t, brought from England, a tent
or field bedstead, with green baize, or white dimity curtains, and
generous feather bed. The stout tick for this, the snow-white sheets,
the warm flannel blankets, and heavy woollen rugs, woven in checks of
black, or red, and white, or the lighter harperlet, were all the
products of domestic wheel and loom. There were no carpets. The floors
were sprinkled with fine, white sand, which, on particular occasions,
was brushed into fanciful patterns with a birch broom, or bundle of
twigs. The style of painting floors called "marbling," hardly yet
extinct, was a survival of this custom.

The finishing of the "Indian House" was more elaborate than that of the
Smead house; but there was no lath and plaster, the ceiling being the
same. The partitions and walls were of wainscot-work, with mouldings
about the doors and windows. These mouldings were all cut by hand from
solid wood. In some cases the oak summer-tree was smoothed and left
bare, with a capital cut on the supporting posts; generally, hereabouts,
it was covered with plain boards,--it may be, in the best room, with
panels. No finer lumber is found than that with which these old houses
were finished.

Their massive frames, each stout tenon fitted to its shapely mortise by
the try rule, whose foundations were laid by our sires so long ago that
the unsubdued savage still roamed in the forest where its timbers were
hewn, stand as firmly as when the master-builder dismissed the tired
neighbors, who had heaved up the huge beams, and pinned the last rafter
to its mate (for there were no ridgepoles) at the raising.

AN EVENING AT HOME.

The ample kitchen was the centre of family life, social and industrial.
Here around the rough table, seated on rude stools or benches, all
partook of the plain and often stinted fare. A glance at the family
gathered here after nightfall of a winter's day may prove of interest.
After a supper of bean-porridge, or hominy and milk, which all partake
in common from a great pewter basin, or wooden bowl, with spoons of
wood, horn, or pewter; after a reverent reading of the Bible, and
fervent supplication to the Most High for care and guidance; after the
watch was set on the tall mount, and the vigilant sentinel began pacing
his lonely beat, the shutters were closed and barred, and with a sense
of security the occupations of the long winter evening began. Here was a
picture of industry, enjoined alike by the law of t