e comfort. The weather was not nearly so cold,
so they did not have to keep up such blazing fires or shiver in their
cold beds. Many of the rich planters built themselves large mansions of
wood or brick, and brought costly furniture from England, and lived in
great show, with gold and silverware on their sideboards and fine
coaches drawn by handsome horses when they went abroad.

In New York the Dutch built quaint old houses, of the kind used in
Holland. In Philadelphia the Quakers lived in neat two-storied houses,
with wide orchards and gardens round them, where they raised plenty of
fruit. When any one opened a shop, he would hang out a basket, a wooden
anchor, or some such sign to show what kind of goods he had to sell.

In New England Sunday was kept in a very strict fashion, for the people
were very religious. It was thought wicked to play, or even to laugh, on
Sunday, and everybody had to go to church. All who did not go were
punished. And, mercy on us, what sermons they preached in those cold old
churches, prosing away sometimes for two hours at a time! The boys and
girls had to listen to them, as well as the men and women, and you know
how hard it is now to listen for one hour.

If they got sleepy, as no doubt they often did, and went off into a
snooze, they were soon wide awake again. For the constable went up and
down the aisles with a long staff in his hand. This had a rabbit's foot
on one end of it and a rabbit's tail on the other. If he saw one of the
women asleep he would draw the rabbit's tail over her face. But if a boy
took a nap, down would come the rabbit's foot in a sharp rap on his
head, and up he would start very wide awake. To-day we would call that
sort of sermons cruelty to children, and I think it was cruelty to the
old folks also.

Do you think those were "good old times"? I imagine some of you will
fancy they were "bad old times." But they were not nearly so bad as you
may think. For you must bear in mind that the people knew nothing of
many of the things we enjoy. They were used to hard work and plain food
and coarse furniture and rough clothes and cold rooms, and were more
hardy and could stand more than people who sleep in furnace-heated rooms
and have their tables heaped with all kinds of fruits and vegetables and
meats.

But there was one thing that could not have been pleasant, and that was,
their being afraid all the time of the Indians, and having to carry
muskets with them even