ashes made a good fertilizer for the land, which was soon sown with wheat or planted with corn. When autumn came and the crops were safely housed, our pioneer made his way to his family, and spent a winter of content and comfort, while his little cabin and all it contained slept under a coverlet of snow.

Spring found him returning with his family, his highway sometimes the navigable streams, when he carried his family and all his household goods in boats; sometimes the dense forests, where his only guide was the white patches upon the trees which he had blazed on his first journey thither.

Then came a life of loneliness for himself and family, with little to break the silence save the howls of the wild beasts, the singing of birds, and the whistling of the winds through the branches of the great trees. The ways of the wild animals were as familiar as the ways of man; the simple wildwood flowers, reminders of God's goodness, though mute, were agreeable companions.

It was also a life of hardship; but the noble men and women of that day knew they could not succeed without industry, and bravely they plied their hands and were in the main content; for their holdings, though isolated, represented the home, with its joys as well as its hardships.

The Log Hut.-Graham describes so well the building of the log hut that I quote him in full: "When any person fixes upon a settlement in this quarter of the country, with the assistance of one or two others, he immediately sets about felling trees proper for the purpose; these are from one to two feet in diameter, and forty feet or upwards in length, as best suits the convenience and wishes of the builder.

"When the branches are lopped off, and a sufficient number of logs are prepared, blocks are cut for the corners. The largest four of these are placed in a square form, upon a solid foundation of stones; this done, the logs are rolled upon the blocks, one above another, until the square becomes about twenty or twenty-five feet high; the rafters are then made for the roof, which is covered with the bark taken off the trees and placed lengthways from the ridge, with a jet sufficient to carry off the rain. The interstices in the body of the hut are filled up with mortar, made of wild grass chopped up and mixed with clay. When the outside is thus completed one of the corners is chosen within where some flat broad stones are fixed for the fireplace, with a small opening directly over it for the smoke to ascend through, and which also serves to give light to the inhabitants.

"And here large fires of wood are constantly kept burning (in winter both day and night) so that scarce anything can be imagined more comfortable and warm than this large apartment; round the walls and in the corners. are the beds, and sometimes those of the young men or women are elevated on lofts, made of rafters, laid across from side to side, with a flooring of bark over them. The door is always as nearly opposite the hearth as possible.

"In this manner is an abode finished, spacious enough to accommodate twelve or fifteen persons, and which often serves for as many years, till the lands are entirely cleared and the settlers become sufficiently opulent to erect better houses. Three men will build one of these huts in six days."

In place of the floor of earth, beaten and smoothed until it was as level and hard as pavement, some of these

huts had what was called a puncheon floor, made of split logs with the plain side up, or what was still better, one of rough boards. The board floor, well sprinkled with sand, was often marked off in fancy designs; and one of that kind was considered a luxury.

The chamber above, usually occupied by the younger members of the family, was not always a warm place to sleep in winter, when the snow sifted through the cracks upon the sleeping children. Usually a ladder led to this loft, but oftentimes the children clambered up to it on wooden pegs inserted in the logs.

There was little furniture at first. Blocks of wood answered for chairs, and often a split log, with holes bored at the corners on the rounded side and sticks driven in for legs, was the only table. A family at Newbury showed their foresight by building their cabin over a flat stump and using the stump for a table.

The coming of the sawmills brought the more commodious frame houses with their large chimneys, multitudinous fireplaces, and brick ovens, to those who were thrifty.

The Fireplace. The enormous fireplace consumed great quantities of fuel, and the preparing and bringing in of this was the work of the boys. The foundation for a fire was a back-log, sometimes six feet long and so heavy that the boys often harnessed themselves to it, and, by all pulling together, managed to haul it into the house and lodge it at the back of the fireplace. In front of this was placed a fore-log, considerably smaller, both lying on the ashes; and on them lay the top-stick. These were usually

of green wood and would last several days. In front of this pile and upon the andirons, was a fore-stick, around which

was heaped a stack of split wood, chips, etc.

The fire was

then ready to light; and, to accomplish this, a piece of steel was struck sharply against a bit of flint, producing sparks, which were caught upon some inflammable substance (sometimes flax soaked in the balsam of pitch-pine, sometimes

punk gathered from decayed logs) and then coaxed into a flame by gently blowing upon them.

The fire thus made was supposed to keep; and, with this end in view, the good man of the house buried each night a hardwood brand in the ashes. Sometimes, however, the live coal failed to be a reality in the morning; and, this being the case, the boys were sent to a neighbor's with a fire-pan to "borrow coals" or with a tin lantern with a candle for a light. In case there were no neighbors

within easy distance, the laborious method of steel and flint for producing a flame must again be resorted to.

As the thick-set forests thinned under the ruthless ax of the settler, the fireplaces shrank in size, and fires were more simply built, the

back-log and fore-stick only, sufficing for a foundation; and this is the fireplace of which aged people speak to-day as the fireplace of their fathers.

Foods, and how they were Cooked.-The same maize which had for ages satisfied the hunger of the

Borrowing coals.

Indian, now yielded nour

ishment to his successor, the white man. Hunting and fishing were as profitable as in the days when the savage occupied the land; and many a farmer materially added to his larder by their means, employing in winter the coldstorage plan of his predecessor, the Indian, that of packing meat in snow until it was needed for use.

Over or before the coals of the fireplace the good housewife did much of her cooking. At first a wooden bar was placed across the chimney high enough to be free from the danger of burning, and the pots and kettles were suspended from it. This was soon superseded by the iron crane, placed at the side of the fireplace and fastened on hinges so that the pots and kettles could be swung off and on the blaze at pleasure.

Potatoes, squashes, turnips, beans, peas, and other foods were boiled in the pots; and meats were cooked in the