122 INTERIOR OF SHOP. 



opened or shut from the outside by a cord which passes through it 

 by means of a small hole, the inside end being fastened to the latch, 

 and the other to the door by another hole and a knot in the string. 

 This makes a loop upon the inside which answers for the handle. 

 The doors of all the houses, barns, stages, and shops are similarly 

 fastened. 



Next to "the stage" comes "the shop." This is another small 

 house with single room and a high loft, and is situated not far 

 from the house and the stage. It is built low, the foundation 

 resting either on or near the ground. Its size is between that of 

 the stage and the house proper. In it are kept the extra stores ; the 

 flour, potatoes, turnips, salt pork or beef, butter, tea chest, and 

 other articles not in ordinary use in the house. In one corner 

 is a tool bench, on a shelf above are numerous cans with remnants 

 of paint for painting boats and perhaps the kitchen floor ; above 

 this, on a series of nails, hang saws, shaves, planes, old iron hoops, 

 and all sorts of articles usable and unusable that can hang up, 

 while the bench beneath is cluttered up with a little of anything 

 and everything that you can imagine. In the opposite corner the 

 scythe and hoe lean against the wall, while a little way from them a 

 very small, coarse grindstone, mounted on a carriage that threatens 

 to fall to pieces every time that it is touched, leans rather than 

 stands. On the wall, over against the stone, a small window frame 

 is nailed on the inside of a square opening ; it often contains but 

 three whole panes and a broken fourth, the hole filled with an old 

 felt hat. By this, aided by the additional light of the open door, 

 barely light enough enters to enable one to see where to get or put 

 away anything, which is generally anywhere. This shop door 

 looks as if a part of the partition had been cut off, at the 

 farther end and on the same side as the window, and a couple 

 of cleats nailed crosswise, one above the other, to hold the 

 boards together ; the whole affair having very poor, jagged hinges 

 on one side, so that the door opens and shuts very hard and 

 squeaks proportionally, and a latch on the other. 



On the floor, just between the door and window, lies the koma- 



