In the absence of husband and son the care of a large farm fell upon our madam’s shoulders, and the details of cost and income are dotted through the little journal.  We can imagine the lady, gracious in her stateliness, marshaling old General T——­ and Colonel C——­, two veterans of the Revolution, out into her barnyard to get their opinion as to the value of her fat cattle, and the concealed disapproval with which she received their judgment that forty-five dollars was a fair price for the pair, “when,” as she quietly remarks, “I considered that fifty dollars was little enough for so fine a pair of fat cattle; and in fact I got my own price for them the next day.”

Fifty dollars was a much larger sum then than now.  Imagine how many things could be bought for fifty dollars, when butter brought but ten, veal three or four, beef six or seven cents respectively per pound, and a pair of fat young chickens brought but twenty-five cents!  There is one article upon whose accession of price we can dwell with pleasure.  Madam records discontentedly that it “took two men all day to kill four hogs, notwithstanding that she had spent fifty cents for a half gallon of rum for them to drink.”  Fancy the sort of liquor that could now be bought for a dollar the gallon, and the sort of men that could drink two quarts thereof and live!

It is heretical, of course, to hint a syllable against the open wood-fire which crackled and flickered so beautifully while our madam wrote about her cattle and pigs and Jim and Silvy, but in truth we cannot envy our ancestors the care of those fires.  With three yawning, devouring fireplaces constantly to be fed, and an additional one for each of the guest-rooms so often occupied during the winter—­for this was the visiting season—­there was no lack of business for Ralph, a white man; and his colored coadjutors, Jack and Jim.  When we look at the still existing kitchen fireplace, nine feet in width and four in depth, we cease to blame Jack for neglecting to mend the barn floor.  We only wonder that he found time to whip Silvy.

Among the occupations of the women one great time-consumer must have been the daily scouring, so much woodwork was left unpainted to be kept as white as a clean sea-beach by applications of soap and sand.  Probably a good deal of this hand-and-knee work fell upon the unfortunate Silvy, as well as the polishing of the pewter plates, the brass fenders, andirons, tongs, shovels, door-knobs, knockers, and the various brazen ornaments which bedecked the heavy sideboards and tall secretaries.

Seventy years ago, when gas and kerosene were not, and wax candles were an extravagance indulged in only on state occasions, even by the wealthy, the tallow dip was an article of necessity, and “candle dip-day” was as certain of recurrence as Christmas, though perhaps even less welcome than the equally certain annual Fast Day.  Fancy an immense kitchen with the before-mentioned fireplace in the centre of