ciation (which included
only a dozen), and was allowed to draw on the treasury for my very
moderate necessities. Forty dollars a year would cover these,
writing-paper and postage included. The last item was no unimportant
one, as each letter cost from ten to fifty cents, and money counted
for more then than now.

"I should explain that for the whole of one winter there remained but
two bonnets fit for city eyes among six of us. But the best of these
was forced on whomever was going to town. As for best dresses, a
twenty-five cent delaine was held to be gorgeous apparel. The
gentlemen had found it desirable to adopt a tunic in place of the
more expensive, old-world coat."*

[* _Years of Experience,_ p. 132.]

The income of the association was derived from various sources other
than the prices paid for board. There was a school for young
children, presided over by Mrs. Ripley, assisted by various
pupil-teachers, who thus partially recompensed the community for
their own support. Fruit, milk, and vegetables, when there were any
to spare, were sent to the Boston markets. Now and then some
benevolent philanthropist with means would make a donation. No one
who entered was expected to contribute his whole income to the
general purse, unless such income would not more than cover the
actual expense incurred for him. When Isaac Hecker went to West
Roxbury the establishment included seventy inmates, who were
distributed in several buildings bearing such poetical names as the
Hive, the Eyrie, the Nest, and so on. The number rose to ninety or a
hundred before he left them, but the additions seem occasionally to
have been in the nature of subtractions also, taking away more of the
cultivation, refinement, and general good feeling which had been the
distinguishing character of the place, than they added by their money
or their labor.

Isaac Hecker was never an actual member of that inner community of
whose aspirations and convictions the Farm was intended as an
embodiment. He entered at first as a partial boarder, paying four
dollars a week, and undertaking also the bread-making, which until
then had been very badly done, as he writes to his mother. It should
be understood that whatever was received from any inmate, either in
money or labor, was accepted not as a mere return for food and
shelter, but as an equivalent for such instruction as could be
imparted by any other member of the collective family. And there were
many comp