The life of the mountain woman was one of complete subservience to her menfolk; she milked the cows, kept the garden. fetched water from a distant spring, cooked and ate in a primitive log cabin and waited on her men at table, never sitting down to eat until all the men had finished their meal. The normal family consisted of ten to twenty children and the girls, who often married at twelve or thirteen, often looked like old women at thirty. One old crone, advising a young girl about marriage, simply said, "Don't never do hit!"