they all went back along the road to the farm-house. And they went in at
the wide gate and up to the kitchen door. And there was Aunt Deborah,
with four pieces of gingerbread. One piece she gave to little Charles
and one to little John and one to little Sam, and the biggest piece of
all she gave to Uncle Solomon.
And they all ate their gingerbread, and thought it was very good indeed.
And that's all.
XVII.
THE CHICKEN STORY
Once upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and
had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. In the fence was a
wide gate to let the wagons through to the barn. And the wagons, going
through, had made a track that led up past the kitchen door and past the
shed and past the barn and past the orchard to the wheat-field.
Behind the barn was the hen-house, and inside the hen-house there were
long poles that went all the way across, for the hens to sit on to
sleep. Those poles they call roosts. In winter the hens all sleep on the
roosts in the hen-house, because it is warmer there; but in the summer
they like to get up in the trees and sleep out-of-doors.
Along the side of the hen-house were some boxes with hay in them, and a
board along the top. These were the nests, and in each nest was a
pretend egg, made of china. The hens would see the pretend egg and think
it was real, and they would lay the real eggs in the nests. For they
like to lay eggs in places where eggs are already.
There was a little door, low down, for the hens to go through, and
outside was a yard, with a fence around made of strips of wood. In this
fence was a door that was kept shut in winter, but was open in summer so
that the hens and chickens could go out and eat the bugs and worms. Bugs
and worms sometimes eat the growing things that the farmers have
planted, so the farmers like to have the chickens eat the bugs and
worms. And in the side of the hen-house was a big door for people to go
through.
When the summer was beginning, there were a good many hens and some
chickens that were half grown up, and a very old rooster, and some that
were not so old. Sometimes the roosters would fight, but they didn't
fight very hard, for they were not the kind that fight hard.
All the roosters and the hens and the chickens that were half grown up
flew up into the trees when it was beginning to be dark, and they sat
on the branches in long rows, and put their heads under their wings and
went to sleep. The very old rooster and most of the hens roosted in the
apple-trees in the orchard, but some of the hens roosted in other trees.
[Illustration]
And in the middle of the night the old rooster waked a little and
crowed, but it wasn't a very loud crow. But when it began to be light in
the morning, the old rooster waked and flapped his wings and crowed very
loud. And that waked the other roosters and they flapped their wings and
crowed, and the hens waked, and all the roosters and the hens flapped
their wings and flew down to the ground, and began to look about for
their breakfast.
Some of the hens stayed in the orchard and looked about on the ground
and scratched up the dirt and picked up the bugs and worms that they
found. Some of them went over to the cow-yard and flew over the fence
and scratched around there, and they drank water out of the big tub in
the corner. And some of the hens went to the kitchen door to see what
things Aunt Deborah had thrown down there for them to eat. The chickens
that were half grown up went over to the fields where the potatoes and
the beans and the peas were growing, and they ran about among the vines
and picked the bugs and worms off the vines.
After awhile, when all the hens and chickens had finished their
breakfasts, some of the hens went into the hen-house to lay eggs. Each
of these hens laid one egg in one of the nests, and when she had laid
the egg, she came out of the hen-house and cackled and made a great
noise. For that is the way hens do. But there were two of the hens that
did not like to lay eggs in the hen-house.
[Illustration]
One of these hens walked along the little road and across the
wheat-field into the maple-sugar woods. She had made a nest there, out
of dried grass and leaves, and it was hidden away under some bushes,
where nobody could find it. That hen laid an egg in that nest every day,
until she had laid nine. Then she sat on the eggs and kept them warm,
and she came over to the farm-house every day to get something to eat
and then she went back to her nest again. And when she had sat on those
eggs for three weeks, the little chickens came out of the shells and ran
about. And then she walked over to the farm-house and the little
chickens ran along with her.
[Illustration]
The other hen that wouldn't lay eggs in the hen-house made a nest in the
wheat-field; but little John found that nest and took the eggs away, so
she didn't have any chickens.
