ould make twenty answer the purpose of a
hundred.

Slavery, it is true, was to some extent introduced into New England,
but it never suited the genius of the people, never struck deep root,
or spread so as to choke the good seed of self-helpfulness. Many were
opposed to it from conscientious principle,--many from far-sighted
thrift, and from a love of thoroughness and well-doing which despised
the rude, unskilled work of barbarians. People, having once felt the
thorough neatness and beauty of execution which came of free,
educated, and thoughtful labor, could not tolerate the clumsiness of
slavery. Thus it came to pass that for many years the rural population
of New England, as a general rule, did their own work, both out doors
and in. If there were a black man or black woman or bound girl, they
were emphatically only the _helps_, following humbly the steps of
master and mistress, and used by them as instruments of lightening
certain portions of their toil. The master and mistress with their
children were the head workers.

Great merriment has been excited in the Old Country because years ago
the first English travelers found that the class of persons by them
denominated servants were in America denominated help or helpers. But
the term was the very best exponent of the state of society. There
were few servants in the European sense of the word; there was a
society of educated workers, where all were practically equal, and
where, if there was a deficiency in one family and an excess in
another, a _helper_, not a servant, was hired. Mrs. Brown, who has six
sons and no daughters, enters into agreement with Mrs. Jones, who has
six daughters and no sons. She borrows a daughter, and pays her good
wages to help in her domestic toil, and sends a son to help the labors
of Mr. Jones. These two young people go into the families in which
they are to be employed in all respects as equals and companions, and
so the work of the community is equalized. Hence arose, and for many
years continued, a state of society more nearly solving than any other
ever did the problem of combining the highest culture of the mind with
the highest culture of the muscles and the physical faculties.

Then were to be seen families of daughters, handsome, strong females,
rising each day to their indoor work with cheerful alertness,--one to
sweep the room, another to make the fire, while a third prepared the
breakfast for the father and brothers who were