It seemed a difficult job to get rid of all the trunks now they were
down cumbering the earth, after enough were kept for the log-house, and
fencing, and firing. The only way was to burn them. It was done in
this manner: the largest tree in a group was felled first, and all round
were made to fall across it, others were put above it with handspikes.
The boughs and brush-wood were placed under and above it, till a huge
heap eight feet high was formed. A number of these heaps were made, and
when the day's work was done they were set on fire. It was a curious
sight at night to see them all blazing together, lighting up the dark
forest, and the faces of the men, and the huts, and those around them.
On the first night several new settlers came rushing over to Michael's
clearing to learn what was the matter, thinking the forest was on fire.
The men had indeed to take care that the flames did not spread to the
other trees. The stumps of course remained, and it would take six or
eight years before they would rot away. Michael had learned to make
potash out of the ashes which he could sell at 7 pounds the barrel.
The log-house, or rather hut, was next built. Four logs were first laid
down on the ground to mark out the shape of the hut, the ends being
notched to fit into each other. The upper sides of the logs were then
hollowed out, so that the next tier of logs fitted into them. These
were also notched. In the same way others were placed above these till
the walls were of the proper height. The front wall was higher than the
back one, so that the roof sloped from the front to the back. There
were now the four walls, but no door and no windows. These were sawed
out and frames fitted into them. The roof was made of smaller logs. A
log was split in two and hollowed out so as to form a trough. A row of
troughs was then put on side by side, sloping from the front wall to the
back, the hollow part up. Over the edges of these were next placed
other troughs with the hollow down. It was just as rounded tiles are
used for roofs in England. The troughs stuck out some way both before
and behind to protect the walls. This sort of roof, from being very
thick, keeps out the cold in winter, and the heat in summer. The spaces
in the walls between the logs were then filled up with clay. A
well-made door and thick shutters being fixed up, and a large stove
lighted, Michael found even in the coldest weather, that his log hut
could be kept far warmer than had been his cottage in the old country.
The hut was divided into three rooms, a large one in the middle to serve
for the kitchen, the parlour, store-room, and boys' sleeping room; and
one on each side,--one of them was for himself and wife and two youngest
children, and the other for the girls.
Michael and his boys made all the furniture out of slabs. The slabs
were made in this way: they took a clean straight-grained pine-tree and
cut it into logs eight feet long. One end of each was lined out into
planks, three or four inches thick, and then split with wedges. They
then fixed the plank into notches with wedges between two logs, and
smoothed them with the axe and plane. Thinner planks were made out of
the white cedar, which splits very freely. The fir planks served for
the flooring of their bed-rooms, and for shelves and cupboards.
As they for the first time sat round the table just finished by Michael,
they thanked God heartily who had brought them to a country where steady
hard work could gain for them so many comforts.
Some of the settlers were not quite so well pleased as Michael. They
were not so handy with their tools. John Kemp had more daughters, and
had not made or saved so much as Michael. He had no stove, but he made
a fire-place after this fashion. Four very wide ladders were placed in
a square, a little way from the wall, passing through the roof. In
front some of the bars were left out. Clay mixed with straw was then
kneaded round the rounds, or steps of the ladders and all the rest of
the space between them filled up with clay, so that all the wood was
thickly covered. The part where the bars were left out was the front of
the fire-place. It drew very well and threw out a great heat.
It was a great thing to have all the stuff for building and fencing on
the ground. The fences were made of rough logs piled up one on another
in a zigzag form. This is called a snake fence. The stumps were still
in the ground. It would take some years to get them out, but Michael
knew that he could even plough between those farthest apart, and dig in
other places, and that wheat and Indian-corn and potatoes were sure to
grow well.
Some time before, a road to the settlement had been marked out through
the forest. This was done by blazing the trees, that is cutting a piece
of bark off each with an axe. Choppers were now set to work to cut down
the trees, and burn them off, but the stumps were left standing, and the
carts and wagons had to wind their way along between them. Where the
ground was swampy, trunks of trees were placed close together across the
road: this is what is called a corduroy road. Other roads were planked
over with fir, and called plank roads; others were of gravel. In all of
them the stumps had been grubbed up, or rotted out, or blown up.
Michael's settlement, Thornhill, as it was called, was able to get on
pretty well without a road, as it could be reached by the lake and
river. Michael and John together made a canoe that they might get about
the lake. It was formed from a large log, and hollowed out. The boys
learned soon to paddle in it almost as fast as the Indians could. When
the winter set in, and the snow lay thick on the ground, roads were made
on it by beating it down hard. Over these roads sleighs, that is carts
on runners, were able to travel faster than those on wheels.
So hard had Michael and his sons worked, that before the frost set in
and the snow came down, they had been able to sow three acres of their
ground with wheat, which they hoped would give them a good supply of
flour for the next year. "If the reason is early, I hope that we may
get a spring burn of three or four acres more;" said Michael to his
boys. "Then we'll plant it with Indian-corn, and pumpkins, and
potatoes, and turnips, and carrots, and cabbages, and onions, and other
garden stuff. In a short time we shall not have much to buy in the
shape of food, as soon as we can raise enough for pigs and fowls, and
keep a cow or two."
As yet nothing particular had happened to Michael Hale and his family.
They had worked on steadily, and were already reaping the reward of
their industry.