Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

THE OLD FARM 8i
kettle boiling, never complaining — she was too happy as an
economist. To save the fruit amounted to a duty with her,
especially as she thought how the apple butter would bless
some of her poor relations. The autumn weather often disappoints,
and rain comes down amid falling leaves and smoke
and haze, and so it was one day I well remember when Aunt
Becky still stood at her post. She was a determined woman
and kept up her fire, wearing one of the men's coats and a pair
of boots. She was a picture as her tall, thin form bent to the
work of stirring, dressed m that combination of masculine
and feminine attire. Brother Will was a boy of twelve years,
who was looking on and saw the ridiculous side, which called
forth from him a short parody on "The Fall of the Great
Napoleon," where it says of him:
He grasped without remorse and wore without shame
The diadem of the Caesars!
Will's version, applied to Aunt Becky, was:
She grasped without remorse and wore without shame
Father's boots!
After some two weeks, about midnight Aunt Becky finished
her last kettle of apple butter and filled it into her half-barrel,
then placing the McCash's copper kettle over her head like
an enormous bonnet, she started for Uncle Jimmie's, distant
three quarters of a mile. Alas! She had burned the last
butter she made and so injured the kettle that not long after
Aunt Betsy McCash had to have it rebottomed; and I daresay
she wished old Aunt Becky had been satisfied with one
kettle less of apple butter to distribute in her philanthropies.
When her apple butter works were closed down and all the
tubs and half-barrels were ready for transportation. Aunt
Becky was well satisfied and took her stores to the city and
shipped them on the Ohio River to her relatives. She came
around once a year to see how we were doing, and the last time
she visited us she taught me a new system for cutting out
dresses. She also bleached and pressed bonnets, and was help-
ful in many ways. She loved to do acts of benevolence. I