Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/423

Rh year round. Flesh meat is eaten very seldom. In the winter evenings several families will unite around one lamp, which, in order to save wood, they place in the cow-house. Here the women sit, and spin, or knit, and the men, tired with the day's work—felling and cutting wood—lie to rest on the straw, or talk. Occasionally some one reads aloud. Young men at these times go from house to house, and sit for a little while in the spinning-room, where they make acquaintance with the young girls. One troop sometimes chases out another, but for the most part in good fellowship.

As, in former times, this little people is governed by their pastors and elders. A moderator and his council keep watch over the pastor's economic stewardship of their congregations. Crimes very rarely occur which demand the interference of the judication. Marriages are frequent, and as the land and the means of sustenance have not increased in proportion to the increase of the population, a portion of the people have begun to emigrate, especially out of the community of San Giovanni. Near Santa Fe, in the Argentine republic of South America, a little community of Waldenses has established itself, and is beginning to flourish, and only a short time since requested from the mother-community that a pastor might be sent to them. The affection for, and the confidence which the people have in their pastors is often affecting.

During my residence here I have been the witness of three marriages. The first was one of that class which, as it seems to me, would have been better