On behalf of the sitting-room circle, R.F. MOTT.
Boarding School, 4 M., 1 D., 1814.

The profession of teacher did not appeal to hard-headed Humphrey
Anthony, and when Daniel came back with his brain full of ambitious
projects and with a thorough distaste for farming, and his sisters,
with many airs and graces and a feeling of superiority over the girls
in the neighborhood, Father Anthony declared that no more children of
his should go away to boarding-school. The fact that young Daniel was
skilled in mechanics and mathematics, able to superintend intelligently
all the work on the farm and to make a finer scythe than any man in the
shop, did not modify the father's opinion. When John, the next boy, was
old enough and the mother began to urge that he be sent to school, the
father offered him his choice to go or to stay at home and work that
year for $100. This was a large sum for those days, it out-weighed the
mother's arguments, John remained at home and regretted it all the rest
of his life.

[Illustration: WEST END OF KITCHEN IN OLD HOMESTEAD.]

The Anthony and Read farms were adjoining a mile east of Adams, and lay
upon the first level or "bench" of the Green mountains. From their
door-yards the ascent of the mountains began, and only the Hoosac in a
deep ravine separated them from the base of "Old Greylock." The crops
were raised on the "intervale" and the cattle pastured on the mountain
side. Adams was then a sleepy New England village, and the Hoosac was a
lovely stream, whose waters were used for the flocks and for the grist
and saw-mills; but in later years the village became a manufacturing
center and the banks of the pretty river were lined for miles with