this work, were barbarously uneven, and hewn only to a degree
barely sufficient to permit of a tolerable level when placed one upon
the other. Morticed together at the ends, so very loosely had the work
been done, that a timid observer, and one not accustomed to the survey
of such fabrics, might entertain many misgivings of its security during
one of those severe hurricanes which, in some seasons of the year, so
dreadfully desolate the southern and southwestern country. Chimneys of
clay and stone intermixed, of the rudest fashion, projected from the two
ends of the building, threatening, with the toppling aspect which they
wore, the careless wayfarer, and leaving it something more than doubtful
whether the oblique and outward direction which they took, was not the
result of a wise precaution against a degree of contiguity with the
fabric they were meant to warm, which, from the liberal fires of the
pine woods, might have proved unfavorable to the protracted existence of
either.

The interior of the building aptly accorded with its outline. It was
uncoiled, and the winds were only excluded from access through the
interstices between the remotely-allied logs, by the free use of the
soft clay easily attainable in all that range of country. The light on
each side of the building was received through a few small windows, one
of which only was allotted to each apartment, and this was generally
found to possess as many modes of fastening as the jail opposite--a
precaution referable to the great dread of the Indian outrages, and
which their near neighborhood and irresponsible and vicious habits were
well calculated to inspire. The furniture of the hotel amply accorded
with all its other features. A single large and two small tables; a few
old oaken chairs, of domestic manufacture, with bottoms made of ox or
deer skin, tightly drawn over the seat, and either tied below with small
cords or tacked upon the sides; a broken mirror, that stood
ostentatiously over the mantel, surmounted in turn by a well-smoked
picture of the Washington family in a tarnished gilt frame--asserting
the Americanism of the proprietor and place--completed the contents of
the great hall, and were a fair specimen of what might be found in all
the other apartments. The tavern itself, in reference to the obvious
pursuit of many of those who made it their home, was entitled "The
Golden Egg"--a title made sufficiently notorious to the spectator, from
a huge sig