FOREST LIFE. 71 



consists of one or more logs, which form also the back waU of 

 the camp. The foot-hoard is a small pole, some four or six feet 

 from the fire. Our bedstead is mother earth, upon whose cool 

 but maternal bosom we strew a thick coating of hemlock, cedar, 

 and fir boughs. The width of this bed is determined by the num- 

 ber of occupants, varj'ing from ten to twenty feet. Bed-clothes 

 are suited to the width of the bed by sewing quilts and blankets 

 together. The occupants, as a general thing, throw off' their 

 outer garments only when they "turn in" for the night. These 

 hardy sons of the forest envy not those who roll on beds of down ; 

 their sleep is sound and invigorating ; they need not court the 

 gentle spell, turning from side to side, but, quietly submitting, 

 sink into its profound depths. 



Directly over the foot-pole, running parallel with it, and in 

 front of the fire, is the ''deacon seat." I think it would puzzle 

 the greatest lexicographer of the age to define the word, or give 

 its etymology as applied to a seat, which indeed it is, and noth- 

 ing more nor less than a seat ; but, so far as I can discover from 

 those most deeply learned in the antiquarianism of the logging 

 swamp, it has nothing more to do with deacons, or deacons with 

 it, than with the pope. The seat itself, though the name be in- 

 volved in a mystery, is nothing less nor more than a plank hewn 

 from the trunk of a Spruce-tree some four inches thick by twelve 

 inches wide, the length generally corresponding with the width 

 of the bed, raised some eighteen inches above the foot-pole, and 

 made stationary. This seat constitutes our sofa or settee, to 

 which we add a few stools, which make up the principal part of 

 our camp fivrniture. Should any of my readers ever be situated 

 beyond the reach of cabinet-makers, but in the vicinity of the 

 forest, 1 may introduce them into the secret of chair-making with- 

 out the necessity of any tools except an ax. Split the top part 

 of the trunk of a Spruce or Fir-tree in halves, cut a stick of the 

 right length upon which three or four stout hmbs grow ; trim off 



