or two of flax, thoiigli it was impossible to keep Aunt Benson and niece in spinning for the winter." "In June we sheared the sheep; the fleece was washed, carded, and spun; Aunt Benson spun it in the house. Flax in winter, wool in summer,—woman's work is never done." "They made all sorts of linen-work, table-cloths, shirtings, sheets, and cloths. If it had not been for this household manufactory, we never should have succeeded in the Revolution." "I can see Aunt Benson now as plain as I see you; she and Annie got breakfast very early. Our living was very good, rye-bread, fresh butter, buckwheat cakes, and pie for breakfast. After the dishes were washed, Annie and I helped aunt to milk. Then they made cheese, and spun till dinner. We dined on salt pork, vegetables, and pies, corned beef also; and always on Sunday a boiled Indian pudding. We made a stock of pies at Thanksgiving, froze them for winter's use, and they lasted till March."
Now the various industries that "Aunt Benson and niece" thus carried on alone, were, before the Reformation, the common occupations of all women; and not only the farmer's wife, but every noble lady, every gentlewoman, in her own house, was a manufacturer on a scale proportioned to the number of her servants. She probably could not read or write; and in those perilous days she never dared to travel unless for the solemn purpose of a pilgrimage. Before the age of Henry VIII., ladies never even went to court, hence there was no great centre of feminine fashion, and one or two handsome gowns lasted a woman of rank a lifetime, without change of cut or ornament. The rooms of her hall or castle were so few and so gloomy, and their furniture so scanty and uncomfortable, that a modern housekeeper would be frightened almost at the description of it, while the neighbourhood in which she lived generally contained all her interests, and bounded the sphere of her ideas. Nevertheless, in spite of her ignorance, her limitations, and her deprivations, the woman of all those twilight generations lived a life of beneficent activity. "Lady," that is, "Loaf-giver," because from the time when the
