Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-11-12

An English Farmer OF she OIden Times.
tFrom "RoUnd 4 bout great Bstate,n BY Richard
Jefriesl
The house was small, for In those days far
mers did not look TO live in Villas and till
within the last few years even the parlor floor
was Of stone flags. Rushes used 10 be strewn
in the halls Of palaces in ancient times and
seventy years ago old Jonathan grew his own
carpets.
The softest and best Of the bean straw grown
on the farm was selected and scattered on the
floor of the stting-room AZ warm and dry TO
tho feet, and that was all the carpet in the
house. just before sheep shoaring time, too,
Jonathan used to have the nottles cut that
ilourished round the back Of tho sheds, and
strown on the floor Of the barn. The nottles
shriveled up dry, and the wool did not stick
to them, but could be gathered easily.
With his own hands he would carry out a
quart of beans TO the pigs-just quart at a
time and no more, that they might eat every
one, and that none might be wasted. So,
too, he would carry them few aoorns In his
coat pocket and watch the relish with which
the swine devoured their favorite food. He
saved every bit of crooked wood that was
about the place, for at that date iron was ex-
pensive, and wood that had grown crooked,
and was therefore strong as well as curved,
was useful for hundred purposes Fastened
W NhA AOA AhbAhhto ~ hlu lOE hObk uHOh
which to hang things. II an apple tree died
in the orchard, it was cut out TO form part of
plough, and saved till wanted.
Jonathan's hard head withstood even the
whirl Of the days when corn was at famine
prices. But these careful economies, this
continual saving, put more money in his
purse than all that sudden flush Of prosperity.
Every groat thus saved was as a nail driven
into an oak, fixed and stable becoming frmer
i !.
the farmers Of to-day, with a score of ma
chimes and appliances, with expensive feed
ing stuffs, with well-furnished villas Each
one of Jonathan's beans in his quart mug,
each one of the acorns in his pocket, became
a guinea.
Jonathan's hat was made to measure, on
his own special block, by the halter in Over
boro' town, and II was 80 hard and stout that
he could sit upon it without injury. His top
boots always hung near the fireplace, that
they might not get mouldy and he rode into
market upon his "short-tail horse" as he
called his crop tail nag A farmer was moth
ing thought of unless he wore top boots,
which seemed a distinguishing mark, as it
were, of the equestrian order OF agriculture.
But his shoes were made straight not AK
now, one to each foot-a right and left-but
each exactly alike and he changed his shoes
every morning, wearing one on one foot one
day and on the other the next, that they might
not get worn to either foot in particular,
Shoes lasted great length Of time in those
days. the leather being all tanned with oak
bark only, and thoroughly seasoned before it
was cut up. There is even a story of q far
mer who wore his best shoes every Sunday
for seven years in Sundays-fifty years-and
when he died had them buried with him. still
far from worn out.
At that date folks had no banking accounts,
but kept their coin in strong chest under
the bed, sometimes hiding it in strange places.
Jonathan was once visiting friend, and, Of.
ter they had hobnobbed a while, the old fell
low took him, with many precautions that
they should not be observed into the pig -sty,
and showed him fifty guneas hid in the thAtch.
That was by no means all his property, but
the old fellow said with wink that he liked
to have a little hoard of his own that his wife
knew nothing about.