ordinary mantel-piece. Behind this, and altogether outside
the house, we built a fireplace of stones and clay--laying a hearth of
the same materials, that completely covered the sleeper--in order to
prevent the latter from being burned. On the top of this fireplace, the
chimney was still to be erected; and this was done by notching short
straight pieces of timber, and placing them across each other, exactly
as we had laid the logs of the house itself. These pieces were put in
shorter, as we advanced to the top--so that the top ones might be
lighter and more easily supported by those below; and when the whole was
finished, and the chinks filled with clay, our chimney tapered upward
like the funnel of a little factory. The chimney and fireplace occupied
us quite a day, and at night--although it was not very cold--we tried it
with a log-fire. It drew beautifully.

"Next day we `chinked' the walls all round with chips, stones, and clay.
We chinked gables and all, until not a hole was to be seen that would
let a mouse through. The floor still remained; but we intended to lay
this with plank, and as we had no means of getting them except by our
small saw, and they would require some time to dry, we resolved to
attend, first, to several other things that were of more necessity, and
finish the floor at our leisure. We carpeted the ground, which was
quite dry, with green palmetto leaves, and that rendered it sufficiently
comfortable for the present. We now formally entered our new house,
which we had built from floor to chimney _without a nail_!

"Our next care was to furnish our horse with a house--in other words, to
build a stable. Not that the weather rendered it at all necessary for
Pompo--so our horse was called--to sleep under a roof; but we were
fearful lest some beast of prey, prowling about by night, should fancy
him--as the carcajou had fancied our poor ox.

"The stable was only a two days' job--as we built it out of logs already
cut, and roofed it with the refuse of our clap-boards. Besides, we had
no window nor chimney to make, and we did not chink the logs, as that
was not necessary for a stable in such a climate. Our horse would be
warm enough without that; and Cudjo had made him a trough by hollowing
out one of the tulip-trees.

"From that time forth Pompo was regularly called every evening at
sunset, and shut up in his stable. We could not afford to let the
carcajou make a meal of him, as in our l