Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-08-02
Vow YorL coIon.aI Picture

ION ana bltk uOuNtO hllONluklN 10 tutll blll-
er and said, Il told you So "-HaTpG's Weekly.
q New York Colonial Picture.
Here and there, in looking over old records
or family legends of colonial years, the medi-
pval period of American story, we gather
glmpses of bird-life, somewhat dim and in
distinct, perhaps yet sufficiently clear to have
u degree of interest. We seem TO hear the
far-away tapping of wings, the echo of song
we have a vision, as it were, of the winged
creatures fitting to and fro about the homes
of the early colonists.
The Dutch were race not unkndly i'll
household life. Most Of the country homes
of the Dutch colonists, whether your manor
house of some importance or the rude farm
house of the yeoman, were peopled with mer
ry black faces indoors, while without porch,
garden aud yard, We're favorite gathering
plnces for birds of many feathers. The ne
grues were great allies Of the birds Many
were the ingeniou. devices of their own con
trivance for enticing the little creatures to
build about the dwelling which was their own
home as well as that of their masters.
One pleasant afternoon in the later days of
April, of year far away, the huge doors of
large barn, not far from the bank of the Up
per Hudson, stood open to their greatest
width. 1t was a barn of which we have the
actual measurement, more than hundred
feet long and sixty feet in breadth, the great
doors being in the gable-end toward the river
An odd medley of sounds came through those
great doors voices old and young were chat
tering in broad negro Dutch-a gibberiah
somewhat harsh in itself. and yet softened by
an unctuOus slipping over Of consonants, and
spoken by voices unframed, but naturally
musical. This was a holiday evening. 1t
was Paas-week- Easter-tde Pans was
grand holiday with the Dutch negroes. There
had been fenst in the great barn at the Flats
earlier in the day, and now the last of the
rustic wrenths and rude benches were being
carried away, and things set to rights again.
Two negro matrons, of ample size, somewhat
past middle age. were there directing matters,
their heads covered with the bright kerchiefs
i'll which the race delight, their broad figures
and round faces now wearing an aspect of no
little authority. Dinnamat and Marlamat
were, indeed, the queens of the kitchen, and
that in good, patriArchal right, for, with one
exception. they were mothers and grand
mothers of the negro flock which made up
the household. the solitary exception being
an old. white-head,d negro, Uncle Cobus,"
formerly the factotum, now IN abdicated dig
nitary The sable danes dowagers of
no little importance. They knew the world.
Had they not seen savage life in Africa i'll
their carly girlhood? And who, pray, should
know so well the fashions of high burgher
life in the great city of "Allbonny "a city,
mind you. boasting two streets of some length,
fort Dutch and an English church,
wharf, and fleet of II dozen sloops making
weekly voyages to New York Had they not
cooked grand wedding-feasts and caudle-
feasts, and. though last not least, funeral
fcasts. in one of the statelicst homes in that
renowned city for nearly half century
These two great personages were allies and
vet rivals-a state of things by no means pc
culiar to "A Dutch kitchen. They were close
allies. with what they considered Holy Ali
ance. where the interest or dignity of master
or mistress was concerned. They were scold-
ing rivals where the individual interest or dig
nifty of child, grandchild, greatgrand- baby,
or fuvorite COW, or pet pig, was even remote
~ aimed at. On this particular afternoon.
however there was holiday harmony, entoHte
cordjdle, between these dusky dignitaries.
The clearing of the barn, the picking up of
any stray wooden platter, or horn spoon, or
gourd dpper, this was the common aim of
both their stalwart sons meanwhile, were
CARRYING away rude benches and tables on
their backs, and a troop of rollicking children
were at wild and noisy gambols among the
faded wreaths and blossoms The vast, shad-
owy hay-loft above was nearly empty at that
season, and the wealth of grain-wheat, rye,
oats-which had filled the enormous chests
below, had dwindled away under the demand
for winter food and fodder. Now and then
hen would come out of the hay above and
cackle over newly laid egg, or cock perched
on a bare pole gave ringing brow of deti-
ance to the fowls below, turkeys, ducks, and
other poultry, who We're picking up stray
grains of oat and wheat, and maize, or crumbs
from the feast. There was long row of
stalls on each side of the broad barn floor,
A,lI,. g. -. IL .-l. Ia, shn nj fhnGp
stalls were filed with cows, oxen, and horses,
their heads all turned toward the great thrash
ing-hoor but they were now mostly empty.
Several COWS, with young calves, were stand
ing or lying in the stalls on either side
couple Of oxen We're lazily chewing the cud of
holiday idleness and lame horse was So
berly taking his supper, apparently indiffer-
ent to the negro urchin perched on his back.
Now, with the animals and the rolicking
children. and the bustling women, and the
cackling poultry. the great barn was full of
rustic life and stir. And, good reader, amid
all this movement, above ALL ningling with
all, We're the birds. Swallows were there by
the half-hundred whirling, rising, falling
with the wonderful flight natural to them
While seemingly at idle play, weaving airy
Dances the pretty creatures were, i'll fact
busily at work building their odd, uncouth
nests of mud, so rude in aspect, so cunningly
fashioned. 70 look at one of those mud
nests, who could believe that it was to become
the cradle of creature so purely aerial as the
swallow Seventy of those brown nests,
many old, others new, and still unfinished,
might have been counted elinging to the vast
sloping roof, or clustering ON the beams. In
and out through the great doors, in and out
through smaller openings, high over the roof
without, low over the broad river beyond, in
shadow and sunshine, now grazing the heads