dozen times as poor. Pray, for what do we move 
ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuvice ; at last 
