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

OVER THE MOUNTAINS 6i
about the fireside of that first little home. Church history and
Bible literature were the main subjects. Mother had candle
molds and plenty of candles, so we fancy the picture our parents
made in their youth — mother with her dark head, upon which
rested the matron's cap, and father, a contrast with his fair
ruddiness and already silvering locks — they sit in their one
room, with candles lighted and an open book, perhaps Josephus
or D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation or Rawlins'
Ancient History, or it may have been one of the popular poems
of their day — Paradise Lost or Young's Night Thoughts;
and so it was that their little home came to be like Jacob's
ladder, a very gate of Paradise. i
All the time our father was preparing himself to minister
to the church, which in those days demanded real meat and
the brightest and best presentation a preacher could give. The
minds of the period were hardy, hungry and strong, not dis-
sipated but ready to direct their whole attention to what the
minister had to give, and auditors felt defrauded were no
thought required of them. Thus it was that our father
delighted in preparing thoughtful, solid sermons, which his
love for the sublime made him able to clothe in beautiful
words for peroration or eloquent climax.
Our mother was ever an interested listener, who was by his
side in their evenings at home to learn all that she could.
With her sewing or knitting, work that occupied so much
time, she was still at hberty to hsten and learn. The desire
for self-improvement and the acquisition of knowledge was
an unquenched flame in that home where all our homes began,
and they made their opportunities for learning over a hard,
rough and shadowed way when we compare their advantages
with those of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
We may be thankful that noble intelligences and pious spirits
burned with their own light in the little cabin on grandfather's
farm.
Mother was a prudent business woman; Brother Joseph
and I have often spoken of her ability in that line, and his
interest in business and his traits of caution and acumen com-
bined he seemed to have inherited from her. Early in their