A HOME IN THE FOREST. 257 



with us, also a tea-kettle, tin cups, and tea of the choicest 

 quality, sugar, pepper, salt, and pork. The man who can- 

 not make a meal where the viands present are moose-meat, 

 bear, jerked venison, fresh trout, and pork, and for drink 

 the best of tea and the purest and coldest spring water, had 

 better keep out of the Eackett woods. 



The people, whoever they were, who prepared the camp 

 in which we were domiciled, had an eye to convenience and 

 comfort. The shanty was built of logs, on three sides, the 

 crevices between which were filled with moss, and the slo- 

 ping roof neatly covered with bark, in layers, like an old- 

 fashioned roof, covered with split shingles. The front was 

 open, and directly before it was a rough fire-place, with 

 jams, made of small boulders, laid up with clay, regularly- 

 fashioned, as if intended for a kitchen. This fire-place was 

 three or four feet high, and served an excellent purpose, 

 with reference to our cookery, and the lighting of our shan- 

 ty at night. It served, also, to conduct the smoke upward, 

 and prevented it from being blown into our faces, as we sat 

 in front, at once, of our sleeping-place and our camp-fire. 

 The only things that reminded us of civilization, aside from 

 what we carried with us, were the innumerable crickets that, 

 through all the night, kept up their chirruping in the cre- 

 vices of this rude fireplace. There was something old-fash- 

 ioned and sociable in their song. These, with the shrill 

 notes of the little peepers along the shore, were old sounds 

 to us, familiar voices, and they fell pleasantly on the ear. 

 We had finished our meal, and taken to our pipes in the 



