her knees.  Then too every reputable household possessed its abundance of pewter or silver, and such ware had to be polished with painstaking regularity.  Indeed the wealth of many a dame of those old days consisted mainly of silver, pewter, and linen, and her pride in these possessions was almost as vast as the labor she expended in caring for them.  What a collection was in those old-time linen chests!  Humphreys, in her Catherine Schuyler, copies the inventory of articles in one:  “35 homespun Sheets, 9 Fine sheets, 12 Tow Sheets, 13 bolster-cases, 6 pillow-biers, 9 diaper brakefast cloathes, 17 Table cloathes, 12 damask Napkins, 27 homespun Napkins, 31 Pillow-cases, 11 dresser Cloathes and a damask Cupboard Cloate.”  And this too before the day of the washing-machine, the steam laundry, and the electric iron!  The mere energy lost through slow hand-work in those times, if transformed into electrical power, would probably have run all the mills and factories in America previous to 1800.

There is a decided tendency among modern housewives to take a hostile view of the ever recurring task of preparing food for the family; but if these housewives were compelled suddenly to revert to the method and amount of cooking of colonial days, there would be universal rebellion.  Apparently indigestion was little known among the colonists—­at least among the men, and the amount of heavy food consumed by the average individual is astounding to the modern reader.  The caterer’s bill for a banquet given by the corporation of New York to Lord Cornberry may help us to realize the gastronomic ability of our ancestors: 

                   “Mayor ...  Dr.
  To a piece of beef and cabbage,
  To a dish of tripe and cowheel
  To a leg of pork and turnips
  To 2 puddings
  To a surloyn of beef
  To a turkey and onions
  To a leg mutton and pickles
  To a dish chickens
  To minced pyes
  To fruit, cheese, bread, etc. 
  To butter for sauce
  To dressing dinner,
  To 31 bottles wine
  To beer and syder.”

We must remember, moreover, that the greater part of all food consumed in a family was prepared through its every stage by that family.  No factory-canned goods, no ready-to-warm soups, no evaporated fruits, no potted meats stood upon the grocers’ shelves as a very present help in time of need.  On the farm or plantation and even in the smaller towns the meat was raised, slaughtered, and cured at home, the wheat, oats, and corn grown, threshed, and frequently made into flour and meal by the family, the fruit dried or preserved by the housewife.  Molasses, sugar, spices, and rum might be imported from the West Indies, but the everyday foods must come from the local neighborhood, and through the hard manual efforts of the consumer.  An old farmer declared in the American Museum in 1787:  “At this time my farm gave me and my whole family a good living on the produce of it, and left me one year with another one hundred and fifty silver dollars, for I never spent more than ten dollars a year, which was for salt, nails, and the like.  Nothing to eat, drink or wear was bought, as my farm provided all.”