dish on cold winter days. There was also
apple-butter-making in the fall when long hours were spent in peeling
and preparing choicest apples which were boiled in the great copper
kettle and richly seasoned with sugar and spice. Apple-butter-making was
an all-day job in the boiling alone but the rich and tasty product is
considered well worth the effort and any mountain woman who cannot
display shelves laden with jars of apple-butter would be considered a
laggard indeed.

But the mountain woman's greatest pride and joy was
handiwork--quiltmaking, crocheting. Perhaps it is because these crafts
have always gone hand-in-hand with courtship and marriage.

At the first call of the robin in the spring, Aunt Emmie on Honey Camp
Run, in clean starched apron and calico frock, dragged her rocker to the
front stoop of her little house and there she sat for hours rocking
contentedly while her nimble fingers moved swiftly with crochet needle
and thread. "Aunt Emmie's crocheting lace for Lulie Bell's wedding
garments." Folks knew the signs. Hadn't Lulie Bell ridden muleback from
Old Nell Knob just as soon as winter broke to take the day with the old
woman. "Make mine prettier than Dessie's and Flossie's," she had said.
Or, "I want the seashell pattern for my pillowcases." Or, "I want you to
crochet me a pretty chair back." "I want a lamberkin all scalloped
deep"--another bride-to-be measured a half arm's length. "I want my
edging for the gown and petticoat to match." Passersby overheard the
talk of the young folk. "Wouldn't you favor the fan pattern?" Aunt Emmie
offered a suggestion now and then while the shiny needle darted in and
out of scallop and loop. Sometimes she dropped a word of advice to the
young, how to live a long and happy married life, how and when to plant,
what to take for this ailment and that. There were things that brought
bad luck, she warned, and some that brought good.

"If a bride plants cucumber seed the first day of May when the dew is
still on the ground, the vines will grow hardy and bear lots of
cucumbers and she will bring forth many babes, too," her words fell on
willing ears of the young bride-to-be. "If you sleep under a new quilt
that no one has ever slept under, what you dream that night will come
true." Many a young miss declared she had experienced the proof of the
saying. There was something else. "Mind, don't ever sew a ripped seam or
patch a garment that's on your back. There will be lies told