You know, when our folks came up here, they had to build all
their houses of logs to begin with."
"They DID!" cried Betsy, with her mouth full of apple.
"Why yes, child, what else did you suppose they had to make houses out
of? They had to have something to live in, right off. The sawmills came
later."
"I didn't know anything about it," said Betsy. "Tell me about it."
"Why you knew, didn't you--your Aunt Harriet must have told you--about
how our folks came up here from Connecticut in 1763, on horseback!
Connecticut was an old settled place then, compared to Vermont. There
wasn't anything here but trees and bears and wood-pigeons. I've heard
'em say that the wood-pigeons were so thick you could go out after dark
and club 'em out of the trees, just like hens roosting in a hen-house.
There always was cold pigeon-pie in the pantry, just the way we have
doughnuts. And they used bear-grease to grease their boots and their
hair, bears were so plenty. It sounds like good eating, don't it! But of
course that was just at first. It got quite settled up before long, and
by the time of the Revolution, bears were getting pretty scarce, and
soon the wood-pigeons were all gone."
"And the schoolhouse--that schoolhouse where I went today--was that
built THEN?" Elizabeth Ann found it hard to believe.
"Yes, it used to have a great big chimney and fireplace in it.
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