Excerpt from The Congregational Quarterly, 1878, Vol. 20: New Series, Vol. IHallowell was a social place. There were many parties. The simple entertainment of tea, coffee, and cake was prepared by the lady of the house, aided by her hired help. There was neither dancing nor card-playing. There was sufficient cul ture, with both gentlemen and ladies, for them to enjoy a couple of hours of conversation. Our parlor, with its floor painted yellow, with its bookcase, tall mahogany clock, shining brass andirons, and truly splendid fire of rock maple blazing on the hearth, and lighted with mould candles, presented to my mind a picture of elegance which was not surpassed in subsequent years by the splendors of the saloons of the Tuileries, blazing with their myriads of wax-lights. These parties almost invari ably broke up at about nine o'clock, and at ten all the candles were blown out.Our mothers often got up parties for us little children, between the ages of five and twelve. We went at six and left at nine. The world has made great advances since then, but I do not think it has made progress in social enjoyment. Never did children have richer pleasures than we enjoyed in our Puritan home. Undoubtedly there were wretched homes then as now. Undoubtedly there were then, as now, professing Christians who exemplified in their conduct everything that was hateful and of bad report. But there were many other families whose loving hearts gilded the hours of this earthly life. I could mention many names. These mothers, who joined in the sports around the glowing rock-maple fire, were loved by us children with an affection that can never die. And these mothers, without an exception which I can recall to mind, were what are called Evangelical Christians. They met every96k: 3. C. Abbott.Thursday afternoon to pray that God would mm their sons and daughters.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.