d interest to those who take a fancy to antique articles. It
has become fashionable to have these things to adorn our Queen Anne
houses. And brass andirons and shovels and tongs have come into request,
so that we may enjoy the luxury of an open wood fire, which, to our
mind, is one of the most cheerful things in this world. Some one has
remarked "that to be well-dressed gives a feeling of satisfaction that
religion fails to give;" but to us, to sit before a blazing wood fire on
a dull, cold evening, gives a feeling of comfort and delight which
surpasses anything we know of. What charming companionship in a wood
fire! Better than the company of uncongenial persons.

"Old wood to burn,"
"Old books to read:"

these are enough; we will leave out the "old wine to drink."

"This bright wood fire,
So like to that which warmed and lit
My youthful days, how doth it flit
Back on the periods nigher!
Re-lighting and re-warming with its glow
The bright scenes of my youth,--all gone out now."

Glance backward to some years before the Revolution, and we shall find a
spinning-wheel in every house, and then, probably, in constant use. Now
its place in our homes is taken by the piano. This instrument had not
then come into use. Something resembling it,--namely, the spinnet or the
harpsichord,--was to be found in some instances; but it was by no means
common to find these, for there was but little knowledge of music in
America in those days. A hundred years ago, only one or two churches in
Boston had organs, and the public taste, except in rare cases, was
decidedly against music of all kinds, especially sacred music. To show
how this was, we have heard an old lady say that when she was young,
some eighty years or so ago, "musicians, for the most part, were not
thought much of" by the most cultivated people of that time; and she
assured me that even at a later date, members of military bands, as well
as organists and violinists (then called fiddlers) were too often low
characters and men much addicted to drinking. The times were too hard
for the New England people of those days to cultivate music or indulge
in entertainments of any kind except "going to meeting." There was but
little money in circulation, and that was almost always in the form of a
depreciated currency. Gold and silver were scarce articles, and a large
proportion of the necessities of life and luxuries--if luxuries they
could be ca