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All that day and the next, Ma was trying out the lard in big iron pots on the cookstove Laura and Mary carried wood and watched the fire Itpots simmered and boiled, but they must not ss She put them in a cloth and squeezed out every bit of the lard, and then she put the cracklings away She would use them to flavor johnny-cake later

Cracklings were very good to eat, but Laura and Mary could have only a taste They were too rich for little girls, Ma said

Ma scraped and cleaned the head carefully, and then she boiled it till all the meat fell off the bones She chopped theknife in the wooden bowl, she seasoned it with pepper and salt and spices Then she mixed the pot-liquor with it, and set it away in a pan to cool When it was cool it would cut in slices, and that was headcheese

The little pieces of e pieces, Ma chopped and chopped until it was all chopped fine She seasoned it with salt and pepper and with dried sage leaves froarden Then with her hands she tossed and turned it until it ell mixed, and she molded it into balls She put the balls in a pan out in the shed, where they would freeze and be good to eat all winter That was the sausage

When Butchering Ties and the headcheese, the big jars of lard and the keg of white salt-pork out in the shed, and in the attic hung the smoked hams and shoulders

The little house was fairly bursting with good food stored away for the long winter The pantry and the shed and the cellar were full, and so was the attic

Laura and Mary must play in the house now, for it was cold outdoors and the brown leaves were all falling froht Pa banked it with ashes to keep the coals alive till

The attic was a lovely place to play The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables The red peppers and the onions dangled overhead The has, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for ave the place a dusty-spicy smell

Often the wind howled outside with a cold and lonesome sound But in the attic Laura and Mary played house with the squashes and the pu and cosy

Mary was bigger than Laura, and she had a rag doll named Nettie Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll It was named Susan It wasn’t Susan’s fault that she was only a corncob Sometimes Mary let Laura hold Nettie, but she did it only when Susan couldn’t see

The best tiht his traps in frorease them

by the fire He rubbed thes of the pans with a feather dipped in bear’s grease

There were sreat bear traps with teeth in their jaws that Pa said would break aif they shut on to it

While he greased the traps, Pa told Laura and Mary little jokes and stories, and afterward he would play his fiddle

The doors and ere tightly shut, and the cracks of theframes stuffed with cloth, to keep out the cold But Black Susan, the cat, caing door of the cat-hole in the bottom of the front door She alent very quickly, so the door would not catch her tail when it fell shut behind her