r brothers, and that she might have fire in the
parlor on special occasions. But, to compensate, some of the neighbors
dropped in. Doris and James played fox and geese until they were sleepy.
James had a little cot in the corner of grandmother's room.

CHAPTER IX

WHAT WINTER BROUGHT

Oh, what a lovely white world it was! The low, sedgy places were frozen
over and covered with snow; the edges of the bay, Charles River, and
Mystic River were assuming their winter garments as well. And when, just
a week after, another snowstorm came, there seemed a multitude of white
peaks out in the harbor, and the hills were transformed into veritable
snow-capped mountains. Winter had set in with a rigor unknown to-day.
But people did not seem to mind it. Even the children had a good time
sledding and snowballing and building snow forts and fighting battles.
There were mighty struggles between the North Enders and the South
Enders. Louisburg was retaken, 1775 was re-enacted, and Paul Revere
again swung his lantern and roused his party to arms, and snowballs
whitened instead of darkening the air with the smoke of firearms. Deeds
of mighty prowess were done on both sides.

But the boys had the best of it surely. The girls had too much to do.
They were soon too large for romping and playing. There were stockings
to knit and to darn. There were long overseams in sheets; there was no
end of shirt-making for the men. They put the hems in their own frocks
and aprons, they stitched gussets and bands and seams. People were still
spinning and weaving, though the mills that were to lead the revolution
in industries had come in. The Embargo was taxing the ingenuity of
brains as well as hands, and as more of everything was needed for the
increase of population, new methods were invented to shorten processes
that were to make New England the manufacturing center of the new world.

When the children had nothing else to do there was always a bag of
carpet rags handy. There were braided rugs that were quite marvels of
taste, and even the hit-or-miss ones were not bad.

Still they were allowed out after supper on moonlight nights for an hour
or so, and then they had grand good times. The father or elder brothers
went along to see that no harm happened. Fort Hill was one of the
favorite coasting places, and parties of a larger growth thronged here.
But Beacon Hill had not been shorn of all its glory.

Uncle Winthrop came over one day and to