When the hens had laid their eggs, they went out into the road and sat
down in the dust and scratched the dust up all over themselves, for they
liked the warm dust in among their feathers. And they stayed there until
they were hungry again. Then they scratched around in the dirt, and ate
some more bugs and worms, and the things that Aunt Deborah threw out for
them to eat. And so they did until it began to get dark.
Then they all walked along to the orchard or to some other trees, and
they stood under the trees, and looked up and gave queer little jumps
and flapped their wings, and they flew up into the trees and sat on the
branches. And they went along the branches sideways until they had
found the places they liked. Then they squatted down and put their heads
under their wings and went to sleep.
And that's all.
XVIII.
THE SHAWL STORY
Once upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and
had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. This farm was
Uncle Solomon's. But before he had the farm, he was a sailor, and he
sailed in great ships, over the great enormous ocean. A great many ships
used to sail from Boston, over the big ocean, carrying different things
to far countries, and one of these ships was the brig _Industry_. Uncle
Solomon was the captain of the brig _Industry_, but that was when he
was a young man, and a long time before he had the farm.
One day the brig _Industry_ was lying beside the wharf at Boston, and
she was tied to the wharf with great ropes. And all the things had been
put in the ship, the things they were to sell in the far country where
they were going, and the things to eat, and the water they would drink.
For the ocean water is salt and bitter, so that people can't drink it,
and they had to carry all the water that they would need to drink and
almost all the things they would need to eat. The water was in big
hogsheads, down near the bottom of the ship. The sailors were all on the
ship, and everything was all ready to start. Then Captain Solomon walked
down the wharf, and he got on the ship, and the great ropes were
untied, and the sailors hoisted the sails, and the ship sailed away from
the wharf. She sailed down the harbour and past the islands and out into
the great ocean.
So the wind kept blowing, and the _Industry_ kept sailing along over the
ocean for a great many days. She sailed along, through parts of the
ocean where it is always hot and where it rains a great deal, and past
the country where the monkeys live, and around the end of that country.
And after awhile Captain Solomon saw some land, and he knew it was an
island where no people lived, but where beautiful clear water ran out of
a crack in the rock. So he made the ship go near that island, and then
the sailors fixed the sails so that the ship wouldn't go ahead. And the
sailors let down one of the rowboats into the water. For every big ship
has some rowboats that are hung up over the deck. And they took all the
hogsheads of water and emptied out what water was left. Then they put in
the bungs and tied all the hogsheads together with ropes that went
between them, and they threw them over the side of the ship into the
water. Then the sailors in the rowboat caught the end of the rope and
rowed, and they went to the island, dragging the hogsheads that floated
on the top of the water. And they filled the hogsheads with nice fresh
water that came out of the rock, and then they rowed back to the ship,
dragging the hogsheads. And they were hoisted up into the ship, and the
rowboat was hoisted up, and the sailors fixed the sails again so that
the ship would sail ahead.
[Illustration]
So they sailed along for a great many days, and at last they came to the
far country. That country is called India. And the _Industry_ sailed
into a wide river, and the sailors took down the sails and let down the
great anchor to the bottom of the river. For the water by the shore was
not deep enough for the ship to go there, so they had to keep the ship
in the middle of the river. On the shore was a city, and a lot of men
came out from the shore in little rowboats and took the things out of
the _Industry_ and carried them to the city. And the boats were so
little, and there were so many things, they had to go back and forth a
great many times.
When the things were all taken out of the ship, Captain Solomon had his
rowboat let down into the water, and he got in, and two sailors rowed
him to the land. Then he went to the man who had bought all the things
he had brought, and the man paid Captain Solomon the money for the
things. Then Captain Solomon started to look about to see what he could
buy to take back to Boston.
