was at one time found in nearly every house. It was known as a
bundling-mould or shingling-mould. At the bottom of this strong frame
were laid straight sticks and twisted withes which extended up the
sides. Upon these were evenly packed the shingles, two hundred and fifty
in number, known as a "quarter." The withes or "binders" were twisted
strongly around when the number was full. The mould held them firmly in
place while being tied. These were sealed by law and shipped. Cullers of
staves were regularly appointed town officers. The dimensions of the
shingles were given by law and rule; fifteen inches was the length for
one period of time, and the bundling-mould conformed to it.

Daniel Leake of Salisbury, New Hampshire, made during his lifetime and
was paid for a million shingles. During the years he was accomplishing
this colossal work he cleared three hundred acres of land, tapped for
twenty years at least six hundred maple-trees, making sometimes four
thousand pounds of sugar a year. He could mow six acres a day, giving
nine tons of hay; his strong, long arms cut a swath twelve feet wide.
_In his spare time_ he worked as a cooper, and he was a famous
drum-maker. Truly there were giants in those days. I love to read of
such vigorous, powerful lives; they seem to be of a race entirely
different from our own. Still, among our New England forbears I doubt
not many of us had some such giants, who conquered for us the earth and
forests.

One mark the shingling industry left on the household. In the sawing of
blocks there would always be some too knotty or gnarled to split into
shingles. These were what were known in the vernacular as
"on-marchantable shingle-bolts." They formed in many a pioneer's home
and in many a pioneer school-house good solid seats for children and
even grown people to sit on. And even in pioneer meeting-houses these
blocks could sometimes be seen.

Other fittings for the house were whittled out. Long, heavy, wooden
hinges were cut from horn-beam for cupboard and closet doors; even shed
doors were hung on wooden hinges as were house doors in the earliest
colonial days. Door-latches were made of wood, also oblong buttons to
fasten chamber and cupboard doors.

New England housekeepers prized the smooth, close-grained bowls which
the Indians made from the veined and mottled knots of maple-wood. They
were valued at what seems high prices for wooden utensils and were often
named and bequeathed in wi