I respect my father and mother deeply for their anxiety and sacrifices to give their children the best education possible. Their children, grandchildren, and so on to the twentieth generation will have reason to bless the memory of parents of such true worth.

Now for something else. For breakfast in olden times there was bread and milk, as soon as the cows were milked. About nine o'clock there was a luncheon of bread and cheese, or fried pork and potatoes. For dinner we had a good Indian pudding. Often there were blue-berries or suet in it. We had also for dinner pork and beef, through the winter and spring, besides potatoes, turnips, and cabbage.

At four or five o'clock in the summer evenings, we had some bread and cheese or the like. For supper we had bread and milk.

When there was company chocolate was used for breakfast, but no coffee. Pewter basins and sometimes wooden bowls were used. Wooden plates were used for dinner. When a friend dined pewter plates and spoons were used by father, mother, and the friend.

I do not think that swearing was ever heard in the town until after the Revolution. I do not remember seeing my father or mother angry; but they were sometimes displeased no doubt. I do not remember more than one man being drunk.

Rum was commonly used at the raising of buildings. If the raising was finished before night, the men amused themselves with wrestling, goal, and coits. Goal was the favorite game of the boys after thanksgiving and Election days, the only holidays which I remember.

81. From Childhood to College

BY SAMUEL KNEELAND (ABOUT 1750)

THE most remarkable thing in my childhood was a wonderful talent which I possessed to imitate anything that I saw or heard. I could grunt like a hog, roar like a lion, or bellow like a bull. I was once very near being worried by a pack of rascally dogs, who took me for a fox, I deceived their ears with so natural a squeal. I was a particular favorite of all the hens in the neighborhood; I rivalled the cock with a crow as exquisite as it was inimitable. I will add for the satisfaction of my enemies, that when I hoot they would infallibly take me for an owl. Also on occasion, I can bray so very advantageously, that few donkeys can go beyond me.

Nay, to such a perfection am I now arrived in the art of mimicry, that I am able not only to make any sound that I hear, but I have a faculty of looking like anybody I think fit. There is no person whom I have ever seen, but I can immediately throw all his features into my face, assume his air and monopolize his whole countenance. I remember when I was a school-boy my master once gave me an unlucky rap on my pate, for a fault committed by Giles Horror, whose visage I had at that time most unfortunately put on. Esau Absent may remember to this day, if he is living, how his mother took me for him, when I marched off in triumph, with a huge lunch of bread and butter, that was just spread for Esau's dinner.

When I was three years old, I was sent to school to a mistress, where I learned to read with great dispatch; in my fifth year, I was taken away and put to

a writing master. In my seventh year I could flourish a tolerable hand, and began my grammar. By the time that I was fourteen, I was considerably proficient in the Latin and Greek languages, and was admitted into Harvard College.

Fithian was a graduate of Princeton College who went down

to Virginia to be the

82. A Tutor and his Pupils

BY PHILIP FITHIAN (1773-1774)

We began school. The Two of Mr. Carters sons,

Monday, November 1. school consists of eight. one nephew, and five daughters. The eldest son is reading Sallust; grammatical exercises, and Latin grammar. The second son is reading English grammar, and reading English writing, and ciphering in subtraction. The nephew is reading and writing as above; and ciphering in reduction. The eldest daughter is reading the Spectator, writing, and becalled Nom- ginning to cipher. The second is reading now out of the spelling-book, and beginning to write. The next is reading in the spelling-book. The fourth is spelling in the beginning of the spelling-book. And the last is beginning her letters.

tutor of the children of the wealthy Carter family, at their estate

ini Hall.

Horse races were the favorite

amusement

the southern

Thursday, November 25. Rode this morning to Richmond Courthouse, where two horses ran for a purse of 500 pounds: besides small bets almost inof the time in numerable. One of the horses belonged to Colonel colonies, and John Tayloe, and is called Yorick; the other to Dr. were usually Flood, and is called Gift. The Assembly was refollowed by a markably numerous; beyond my expectation and exceedingly polite in general. The horses started precisely at five minutes after three; the course was

ball called the Assem

bly.

one mile in circumference, they performed the first round in two minutes, the third in two minutes and a half. Yorick came out the fifth time round about 40 rods ahead of Gift; both horses, when the riders dismounted proved very lame; they ran five miles, and carried 180 pounds.

Almost every lady wears a red cloak; and when they ride out they tie a red handkerchief over their head and face, so that when I first came into Virginia, I was distressed whenever I saw a lady, for I thought she had the toothache. The people are extremely hospitable, and very polite, both of which are most certainly universal characteristics of the gentlemen in Virginia. Some swear bitterly, but the practice seems to be generally disapproved. I have heard that this country is notorious for gaming; however that may be, I have not seen a pack of cards, nor a die, since I left home, nor gaming nor betting of any kind except at the Richmond-race. Almost every

gentleman of condition, keeps a chariot and four; many drive with six horses. I observe that all the merchants and shopkeepers in the sphere of my acquaintance are young Scotchmen, several of whom I know. It has been the custom heretofore to have all their tutors, and schoolmasters from Scotland, tho' they begin to be willing to employ their own countrymen.

In the evening Ben Carter and myself had a long dispute on the practice of fighting. He thinks it best for two persons who have any dispute to go out in good-humour and fight manfully, and says that they will be sooner and longer friends than to brood and harbour malice. Mr. Carter is practising this evening on the guitar. He has here at home a