But although thns early tra ned to habits of industry, and to contribute their share of labor towards the support of the family, the young people of both sexes were by no means deprived of amusements. They had their holiday seasons and afternoon and evening sports. They enjoyed, in winter, skating and riding down hill, and spinning tops, flying kitesand playing ball in the spring ; and a great many other athletic games and innocent amusements which are now obsolete and forgotten.

''There is yet one more pha^e of domestic and social life among the early settlers of this part of the country and their immediate descendants which ought not to be pas.sed over entirely without notice, as it is one most intimately connected with human welfare anil happiness in this our earthly lot. I refer to the subject of courtship and marriage. In those times the marriage of young people was the rule and not the exception. At all events the practice was, as it seems to me, much more general than at the present time ; and there was a good reason for it. Jlarriage did not then demand, on the part of one or both of the parties to it, the possession of an independent fortune ! Love and marriage, on the contrary, came first, and a reasonable amount of worldly success afterwards. To this mutual industry and economy contributeil. The endless ceremony, ]iarade and lavish expenditure of time and money upon bridal costumes, trousseaus and wedding tours were unknown to the simplicity of those times. If it had not been so, thecostly paraphernalia of a wedding would have driven the young lovers of that day into the despair of a hopeless celibacy ! Mutual happiness and success in life, and not idle vanity or foolish display, were then supposed to be the true and proper inducements to matrimony.