joists, and boards were contributed as well as the labor. These were
made the occasions of general merriment, in which all ages and both
sexes participated. Then there were the "huskings." After the barns
were filled with hay and grain, and the corn was ripe, at "harvest
home," gatherings would be seen on the bright autumnal afternoons of
successive days, in the neighborhood of the different farmhouses. The
sheaves would be taken from the shocks and brought up from the fields,
the golden leaves and milky tassels stripped from the full ear, and
the crib filled to the brim. These were scenes of unalloyed enjoyment
and unrestrained gayety.

At that time were prevalent, in rural neighborhoods, other recreations
promotive of social hilarity to the highest degree. As a wintry
evening drew on, the wide, deep fireplace--equalling in width nearly
the whole of one side of the room, and so deep that benches were
permanently attached to the jambs, on which two or more could
comfortably sit--was duly prepared. A huge log, of a diameter equal to
that of "the mast of some great admiral," six feet perhaps in length,
was worked in by handspikes to its place as the "back-log;" a smaller
one, as "back-stick," placed over it; the great andirons duly
adjusted, and the wood piled on artistically--for there was an art in
building a wood-fire. The kindlings were placed on top of the whole;
never by an experienced hand below. More than the light of day, from
dazzling chandeliers or the magic tongues of flaming gas-burners,
blazes through the halls of modern luxury and splendor; but the lights
and shadows from a glowing, old-fashioned, New-England country
fireplace created a scene as enlivening, exhilarating, and genial as
has ever been witnessed, and cannot be surpassed. Assembled neighbors
in a single evening accomplished what would have been the work of a
family for months. The corn and the nuts were all shelled; the young