by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER TWENTY.
A HOUSE BUILT WITHOUT A NAIL.
"Next day Cudjo and I went on with our housebuilding. This day wasappropriated to roofing it. We first laid a row of the clap-boards,projecting considerably over the eaves--so as to cast the water far out.These we secured near their lower ends by a long straight pole, whichtraversed the roof horizontally from gable to gable, and was lashed downby strips of wet elk-hide. These we knew would tighten as they dried,and press the pole firmer than ever against the boards.
"We now laid a second row of the clap-boards--with their lower endsriding the upper ones of the first row, and thus securing them. Thesecond row was in its turn secured by a horizontal pole, along itsbottom, and at its top by the lower ends of the third row; and so on upto the ridge.
"The other side was shingled in a similar manner; and the ridge itselfwas secured against leakage, by allowing the clap-boards, on one side,to project upwards, and shelter the ends of those on the other. Thisgave our cabin quite a chanticleer sort of comb along its top, and addedto the picturesqueness of its appearance.
"Our house was now built and roofed, and we could say that we hadfinished a house without ever having been inside of it--for as yet ithad neither door nor windows. As the spaces between the logs were notyet `chinked,' it looked more like a gigantic cage than a house.
"Our next day was devoted to making the door and window--that is, makingthe apertures where these were to be. We designed having only onewindow--in the back.
"The manner in which we opened our doorway was very simple. Havingfirst carefully rested the logs--which were to be on each side of thedoor--upon firm wedges, we sawed away the parts between. Fortunately,we had a saw, or this operation would have given us a good deal oftrouble. Of course, we sawed away the proper size for a door; and thusour doorway, by placing the lintels and posts, was complete. In asimilar manner we cut out our window in the back. We then went to workupon one of the soft tulip-trees, and sawed out enough plank to make adoor and window, or rather a window-shutter. These we cut to the propersize, and bound them together by slats, and trenails made out of thehard locust-wood. We then hung them--both door and window-shutter--withstrips of elk-skin. That night we carried in all our bedding andutensils, and slept under the roof of our new house.
"It was still far from being finished; and the next day we set aboutbuilding a fireplace and chimney. This, of course, was to be in one ofthe gable ends; and we chose that looking northward--for we had builtour cabin fronting the east. We wedged the logs precisely as we haddone with the door, and then sawed away the space between--up to theheight of an ordinary mantel-piece. Behind this, and altogether outsidethe house, we built a fireplace of stones and clay--laying a hearth ofthe same materials, that completely covered the sleeper--in order toprevent the latter from being burned. On the top of this fireplace, thechimney was still to be erected; and this was done by notching shortstraight pieces of timber, and placing them across each other, exactlyas we had laid the logs of the house itself. These pieces were put inshorter, as we advanced to the top--so that the top ones might belighter and more easily supported by those below; and when the whole wasfinished, and the chinks filled with clay, our chimney tapered upwardlike the funnel of a little factory. The chimney and fireplace occupiedus quite a day, and at night--although it was not very cold--we tried itwith a log-fire. It drew beautifully.
"Next day we `chinked' the walls all round with chips, stones, and clay.We chinked gables and all, until not a hole was to be seen that wouldlet a mouse through. The floor still remained; but we intended to laythis with plank, and as we had no means of getting them except by oursmall saw, and they would require some time to dry, we resolved toattend, first, to several other things that were of more necessity, andfinish the floor at our leisure. We carpeted the ground, which wasquite dry, with green palmetto leaves, and that rendered it sufficientlycomfortable for the present. We now formally entered our new house,which we had built from floor to chimney _without a nail_!
"Our next care was to furnish our horse with a house--in other words, tobuild a stable. Not that the weather rendered it at all necessary forPompo--so our horse was called--to sleep under a roof; but we werefearful lest some beast of prey, prowling about by night, should fancyhim--as the carcajou had fancied our poor ox.
"The stable was only a two days' job--as we built it out of logs alreadycut, and roofed it with the refuse of our clap-boards. Besides, we hadno window nor chimney to make, and we did not chink the logs, as thatwas not necessary for a stable in such a climate. Our horse would bewarm enough without that; and Cudjo had made him a trough by hollowingout one of the tulip-trees.
"From that time forth Pompo was regularly called every evening atsunset, and shut up in his stable. We could not afford to let thecarcajou make a meal of him, as in our log-hauling and other labours hewas of great service to us.
"As soon as the stable was finished, we set to work and put up a tableand six strong chairs. As I have said, we had no nails; but,fortunately enough, I had both a chisel and auger, with several otheruseful tools. All of these I had brought in the great chest fromVirginia, thinking they might be needed on our beautiful farm at Cairo.With the help of these, and Cudjo's great skill as a joiner, we wereable to mortise and dovetail at our pleasure; and I had made a mostexcellent glue from the horns and hoofs of the elk and ox. We wanted aplane to polish our table, but this was a want which we could easilyendure. The lid of our table was made of plank sawn out of thecatalpa-tree; and with some pieces of pumice I had picked up in thevalley, and the constant scouring which it received at the hands of ourhousewife, it soon exhibited a surface as smooth as glass. From myfinding this pumice-stone, I concluded that our snow-mountain had oncebeen a volcano--perhaps like the peak of Teneriffe, standing alone inthe water, when the great plain around us had been covered with a sea.
"Cudjo and I did not forget the promise we had made to the beavers. Wecould see these little creatures, from day to day, very busy in drawinglarge branches to the water, and then floating them towards theirhouses. We knew that this was for their winter provisions. They hadgrown quite tame, as soon as they found we were not going to molestthem; and frequently came out on our side of the lake. For thisconfidence on their part we were determined to give them a treat theylittle dreamt of--at least, of receiving from our hands.
"I had noticed a clump of beautiful trees, which grew near one side ofthe glade, and not far from where we had built our house. Our attentionhad been called to them by the aromatic fragrance of their flowers, thatblew around us all the time we were engaged in building. They were low,crooked trees, not over thirty feet in height--with oval leaves, sixinches in length, and of a bluish-green colour. The flowers were aboutthe size of a rose, although more like a lily in appearance, and whiteas snow. Their perfume was extremely agreeable, and Mary was in thehabit of gathering a bunch of them daily, and placing them in a vesselof water.
"I have already said that my wife understood botany, and all botaniststake a pleasure in imparting their knowledge to others. She explainedto us, therefore, the nature and properties of this sweet-scented tree.It was a species of magnolia--not that which is celebrated for its largeflowers, but another kind. It was the _magnolia glauca_, sometimescalled `swamp sassafras,' but more generally known among hunters andtrappers as the `beaver-tree.' It is so named by them, because thebeaver is fonder of its roots than of any other food; so fond of it,indeed, that it is often used as a bait to the traps by which theseanimals are caught.
"Whether our beavers had already discovered their favourite tree in someother part of the valley, we did not know. Probably they had; but, atall events, Cudjo and I by a very little labour, with our spade and axe,could save them a great deal; and so we set about it.
"In a few hours we dug up several armfuls of the long branching roots,and carried them down to the edge of the lake. We flung them into thewater at a place where we knew the animals were in
the habit offrequenting. In a short time the aromatic roots were discovered, when awhole crowd of beavers were seen hurrying to the spot, and swimming offagain to their houses, each with a root or a whole bunch of them in histeeth. That was a grand festival for the beavers."