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

ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
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"cereal"— barley from the bin was parched for this; for apple
pie we made a filling of soaked crackers and cream of tartar
flavored with sorghum molasses and cinnamon. "Pie melon,"
of the citron variety, was also a popular substitute for apples.
Sorghum molasses was an almost universal means of sweetening.
We had but one dollar's worth of sugar that whole
winter, and there was in the house a half-barrel of cranberries
ready to make up into good things to eat but for lack of sugar.
As I look upon it now the opening of that camp appears a
gigantic task. They had to go into the Big Woods and clear
a place to build their cabin; then they hauled their slabs and
lumber from the old mill in Fairhaven and erected a shelter
so that one end was large enough to be filled by a bed of proper
proportions for the three men. At the other end they made a
stationary table by boring holes in the side wall, putting in pins
and fastening boards on. Then they set up a little box stove
by the door, where Alvah officiated as chief cook, and fried
meat, boiled vegetables, and made coffee.
WiUiam had Buck and Wapoose along — how the very
writing of the names recalls that characteristic of our older
brother, the renaming or altering the name of every person or
animal about the place. His children will recall this playful
habit and the names he gave their mother and themselves.
Wapoose he generally called "the Wapoosian." Our brother
bought Wapoose and the brindle ox, Buck, for one hundred
dollars which he had earned while teaching school in Ohio.
In the winter WiUiam and Alvah went into the woods and cut
poles to make a handsled upon which they could haul supplies
out to camp over the top of the remarkably deep snow. Out in
camp they made a "Yankee sled" for the oxen to pull and a
stone boat to haul in the sap. I remember the morning they
first started out for the camp, dragging their handsled. The
drifts were from four to six feet deep, and they went over the
crust of the snow until, as day advanced and the sun grew warmer,
the crust became softened and they began to break through,
and sure enough, they did have to drop prone and drag them-
selves and sled over the snow in places.
They managed to reach Fairhaven, and there they spread