"Englishmen, examine your own cottages, particularly in the north, and
on the borders, and extend your view to the western extremity of your
island. Pray, what term will you give to that promiscuous bundling of
the father, mother, children, sons and daughters-in-law, cousins, and
inmates who call to _tarry_, and not unfrequently stretch themselves in
one common bed of straw on the hovel's floor?[27]

"Nay, even, in some parts of your empire, the hogs and the cows join the
group, and form a most audible respiration from their noses, getting
vent through the hole in the roof intended for a chimney, or spreading
throughout the clay built edifice with odorific sweetness, though
perhaps not so fragrant and refreshing as was the precious oil poured on
the venerable head of Aaron, which Sternhold and Hopkins tell us filled
the room with pleasure. In the early settlement of this country there
might have been houses in the route of the inquisitive and insidious
European travelers, unprovided with a spare bed on which he might
stretch his limbs; but, now, should Mr. Canning[28] himself visit us, he
need not fear being _bundled_--he need not travel far in any part of the
United States without enjoying the luxury of a soft couch and clean
sheets, where he can ruminate on the injustice he attempts on our
national character."

Badinage, ridicule and misrepresentation aside, however, there can be no
reasonable doubt that _bundling_ did prevail to a very great extent in
the New England colonies from a very early date. It is equally evident
that it was originally confined almost entirely to the lower classes of
the community, or to those whose limited means compelled them to
economize strictly in their expenditure of firewood and candlelight.
Many, perhaps the majority, of the dwellings of the early settlers,
consisted of but one room, in which the whole family lived and slept.