"And what else?" subjoined Ben.
"Oh, the milk did not go round in wagons. There were not half so many people to supply. We kept a cow and sold to our neighbors. The milkmen had what was called a yoke over their shoulders, with a tin can at each end. They used to cry, 'Milk ho! ye-o!' The garbage man rang his bell and you brought out your pail. A few huckster men were beginning to go round, but Hudson Market was the place to buy fresh vegetables that came in every morning. And, oh, there were the chimney-sweeps!"
"We had our chimney swept here," said Jim. "The man had a long jointed handle and a wiry brush at the end."
"But then there were little negro boys who climbed up and down and sometimes scraped them as they went. But several were smothered or stuck fast in London and it was considered cruel and dangerous. You'd hear the boys in the morning with their 'Sweep ho!' and you wouldn't believe how many variations they could make to it."
"Poor little boys!" said Hanny. "Didn't they get awful black and sooty?"
The boys laughed. "They were black to begin with," said Jim. "All they had to do was to shake themselves."
"And how do you suppose Santa Claus keeps so clean?" asked the little girl, nothing daunted.
That was a poser. No one could quite tell.
"We used to burn out our chimney," announced Aunt Patience.
"Burn it out?"