overhead hung two guns which were very frequently used. A splint broom
and five or six splint bottomed chairs constituted nearly all the
furniture of this room. Before that cheerful fire in one of those
chairs, often sat one making and mending garments, little and big. This
she did with her own hands, never having heard of a sewing machine, as
there were none in existence then. She had to make every stitch with her
fingers. We were not so fortunate as the favored people of ancient times;
our garments would wax old.

Mother made a garment for father to work in which he called his frock. It
was made of linen cloth that she brought from the State of New York. It
was like a shirt only the sleeves were short. They reached half way to
his elbows. This he wore, in place of a shirt, when working hard in warm
weather. Southeast of the house father dug into the ground and made him
an out door cellar, in which we kept our potatoes through the winter
without freezing them. We found it very convenient.

Father wanted a frame barn very much but that was out of his reach. We
needed some place to thrash, and to put our grain and hay, and where we
could work in wet weather, but to have it was out of the question, so we
did the next best thing, went at it and built a substitute. In the first
place we cut six large crotches, went about fourteen rods north of the
house, across the lane, dug six holes and set the two longest crotches in
the center east and west. Then put the four shorter ones, two on the
south and two on the north side so as to give the roof a slant. In the
crotches we laid three large poles and on these laid small poles and
rails, then covered the whole with buckwheat straw for a roof. We cut
down straight grained timber, split the logs open and hewed the face and
edges of them; we laid them back down on the ground, tight together and
made a floor under the straw roof.