Content himself was the last to quit the fields and the out-buildings.
When he reached the postern in the palisadoes, he stopped to call to those
above him, in order to learn if any yet lingered without the wooden
barriers. The answer being in the negative, he entered, and drawing-to the
small but heavy gate, he secured it with bar, bolt, and lock, carefully
and jealously, with his own hand. As this was no more than a nightly and
necessary precaution, the affairs of the family received no interruption.
The meal of the hour was soon ended; and conversation, with those light
toils which are peculiar to the long evenings of the fall and winter in
families on the frontier, succeeded as fitting employments to close the
business of a laborious and well-spent day.
Notwithstanding the entire simplicity which marked the opinions and usages
of the colonists at that period, and the great equality of condition which
even to this hour distinguishes the particular community of which we
write, choice and inclination drew some natural distinctions in the
ordinary intercourse of the inmates of the Heathcote family.
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