On rainy days we used to play house on the front verandah by draping patchwork quilts over chairs placed on their sides to form rooms with connecting tunnels, a game we never tired of, for as we got older and graduated from this form of amusement we helped to set up the patchwork play-houses for the younger members of the family.

As small boys we went barefoot all summer (except at church services) and our feet became so toughened and calloused we could run with ease over gravel roads or blistering hot sand. We had fun driving hoops large iron hoops they were which came from old carriage wheels, and these we propelled or guided with a short stick. Between our cottage and the village proper there was a winding gravel road over two or three small hills ideal for "hooping". With a hoop humming along beside one, it was no chore at all to go for the mail or take a grocery order to the general store.