alls were made of matched
boards. The ceiling was finished by the joists and underside of the
floor above being planed; the floors were double or of matched boards.

The "Old Indian House," built by John Sheldon, about 1698, stood at the
north end of the training-field, facing the south. Its frame was
largely of oak. It was twenty-one by forty-two feet, two stories, with a
steep pitch roof. In front, the second story projected about two feet,
the ends of the cross-beams being supported by ornamental oak brackets,
two of which are preserved in Memorial Hall. A lean-to thirteen and
a-half feet wide ran the whole length of the north side, its roof being
a continuation of that on the main building.

The ground floor was thus thirty-four and a-half by forty-two feet. From
the centre rose the chimney, about ten feet square at the base, with
fireplaces on the sides and rear. South of it was the front entry,
which, including the stairway, was eight by twelve feet. The lower floor
was laid under the sill, which, projecting beyond the wall, formed a
ledge around the bottom of the rooms wide enough for the children to sit
upon. Stepping over the sill into the front entry, doors are seen on
either hand opening into the front rooms; stairs on the right, lead, by
two square landings and two turns to the left, to a passage over the
entry, from which, at the right and left, doors lead to the chambers. In
the rear of the chimney is a small, dark room, with stairs to the
garret. Including the garret, there were five rooms in the main
structure, each of them lighted by two windows with diamond panes set in
lead.

In the centre of the lean-to was the kitchen, with windows in the rear;
east of this was a bedroom, and west, the buttery and back entry. The
fireplace was a deep cavern, the jambs and back at right angles to each
other and the floor.

At the sides, hanging on spikes driven into pieces of wood built into
the structure for the purpose, were the long-handled frying-pan, the
pot-hook, the boring iron, the branding iron, the long iron peel, the
roasting hook, the fire-pan, the scoop-shaped fire-shovel, with a trivet
or two. The stout slice and tongs lean against the jambs in front.

In one end was the oven, its mouth flush with the back of the fireplace.
In this nook, when the oven was not in use, stood a wooden bench on
which the children could sit and study the catechism and spelling-book
by firelight, or watch the stars throu