eedle, stitching bits of calico together for quilts. She must
spin and weave her own sheets and pillow-cases and blankets.

"All of my clothes, up to the age of fourteen, were homespun. My first
'boughten' jacket was an olive green broadcloth,--a remnant which was
bought cheap because it was a remnant. I wore it at an evening party
given by my schoolmate. We were twenty or more boys and girls, and I
was regarded by my mates with jealousy. I was an aristocrat, all
because I wore broadcloth.

"It was the period of open fireplaces. Stoves were just being
introduced. We could play blind man's buff in the old kitchen with
great zest without running over stoves.

"It was the period of brown bread, apple and milk, boiled dinners,
pumpkin pies. We had very little cake. Pork and beans and Indian
pudding were standard dishes, only the pudding was eaten first. My
father had always been accustomed to that order. His second marriage
was in 1835, and my stepmother, or rather my sister Mary, who was
teaching school in Concord and had learned the new way, brought about
the change in the order of serving the food.

"Prior to 1830 there was no stove in the meeting-house, and the
introduction of the first stove brought about a deal of trouble. One
man objected, the air stifled him. It was therefore voted that on one
Sunday in each month there should be no fire.

"It was a bitter experience,--riding two and one-half miles to
meeting, sitting through the long service with the mercury at zero.
Only we did not know how cold it was, not having a thermometer. My
father purchased one about 1838. I think there was one earlier in the
town.

"The Sunday noons were spent around the fireplaces. The old men smoked
their pipes.

"In 1835, religious meetings were held in all the school districts,
usually in the kitchens of the farmhouses. There was a deep religious
interest. Protracted meetings, held three days in succession, were
frequently attended by all the ministers of surrounding towns. I
became impressed with a sense of my condition as a sinner, and
resolved to become a Christian. I united with the church the first
Sunday in May, 1835, in my twelfth year. I knew very little about the
spiritual life, but I have no doubt that I have been saved from many
temptations by the course then pursued. The thought that I was a
member of the church was ever a restraint in temptation."

The anti-slavery agitation reached Boscawen in 1835, and Carleto