We get but half
the spoils of the forest. For beauty, give me trees with the fur on. This
house was designed and constructed with the freedom of stroke of a
forester's axe, without other compass and square than Nature uses.
Wherever the logs were cut off by a window or door, that is, were not kept
in place by alternate overlapping, they were held one upon another by very
large pins driven in diagonally on each side, where branches might have
been, and then cut off so close up and down as not to project beyond the
bulge of the log, as if the logs clasped each other in their arms. These
logs were posts, studs, boards, clapboards, laths, plaster, and nails, all
in one. Where the citizen uses a mere sliver or board, the pioneer uses
the whole trunk of a tree. The house had large stone chimneys, and was
roofed with spruce-bark. The windows were imported, all but the casings.
One end was a regular logger's camp, for the boarders, with the usual fir
floor and log benches. Thus this house was but a slight departure from the
hollow tree, which the bear still inhabits,--being a hollow made with
trees piled up, with a coating of bark like its original.
The cellar was a separate building, like an ice-house, and it answered for
a refrigerator at this season, our moose-meat being kept there.
Pages:
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286