IN THE BEGINNING 



in a summer home than a hallway two stories 

 high, with a gallery running around the second 

 floor, giving access to the several rooms. Such a 

 room must always be comparatively cool and 

 delightful in warm weather, and with a generous 

 fireplace the ventilation is bound to be of the 

 best. In such a room smoking may be indulged 

 in freely without making the atmosphere dis- 

 agreeable to those who do not indulge in tobacco. 

 I bought the timber for this house in the log, 

 and had it sawed up at the mill in the village. 

 The machinery available was not extensive, but 

 they could plane, tongue, groove, and bead, and 

 make a quarter round, or a scotia. With this 

 help everything else was done on the island, the 

 window-sash only being brought from a distance. 

 The materials all came from the lake shore, and 

 the men who built the house were at times car- 

 penters, farmers, guides, or trappers. I have 

 never seen anywhere a more intelligent, capable, 

 and faithful body of men. I suppose I have 

 had in past years, from time to time, more than 

 a hundred different men in my employ, in all 

 sorts of labor, often under exasperating condi- 

 tions, and yet I have never heard an unkind or 

 quarrelsome word spoken by one to another. 



IS 



