a great pewter platter, a big piece of pork or beef in the center and, piled all round, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, beets, carrots, etc.  The story runs that, when the mother remonstrated with the children for bothering the grandmother for what they could have at home, Susan replied, “Why, grandma’s potato peelings are better than your boiled dinners.”  The Anthonys and Reads used white flour and real coffee on state occasions, but very few families could afford such luxuries.

One of the recollections of Grandmother Anthony’s house is of the little closet under the parlor stairs, where was set the tub of maple sugar, and, while the elders were chatting over neighborhood affairs, the children would gather like bees around this tub and have a feast.  Always when they left, they were loaded down with apples, doughnuts, caraway cakes and other toothsome things which little ones love.  Along the edges of the pantry shelves hung rows of shining pewter porringers, and the pride of the children’s lives was to eat “cider toast” out of them.  This was made by toasting a big loaf of brown bread before the fire, peeling off the outside, toasting it again, and finally pouring over these crusts hot sweetened water and cider.  The dish, however, which was relished above all others was “hasty pudding,” cooked slowly for hours, then heaped upon a platter in a great cone, the center scooped out and filled with sweet, fresh butter and honey or maple syrup.

In those days every sideboard was liberally supplied with rum, brandy and gin, and every man drank more or less, even the elders and preachers.  When the farmers came down the mountain road with their loads of wood or lumber, they always stopped at Grandfather Read’s for a slice of bread and cheese and a drink of hard cider, but the elders and preachers were regaled with something stronger.  This was the custom, and criticism would have been considered fanatical.

The little factory nourished and produced many yards of excellent cotton cloth.  A store was opened in one corner of the house to supply the wants of the employes and neighbors, and the Anthonys enjoyed a plenty and prosperity somewhat unusual where small incomes and close economy were the rule.

[Footnote 1:  Her oldest daughter, Hannah, became a famous Quaker preacher.]

[Footnote 2:  A wedding trip was taken to Palatine Bridge, Deerfield, Union Springs, Farmington, Rochester and other points in New York State, to visit relatives of both families, all the long journey being made in a light one-horse wagon, many miles of it over corduroy roads.]

[Footnote 3:  Hannah was born September 15, 1821; Daniel Read, named for father and grandfather, was born August 22, 1824; Mary S., April 2, 1827; Eliza Tefft, April 22, 1832, and Jacob Merritt, April. 19, 1834.  At the present writing, 1897, Susan, Daniel, Mary and Merritt still survive, aged seventy-seven, seventy-three, seventy and sixty-three, all remarkably vigorous in mind and body; a family of few words, quiet, undemonstrative and yet knit together with bonds of steel, loyal to each other in every thought and each ready to make any sacrifice for the others.]