It's a smart fellow that knows what he can't do.--Sayings of
Si Sylvanne.
I suppose every trapper that ever lived, on first building a cabin,
said, “Oh, any little thing will do, so long as it has a roof and is
big enough to lie down in.” And every trapper has realized before spring
that he made a sad mistake in not having it big enough to live in and
store goods in. Quonab and Rolf were new at the business, and made the
usual mistake. They planned their cabin far too small; 10 X 12 ft.,
instead of 12 X 20 ft. they made it, and 6-ft. walls, instead of 8-ft.
walls. Both were expert axemen. Spruce was plentiful and the cabin rose
quickly. In one day the walls were up. An important thing was the roof.
What should it be? Overlapping basswood troughs, split shingles, also
called shakes, or clay? By far the easiest to make, the warmest
in winter and coolest in summer, is the clay roof. It has three
disadvantages: It leaks in long-continued wet weather; it drops down
dust and dirt in dry weather; and is so heavy that it usually ends by
crushing in the log rafters and beams, unless they are further supported
on posts, which are much in the way. But its advantages were so obvious
that the builders did not hesitate. A clay roof it was to be.
When the walls were five feet high, the doorway and window were cut
through the logs, but leaving in each case one half of the log at the
bottom of the needed opening. The top log was now placed, then rolled
over bottom up, while half of its thickness was cut away to fit over
the door: a similar cut out was made over the window. Two flat pieces
of spruce were prepared for door jambs and two shorter ones for window
jambs. Auger holes were put through, so as to allow an oak pin to
be driven through the jamb into each log, and the doorway and window
opening were done.
In one corner they planned a small fireplace, built of clay and stone.
Not stone from the lake, as Rolf would have had it, but from the
hillside; and why? Quonab said that the lake stone was of the water
spirits, and would not live near fire, but would burst open; while the
hillside stone was of the sun and fire spirit, and in the fire would add
its heat.
The facts are that lake stone explodes when greatly heated and hill
stone does not; and since no one has been able to improve upon Quonab's
explanation, it must stand for the present.
The plan of the fireplace was simple. Rolf had been present at the
building of several, and the main point was to have the chimney large
enough, and the narrowest point just above the fire.
The eaves logs, end logs, and ridge logs were soon in place; then came
the cutting of small poles, spruce and tamarack, long enough to reach
from ridge to eaves, and in sufficient number to completely cover the
roof. A rank sedge meadow near by afforded plenty of coarse grass with
which the poles were covered deeply; and lastly clay dug out with a
couple of hand-made, axe-hewn wooden spades was thrown evenly on the
grass to a depth of six inches; this, when trampled flat, made a roof
that served them well.
The chinks of the logs when large were filled with split pieces of wood;
when small they were plugged with moss. A door was made of hewn planks,
and hinged very simply on two pins; one made by letting the plank
project as a point, the other by nailing on a pin after the door was
placed; both pins fitting, of course, into inch auger holes.
A floor was not needed, but bed bunks were, and in making these they
began already to realize that the cabin was too small. But now after a
week's work it was done. It had a sweet fragrance of wood and moss, and
the pleasure it gave to Rolf at least was something he never again could
expect to find in equal measure about any other dwelling he might make.
Quonab laid the fire carefully, then lighted his pipe, sang a little
crooning song about the “home spirits,” which we call “household gods,”
walked around the shanty, offering the pipestem to each of the four
winds in turn, then entering lighted the fire from his pipe, threw some
tobacco and deer hair on the blaze, and the house-warming was ended.
Nevertheless, they continued to sleep in the tent they had used all
along, for Quonab loved not the indoors, and Rolf was growing daily more
of his mind.