THE BARN. 



"An old barn is near: and the flocks and the poultry seem to enjoy 

 an amount of comfort which we might look for in vain, in the vicinity of 

 a more ornate dwelling-house." 



— Wilson Flagg. 



"And she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and 

 laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for 

 them in the inn." 



—St. Luke. 



HE barn is not far from the homestead, 

 thirty steps or so beyond the trough 

 where the cows and horses drink; and 

 the trough is near the well. It is quite 

 a large building, well constructed of 

 great hewn timbers; and it is an old 

 structure, covered with the initials of 

 two or three generations. The im- 

 OLD DOLLiE. mcnsc beams in its framework came 



from the woods, and one can still see the score marks of 

 the ax, made originally in chopping in along the logs, to 

 facilitate the hewing off of the big posts and slabs with 

 the broadax, and thus, after all, to assist the laborer in 

 his work. To build a barn served two purposes in those 

 days, for to get out logs helped to clear the land as 

 well as to erect a shelter for the stock and the hay. 

 The bark still clings to some of the beams and rafters. 

 The weatherboarding is of pine, from the State of 

 New York, flatboated down the Ohio from Pittsburg, 

 and costing, in those days, but eight dollars a thou- 

 sand. It still protects and preserves the great interior 

 from the storms. 



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