Abigail Adams and Her Times

Prince Charlie") making ready for his great coup which, the next year, was to cast down said George from the throne and set Charles Edward thereupon a

a alone standing by him. In Europe, generally, a seething condition which is not our immediate concern. In America, seething also: discontent, indignation, rising highe

a background for my little pen-picture-play. What is really our immediate concern is that on November eleventh of this sa

ried a daughter of Colonel John Quincy, so my heroine was a cousin-I cannot tell in what precise degree-to Dorothy Q. of po

ad. He had no time to spare, and his brief entries are abbrevia

d at my S and do now ys D Sol prom

eader will, after some study, make out that the good

t my Strength, and do now this Day Solemnly p

f the assurance, the more that we find the poor

ej'd to me. Lord I am ashamed of i

esist the evil so prejudicial to me. Lord, I am ashamed o

s "for my wig"; and again, "At Boston. Paid Mr. Oliver for a cut whigg ￡10.00." But this is nothing. Parson Smith came of "kent folk," and may have had private means beside

Brother Smith for a Barrel of Flower ￡15.11.3." But on t

tful year. On Ap

half an hour after 10 o'clock at night

say about it, but the Boston Pos

und: and three Barrels of Gunpowder, the Town-Stock, being in the Loft, bl

the town poet

stock, kept

ts and bu

last soon s

he ope

ints at in

fied they

e within

doubt, you'll

hing up

hem we wil

ence we

ute witho

ng fit

, in fact to the whole community; for the meeting-

eting-house was a great event in the community. Every citizen was obliged by law to share in the work or the expense. Every man must give a certain amount of "nayles." Contributions were levied for lumber, for labor of horses and men, and for "Rhum and Cacks" to regale the workers. "When the Medford people built their second meeting-house, they provided for the workmen and bystanders, five barrels of rum, one barrel of good brown sugar, a box of fine lemons, and two loaves of sugar.

g-stones for muddy days. The Concord horse-block was a fine one; it was erected by the women of the town, each housewife giving a pound of butter toward the expense. On the walls and door of the meeting-house were nailed grinning heads of wolf and bear, killed partly for safety, possibly more for the reward: fifteen shillings for a live wolf, ten for a dead one. We are not told what was done with the live wolves. A

ts meeting-house bright yellow. Instantly Windham, near by, voted that its meeting-house be "colored something like the Pomfret meeting-house." Killingly, in turn, gave orders that "the cullering of the body of our meeting-house should be like the Pomfret meeting-

never any fire in the meeting-house. Sometimes in the steeple, sometimes under the roof-beams, there the "powder-closit

r prayer, and brought the villagers hurrying from their doors and across the green to the meeting-house. In East Hadley, the man who "ble

iefly recorded by Parson Smith. Neither parson nor parishioners were one whit discouraged, however. On May 16th, it is true, they kept a "Fast, to bewail the burning of our Me

l and sacrifice, these eight brief words represent, we may well imagine, but

. On the same page that records (August 15th) "P'd ￡15 for my wig," we read, "Mr. Benjamin Bicknells Child Died of the

le children, of what we may suppose was diphtheria, or some kind

stemper prevailing there. Mr. Colton p'd from 2 Jer. 30 'In

d eighty-four died of the distemper, by far the greater part under ten years o

in New England. Within a few days of its birth, the baby was taken to the meeting-house to be baptized; the meeting-house, unwarmed, as we have seen, from year's end to year's end, the wolf Cold waiting to receive the poor lamb, with jaws opened wider than those that grinned on the outer walls of the building. This expediti

n an oven till they have done making a Noise, then take them out and wipe them well from the green froth that is upon them, and bruise them shels and all in a Stone Mortar, then take a Quart of Earthworms, scower them with salt, slit them, and-"[3] but perhaps you do not wish to make Snail-water, even the most admirable and famous; and after all, we have no reason to think that Abigail Smi

ur common country schools now afford. I never was sent to any school. I was always sick. Female education, in th

ly in Parson Smith's study, but in the home of her grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, then living at Mount Wollaston, not far from Weymouth. A gre

her it was owing to the happy method of mixing instruction and amusement together, or from an inflexible adherence to certain principles, the utility of which I could not but see and approve when a child, I know not; but maturer years have rendered them oracles of wisdom to me.

