him a profit of L327.

Many games were played with the aid of kernels of corn: fox and geese,
checkers, "hull gull, how many," and games in which the corn served as
counters.

The ears of corn were often piled into the attic until the floor was a
foot deep with them. I once entered an ell bedroom in a Massachusetts
farmhouse where the walls, rafters, and four-post bedstead were hung
solid with ears of yellow corn, which truly "made a sunshine in a shady
place."

Some of the preparation of corn fell upon the boys; it was their regular
work all winter in the evening firelight to shell corn from the ears by
scraping them on the iron edge of the wooden shovel or on the fire-peel.
My father told me that even in his childhood in the first quarter of
this century many families of moderate means fastened the long-handled
frying-pan across a tub and drew the corn ears across the sharp edge of
the handle of the pan. I note in Peter Parley's reminiscences of his
childhood a similar use of a frying-pan handle in his home. Other
farmers set the edge of a knife blade in a piece of wood and scraped on
the back of the blade. In some households the corn was pounded into
hominy in wooden mortars. An old corn-sheller used in western
Massachusetts is here shown.

When the corn was shelled, the cobs were not carelessly discarded or
disregarded. They were stored often in a lean-to or loft in the kitchen
ell; from thence they were brought down in skepes or boxes about a
bushel at a time; and after being used by the children as playthings to
build "cob-houses," were employed as light wood for the fire. They had a
special use in many households for smoking hams; and their smoke was
deemed to impart a specially delightful flavor to hams and bacon.

One special use of corn should be noted. By order of the government of
Massachusetts Bay in 1623, it was used as ballots in public voting. At
annual elections of the governors' assistants in each town, a kernel of
corn was deposited to signify a favorable vote upon the nominee, while a
bean signified a negative vote; "and if any free-man shall put in more
than one Indian corn or bean he shall forfeit for every such offence Ten
Pounds."

The choice of a national flower or plant is much talked about to-day.
Aside from the beauty of maize when growing and its wonderful
adaptability in every part for decoration, would not the noble and
useful part played by Indian corn in our early history entitle