es or clocks,
we have the contemporary evidence of Roger Williams. When he rowed
thirty miles down the bay, and disputed with the "Foxians" at Newport in
1672, it was agreed that each party should be heard in turn for a
quarter of an hour. But no clock was available in Newport; and among the
whole population that flocked to the debate, there was not a single
watch. Williams says, "unless we had Clocks and Watches and Quarter
Glasses (as in some Ships) it was impossible to be exactly punctual," so
they guessed at the time.

Sun-dials were often set in the street in front of houses; and
noon-marks on the threshold of the front door or window-sill helped to
show the hour of the day.

CHAPTER XIII

JACK-KNIFE INDUSTRIES

Chepa Rose was one of those old-time chap-men known throughout New
England as "trunk pedlers." Bearing on his back by means of a harness of
stout hempen webbing two oblong trunks of thin metal,--probably
tin,--for forty-eight years he had appeared at every considerable
farmhouse throughout Narragansett and eastern Connecticut, at intervals
as regular as the action and appearance of the sun, moon, and tides; and
everywhere was he greeted with an eager welcome.

Chepa was, as he said, "half Injun, half French, and half Yankee." From
his Indian half he had his love of tramping which made him choose the
wandering trade of trunk pedler; his French half made him a good trader
and talker; while his Yankee half endowed him with a universal Yankee
trait, a "handiness," which showed in scores of gifts and
accomplishments and knacks that made him as warmly greeted everywhere
as were his attractive trunks.

He was a famous medicine-brewer; from the roots and herbs and barks that
he gathered as he tramped along the country roads he manufactured a
cough medicine that was twice as effective and twice as bitter as old
Dr. Greene's; he made famous plasters, of two kinds,--plasters to stick
and plasters to crawl, the latter to follow the course of the disease or
pain; he concocted wonderful ink; he showed Jenny Greene how to bleach
her new straw bonnet with sulphur fumes; he mended umbrellas, harnesses,
and tinware; he made glorious teetotums which the children looked for as
eagerly and unfailingly as they did for his tops and marbles, his
ribbons and Gibraltars.

One day he came through the woods to John Helme's house carrying in his
hand a stout birchen staff or small tree-trunk, which he laid down on
the