ed his gun, could
easily be distinguished, though clothed in home-spun and buckskin, with
the coarse straw hat. The early settlers all had guns of some
description, except the very juvenile members, who used to carry canes
to represent guns. Those trainings used to be looked forward to with
intense interest by all the boys of the neighbourhood, and afforded
subjects of conversation for the ensuing year. It was no easy thing in
that day to find a level piece of ground that was tolerably clear from
stumps sufficiently large to serve for their general trainings.

"Amongst the early settlers there were very few who could afford to hire
assistance of any kind. Those that could pay found it easy to get men as
labourers; but women servants, unless by mere chance, were not to be
had. The native American women would not and will not, even at the
present day, go out to service, although almost any of the other
neighbours' daughters would be glad to go as helps, doing the same work
and eating at the table with their mistress. My father, for many years,
used occasionally to take the head of the table with his labourers, to
show them he was not too proud to eat with them. My mother was exempt
from this, but the help ate at her table, which was considered a
sufficient proof of her humility. Many of those helps of early days have
since become the wives of squires, captains, majors and colonels of
Militia, and are owners of large properties, and they and their
descendants drive in their own carriages.

"In the summer of 1800 my mother had a very nice help as nurse. Jenny
Decow had been apprenticed to a relative, and, at the age of eighteen,
she received her bed, her cow, and two or three suits of clothing (those
articles it was customary to give to a bound girl), and was considered
legally of age, with the right to earn her own living as she best could.

"My mother soon discovered that Jenny had a wooer. On Sunday afternoon,
young Daniel McCall made his appearance, with that peculiar, happy,
awkward look that young lads have when they are 'keeping company,' as it
is called. At that time, when a young man wanted a wife, he looked out
for some young girl whom he thought would be a good help-mate, and,
watching his opportunity, with an awkward bow and blush he would ask her
to give him her company the ensuing Sunday evening. Her refusal was
called 'giving the mitten,' and great was the laugh against any young
man if it was known that he