People on the frontier amused themselves primarily by visiting neighbors. A man’s visit to a tavern or the family’s attendance at a church revival provided events to be recalled in detail through the long cold evenings of the winter. The frontier family yearned for other faces. If people lived close enough, the raising of a log cabin could be a great social event. The women would bake for days, game would be killed and salted down, and, unless the religion of the frontier community forbade it, rum and whiskey would be collected for a work-and-play party that might last as long as several days.
- tavern [ˈtævə:n] n. 酒馆
- attendance [əˈtendəns] n.出席
- revival [riˈvaivəl] n. 奋兴大会(尤指旨在促进基督教信仰的布道会)
- yearn [jə:n] v. 向往
- game [ɡeim] n. 猎物
- forbid [fəˈbid] v. 禁止
- rum [rʌm] n. 朗姆酒
