One fork, and a sixty-dollar organ!
In most cases the sewing-machine was not used, the clocks were so
worthless that they did not keep correct time--and if they had,
in nine cases out of ten there would have been no one in the
family who could have told the time of day--while the organ, of
course, was rarely used for want of a person who could play upon
it.
In the case to which I have referred, where the family sat down
to the table for the meal at which I was their guest, I could see
plainly that this was an awkward and unusual proceeding, and was
done in my honour. In most cases, when the family got up in the
morning, for example, the wife would put a piece of meat in a
frying-pan and put a lump of dough in a "skillet," as they called
it. These utensils would be placed on the fire, and in ten or
fifteen minutes breakfast would be ready. Frequently the husband
would take his bread and meat in his hand and start for the
field, eating as he walked. The mother would sit down in a corner
and eat her breakfast, perhaps from a plate and perhaps directly
from the "skillet" or frying-pan, while the children would eat
their portion of the bread and meat while running about the yard.
At certain seasons of the year, when meat was scarce, it was
rarely that the children who were not old enough or strong enough
to work in the fields would have the luxury of meat.
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