ority in a display of rustic labor. Among men it is principally
resorted to in planting potatoes or reaping of corn, and generally only
on the day which closes the labor at each for the season; but in the
sense in which it is most usually practised and contested, it means a
trial of female skill at the spinning of linen yarn. It is, indeed,
a very cheerful assemblage of the fair sex; and, although strong and
desperate rivalry is the order of the day, yet it is conducted in
a spirit so light-hearted and amicable that we scarcely know a more
laudable or delightful recreation in country life. Its object is always
good, and its associations praiseworthy, inasmuch as they promote
industry, a spirit of becoming emulation, and principles of good will
and kindness to our neighbor.

When a kemp is about to be held, the matter soon becomes generally known
in the neighborhood. Sometimes the young women are asked, but in
most instances, so eager are they to attend it that invitations are
unnecessary. In the whiter months, and in mountain districts, it is
often as picturesque as it is pleasant. The young women usually begin
to assemble about four o'clock in the morning; and, as they always go in
groups, accompanied besides by their sweethearts or some male relatives,
each of the latter bearing a large torch of well-dried bogfir, their
voices, and songs, and loud laughter break upon the stillness of
night with a holiday feeling, made ten times more delightful by the
surrounding darkness and the hour. When they have not the torches the
spinning-wheels are carried by the males, amidst an agreeable din of
fun, banter, repartee, and jest, such as scarcely any other rustic
amusement with which we are acquainted ever occasions. On arriving at
the house where the kemp is to be held, they are placed in the barn or
some clean outhouse; but indeed the numbers are usually such as to crowd
every available place that can be procured for their accommodation. From
the moment they arrive the lively din is incessant. Nothing is heard but
laughter, conversation, songs, and anecdotes, all rising in a loud key,
among the louder humming of the spinning-wheels and the stridulous noise
of the reeds, as they incessantly crack the cuts in the hands of the
reelers, who are perpetually turning them from morning to night, in
order to ascertain the quantity which every competitor has spun; and
she, of course, who has spun most wins the kemp, and is the queen for