I Spoke To The Master Of The House, Whom I Met Outside, And He At
Once Asked Me To Come In And Sit Down.
I found his father there
and his mother, his wife, his brother, and two young children.
The
wife, who was cooking, was a very pretty, pale young woman, who,
however, could have circulated round her stove more conveniently
had her crinoline been of less dimensions. She bade me welcome
very prettily, and went on with her cooking, talking the while, as
though she were in the habit of entertaining guests in that way
daily. The old woman sat in a corner knitting - as old women always
do. The old man lounged with a grandchild on his knee, and the
master of the house threw himself on the floor while the other
child crawled over him. There was no stiffness or uneasiness in
their manners, nor was there anything approaching to that
republican roughness which so often operates upon a poor, well-
intending Englishman like a slap on the cheek. I sat there for
about an hour, and when I had discussed with them English politics
and the bearing of English politics upon the American war, they
told me of their own affairs. Food was very plenty, but life was
very hard. Take the year through, each man could not earn above
half a dollar a day by cutting wood. This, however, they owned,
did not take up all their time. Working on favorable wood on
favorable days they could each earn two dollars a day; but these
favorable circumstances did not come together very often.
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