I
_But Sarah was biding her time_
[Illustration]
I have not mentioned, I think, a small building that, when we came,
stood just across the road from our house--a rather long, low structure
with sliding windows, called "the shop." Red raspberries of a large,
sweet variety were ripening about it, and within was a short box
counter, a shoemaker's work-bench, a cutting-board, a great bag of
wooden shoe-pegs, and a quantity of leather scraps, for it had, in fact,
been a shop during the two generations preceding our ownership. Before
that it appeared to have served as a sort of office for Captain Ben
Meeker, who also had been not merely a farmer, as certain records
proved. Captain Ben may have built the shop, though I think it was
older, for when we examined the picturesque little building, with a view
to restoration, it proved to be too far gone--too much a structure of
decay. So we tore down "the shop," and, incidentally, Old Pop, who did
the tearing, found a Revolutionary bayonet in the loft; also a more
recent, and particularly hot, hornets' nest which caused him to leap
through the window and spring into the air several times on the way to
the bushes by the brook. But that is another story. We have already had
the bee history; hornets would be in the nature of a repetition.
[Illustration]
We found something of still greater interest in the old shop. One day,
digging over the leather scraps, we uncovered the records above
mentioned--that is to say, the old account-books of Captain Ben Meeker
and the two generations of shoemakers who had followed him. These
ancient folios, stoutly made and legibly written, correlate a good deal
of Brook Ridge history for a hundred years. The names of the dead are
there, and the items of their forgotten activities.
From Westbury and others we already knew that Benjamin Meeker and Sarah,
his wife, had occupied our house at the beginning of the last
century--young married folks then--and that there had been a little girl
(owner of the small brass-nailed trunk, maybe) who in due time had grown
up and married the young shoemaker, Eli Brayton, of "distant parts," he
being from eastern New York, as much as fifty miles away. Brayton had
remained in the family, set up his bench in one end of the building
across the road, and there for a generation made the boots of the
countryside, followed in the trade by his son, the "Uncle Joe" who at
eighty-five had laid down the hammer and the last a year prior to our
coming. This was good history in outline, and Westbury had supplied
episodes, here and there, embellished in his improving fashion. The old
books came now as a supplement--an extension course, as it were, in the
history of Captain Ben and his successors.
While not recorded, we may assume that Captain Ben belonged to the
militia, hence his title. That he had another official position we learn
from certain items of entry:
To serving one summon on S. Davis 3 shillin
To serving one tachment on J. Fillow 2 shillin
To fees: execushun Eli Sherwood 2 shillin 6 pnc.
Evidently a constable or deputy sheriff, and I think we may assume that
the last item records a process, and not a performance. The fees are
reassuring. Eli could hardly have been dismissed mortally for two and
six.
Captain Ben had still other activities. He owned teams for hire; he
dealt in livestock; in addition to his farm he owned a sawmill on the
brook; he even went out at day's labor--certainly a busy man, requiring
carefully kept accounts, and an office.
The accounts begin in 1797 and are sometimes kept in dollars and cents,
sometimes in the English fashion, as above. Sometimes the charges are
made in one form, the credits in another. It was just as he got started,
I suppose, both moneys being in about equal circulation.
Captain Ben's spelling is interesting. He was by no means illiterate.
His writing is trim, his accounts in good form and correctly figured.
But it was more a fashion in that day to spell as pronounced, and his
orthography gives us a personal sense of the period.
"To plowin garding ... 2 shillin." You can almost hear him say that,
while "To haulin stun" likewise carries the fine old flavor.
We have heard much of the "good old times when things were cheap," but
Captain Ben's book proves that not all commodities were cheap in his
day. Calico, for instance, is set down at three and six a yard--that is,
eighty-five cents. Handkerchiefs at two shillings thrippence each,
sugar at a shilling per pound, which is more than double our war-time
prices. It is not well to complain, even to-day, remembering those
rates, especially when we note that in 1805 Captain Ben's labor brought
him only four shillings a day (six with team), and his sawing, in small
lots, but a trifle. Labor was, in fact, cheap at that period; also
unfortunately for Captain Ben--rum and brandy.
The book does not say where Ezekial Jackson kept his general store, but
that was where Captain Ben dealt, and his items of purchase are
faithfully set down. A good many men "swear off" on the New Year, but
Captain Ben didn't. He bought a "decantur," price two and six (ah me! it
would be an antique, now), and promptly started in having it filled.
Behold the startling credits to Ezekial Jackson during the first ten
days of 1806:
Jan. 1, By 2 lb. sugar 2 shillin
" 1, " 1 qt. brandy 2 shillin
" 5, " 1 qt. brandy 2 shillin
" 6, " 1 qt. brandy 2 shillin
" 10, " 1 qt. brandy 2 shillin
But perhaps this was too costly a pace, for the next entry is, "Jan. 15,
1 jug, 1 shillin," and on the same date, "One gallon of rum, 6 shillin."
That, you see, was somewhat cheaper and required fewer trips to town. On
January 20th the jug was filled again, and on the same date we find set
down "four and a half yards of chintz and one scane of silk." That
chintz and "scane" of silk look suspicious--they look like tranquilizers
for Sarah, his wife.
Through that month and the three following the liquid items follow with
alarming monotony, only separated here and there by entries of "tee" and
sugar and certain yards of "cotting" and "scanes" of silk for Sarah.
But Sarah was biding her time. The book does not say that the minister
was asked to call, or that he came. It does not need to. We may guess it
from the next entry: