The Winning of the West 



and vegetables as well; and he had usually a horse 

 or two, cows, and perhaps hogs and sheep, if the 

 wolves and bears did not interfere. If he was poor 

 his cabin was made of unhewn logs, and held but 

 a single room; if well-to-do, the logs were neatly 

 hewed, and besides the large living and eating-room 

 with its huge stone fireplace, there was also a small 

 bedroom and a kitchen, while a ladder led to the 

 loft above, in which the boys slept. The floor was 

 made of puncheons, great slabs of wood hewed care- 

 fully out, and the roof of clapboards. Pegs of 

 wood were thrust into the sides of the house, to 

 serve instead of a wardrobe; and buck antlers, 

 thrust into joists, held the ever-ready rifles. The 

 table was a great clapboard set on four wooden 

 legs ; there were three-legged stools, and in the bet- 

 ter sort of houses old-fashioned rocking-chairs. 20 

 The couch or bed was warmly covered with blank- 

 ets, bear-skins, and deer-hides. 21 



These clearings lay far apart from one another 

 in the wilderness. Up to the door-sills of the log- 

 huts stretched . the solemn and mysterious forest. 

 There were no openings to break its continuity; 

 nothing but endless leagues on leagues of shadowy, 

 wolf-haunted woodland. The great trees towered 



20 McAfee MSS. 



21 In the McAfee MSS. there is an amusing mention of the 

 skin of a huge bull elk, killed by the father, which the young- 

 sters christened "old ellick"; they used to quarrel for the 

 possession of it on cold nights, as it was very warm, though 

 if the hairside was turned in it became slippery and apt to 

 slide off the bed. 