every stitch herself. We can see Abigail, too, browsing among Colonel Quincy's bookshelves; reading Shakespeare and Dryden and Pope and Prior; the Spectator, too, and all the history she could lay her hands on, and perhaps the novels of Mr. Richardson, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Smollett, three young men who were making a great stir in those days. She wrote letters, too, in the fashion of t

rcity of temporary and local subjects for discussion. Where there is little gossip, the want of it must be supplied from books. The love of literature springs up where the weeds of scandal take no root. The young ladies of Massachusetts, in the last century, were certainly readers, even though only self-taught; and their taste was not for the feeble and nerveless sentiment, or the frantic pass

the most vivid pictures of life in Revolutionary times. Her girlhood letters (those at least to her girl friends) were signed "Diana," and were addressed to Myra, Aspasia, Calliope, Aurelia.

, 5 Octob

ear F

less as not to accept the offer? Senseless and stupid I would confess myself, and that to the greatest degree, if I did

w your generosity is such, that, like a kind parent, you will bury in oblivion all my imperfections. I do not aim at entertainin

a scarcity of them as there is of justice, honesty, prudence and many other virtues. I've no pretensions to one. Wealth, wealth is the only thing that is looked after now.

e and see you, but if I wait till I get a (what d

the golden rule mine. Pray, my friend, do not let i

.

a Puritan child who could relate many stories out of the Scriptures before she was two years old. "Before she was four years old, she could say the greater part of the Assembly's Catechism, many of the Psalms, read distinctly, and make pertinent remarks on many thing

did not grow well in the Colonies; oaten and rye meal was chiefly used in combination with the universal corn. They had hasty pudding, boiled in a bag, or fried: "sukquttahhash," and jonne-cake, or journey cake, which we have changed by the insertion of an h till it appears as if "Johnny" had either invented or owned it. Parched corn (our pop-corn), a favorite food of the Indians, was also highly appreciated by the Colonists. They were amazed at first sight of it: Governor Winthrop explains care

made into "pyes,"

at morning and

or pumpkins we s

cied the balls were the edible portion, and "did not much desire them." Nor were the recipes for cooking them specially inviting. "The Accomplisht Cook" much in use about the year 1700 says that potatoes must be "boiled and blanched;

ch skill in all household arts. We shall see by and by how Abigail baked and brewed, spun and wove, clothed and fed and cared for her family, often with little or no assistance. We may fancy her now, trotting about after Mother Smith a

cocks,' plums, 'damsins,' peaches, oranges, lemons, artichokes; green walnuts, elecampane roots, eringo roots, grapes, barberries, cherries; receipts for syrup of clove gillyflower, wormwood, mint, aniseed, clove, elder, lemons, marigold, citron, hyssop, liquorice; receipts for conserves

have plenty of fine fish of various kinds, all of which are very cheap. Take the butchers' meat all together, in every season of the year, I believe it is about twopence per

ence as would cost three shillings and sixpence or four shillings in London. The cheapest of all the several kinds of poultry are a sort of wild pigeon, which are in season the lat

e sea, for about twopence sterling. They have smelts, too, which they sell as cheap as sprats are in London. Salmon, too,

s not at all "the thing" to eat them-or at least to be seen eating them! A story is told of a family in Hadley, Massachusetts, who were

land. Bread is much cheaper than we have in England, but is not near so good. Butter is very fine, and cheaper than ever I

as one pen

n. Eat your fill, Abigail! drink your milk while it is a penny a quart; the lean years are coming, when you will pinch and scrape a