oke
out in 1812, made hard times for everybody, and taxed the magnanimity
and skill of our foremothers to their utmost to make their homes and
families present a decent and respectable appearance.

The very poor then, as now, were forced to content themselves with the
barest decencies of life. But the respectable middle classes,--the
farmers, mechanics, and small merchants,--were put to the greatest
straits to keep up an appearance of respectability and comfort, with
scant conveniences, and few or none of even the simplest elegancies of
life, in dwelling, dress, or furniture.

The principal room of a New England farm-house was the kitchen, which
was usually large enough to serve for a cooking, dining, and sitting
room, all in one.

The enormous fireplace, with its long, soot-blackened crane, hung with
hooks of various sizes, the massive iron andirons, strong enough to hold
the great birch and birchen logs, that often taxed the strength of a
full-grown man to lift and adjust in their places, occupied a large part
of one side of the room, and served as a kind of family altar, about
which the family, with their guests and friends, always assembled, in
quiet chat or friendly gossip.

And a cheery spot it was, especially in those long, dark evenings in
midwinter, when the ruddy, dancing flames went laughing up the great
throat of the chimney, chasing the venturesome, wayward sparks, as they
hurried out into the untried darkness of the winter's night. With what a
genial glow they lighted up the bare, unplastered walls, the sanded
floor, the rough rafters overhead, and the scant, clumsily-fashioned
furniture, until

"The rude, bare-raftered room
Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom."

Nor must we forget that seldom wanting, always interesting, piece of
furniture, to which was sure to be accorded the warmest, coziest spot in
the wide chimney-corner,--the inevitable wooden cradle,--clumsily
fashioned by loving, but unskilled hands, and always large enough to
hold, besides the reigning baby, two, and, at a pinch, three, of the
younger members of the household.

How the favored youngsters delighted in a ride in that clumsy old
vehicle, nor dreamed that its halting, uncertain gait was other than the
very poetry of motion! Even mother's own wooden rocking-chair, a bit of
boughten elegance, with its gay patchwork cushion, and dull, contented
"creak! creak!" as its dear occupant swayed meditatively to and fro,
knitting i