L1LoO

baking plate, the cover put on, and coals piled upon
it. When the coals began to die, they were easily
renewed from the fireplace. The bake-kettle was
- prized for an emergency, as it was so readily got in
baking order, while the heating of the brick oven
was an affair of time and preparation.

When the settlements were new, the cows ranging
the woods got little nourishing food and gave little
milk. As fast as possible, trees were girdled or felled
to give more grass space, and better pasturage and
milk soon came to form a very important article of
diet. Plain, but substantial breakfasts and dinners
of solid food were always provided; but in mos
houses the suppers, not teas, were of milk with bread
or hominy, mush, or hulled corn, or boiled wheat,
eaten from wooden bowls or pewter porringers.

But whatever the meal chanced to be, any neigh-
bor or friend who happened to call was asked to “sit
by,” and made welcome to a share. Everybody was
hospitable and benevolent, and all were as generous
in caring for others as they were shrewd in looking

- QUESTIONS.

out for themselves. If any man was sick, his neigh-
bors did his planting or harvesting, taking good care -
to have it done in season. Besides, in clearing land
and erecting buildings every man even those in most
prosperous circumstances was forced sooner or later
to ask help. No one willingly refused an invitation
to a log-piling, raising, or other “ bee.” These were
the housewife’s great days. If her townsmen took
pleasure in coming to help her husband, she took
both pleasure and pride in giving them a good din-
ner when the work was done. As soon as the invita:
tions to a bee were out, the girls and matrons in the
vicinity dropped in one by one, with ‘offers of
assistance in the house, cooking utensils and the use
of the oven. ‘The day of the bee as well as the day
before, was as busy a one in doors as out. A row of
pots hung bubbling on the crane, the great oven was
heated again and again, and, if it was a very great
occasion, pots of beans and pudding were sent to
other houses to bake —but at another time I will
tell you the full story of “an old-fashioned bee.”

 

 

QUESTIONS.

By Kate LAWRENCE,
Cr you put the spider’s web back in its place, that once has been swept away?
Can you put the apple again on the bough, which fell at our feet to-day?
Can you put the lily-cup back on the stem, and cause it to live and grow?
Can you mend the butterfly’s broken wing, that you crushed with a hasty blow ?
Can you put the bloom again on the grape, or the grape again on the vine?
Can you put the dewdrops back on the flowers, and make them sparkle and shine?

Can you put the petals back on the rose?

If you could, would it smell as sweet ?

Can you put the flour again in the husk, and show me the ripened. wheat ?

Can you put the kernel back in the nut, or the broken egg in its shell?

Can you put the honey back in the comb, and cover with wax each cell ?

Can you put the perfume back in the vase, when once it has sped away ?

Can you put the corn-silk back on the corn, or the down on the catkins —say?
You think that my questions are trifling, dear? Let me ask you another one:
Can a hasty word ever be unsaid, or a deed unkind, undone?