Traveling, as I have already stated, was on horseback, and a servant well mounted always went with the master to open the gates. The roads were mere driftways. A generous hospitality left the inns to justices' courts, town councils and tipplers. The guest chamber was seldom empty, and the fireside all the more cheerful for the face of a stranger. Public provisions for education were insufficient. Their place was supplied for boys by private tutors, or by board in the family of a learned clergyman to prepare them for college. The girls were sometimes sent to Boston to study accomplishments. They loved reading, each generation having its favorite in verse and in prose. Of those nearest to us Pope was the poet. Private libraries were numerous and well selected, though not large. Amusements took their character from country life. The young men loved races on the beach with their Narragansett pacers, and a silver tankard for the winner. They all loved quahaug roasts on the shores, where deep beds of shells still remain to bear witness to their festivities. They loved to hunt the fox and the deer with hound and horn, and exercise their skill in starting and following up the partridge and woodcock and quail. They would lie on the frozen ground in the cold winter dawn to get a shot at a duck or a wild goose and trap the timid rabbit in snow. No hardship was too great that brought them to their game. In May they went in merry parties to Hartford to eat bloated salmon. In such a state of society weddings were great festivals, and more especially for the display of dress. The bride came robed in stiff brocade with towering head dress and high heeled shoes. The bridegroom, in scarlet coat, his limbs clad in small-cloths and silken hose, with laced ruffles on his wrists, and brilliant buckles on his shoes, and his hair curled and frizzled, or suspended behind in a queue. Friends and kindred came from far and near, sometimes as many as six hundred being gathered to witness the nuptial rites and join in the wedding dance. But the great pastime for young and old, for matron and maid and for youth just blushing into manhood, was the autumn husking, when neighbors met at each other's corn-yards to husk each other's corn; sometimes husking a thousand bushels in a single meeting. Husking had its laws, and never were laws better obeyed. For every red ear the lucky swain could claim a kiss from every maid; with every smoot ear he smooched the faces of his mates amid laughter and joyous shoutings; but when the prize fell to a girl she would walk the round demurely, look each eager aspirant in the face, and hide or reveal the secret of her heart by a kiss. Then came the dance and supper, running deep into the night and often encroaching upon the early dawn.