DWELLING HOUSES. 119 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A Labrador home — Houses — Where erected — Stage — Shop — Stable — 

 The house — Papering — Family — Occupation of its members — Out- 

 of-door life. 



In describing a Labrador home, I shall be doing justice to 

 nearly all by describing one, since all are modelled and furnished 

 on about the same plan. 



There are, of course, a number of houses modelled after the 



w 



fashion of those "m the States," as the expression is here; but 

 they are the exception rather than the rule. The best house, per- 

 haps, is owned and occupied by Mr. W. H. Whiteley, the magis- 

 trate of this section of the coast, and situated at Bonne Esperance, 

 a little island at the mouth of the Esquimaux, or, as it is rightly 

 named, St. Paul's river. This is a comfortable mansion-like affair, 

 and is built like many of the so-called house taverns so common 

 in country places in New England and other states. Its white ex- 

 terior shows for a long distance up and down the coast, on a clear 

 day, especially if the sun be shining and serves as a beacon to the 

 inhabitant and voyager in these parts. 



While Mr. W'hiteley's is a palace beside the other houses, there 

 are those that are hovels beside what I am about to describe as 

 characteristic of the larger and better class of abodes. These hov- 

 els, or rather huts, for huts they are in the true sense of the word, 

 are of the rudest kind. The logs, posts, and most of the boards 

 are hewed out by hand from trees growing a little way in the in- 



