The family consisted of two young girls well up in their teens; Tom, a
lively boy of twelve, and Dora, a plump little miss of six; and coming
after these, in her own estimation, was the mother, a model of neatness and
good-nature, a fine dairy woman, whose interests were, of course, centred
in her cows and poultry yard, and she was generally found somewhere near
the vicinity of her particular treasures.
Then there was Phebe, the strong-armed. A very important member of the
family was she, as you would soon learn if you made any stay in the
farmhouse. She it was who solved problems by the aid of washboard and
scrubbing-brush, and the tempting meals she sent out of the kitchen would
have delighted the heart of an epicure. But to see Phebe at her best, one
should be at the farm during the busy haying season. It was her pride and
delight to be considered "as good as any man," and she could "pitch a load"
with a dexterity that even the two farm hands could not equal. These latter
were brothers, and lived in a snug cottage a few rods away, said cottage
being kept, like everything else on the farm, as "neat as a new pin," by
Joe's wife, a brisk little woman, whose head scarcely reached to her
husband's shoulder.
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