Folk in such
circumstances waste no labor in ornamentation. Each family's abiding
place was purely utilitarian. They cultivated no land, and the meadow
during the brief season supplied them with a profusion of delicate
flowers a southern garden could scarcely excel. Aside from a few trees
felled about each home site, their common effort had cleared away the
willows and birch which bordered the creek bank, so that an open landing
was afforded the canoes.
There was but one exception to the monotonous similitude of these
several habitations. A few paces back from the stream and standing
boldly in the open rose a log house double the size of any other there.
It contained at least four rooms. Its windows were of ample size, the
doors neatly carpentered. A wide porch ran on three sides. It bore about
itself an air of homely comfort, heightened by muslin at the windows, a
fringe of poppies and forget-me-nots blooming in an orderly row before
it, and a sturdy vine laden with morning-glories twining up each
supporting column of the porch roof.
Between the house and the woods an acre square was enclosed by a tall
picket fence. Within the fence, which was designed as a barricade
against foraging deer, there grew a variety of vegetables.
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