o chink and plaster the place.

Chinking is best done from the inside. Long triangular strips and
blocks of wood are driven in between the logs and fastened there with
oak pins driven into the lower log till nothing but small crannies
remain. Some cabins are finished with moss plugged into all the
crannies, but mud worked into plaster does better.

It should be put on the outside first, and afterward finished form the
inside. It is best done really with two plasterers working together,
one inside and one out.

This completes the shanty, but a bunk and fireplace are usually added.

The fireplace may be in one corner, or in the middle of the end. It is
easiest to make in the former.

Across the corner, peg three angle braces, each about three feet long.
These are to prevent the chimney falling forward.

Now begin to build with stone, using mud as mortar, a fireplace this
shape. (Fig. 9.) Make the opening about eighteen inches across; carry
it up two feet high, drawing it in a little, then lay a long stone
across the front, after which build up {63} the flue behind the corner
braces right up to the roof. The top corner-piece carries the rafter
that may be cut off to let the flue out. Build the chimney up outside
as high as the highest part of the ridge.

But the ideal fireplace is made with the chimney on the outside of the
cabin, at the middle of the end farthest from the door. For this you
must cut a hole in the end log, like a big, low window, pegging a jamb
on the ends as before.

With stones and mud you now build a fireplace inside the shanty, with
the big chimney carried up outside, always taking care that there are
several inches of mud or stone between the fire and any of the logs.

In country where stone cannot be found, the fireplace is often built
of mud, sustained by an outside cribbing of logs.

If the flue is fair size, that is, say one quarter the size of the
fireplace opening, it will be sure to draw.

The bunk should be made before the chinks are plastered, as the
hammering is apt to loosen the mud.

Cut eight or ten poles a foot longer than you need the bunk; cut the
end of each into a flat board and drive these between the long logs at
the right height and place for the bunk, supporting the other end on a
crosspiece from a post to the wall. Put a very big pole on the outer
side, and all is ready for the bed; most woodsmen make this of small
fir boughs.

There are two other well-known ways