New England Manners And Customs.

tried to find an extra quilt or blanket to spread over them. But in vain, for in that poor home there was not so much as a shoulder-blanket that could be spared. At last, in utter desperation, she spread over the shivering little ones a side of leather, that she found rolled up under the eaves.
"It kept out the cold, anyhow," she said, as she told the story years afterwards. "And the poor little things stopped their cryin', and cuddled down as contented an' comfortable as a nestful o' kittens."
If there was little of poetry or romance in the lives of those hard-working, hard farming men and women of a past generation, there was no lack of the patient diligence and simple, unquestioning faith, that give strength to weakness, and sweeten toil with the steadfast belief that, to the faithful heart and willing hand God's blessing never fails.
One of the favorite proverbs at that time is significant, as proverbs usually are, of the character of the people: —
"Begin your web, and God will supply you with thread."
While still another suggests that well-known element in the New England character that the Scotch aptly call "canny": —
"A wise man will bend a little rather than be torn up by the roots."
Extravagance was more than a fault, it was an actual sin, in the eyes of these prudent, simple-living folk, and you may have heard before the story of the ingenious housewife, who, tired of the blank bareness of her yellow-painted floors, conceived the bold idea of manufacturing a carpet for it herself:
A large square of sail-cloth served her for a canvas, and upon this she painted, with the few colors that she could procure, a pattern of flowers of every kind that she was familiar with, - blue roses and green lilies having the preference, as making more show than their humbler sisters. This, when finished, she covered with a thick coat of varnish, thus making a very good substitute for the more modern oil-cloth.
Of course everybody, from far and near, came to look, and wonder, and admire; and among them a good old deacon, who, after critically surveying the wonderful work, turned to the proud artist, and, with a look half of amazement, half of pitying reproach, upon his honest, weather-beaten face, asked solemnly: —

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