72 THE PINE-TREE, OR 



the limbs of a sufficient length to suit your fancy ; smooth the 

 piece of timber to which they adhere by hewing, and your seat 

 is completed. I can assure the reader that the instances are 

 rare in which it becomes necessary to send them to the cabinet- 

 maker for repairs, especially to have the legs glued in. 



The luxury of a temporary table is now pretty generally en- 

 joyed, with plates, knives and forks, tin dippers for tea and coffee, 

 and sometimes cups and saucers. Formerly the deacon seat was 

 used instead of a table, and a large frying-pan served for a plat- 

 ter for the whole crew. Around this tjie men would gather, 

 each putting in his bread or potatoe, and salt fish, to sop in the 

 pork fat ; and never did king or courtier enjoy the luxuries of a 

 palace more exquisitely than do our loggers this homely fare. On 

 the St. Croix River, lumbermen generally adhere, from choice, to 

 the original custom of eating from the frying-pan. Bread and 

 beans are baked in a large "Duch oven," which is placed in a 

 hole dug in the earth by the side of the fire, and entirely covered 

 with hot coals and embers. In this position it is allowed to re- 

 main until the contents are done, when the ashes and cover are 

 removed. I need not presume to inform the skillful cook that 

 this mode of baking is unequaled. Our camp-fire is made on 

 the ground next to the front wall, which is sometimes protected 

 by a tier of large stones, but in other instances we simply set up 

 two short stakes, against which enormous back-logs rest. After 

 supper, each night unfailingly a very large fire is built to sleep 

 by. Some of the wood used is so large that it often burns twenty- 

 four hours before being entirely consumed. The amount of fuel 

 made use of in building one camp-fire would supply an ordinary 

 fire a week. 



It is not an unfrequent occurrence, of course, for camps to take 

 fire in this exposed situation, but some one generally discovers 

 it in season to extinguish it by the timely application of snow or 

 water. Instances have occurred, however, in which crews have 



