ds.

A _log house_, in western parlance, differs from a cabin in the logs
being hewn on two sides to an equal thickness before raising,--in having
a framed and shingled roof, a brick or stone chimney, windows, tight
floors, and are frequently clapboarded on the outside and plastered
within.

A log house thus finished, costs more than a framed one. Cabins are
often the temporary dwellings of opulent and highly respectable
families.

The axe, auger, froe, drawing knife, broad-axe, and crosscut saw are the
only tools required in constructing these rude edifices;--sometimes the
axe and auger only are employed. Not a nail or pane of glass is needed.
Cabins are by no means as wretched for residences as their name imports.

They are often roomy, comfortable and neat. If one is not sufficient to
accommodate the family, another is added, and another until sufficient
room is obtained.

3. _Furniture and mode of living._--The genuine backwoodsman makes
himself and family comfortable and contented where those, unaccustomed
to his mode of life, would live in unavailing regret, or make a thousand
awkward apologies on the visit of a neighbor or traveller. A table is
made of a split slab and supported by four round legs. Clapboards
supported by pins stuck in the logs answer for shelves for table
furniture. The bedstead is often made in the corner of the room by
sticks placed in the logs, supported at the outward corner by a post, on
which clapboards are laid, the ends of which enter the wall between the
logs, and which support the bedding. On the arrival of travellers or
visiters, the bed clothing is shared with them, being spread on the
puncheon floor that the feet may project towards the fire. Many a night
has the writer passed in this manner, after a fatiguing day's ride, and
reposed more comfortably than on a bed of down in a spacious mansion.
All the family of both sexes, with all the strangers who arrive, often
lodge in the same room. In that case the under garments are never taken
off, and no consciousness of impropriety or indelicacy of feeling is
manifested. A few pins stuck in the wall of the cabin display the
dresses of the women and the hunting shirts of the men. Two small forks
or bucks-horns fastened to a joist are indispensable articles for the
support of the rifle. A loose floor of clapboards, and supported by
round poles, is thrown over head for a loft which furnishes a place to
throw any articles not immediately