In The Eyrie, Mr. and Mrs. Ripley lived, and here a great part
of the associators would gather in the evenings. Of a summer night, when
the moon was full, they lit no lamps, but sat grouped in the light and
shadow, while sundry of the younger men sang old ballads, or joined Tom
Moore's songs to operatic airs. On other nights, there would be an
original essay or poem read aloud, or else a play of Shakespere, with
the parts distributed to different members; and, these amusements
failing, some interesting discussion was likely to take their place.
Occasionally, in the dramatic season, large delegations from the farm
would drive into Boston in carriages and wagons to the opera or the
play. Sometimes, too, the young women sang as they washed the dishes, in
The Hive; and the youthful yeomen of the society came in and helped them
with their work. The men wore blouses of a checked or plaided stuff,
belted at the waist, with a broad collar folding down about the throat,
and rough straw hats; the women, usually, simple calico gowns, and
hats,--which were then an innovation in feminine attire. In the season
of wood-wanderings, they would trim their hats with wreaths of barberry
or hop-vine, ground-pine, or whatever offered,--a suggestion of the
future Priscilla of "Blithedale." Some families and students came to the
farm as boarders, paying for their provision in household or field
labor, or by teaching; a method which added nothing to the funds of the
establishment, and in this way rather embarrassed it.
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