ance from most of the
homes. They were both comfortless and cheerless. The snows were deep
in winter and the weather was inclement. In summer, even little hands
were helpful at home.

In their sports, the settlers were often inclined to push a joke to
rudeness, and what began in fun often ended in a fight. Still, they
were good-natured, honest people. They were kind to those needing
assistance, and if necessity became common so did the loaf of bread.

There was no lack of social enjoyment, for their hardest toil was made
the occasion of a gathering. If a piece of woodland was to be cleared,
or a fallow, the male portion of the community united in a "bee" and
the work was soon done. Perhaps, while the men were thus working
together in the field, the women had gathered within doors, and were
busily plying their fingers over the mottled patch-work of a quilt.
In the lengthening summer twilight the men, coatless and barefoot, sat
in groups on the front steps or under the low Dutch stoops and talked
of the incoming crops, the weather or the watery moon.

The forests, all over the hillsides, where now village streets are
creeping up and winding across, were frowning with great pines and
hemlocks. The log road ran in every direction and was no more
exclusive than a common highway. The "shingle-weaver's" huts were on
nearly every road and bypath. The most towering pines were regarded as
lawful prize, and during the winter the men found plenty of employment
and slight recompense in hauling the pines to mill. Here they were
converted into lumber, which was piled up by the bank of the river
until "the spring freshet." On the swollen stream it was rafted to
Baltimore, Harrisburg and other places.

The "rafting season" was looked forward to with no little solicitude
by the more robust and daring of the young men. They waited for the
rafts to be cut from their moorings with keen anticipation, and the
stories of some of the rivermen are still well remembered by the older
inhabitants.

For a great many years, Albany was the only market to which the
pioneers carted their wheat. The roads were barely passable and the
trip to Albany and back required from six to eight days. The wagons,
upon which the produce was carted, were of rough and clumsy make. It
would not be supposed that the driver would find much pleasure in
making the distance to market and back on one of these clumsy
vehicles, but the trip, especially to the younger men,