panying
illustration. It shows a swinging crane. His description of the "laying
the fire" can never be equalled by any prose:--

"We piled with care our nightly stack
Of wood against the chimney back--
The oaken log, green, huge, and thick,
And on its top the stout back-stick;
The knotty fore-stick laid apart,
And filled between with curious art
The ragged brush; then hovering near,
We watched the first red blaze appear,
Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam
On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,
Until the old, rude-furnished room
Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom."

No greater picture of homely contentment could be shown than the
following lines:--

"Shut in from all the world without,
We sat the clean-winged hearth about,
Content to let the north wind roar
In baffled rage at pane and door,
While the red logs before us beat
The frost-line back with tropic heat;
And ever, when a louder blast
Shook beam and rafter as it passed,
The merrier up its roaring draught
The great throat of the chimney laughed.
The house dog on his paws outspread
Laid to the fire his drowsy head,
The cat's dark silhouette on the wall
A couchant tiger's seemed to fall;
And, for the winter fireside meet,
Between the andirons' straddling feet
The mug of cider simmered slow,
And apples sputtered in a row.
And, close at hand, the basket stood
With nuts from brown October's woods.
What matter how the night behaved!
What matter how the north wind raved!
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow."

Nor can the passing of years dim the ruddy glow of that hearth-fire, nor
the charm of the poem. The simplicity of metre, the purity of wording,
the gentle sadness of some of its expressions, make us read between the
lines the deep and affectionate reminiscence with which it was written.

CHAPTER IV

THE SERVING OF MEALS

Perhaps no greater difference exists between any mode of the olden times
and that of to-day, than can be seen in the manner of serving the meals
of the family. In the first place, the very dining-table of the
colonists was not like our present ones; it was a long and narrow board,
sometimes but three feet wide, with no legs attached to it. It was laid
on supports or trestles, shaped usually something like a saw-horse. Thus
it was