time the offender must be put in irons for twelve hours and pay a fine; for any subsequent offenses he must be severely punished at the discretion of the governor and council.

To guard the community against excessive vanity 5 in dress, it was enacted that for all public contributions every unmarried man must be assessed in church" according to his own apparel"; and every married man must be assessed "according to his own and his wife's apparel."

10

Not merely extravagance in dress but such social misdemeanors as flirting received' due legislative condemnation. Pretty maids were known to encourage hopes in more than one suitor, and gay deceivers of the sterner sex would sometimes seek 15 to win the affections of two or more women at the same time. Wherefore it was enacted that "every minister should give notice in his church that what man or woman soever should use any word or speech tending to a contract of marriage to two 20 several persons at one time, ... as might entangle or breed scruples in their consciences, should for such their offense either undergo corporal correction (by whipping) or be punished by fine or otherwise, according to the quality of the person so 25 offending."

Men were held to more strict accountability for the spoken or written word than in these shameless modern days. Speaking against the governor or any member of the council, was liable to be pun5 ished with the pillory. It was also imprudent to speak too freely about clergymen, who were held in great reverence. No planter could dispose of so much as a pound of tobacco until he had laid aside a certain specified quantity as his assessment toward 10 the minister's salary, which was thus assured even in the worst times, so far as legislation could go.

vicissitudes: changes. — dilapidated : fallen into a ruinous condition. hundreds: the divisions of a county, supposed to have contained originally a hundred families each. — burgesses: members of the legislature.betimes: early.- sumptuary: regulating expense. pillory: a frame in which a person's head was fastened for punishment.

FRANKLIN'S STORY

THOMAS JEFFERSON

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826), an American statesman, was born at Shadwell plantation, Albemarle County, Virginia. He clearly showed what three deeds of his public service of half a century he was proudest of when he wrote for his own tomb the following epitaph:

THOMAS JEFFERSON

AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,

OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM,
AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

From the time when, at the age of twenty-six, he took his 10 seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, until his death on the 4th of July, 1826, a history of his life is largely a history of our country.

When the Declaration of Independence was under the consideration of Congress there were 15 two or three unlucky expressions in it which gave offense to some members. I was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived that I was not insensible to these criticisms. "I have made it a rule," said he, "whenever in my power, to avoid 20 becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman printer one of my companions, an apprentice hatter, having served out his time, was 25

about to open a shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome signboard, with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words, 'John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells hats for 5 ready money,' with a figure of a hat subjoined ; but he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word hatter' needless, because followed by the words 'makes hats,' which showed 10 he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word 'makes' might as well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the hats. He struck it out. A third said that he thought the words for ready money' were 15 useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit. They were parted with, and the inscription now stood, John Thompson sells hats.' 'Sells hats!' says his next friend. Why, nobody will expect you to give them away; what then is the 20 use of that word? It was stricken out and 'hats'

followed it, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So the inscription was at last reduced to John Thompson' with the figure of a hat subjoined."

draughtsman: writer.

changes.

subjoined: put below. - amendments :

THE REAPING MACHINE

During the first half of the last century the American farmer was compelled to perform nearly all of the labor of agriculture by hand. The plow and harrow were practically the only implements drawn by horses. Wheat was sown broadcast by 5 hand then, as in Bible times, and covered with a harrow, while corn was dropped in furrows by hand and covered with a hoe. Reaping, the most important of all the work on the farm, was still performed by hand with the sickle, which had remained 10 unchanged in form since the earliest known history of the cultivation of cereals. Later the hand cradle in many instances replaced the sickle, but still the labor of harvest was too slow. Wheat must be harvested within a few days after it ripens, or it 15 will shatter out and much of the crop will be lost; and the farmer's seed and labor, as well as the use of his land for a year, will be wasted. Hence our wheat crop in the day of the sickle and cradle was limited to the few acres that each farmer could 20 reap by hand. There was no demand for threshing machines because the farmer could store his small crop in the barn in the sheaf, and flail or tramp it out on the barn floor at his leisure during the winter.