First he bought a lot of tea, and a lot of spices, like cinnamon and
cloves and nutmegs, and a lot of china dishes that had houses and trees
and birds painted on them in blue. Then he bought a lot of pretty tables
and such things that were made of teak-wood and ebony and ivory. And he
bought a lot of little images that were carved out of ivory, and some
trays that were shiny black, with birds and flowers painted on them in
red and silver and gold. Then he bought a great many logs of teak-wood
to carry back to Boston, to make into chairs and mantels and doors for
the inside of houses. And when all these things were carried to the
ship and put in, Captain Solomon had some money left, and he looked
about to see what he could buy that was very nice.
In India they have cloth that is made of the hair of goats, and shawls
that are made of the hair of camels. The people made these things and
brought them to the city to sell. The cloth was very nice and the shawls
were very fine and beautiful.
So Captain Solomon went to the place where they had the cloth of goat's
hair and the camel's-hair shawls, and he bought a great many shawls and
some of the cloth. Some of the shawls were white, with a pattern of
curly shapes in the middle, in red and blue and yellow, and some had a
border of the same kind all around the edge. Some were red, with a
pattern all over them of blue and brown and yellow and white. And
besides the shawls, there were narrow pieces made of camel's hair, that
were meant to be worn around ladies' necks. And they were all very
beautiful.
So Captain Solomon had all the shawls and the pieces of cloth put in two
great chests made of cedar, and he had the chests carried on the ship
and put in his cabin. His cabin was the room where he did all his work,
looking at the charts and maps, to see where the ship was, and writing
down in a book what happened every day. The beautiful shawls would be
taken care of in his cabin better than in the bottom of the ship, with
the teak-wood and the other things.
When Captain Solomon had bought the shawls and got them put on the ship,
he bought a lot of things for the sailors to eat while the ship was
sailing back to Boston. There were flour and meal and very hard crackers
and salt and sugar and fine hominy and peas and beans and a lot of other
things, and great hogsheads of meat that was in salt water. And there
was a cow that they kept in a kind of pen on the deck of the ship, and
four sheep and a lot of chickens. So they could have milk and eggs, and
sometimes roast chicken for dinner, or roast mutton. Then they filled
all the water barrels with fresh water, and the sailors pulled up the
great anchor and hoisted the sails.
So the _Industry_ sailed out of the river and into the big ocean, and
they sailed away for a great many days. And when they came to the island
where the nice water ran out of the rock, Captain Solomon had all the
water barrels filled with fresh water again. Then they sailed along,
around the end of the country where the monkeys lived, and over another
big ocean. And after a long time they came to Boston, and the _Industry_
sailed in past the islands and into the harbour, and up to the wharf.
And the sailors took down the sails and fastened the ship to the wharf
with great ropes.
Then Captain Solomon went on shore and got a big wagon. The horses
dragged the wagon down on the wharf, and the men took the two chests out
of the cabin and put them on the wagon. Then Captain Solomon got on the
wagon with the men, and they drove the horses through the streets until
they came to the place where the men stayed that owned the _Industry_.
That place they call an office.
[Illustration]
So Captain Solomon got down from the wagon, and the men took the chests
and carried them into the office. In the office were Captain Jonathan
and Captain Jacob. They had been sailors, too, and they owned the
_Industry_. And Captain Solomon opened the chests and showed the cloth
and the shawls to Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob, and they thought
the cloth and the shawls were very beautiful. And while Captain Jonathan
was looking at the shawls he found one that was white, with a pattern
in the middle of red and yellow and brown and blue. He thought that
shawl was the prettiest shawl he had ever seen. So he said: "Jacob, I am
going to give this shawl to my daughter Lois."
And Captain Jacob said, "All right." For Captain Jonathan's daughter
Lois was Captain Jacob's wife.
So Captain Jonathan gave the shawl to his daughter Lois. And after a
great many years she gave the shawl to her daughter Lois. And after a
great many years more, when that Lois was an old lady, she gave the
shawl to her niece, who was named Lois. And when that Lois was an old
lady she used to wear the shawl almost all the time. But one day she
forgot and hung the shawl over the balusters near the door just when the
cook was going away. And the cook saw the shawl and took it away and
never brought it back.
And that's all.
XIX.
