It will take a considerable quantity of clay to finish your fireplace and chimney, and a rough box, like the mortar-box used by builders, will be found most convenient for mixing the clay.
Saw off the ends of some sticks of wood and make some
of them, by boring holes through the pieces you have sawed off and putting handles in the holes. These mauls may vary from three to five inches in diameter, and will be found to be the most convenient sort of tool for breaking the dry clay before it is dampened, and they will also be of great service in beating the clay down, for the fireplace and hearth. Make the floor to the fireplace and the hearth by spreading the damp clay over the space and hammering it down until it is hard; add more clay, and beat it until the hearth and fire-floor (Figs. 107 and 108) are level and firm. You may then put on enough water to make the surface slippery, and smooth it off with a trowel made of a shingle and a branch, after the manner of the one shown in the foreground of Fig. 98.
on the inside, against the log outside walls, and extending to the inside of the cabin wall. Make the clay into the form of bricks and build up the jambs and lining, about one foot thick, to the top of the fireplace, using wet clay for mortar.
split some sticks and make them about one inch wide by one and one-half inch thick, and with clay for mortar build the chimney, log-cabin style (Fig. 106), to the required height, leaving a space between the chimney and outside wall of the house. Plaster it well with clay, especially upon the inside, and be careful to keep it plumb.
A short time ago, while on a sketching trip through the mountains of East Tennessee and Kentucky, I saw hundreds of these
which have done service for years. Some of them were beautiful specimens of skill, while others had a decided list to port or starboard, as a sailor would say, and were apparently carelessly made.
In the mountains the fireplaces are lined with stones, in place of clay, but in Illinois, where stones are scarce and mud plenty, the old-time log-cabin hearth and fireplace were always made of clay.
Besides the berths or bunks already described, a table and some benches, or three-legged stools, will be found very useful articles of furniture. In a small house a