Copyright, 1916, by D. C. Heath & Co. From Chapter X.
When farms were scattered, life became lonely and monotonous; the
people therefore took advantage of every possible occasion to have
social gatherings. House raisings and log-rollings gave opportunity
for such meetings. The women met in sewing and quilting bees and
apple-parings; the men came for the evening meal and remained for the
country dance. The husking-bee was the most exciting of these events.
The long pile of corn was divided equally between two leaders, who
first "chose sides" for the contest. Then the men fell to the work
with a will, each side determined to finish its portion first.
Sometimes the rivalry ran into rough play and even fighting; but the
spirit of good nature prevailed at the supper that had been prepared
by the women in the meantime.
To these "frolics" were added, in later years, the spelling matches
and singing schools, attended by both old and young. The coming of the
backwoods "circuit rider" to hold a religious service in some log
cabin or in the schoolhouse was an event of importance. The summer
"camp meetings" were attended by hundreds of families, and here a
chance was given for those who had forgotten the ways of civilized
life in the midst of the rough frontier conditions to be "converted"
and to return to better ways. The preaching, singing, and praying were
all done by main strength, both of voice and of muscle.
The frontier farmer boy had no lack of occupation. He split the
kindling and the wood for the fire-place and gathered the chips used
for lighting the cabin when tallow dips were scarce. He fed and drove
the cows, but let his sister do the milking. He took part in the work
of washing and shearing the sheep. He helped in churning and
soap-making, and ran the melted tallow into the tin candle-molds. He
looked forward to butchering day as to a celebration. In the fall he
chopped the sausage meat and the various ingredients of mince pies. On
stormy days and winter evenings he might help his mother clean and
card the wool, wind the yarn, and hetchel flax. Later she might call
upon him for help in dyeing the homespun and bleaching the linen.
The boy was useful to his father when he searched the woods for good
trees from which special articles were to be made, such as ax-helves
and ox-yokes. From hickory saplings he could make splint brooms and
cut out the splints used in making chair bottoms and baskets. He
guarded the corn fields from squirrels and crows and set traps for
wolves. He went on horse-back to the grist mill, which was generally
some miles away, and waited there for his turn to have his sack of
corn ground into meal. Along with these duties were some pleasures,
such as going nutting and berrying and hunting for grapes. Bee-hunting
gave its rich reward in the hollow trunk full of honey. "Sugaring off"
twice in the spring was a special time of delight, though it brought
its tasks in the making of wooden spouts, the carrying of buckets of
sap and water, and the tending of fires.