Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/387

 THE GREEN BUSH TAVERN. 309 referring to the Roman and late English Custom of hanging a bush at the door of a house to advertise an inn, from which arose the proverb, "Good wine needs no bush." The keeper of "The Green Bush" was Nathaniel Paine, a descendant of Stephen Paine, one of the founders of the town. Besides the entertainment furnished for man and beast, passing through the town and seeking a meal or lodging, landlord Paine had more home patrons, and these were his best customers, for a tavern of " ye olden days " without a bar and its usual supplies would have been a strange affair, a pretence and not the real article. Probably not a householder in Barrington and the near confines of Rehoboth failed to frequent and patronize Mr. Paine's social bar, from which his chief profits sprang. A jolly crowd came together winter evenings to gossip, tell stories, sing songs, and drink their flip, toddy, punch, etc. The warming influence of the pure liquors of those days quickened tongues, limbs and brains and merry hours flew by at the tavern, while good wives and maidens of the town sat by the evening candle and open fireplace knitting, sewing, or in other ways, attending to the household work, which had no cessation nor daily relief. The local rhymester and singer had his innings at the tavern and earned his drinks by his wit or wits. William Andrews was one of the local wags and poets, who was pledged a glass of grog for an impromptu verse on Josiah Viall, the village blacksmith, who was at that moment coming up the road to visit the tavern. Out flashed these lines : " Here comes old Vulcan, As bold as a lion, Has plenty of work, But no coal nor iron," and shouts of laughter were the greetings which Viall received at the pointed satire on his usual shortness in fuel and stock at his smithy, which stood on the west side of the road near the house of Mrs. Charles L. Miller.