Puritan Family Of Early England (revised, 1980)

[Music] to William started London from Giles fits in New England in your recent letter dear friend you asked for an account of our daily life in this Colony the day begins much as does your was in England our family Rises early as Godly folks should do my oldest son Isaac goes to the Village well for water my Good Wife begins to prepare our morning meal [Music] mercy and patience our daughters have the task of making the beds and I bring wood to the fireplace so each does the appointed task and allers well [Music] our son Samuel is the last to rise and dress for he is still quite [Music] Young when all have gathered at table I give thanks to our God who has provided our food and who has brought us safely to these Shores that we might establish a true church purified according to the teachings of Holy Scripture A church free from the impurity of empty and vain ceremony for this reason as you well know our people are called [Music] Puritans each morning except on the Sabbath Isaac leaves for school he does well in studies of Latin less well in Greek on some mornings I go hunting and walk part of the way with [Music] [Music] Isaac at the Village well our paths divide and I go into the forest the forest is very close to our homes you must know that all of this land was Forest when we came and we clear only what ground we need for buildings and for growing [Music] crops now as to my good wife and our daughters and their daily tasks patience our younger daughter has her lessons in arithmetic and in Reading she uses the device called a horn book the lesson being printed on paper which is attached to a board and covered by a thin transparent sheet of horn thus she can read the lesson and yet the paper is preserved from damage our younger daughter being occupied with her lessons my wife is assisted in her morning work by our older daughter Mercy clothing is brought to a brook to be washed thus the morning is spent in useful activity by all the household Isaac also has his appointed tasks after school is dismissed I often send him to gather clams on the beach that's from the sea as well as from the land we are provided with food it has been reported to me that on occasions when he thinks no one is watching Isaac sometimes stops his work to engage in the spot of skipping Stones across the water this is a matter of great concern to me since God has commanded us to work and not to be lazy or idle yet for the most part Isaac does apply himself to his work I have given him the task of gathering the ears of corn from the plants which the Indians taught us to grow this corn which is also called maze is in the form of kernels of various colors and The Mention Of It recalls to me the events of a particular afternoon my good wife was busy in the making of soap in the usual way adding ashes of wood to boiling water to make lie and then stirring in the melted fat of an [Music] animal Isaac brought some ears of corn he had picked and my wife took some of it to cook for supper it was then that I returned from hunting having shot a tury with me was an Indian named monopo who has proved a kind and helpful friend to us my wife showed our corn to manopo for it was he who had taught us how to plant it he said that he had brought us a different kind of corn with smaller kernels that we must cook in a special way and which would surprise we then proceeded straight way to follow meno's instructions for cooking the corn for we were curious to see what the result would be we were indeed surprised the colonels had burst open and become much larger and soft and white we all then tasted this popped corn and found it very good to eat [Music] monopo gave us more of this corn that we might plant it next spring once more he has been a good friend to us for which we are grateful and pray for continued peace and friendship between our [Music] people the evening of that day we spent in useful work as we do on every evening except the Sab my good wife was busy making candles dipping cords into Tallow and then removing them to cool and [Music] Harden there are many dippings and coolings before the candles are finished and the Wicks can be cut our daughter Mercy has become skillful in preparing wool for weaving she knows how to remove small all sticks and such from the Wool by the process called caring and she has also learned how to spin the wall into thread [Music] [Music] and our daughter patience is learning to use the loom to weave Woolen cloth thus we are provided with most of our clothing yet as you must know we use not only cloth but also animal skins for clothing for this the Skins must be scraped clean on the evening of which I speak I was instructing my son Isaac in this skill when we were interrupted we do not expect visitors at the late hour and thus a knocking at the door caused me to be somewhat concerned for our safety but we then heard the voice of one of our good neighbors it was John pton a fisherman who had returned from a long day at Sea he had been blessed with a fine catch and was pleased to share this blessing with us after was cleaned the fish would be preserved with salt for some few days since on the tomorrow we would eat the turkey I had gotten by [Music] hunting and then since the hour had grown late we put our work aside in order to gather for the reading of Holy Scripture thanking God who has established our Colony on these shores of New England and th our day comes to a close for your interest in these matters I am grateful and beg to remain your humble servant Giles Fitz [Music]