IN early days, in Illinois, there was very little distinction made between man’s work and woman’s work; for the men could cook and wash and spin, and could do almost any kind of woman’s work, and the women could do almost any kind of man’s work. The girls could yoke up the cattle and go and cut and haul a load of wood, and sometimes when the girls were not in the field they would go and shoot a mess of squirrels and make a big pot-pie for their brother’s dinner. Where there were large families, the parents did but little, the boys and girls done nearly all; and they looked forward to the time when the corn was to plant, or the flax to pull with pleasure, for then all the boys and girls would be together and have a good time; and in pulling flax they would take a swath four feet wide and see who could pull through first, and generally the girls would beat the boys, for it was not heavy work, but all depended on being quick.
[Pioneers Making Lumber.]
THEY would go to the woods and cut a walnut tree, which would square about a foot, and cut it off as long as it would make good lumber, then drag it to a pretty steep hill with the oxen, then score and hew it square, then line it on both sides; the lines an inch apart; then cut two long stout poles, and lay one end up the hill and prop the other end against trees down on the hillside, then run their square log out on them skids, then dig the dirt down so the under man would have level ground to walk on; then one man get above and one below with a whip-saw, which only cut as it went down; and they made real good lumber; and two good hands was supposed to cut two hundred feet per day.