Amid jokes and laughter the husks and ears would fly, until the work was
done, when all hands would repair to the house, and, after partaking of
a hearty supper, leave for home in high spirits.

Then came hog-killing time, a very heavy and disagreeable task, but the
farmer has many of these, and learns to take them pleasantly. My father,
with two or three expert hands dressed for the occasion, would slaughter
and dress ten or a dozen large hogs in the course of a day. There were
other actors besides in the play. It would be curious, indeed, if all
hands were not employed when work was going on. My part in the
performance was to attend to the fire under the great kettle in which
the hogs were scalded, and to keep the water boiling, varied at
intervals by blowing up bladders with a quill for my own amusement. In
the house the fat had to be looked to, and after being washed and tried
(the term used for melting), was poured into dishes and set aside to
cool and become lard, afterwards finding its way into cakes and
piecrust. The out-door task does not end with the first day either, for
the hogs have to be carried in and cut up; the large meat tubs, in which
the family supplies are kept, have to be filled; the hams and shoulders
to be nicely cut and cured, and the rest packed into barrels for sale.

Close on the heels of hog-killing came sausage-making, when meat had to
be chopped and flavoured, and stuffed into cotton bags or prepared gut.
Then the heads and feet had to be soaked and scraped over and over
again, and when ready were boiled, the one being converted into head-
cheese, the other into souse. All these matters, when conducted under
the eye of a good housewife, contributed largely to the comfort and good
living of the family. Who is there, with such an experience as mine,
that receives these things at the hands of his city butcher and meets
them on his table, who does not wish for the moment that he was a boy,