THE BUYING-FARM STORY
Once upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and
had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. And in the fence
was a wide gate to let the wagons through to the barn. The farm wasn't
Uncle Solomon's then, but it belonged to the man that had built the
farm-house, and that man had built the barn first and then the house.
And he had cut down the trees and made the fields smooth and nice where
the different things were to grow. And when he had lived there a good
many years, he was tired of being there, and he wanted to go somewhere
else.
Captain Solomon had sailed on the great ocean a great many years, and he
was tired of being a sailor, and thought he would like to have a farm;
and besides, he was afraid that if he kept on being a sailor, his little
boys would want to be sailors, too, and he didn't want them to be. There
were three boys, Uncle John and his two brothers; and when they got big
enough, Uncle John's brothers ran away and were sailors. For they didn't
like to be on a farm. But Uncle John stayed on the farm after Uncle
Solomon bought it.
So one day Captain Solomon came to the farm and he found the man that
had got it all ready and had built the house. And the man showed Captain
Solomon all the fields where the things were growing, and the orchard
and the maple-sugar woods and the barn and the house. And Captain
Solomon liked the farm. So he paid the man some money, and the man gave
the farm to Uncle Solomon. For after he had bought the farm, the people
all called Captain Solomon Uncle Solomon. Then the man took all his beds
and chairs and tables and the other things from the house, and he moved
them away to another place.
[Illustration]
Then Uncle Solomon put all his things in great wagons, and it took a
long time to move them to the farm, for Uncle Solomon had lived in
Wellfleet, a town that is on the shore of the great ocean, and the farm
was a long way from that town, and it was not on the shore of the ocean.
They didn't have railroads then, and all the things had to be dragged in
the wagons. But at last the wagons came to the farm, and Uncle Solomon
took all the things out of the wagons and put them in the house. He put
the wagons in the shed and the horses in the barn. That was a very long
time ago, more than one hundred years.
When all the things were put in the house, Uncle Solomon bought some
cows and the things he needed to do farm work with. Then he began to do
all the things that have to be done on a farm, the things that the other
stories tell about.
And that's all.
XX.
THE BUTTER STORY
Once upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and
had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. In the fence was a
wide gate to let the wagons through to the barn. And the wagons, going
through, had made a track that led up past the kitchen door and past the
shed and past the barn and past the orchard to the wheat-field.
In the morning, when Uncle John had milked all the cows, he took all
the milk, in the big pails, to the milk-room that was in the corner of
the barn, and he poured it through a cloth into some cans. Then he
carried the pails to the kitchen door, and Aunt Deborah washed them out
with cold water. Then she poured some very hot water into them and
rinsed them out, and set them in the sunshine. And Uncle John went back
to the milk-room and took the cans of milk and carried them out to the
spring-house.
The spring-house was a little low house that was in the orchard, and a
stream of water ran right through the middle of it. It was the same
stream of water that ran on through the big field where the cows went to
eat the grass, and then it ran on, under the road and through another
field and into the river. They didn't have ice then, in the summer
time, but the water of the little stream was cool, and they used that to
keep the milk and the butter from getting too hot. They had made a
trench for the water to run through, and in the bottom of the trench
they had put great flat stones, so that the water ran over the stones.
And on top of the stones the water wasn't deep at all.
So Uncle John took the milk to the spring-house and poured it into big
flat pans, and set the pans in the water on the flat stones, so that the
water would keep the milk cool while the cream came to the top. The
cream is the yellow, fat part of milk, and when the milk stands still,
the cream comes to the top.
Every time Uncle John had finished milking the cows, he took the milk
to the spring-house and put it in flat pans and left the pans in the
cool water. And when the milk had stood so for as long as all day or all
night, Aunt Deborah went out to the spring-house and took a kind of big
spoon and skimmed the cream off the top of the milk, and put the cream
into a stone jar. And she left the cream in the jar for two or three
days until it was just right to make into butter.
