l from the
outside, to respond without offering easy entrance to an unwelcome
visitor. In the days when there was considerable danger of Indian
attacks no windows were constructed, for the householder could defend
only one aperture. Later, square holes which could be securely barred at
night and during cold weather were made to serve as windows. Flat pieces
of sandstone, if they could be found, were used in building the great
fireplace; otherwise, thick timbers heavily covered with clay were made
to serve. In scarcely a cabin was there a trace of iron or glass; the
whole could be constructed with only two implements--an ax and an auger.

Occasionally a family carried to its new home some treasured bits
of furniture; but the difficulty of transportation was likely to be
prohibitive, and as a rule the cabins contained only such pieces
of furniture as could be fashioned on the spot. A table was made by
mounting a smoothed slab on four posts, set in auger holes. For seats
short benches and three-legged stools, constructed after the manner of
the tables, were in common use. Cooking utensils, food-supplies, seeds,
herbs for medicinal purposes, and all sorts of household appliances were
stowed away on shelves, made by laying clapboards across wooden pins
driven into the wall and mounting to the ceiling; although after sawed
lumber came into use it was a matter of no great difficulty to construct
chests and cupboards. Not infrequently the settler's family slept on
bear skins or blankets stretched on the floor. But crude bedsteads were
made by erecting a pole with a fork in such a manner that other poles
could be supported horizontally in this fork and by crevices in the
walls. Split boards served as "slats" on which the bedding was spread.
For a long time "straw-ticks"--large cloth bags filled with straw or
sometimes dry grass or leaves--were articles of luxury. Iron pots and
knives were necessities which the wise householder carried with him from
his eastern or southern home. In the West they were hard to obtain.
The chief source of supply was the iron-manufacturing districts
of Pennsylvania and Virginia, whence the wares were carried to the
entrepots of river trade by packhorses. The kitchen outfit of the
average newcomer was completed with a few pewter dishes, plates, and
spoons. But winter evenings were utilized in whittling out wooden bowls,
trenchers, and noggins or cups, while gourds and hard-shelled squashes
were turned