Edward hid whenever his father was at home, and would rather take a beating than accompany him out preaching. At home, with their mother in a near-constant state of lying-in, Lou and Ellen had responsibility for the carding, knitting, and plaiting of straw (for hats and baskets), the cooking and mending, the churning, cheese-making, and bread baking. Bean’s delicate fingers made fine straight plaits that fetched a good price at market, while Sally, lame from birth, sat and knitted, her stubby fingers counting the stitches of fine stockings and jerseys and drawers. Pell and Frannie gathered wood for the fire, fetched water from the well, and tended the cow and the pig, when they weren’t out on the heath shearing and milking and herding for Birdie’s father. With what Pell and the boys earned out of doors, and all that Lou, Bean, Ellen, and Sally accomplished at home, the pantry would be filled for winter with fruit in jars, apples set on racks, potatoes in the clamp, hanging bacon, and maize flour ground arduously by hand to save paying the miller.