[Illustration]
When the cream in the jar was just right, Aunt Deborah and Aunt Phyllis
took it to the buttery and put it in the churn, a kind of box that had a
long handle. And on the end of the handle was a big piece of wood with
holes all through it. Then Aunt Phyllis took hold of the long handle and
made it go up and down, and Aunt Deborah held on to the churn, so that
it wouldn't tip over. And when Aunt Phyllis was tired, Aunt Deborah made
the handle go up and down, and Aunt Phyllis held on to the churn. And
the cream splashed all about, and at last it began to turn into butter,
in little lumps.
[Illustration]
When it was done enough, Aunt Deborah poured off the watery stuff that
they called buttermilk, and she washed the butter with water, and she
put in a lot of salt. The buttermilk she saved, because sometimes people
like to drink it. Then she took the butter that was all in little lumps,
and she worked it together, so that the water came out of it, and it was
all in big lumps. And she worked that all together until it was worked
enough, and was in one big lump.
Then she got a little mould, a kind of cup with a cover. And in the
inside of the cover was a picture, cut into the wood, of an ear of corn
and some marks all about. Then Aunt Deborah put some of the butter into
the mould, and she put the cover over, and pushed hard, and the butter
was squeezed into a little round cake, with the picture of the ear of
corn on the top. Then she took out that piece and put in some more, and
she made a little cake of that. And so she did with all the butter,
until it was all in little cakes; and those cakes of butter they call
pats.
When all the butter was made into pats, Aunt Deborah put the pats into a
great round wooden box and carried the box out to the spring-house to
get cold, and keep until it was wanted. Every week she made enough
butter to fill the big round box. That was enough for them to eat, and
some to take to market besides.
And that's all.
XXI.
THE BEAN-POLE STORY
Once upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and
had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. In the fence was a
wide gate to let the wagons through to the barn. And the wagons, going
through, had made a track that led up past the kitchen door and past the
shed and past the barn and past the orchard to the wheat-field.
All about were other fields where different things grew. There were
squashes and turnips and melons and corn and oats and potatoes and
cabbages and onions and peas and beans. Some of the bean plants grew
like little short trees, but the others wanted to climb on something. So
Uncle John had to get some bean-poles for the bean plants to climb up.
So, one morning, when summer was just beginning, the bean plants had
come up through the ground, and were tall enough to begin to climb.
Uncle John took his axe and a big sharp knife and he got out the old
oxen. They put their heads down and he put the yoke over and the bows
under, and hooked the tongue of the cart to the yoke. Then he said "Gee
up there;" and the old oxen started walking slowly along, past the barn
and past the orchard to the wheat-field, and little John came after.
And Uncle John took down the bars, and the oxen went through the
wheat-field, and he took down the bars at the other side of the field,
and they walked through into the maple-sugar woods. Then they went along
the road in the woods past the little maple-sugar house, and they kept
on until they came to a place where there weren't any big trees, but
there were a great many little slim trees very close together. The
little slim trees were about as big as little John's wrist at the
bottom, and they were about twice as tall as Uncle John.
[Illustration]
Then Uncle John stopped the oxen, and he took his axe and cut down a
great many of the little slim trees. They were so little that he cut
down each tree with one whack of the axe. And when the trees were cut
down, as many as he wanted, he took the big sharp knife and he cut off
all the branches of each tree. The trees grew so close together that
there weren't many branches, and what there were, were very small. Then
Uncle John put all the branches in a pile away from the trees, and he
piled the trees all on the cart. The trees, after the branches were cut
off, were straight and almost smooth. At the bottom they were about as
big as little John's wrist, and at the top they were only as big as his
thumb. These smooth trees without any branches they called poles.
Then Uncle John said, "Gee up there," and the oxen started and turned
around, and walked slowly along, through the maple-sugar woods, and
through the wheat-field, and Uncle John put up the bars after they had
gone through. Then they walked along past the orchard and past the barn
and past the shed and past the kitchen door, and through the wide gate
into the road. And they went along the road until they came to the field
where the beans were growing; and they turned in at the gate into that
field, and went along to the bean plants, and there they stopped.