. The history of Springfield in Massachusetts, for the young; being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden. THE SETTLEMENT 27 In some respects, indeed, they lived better than in the oldcountry. They had to get used to much colder winters; andmany conveniences which they had enjoyed before, they couldnot have here. But the land easily gave them enough to eatin greater plenty than England could have done; partlybecause of their cultivated fields, partly because of the wildgame, such as quail, partridge, ducks and pigeons. In falland spring the pigeons pa
. The history of Springfield in Massachusetts, for the young; being also in some part the history of other towns and cities in the county of Hampden. THE SETTLEMENT 27 In some respects, indeed, they lived better than in the oldcountry. They had to get used to much colder winters; andmany conveniences which they had enjoyed before, they couldnot have here. But the land easily gave them enough to eatin greater plenty than England could have done; partlybecause of their cultivated fields, partly because of the wildgame, such as quail, partridge, ducks and pigeons. In falland spring the pigeons passed over, sometimes in such num-bers as almost to darken the sky. These they caught in birds were shot with a fowling piece for scattering theshot among a number of birds at once, like that on the shoulderof Miles Morgan in the Court Square statue. If woodchucksor moles became troublesome to the crops, there was a simpleway of catching them by bending down a slender staddle. fitted with a slipnoose and slightly fastening the end by a the offender nibbled the bait and was caught, he wasjerked into the air and hung suspended. Established at last in the wilderness, all alone except fora few Indians, how was it that the forefathers, grown-ups andchildren, employed themselves? What did they do for workand play? There was plenty of work: cutting down trees for 28 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD firewood; hollowing great logs for canoes; planting corn inspring, hoeing it in summer and husking and threshing it inthe autumn; boxing pine trees on the plains and making theoozing pitch into tar and rosin; cutting grass for hay andgetting it into stacks for winter use. In these things theyoung folks, and even children, must have had an importantshare. The many mechanical helps to labor in these days werelacking and it was a time when many hands make lightwork, even little hands. In that day and, indeed, well along into the nineteenthcentury, boys and girls had to inve
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