"Fix'd Gown for Prude Just to clear my teeth,--Mend Mother's
Riding-hood,--Ague in my face,--Ellen was spark'd last night,--Mother
spun short thread,--Fix'd two Gowns for Welch's girls,--Carded tow--spun
linen--worked on Cheese Basket,--Hatchel'd Flax with Hannah and we did
51 lb a piece,--Pleated and ironed,--Read a sermon of
Dodridge's,--Spooled a piece--milked the cows--spun linen and did 50
knots--made a broom of Guinea wheat straw,--Spun thread to whiten,--Went
to Mr. Otis's and made them a swinging visit,--Israel said I might ride
his jade,--Set a red Dye,--Prude stayed at home and learned Eve's Dream
by heart,--Had two scholars from Mrs. Taylor's--I carded two pounds of
whole wool and felt Nationly,--Spun harness twine,--Scoured the Pewter."

The information concerning Ellen is to us more suggestive than
interesting, and why to card two pounds of wool should make anyone feel
"Nationly" is not clear; but we can gather from the candid diary of
young Mistress Foote a fair idea of the life of the young lady of that
day. Varying with section in customs and application, it was yet typical
in its way and speaks volumes of the simple and admirable training of
the women of the period. But, being on the search for contradictions at
this time, look upon this picture of the elaborate headdresses worn at
that period, found in a letter from Anna Green Winslow:

"I had my heddus roll on. Aunt Storer said it ought to be made less,
Aunt Deming said it ought not to be made at all. It makes my head ach
and burn and itch like anything Mama. This famous Roll is not made
wholly of a Red-Cow Tail but is a mixture of that & horsehair very
coarse & and a little human hair of a yellow hue that I suppose was
taken out of the back part of an old wig. But D. made it, all carded
together and twisted up. When it first came home, Aunt put it on, and my
new cap upon it; she then took up her apron and measured me & from the
roots of my hair on my forehead to the top of my notions I measured
above an inch longer than I did downward from the roots of my hair to
the end of my chin. Nothing renders a young person more amiable than
Virtue and Modesty without the help of fals hair, Red-Cow Tail or D. the
barber."

In this letter, written in 1771, Mistress Winslow treats the matter
jocularly and even wittily; but it was a grave enough affair, that of
the "heddus," to the average dame of the day. We are told that "the
front hair was pulled up over a st