In old Narragansett; romances and realities

								

different from those of other New England colonies. The establishment
of and adherence to the Church of England, and the universal
prevalence of African slavery, evolved a social life resembling
that of the Virginian plantation rather than of the Puritan farm.
It was a community of many superstitions, to which the folk-customs
of the feast-days of the English Church, the evil communications of
witch-seeking Puritan neighbors, the voodooism of the negro slaves,
the pow wows of the native red men, all added a share and infinite
variety. It was a plantation of wealth, of vast flocks and herds, of
productive soil, of great crops, of generous living; all these are
vanished from the life there to-day, but still the fields are smiling
and the lakes and the bay are blue and beautiful as of yore; and a
second prosperity is dawning in the old Kings Province in the universal
establishment therein of happy summer-homes.
In memory of many perfect days spent on Narragansett roads and lanes,
of days in Narragansett woods or on the shore, these pages have been
written.



                                                    ALICE MORSE EARLE.



                                                WICKFORD, RHODE ISLAND,

                                                Midsummer Eve, 1897.

                               CONTENTS

                                                                    PAGE
A Narragansett Elopement                                           1
Narragansett Weavers                                              23
Where Three Towns Meet                                            51
Tuggie Bannocks’s Moonack                                         63
A Black Politician                                                77
The Witch Sheep                                                  103
The Crusoes of the Noon-House                                    121
The Doctor’s Pie-Plates                                          139
My Delft Apothecary Jars                                         151
The Dancing Turkey                                               169
Cuddymonk’s Ghost                                                181_

                       A NARRAGANSETT ELOPEMENT

Four miles north of Narragansett Pier lies the old South Ferry, from
whence for over a century ran ferry-boats to a landing on Conanicut
Island. About a mile farther north there stands on Boston Neck an
ancient willow-shaded, gambrel-roofed, weather-beaten house which in
the latter part of the eighteenth century was the scene of a sadly
romantic event. It was built by Rowland Robinson in the first half of
the century--in 1746--and was originally one hundred and ten feet long,
as the stone foundations still show. The kitchen and negro quarters
have been demolished, and the present structure has a front of sixty
feet. The rooms within are models of the simple style of architecture