ng, long time ago, before the flame of gas was seen in the
streets, or the sounds of the railroad were heard in the land; so long
before, that, had any prophet then living foretold such magical doings,
he would have been deemed a fit inhabitant of Bedlam. In those primitive
times, the Widow Lawton was considered a rich woman, though her income
would not go far toward clothing a city-fashionable in these days. She
owned a convenient house on the sea-shore, some twelve or fifteen miles
from Cape Ann; she cultivated ten acres of sandy soil, and had a
well-tended fish-flake a quarter of a mile long. To own an extensive
fish-flake was, in that neighborhood, a sure sign of being well to do in
the world. The process of transmuting it into money was slow and
circuitous; but those were not fast days. The fish were to be caught,
and cleaned, and salted, and spread on the flake, and turned day after
day till thoroughly dry. Then they were packed, and sent in vessels to
Maryland or Virginia, to be exchanged for flour or tobacco; then the
flour and tobacco were sold in foreign ports, and silks, muslins, and
other articles of luxury procured with the money.

The Widow Lawton was a notable, stirring woman, and it was generally
agreed that no one in that region kept a sharper look-out for the main
chance. Nobody sent better fish to market; nobody had such good luck in
hiving bees; nobody could spin more knots of yarn in a day, or weave
such handsome table-cloths. Great was her store of goodies for the
winter. The smoke-house was filled with hams, and the ceiling of the
kitchen was festooned with dried apples and pumpkins. In summer, there
was a fly-cage suspended from the centre. It was made of bristles, in a
sort of basket-work, in which were arranged bits of red, yellow, and
green woollen cloth tipped with honey. Flies, deceived by the fair
appearance, sipped the honey, and remained glued to the woollen; their
black bodies serving to set off the bright colors to advantage. In those
days, such a cage was considered a very genteel ornament for a New
England kitchen. Rich men sometimes have their coats of arms sketched on
the floor in colored crayons, to be effaced in one night by the feet of
dancers. The Widow Lawton ornamented her kitchen floor in a manner as
ephemeral, though less expensive. Every afternoon it was strewn with
white sand from the beach, and marked all over with the broom in a
herring-bone pattern; a very suitable coat