Two common low-post maple bedsteads were soon uncorded and
carried off, as were the beds and bedding. There was scarcely any
crockery, pewter and tin being its substitutes; and as for chairs
there was only one, and that had rockers: a practice of New England
that has gradually diffused itself over the whole country, looking
down ridicule, the drilling of boarding-schools, the comments of
elderly ladies of the old school, the sneers of nurses, and, in a
word, all that venerable ideas of decorum could suggest, until this
appliance of domestic ease has not only fairly planted itself in
nearly every American dwelling, but in a good many of Europe also!
It required about twenty minutes for the party to clear the cabin of
every article that might induce an Indian to suspect the presence of
white men. The furniture was carried to a sufficient distance to be
safe from everything but a search; and care was had to avoid as much
as possible making a trail, to lead the savages to the place
selected for the temporary storeroom. This was merely a close
thicket, into which there was a narrow but practicable entrance on
the side the least likely to be visited.
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