rehanded families, a show of red shag
cotton, calico, or Manchester. Very rarely some ambitious woman would
appear with a silk wimple, scarf, or ribbon. In such extreme cases, be
she dame or maiden, the stern hand of the law fell heavily upon the
culprit, and certainly with more weight if she wore the unseemly and
offending article "in a flaunting manner."

They had neither tea nor coffee. Their drink beside water was cider or
malt beer. Spirituous liquors were a luxury, used principally in
sickness, at weddings, funerals, or other special occasions. Indian corn
and wheat were staple articles of diet; the former eaten as hulled corn,
or beaten in a mortar into samp or hominy; and probably wheat was
prepared in the same manner. Their dishes were of wood or pewter;
gourd-shells answered for dippers and vessels of various use; and
clam-shells made acceptable spoons. The household utensils were largely
home-made.

Artisans were few. The wood-work of their carts, ploughs, yokes, and
other farm implements, was generally made at home. The cart-irons,
ploughshares, chains, axes, billhooks, scythes, and other cutting
instruments, were hammered out on the anvil of the village blacksmith;
and the work turned out by them is unequalled by any of the craft
to-day.

With all their hardships and poverty, with all their distress and
danger, the people were strict in the observance of all the established
rites of their faith. The meeting-house burned in Philip's War was at
once replaced on the second settlement. Within a score of years this had
been outgrown, and a third edifice erected. It was two stories, square,
with the roof rising from each of the sides to the turret in the centre.
Of the interior finish a little is known. There were no pews; the
worshippers were "seated" in fixed places, according to rules
established in town-meeting, where the "dignity" of each rude bench was
formally discussed and declared by vote. The women sat on the right of
the minister, and the men on the left. The boys and girls were stored
away somewhere in nooks and corners, under the eye of the tythingmen. On
each side of the entrance places were reserved where, on entering, the
men could deposit their loaded guns under the care of an appointed
guard. While the faithful pastor was warning his devout hearers against
the wiles of the tempter within, the sentinel, stationed in the turret
above, watched all approaches, to guard against surprisal by an ene