Presently some unknown genius invented a frame that held thirty-six wicks, and eight or ten such frames made the labor quick and easy of performance. Tin molds were employed when a small supply of candles was needed, and the big box of ' dips ' nearly empty. Mr. Jesse Ryder, of Ossining, says that at one time cotton was so high priced that tow was used for wicks, and the ' dips ' gave a poor light. Candlesticks for the kitchen were cut from large, square wooden blocks.

"'^Killing time' was a country festival- Before Christmas the oaken lard kegs and the capacious beef and pork casks were cleaned. Then the hogs and cattle were slaughtered, and abundant supplies of souse, sausage, hams, jowls, bacon, pork and beef laid away. Curing occupied much time with the rude implements of the day. Sausage meat cut into halfinch pieces was thrown into wooden boxes two and a-half or three feet long by ten inches deep, where men armed with spades ground to a razor-edge, chopped it into tiny fragments. By the help of a small tin tube, it was packed in small linen bags, or casings, as they were called.

" Soap-making was an occupation of the spring. Great leach tubs standing out of doors on high frames were filled with wood ashes, on which water

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was slowly poured to i)roduce lye, and the work of soap-boiling began. To be perfect soft-soap, it must be ' white as snow and thick as liver.'