appearance at least something of Puritan simplicity.

[2] Costumes of Colonial Times.

The urban residents of those days were, however, insignificant in numbers
as compared with the total population. The Americans were an agricultural
people, and they were a self-dependent people. The articles of clothing
needed in the farmer's home were manufactured in the home; the tailor
went around from house to house making into suits the cloth which the
family had woven; the school teacher "boarded around" as an equivalent
for salary that might otherwise have been paid in worthless currency, and
the simple requirements of rural existence were supplied in a large
degree by trade and barter without the use of what passed as money. The
farmer's cottage stood upon a level sward of green. The kitchen was the
living-room, and there the family spent their time when not out at work
or retired to rest. It was the largest apartment in the house, and its
great fire-place, with a ruddy back-log and pine knots flaming and
sparkling on the iron-dogs, offered a most cheerful welcome on a New
England winter's night. The baking oven, heated with fine-split dry wood,
cooked the frugal but savory meal, which was served up on a solid
old-fashioned table, around which the household gathered, first giving
thanks to the Giver of all. When not busied with other duties, the
housewife pressed with measured round the treadles of the loom, as she
twilled the web she was weaving; and as the shades of evening descended
the sonorous hum of the spinning-wheel gave token to the young man on
courtship intent that the daughter of the house was at home. From the
kitchen a door opened into the best room, a cheerless sort of place only
thrown open on special occasions, and not to compare in comfort with the
kitchen, its high-backed settle and its genial fire, whose glowing ashes
seemed to reflect the warmer glow of loving eyes. Other doors from the
kitchen opened into sleeping-rooms, although in the larger houses the
family usually slept upstairs. The well was used for cooling purposes as
well as water supply, and the old oaken bucket suspended from the
well-sweep by means of a slender pole, invited the passing stranger to
quaff nature's wholesome beverage. Wheeled vehicles were not often seen
in the rural districts, horses being commonly used for locomotion. The
difficulty of traveling discouraged intercourse between different
communities, and a journey from Bo