stairs; so that the inmates, if driven thither, could cut off
communication with the rooms below. Many private houses were
strengthened and fortified. We remember one familiar to our
boyhood,--a venerable old building of wood, with brick between
the weather-boards and ceiling, with a massive balustrade over the
door, constructed of oak timber and plank, with holes through the
latter for firing upon assailants. The door opened upon a stone-
paved hall, or entry, leading into the huge single room of the
basement, which was lighted by two small windows, the ceiling
black with the smoke of a century and a half; a huge fireplace,
calculated for eight-feet wood, occupying one entire side; while,
overhead, suspended from the timbers, or on shelves fastened to
them, were household stores, farming utensils, fishing-rods, guns,
bunches of herbs gathered perhaps a century ago, strings of dried
apples and pumpkins, links of mottled sausages, spare-ribs, and
flitches of bacon; the fire-light of an evening dimly revealing the
checked woollen coverlet of the bed in one far-off corner, while in
another--

"The pewter plates on the dresser
Caught and reflected the flame as shields of armies the
sunshine."(2)

(1) The "Narragansett War" was a name applied to that part of
King Philip's War which resulted from the defection of the powerful
tribe of Narragansetts, formerly allies of the English, to the standard
of the Indian chief.
(2) Longfellow's *Evangeline,* lines 205, 206.