milled lumber or
you may use the rustic material of which your house is built and select
some straight logs for your joists. Of course, these joists must have an
even top surface, which may be made by flattening the logs by scoring and
hewing them as illustrated by Figs. 123, 124, and 125 and previously
described. It will then be necessary to cut the ends of the joist square
and smaller than the rest of the log (Fig. _A_, 229); the square ends must
be made to fit easily into the notches made in the sill logs (_B_, Fig.
229) so that they will all be even and ready for the flooring (_C_, Fig.
229). For a house ten feet wide the joists should be half a foot in
diameter, that is, half a foot through from one side to the other; for
larger spans use larger logs for the joists.

Foundation

If your house is not a "mudsill" you may rest your sill logs upon posts or
stone piles; in either case, in the Northern States, they should extend
three feet below the ground, so as to be below frost-line and prevent the
upheaval of the spring thaw from throwing your house "out of plumb."

Roofing

All the old-time log cabins were roofed with shakes, splits, clapboards,
or hand-rived shingles as already described and illustrated by Figs. 126,
128, 129, and 130; but to-day they are usually shingled with the
machine-sawed shingle of commerce. You may, however, cover the roof with
planks as shown by Fig. 233 or with bark weighted down with poles as
shown by Fig. 234. In covering it with board or plank nail the latter on
as you would on a floor, then lay another course of boards over the cracks
which show between the boards on the first course.

Gables

The gable ends of the cabin should be built up of logs with the rafters of
the roof running between the logs as they are in Figs. 229 and 233, but
the roof may be built, as it frequently is nowadays, of mill lumber, in
which case it may be framed as shown by Figs. 49, 51, and the gable end
above the logs filled in with upright poles as shown in Figs. 173 and 247,
or planked up as shown in the Southern saddle-bag (Fig. 241), or the ends
may be boarded up and covered with tar paper as shown in Fig. 248, or the
gable end may be shingled with ordinary shingles (Fig. 79).

Steep Roof

Remember that the steeper the roof is the longer the shingles will last,
because the water will run off readily and quickly on a steep surface and
the shingles have an opportunity to dry quickly; besid