Mrs. ⸺ said that she lost her parents before she was three years old, and was taken into the sister-house, and her brothers into the brother-house. Even those who had parents living sometimes preferred to live in these buildings.
Some simple details of home-life were given to me by Mrs. C., of Bethlehem.
In their own family, in her youth, they rose about five, and breakfasted at six, usually on bread, butter, and coffee, perhaps with the addition of molasses. At nine they had a lunch of cold meat, pie, and bread and butter; and at a quarter before twelve came the dinner of meat and vegetables. Often they had soup. There was soup every day at the sister-house, and I was told that in cases of sickness it could be bought there.
“We always had pie for dinner. At two we had coffee and bread and butter. This was called vesper. At six was our supper of cold meat, bread and butter, and pickles. We always had pickles, and every day in the year we had apple-butter.”
Mrs. C.’s father was a miller, and perhaps lived more “full and plenty” than some of his neighbors.
She continued: “Every Saturday, we baked bread, pies, and sugar-cake. We made a great many doughnuts, or Fast-nacht gucke.” (Shrove-Tuesday pancakes, as we may say.) “We made crullers, and called them Schtrumpf-bänder” (“garters,” doubtless from their form). “Nearly all our cakes were made from raised dough. One we called Bäbe. ‘Snow-balls’ were made with plenty of eggs, milk, flour, and a little sugar, and were fried in fat.
“At Christmas we always had turkeys; and then we baked a great supply of cakes, from four quarts of molasses and four pounds of sugar, and these lasted all winter. Then every evening before we went to bed we had Christmas cakes, sweet cider, and apples.
“The two o’clock vesper has generally fallen out of use, but if any one comes to town now that I want to invite, and it is not convenient to have them to dinner or supper, I say, ‘Come to vesper.’ Then we have coffee, and always sugar-cake.”
“It would not be a vesper without the sugar-cake,” said Mrs. C.’s daughter.