The mattress on the bed would have been stuffed with down from the great flocks of wild geese that paused for a few weeks along the St. Lawrence while migrating from the sub-arctic to the south. Apart from the bed, the main item of bedroom furniture was always the armoire which supplanted the seventeenth century coffer, used to store spare linen, bedding, and clothing. This in itself was a sign of relative affluence. In early seventeenth century France, few peasant homes possessed this item of furniture since the mass of the people owned little more than the clothes they stood in and the coarse woolen covers on their beds. Historians today can chart the rise in living standards by noting the growing incidence over the years of such things as armoires in wills and inventories. In Canada armoires were usually made of white pine. It has the virtue of being easily worked, has a nice finish, and endures indefinitely. Much of this furniture, being home-made, was rather crude, but some made by skilled craftsmen was very fine. Sometimes the wood was given a natural finish which resulted in a glowing, honey coloured patina; more frequently it was painted, usually a rich blue or terra cotta.
