consulted her in his administration, and conceded to her the
nomination of magistrates. It seems very strange that such a lady
should have had a house only nine feet high. The early houses were
built either as temporary structures or with a view to enlargement.
Perhaps Lady Moody intended to add a story to hers. They were
low-studded for warmth. The farm-houses generally were designed to be
increased in length, when convenience required. The chimney was very
large, placed at one end, and so constructed, that, on the extension
of the building, fire-places could be opened into it on the new end. A
building of twenty feet was prepared to become one of forty feet in
width or length, as the case might be; and then the chimney would be
in the middle of it.

As has been intimated, Corey was in bad repute. Either he was a
lawless man, or much misunderstood. I am inclined to the latter
opinion. He belonged to that class of persons, instances of which we
occasionally meet, who care little about the opinions or the talk of
others. On one occasion, he was going into town with a cartload of
wood. He met Anthony Needham, in company with John Procter whose
house he had just passed. Procter accosted him thus: "How now, Giles,
wilt thou never leave thy old trade? Thou hast got some of my wood
here upon thy cart." Corey answered, "True, I did take two or three
sticks to lay behind the cart to ease the oxen, because they bore too
hard." This shows the free way in which Procter bantered with Corey,
and the slight account the latter made of it. But the thing before
long got to be too serious to be trifled with. It became the fashion
to charge all sorts of offences against Corey; and, whatever any one
lost or mislaid, he was considered as having abstracted it. The gossip
against him was quite unrestrained, and created a bitter and angry
feeling in the neighborhood. In the winter of 1676, a man named