easily. By striking the flint with the jack-knife sparks would catch 
     
     in the spunk and fires could be kindled from it. 
     
    

    
     After phosphorus was discovered, there were experiments with it 
     
     in lighting tinder, but it was not until 1829 that lucifer matches were 
     
     invented in England. It was some years after that before they were 
     
     in use in America. The flint and steel were in use here until then. 
     
    

    
     ' There was plenty of the best hard wood; bird’s-eye maple, white 
     
     and yellow birch, beech, sugar maple, white maple and many other 
     
     kinds of wood. The more we burned the better; it was cumbering 
     
     the ground. Great heaps of this fine wood were burned on the ground. 
     
     It was a magnificent sight to see these great blazing fires at night; 
     
     when the heaps of dry brush would catch, the blaze would mount up 
     
     with a roar and go higher than the trees. Sometimes the standing 
     
     spruce would be set on fire and in a wild and weird display, light up 
     
     the woods and the surrounding settlement. It would cast a glow on 
     
     the sky that could be seen for many miles on land and sea. O‘ld dead 
     
     trees would come flaming to the ground, or stand blazing all night 
     
     like light-houses. No such grand display of fireworks could be pro- 
     
     duced in the city. These scenes, or displays, were so wild they were 
     
     overawing. The lights and shadows, among the standing trees in the 
     
     woods appeared like living creatures moving about. Some people 
     
     thought they were ghosts and were afraid they would come out and 
     
     do them harm. 
     
    

    
     The land burned over was cleared and cultivated. Where the 
     
     green forest stood in the winter there would be a bountiful harvest the 
     
     next fall. The seed was hoed in among the stumps, and the rich new 
     
     land yielded magnificent crops. The grain was cut with reaping-hooks, 
     
     and sickles; the sickle had a smooth sharp edge like a knife, the 
     
     hook had sharp fine teeth; the blades of both were curved like a 
     
     new moon. The reaper would drive the hook around a bunch of grain 
     
     with one hand and grasp the upper part of the bunch with the other 
     
     hand, and then give the hook a pull and clip the bunch off near the 
     
     ground. A few of these bunches would make a sheaf; this was tied 
     
     with a band, or rope, made out of the grain stalks. Twelve sheaves 
     
     made a stook: six sheaves on each side stood together like the roof of 
     
     a little house. I could crawl into the space under this roof; it made 
     
     a nice house for me. Mother would take the cradle to the field with 
     
    
   
   
    
     42 
     
    
   
   
    
     . it MUMAMA... .F L . u -.