they were soon turned to account in this way. The old Hollander, Van der Donck, in his account of the New Netherlands, published in 1656, mentions the pumpkin as being held in high favor in New Amsterdam, and adds, that the English colonists—meaning those of New England—“use it also for pastry.” This is probably the first printed allusion to the pumpkin-pie in our annals. Even at the present day, in new Western settlements, where the supply of fruit is necessarily small at first, pumpkins are made into preserves, and as much pains are taken in preparing them, as though they were the finest peaches from the markets of Philadelphia and Baltimore. When it is once proved that pumpkin-pies were provided for the children of the first colonists by their worthy mothers, the fact that a partiality for them continued long after other good things were provided, is not at all surprising, since the grown man will very generally be found to cherish an exalted opinion of the pies of his childhood. What bread-and-milk, what rice-puddings, can possibly equal the bread-and-milk, the rice-puddings of the school-boy? The noble sex, especially, are much given to these tender memories of youthful dainties, and it generally happens, too, that the pie or pudding so affectionately remembered, was home-made; you will not often find the confectioner's tart, bought with sixpence of pocket-money, so indelibly stamped in recollections of the past. There is at all times a peculiar sort of interest about a simple home-made meal, not felt where a cordon-bleu presides; there is a touch of anxiety in the breast of the housekeeper as to the fate of the boiled and roast, the bread and paste, preserves and other cates, which now changes to the depression of a failure, now to the triumph of brilliant success, emotions which are of course shared, in a greater or
