History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

DWELLINGS—FURNITURE—COSTUMES. 5
neers had scant leisure to loiter under tlieir pleasing shade.
Paint was never used about these structures. The early
settlers did not cultivate the esthetic faculty, and for many
years found no employment for a painter. While the coloring
of the exterior of their houses was speedily accomplished
by the elements, the ornamentation of the interior
proceeded as rapidly under the agency of smoke from the
fireplace, as well as from the pine torches that were their
first candles.
Barns.
Ii^ such jjlaiu but Substantial dwellings lived
the first generations of the original inhabitants.
Near by stood the barn, constructed in the same
durable manner, and of similar materials. Ordinarily it
was placed as close to the street as possible, sometimes
overstepping the boundary ; being built wholly within the
limits of the highway as often as the town could be induced
to grant land therein for "barn spots." The offal was
thrown directly into the street, which was simply a wide
lane, in many places bristling with tree stumps, between
which a single cart track found its sinuous way.
Kitchen and other The people who inhabited these structures
Furniture. were as hardy and rugged as their homes
were uncouth and comfortless. In these
dwellings, with floors—innocent of carpets except among
the wealthier classes— covered occasionally with a coating
of sand, but kept always clean and spotless by means of
repeated and thorough scrubbings, they passed the largest
part of their toilsome if not cheerless lives. In summer
these houses were barely endurable, but in winter, compared
with modern conveniences, they must have been torture
houses indeed. Their furniture was the simplest, and
judged by the standards of to-day, the most uncomfortable
of its kind. In the kitchen, which was also the livingroom,
in front of the capacious fireplace, stood the long
wooden "settle," with its straight high back; this latter
appendage being apparently intended as a shield against the
cold blasts of winter, that forced their way through every
opening, great or small. A few chairs, as angular and ugly
as the family bench before the fire, stood about. In one