"No," I said. "Only in gardens. A field must be very handsome."

"Yes, the flower is a bluish purple, with a little yellow dot in the
middle."

I asked her when they cut it.

"O, they never cut it; they pulled it after the seeds got ripe; then
they would beat the seeds out of the pods. These pods look like little
varnished balls. When the seed was out, the flax was laid in a wet place
in the field for weeks; occasionally the men would turn it over. When it
was well rotted they dried it and put it up in the barn until March.
Then Father Wetherell would take it down and brake it in the brake.
After that he would swingle it over a swingling-board, with a long
knife; then he made it into hands of flax. The women used to take it
next and comb it through a flax-comb; this got out all the shives and
tow. There was a tow which came out when it was swingled, called swingle
tow. Mother Wetherell said that, years before, when she was young she
used to use this to make meal-bags and under-bedticks of. But I never
used any of it."

I asked her how they used the flax after it was combed.

"Then it was wound onto the distaff."

"What was that?" Mrs. Wetherell smiled at my ignorance, but proceeded
kindly to explain.

"A distaff was made of a small pine top. They peeled off the bark, and