Many private houses were
strengthened and fortified. We remember one familiar to our boyhood,--
a venerable old building of wood, with brick between the weather boards
and ceiling, with a massive balustrade over the door, constructed of oak
timber and plank, with holes through the latter for firing upon
assailants. The door opened upon a stone-paved hall, or entry, leading
into the huge single room of the basement, which was lighted by two small
windows, the ceiling black with the smoke of a century and a half; a huge
fireplace, calculated for eight-feet wood, occupying one entire side;
while, overhead, suspended from the timbers, or on shelves fastened to
them, were household stores, farming utensils, fishing-rods, guns,
bunches of herbs gathered perhaps a century ago, strings of dried apples
and pumpkins, links of mottled sausages, spareribs, and flitches of
bacon; the firelight of an evening dimly revealing the checked woollen
coverlet of the bed in one far-off corner, while in another "the pewter
plates on the dresser Caught and reflected the flame as shields of armies
the sunshine.
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