Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 95
bedstead with a few rajrged, dirty bed-clothes spread thereon.
The space under the bed was occupied partly as a pantry.
Several pans of milk were set there for cream to rise, (for
Aunt Beck made her own butter) ; but when she made more
than she used in her family, she would complain of the dullness
of the market. In front of the bed and near the centre
of the room stood a common table about three feet square.
Respecting this table a neighbor, Captain Elisha Hall, assured
me that to his certain knowledge it had stood in the
same place twenty years, how much longer he could not say.
On this table, for very many successive years, she had laid
whatever she thought curious or worth preserving. When
an article was laid thereon it was rarely removed, for no one
would dare meddle with Aunt Beck's curiosities. Feathers
were her delight ; but many were perishable articles, and in
the process of time had rotted and changed into a black
mould, covering the table with a stratum of about an inch in
thickness.
In front of the larger table stood a smaller one near
the tire-place, from which the family partook of their meals.
This table was permanently located, and I was informed by
the neighbors that no perceptible change had been made in
the ORDER, or more properly disorderly, arrangements of
the furniture and curiosities for the ten years next preceding
my visit. The evening was cool, and though my hostess
was the owner of extensive tracts of woodland, covered with
a heavy growth, she could not afford herself a comfortable
tire. A few brands and two or three dead sticks, added
after we came in, cast a flickering light over the room ; but,
fortunately for our olfactories, did not inci'ease its tempera-
ture.
The floor, excepting narrow paths between the doors,
fire-place and bed, was entirely covered with broken crockery,
old pots, kettles, pails, tubs, &c., &c., and the walls
were completely festooned with old clothing, useless articles
of furniture, bunches of dried herbs, &c., &c., in fact every
article named in the humorous will of Father A-bby, excepting
a "tub of soap." The other articles named in the same
stanza were conspicuous :
"A long cart rope,
A frying-pan and kettle.
An old sword blade, a garden spade,
A pi-uning-hook and sickle."