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breadthways, and are got of lengths to extend across the 

 breadth of the roof; and if put on two inches apart from 

 each other, and if the boards are twelve inches broad, 

 will, in a roof of fourteen feet long, take only about thir- 

 teen boards, allowing them to " lap " over at the ends. 

 The spaces between each of the boards are then covered 

 by slabs, or by narrow boards. The roof is then com- 

 pleted. Slabs are the outside "slices," as we may term 

 them, which are taken off the logs at the saw-mill, in 

 squaring them to make straight-edged boards. These 

 can be got at the mill for taking them away, though some- 

 times a cent is asked for each slab. The spaces between 

 the logs are filled in from the inside of the building by 

 split pieces of basswood, cedar, or other wood, which splits 

 easy, and this operation is called " chinking." On the 

 outside of these spaces, the settler then plasters them over 

 with mortar ; being the clay mixed up with water, and 

 which makes a good substitute for lime. By mixing a 

 little sand with the mortar, it makes it harder when dry, 

 and not so liable to crack. The chimney is built at one 

 end of the shanty, and may be built in two ways, by split 

 laths, (split pieces of basswood,) and then plastered over 

 with mortar, or by making, as it were, four ladders, spars 

 of which, ten inches or so apart, and then filling up the 

 spaces with what are sometimes called "cats," being 

 mortar mixed up with hay (wild meadow hay the best,) 

 or straw, and moulded by the hand int.o lengths, accord- 

 ing to the breadth of the spars in the ladders ; and these 

 are laid over the spars and joined together, each succeed- 

 ing course being joined to the one below, and thus form 

 when dry a continued and solid chimney, perfectly free 

 from harm by the fire, which the first described chimney 

 (by split pieces of wood,) is not. But this, and the fixing 

 the windows and the door, by cutting out the logs of tho 



