e gave protection against
the weather.

Then came the work of thatching the roof, which was done by the branches
of trees, dried grass, or bark. My master put on first a layer of
branches from which the leaves had been stripped, and over that we laid
coarse grass to the depth of six or eight inches, binding the same down
with small saplings running from one side to the other, to the number
of ten on each slope of the roof. To me was given the task of closing up
the crevices between the logs with mud and grass mixed, and this I did
the better because Nathaniel Peacock worked with me, doing his full
share of the labor.

KEEPING HOUSE

When we came ashore from the ships, no one claimed Nathaniel as servant,
and he, burning to be in my company, asked Captain Smith's permission
to enter his employ. My master replied that it had not been in his mind
there should be servants and lords in this new world of Virginia, where
one was supposed to be on the same footing as another; but if Nathaniel
were minded to live under the same roof with us, and would cheerfully
perform his full share of the labor, it might be as he desired.

Because our house was the first to be put up in the new village, and,
being made of logs, was by far the best shelter, even in comparison with
the tents of cloth, Nathaniel and I decided that it should be the most
homelike, if indeed that could be compassed where were no women to
keep things cleanly. I am in doubt as to whether Captain Smith, great
traveler and brave adventurer though he was, had even realized that with
only men to perform the household duties, there would be much lack of
comfort.

The floor of the house was only the bare earth beaten down hard. We lads
made brooms, by tying the twigs of trees to a stick, which was not what
might be called a good makeshift, and yet with such we kept the inside
of our home far more cleanly than were some of the tents.

LACK OF CLEANLINESS IN THE VILLAGE

There were many who believed, because there were no women in our midst,
we should spare our labor in the way of keeping cleanly, and before we
had been in the new village a week, the floors of many of the dwellings
were littered with dirt of various kinds, until that which should have
been a home, looked more like a place in which swine are kept.

From the very first day we came ashore, good Master Hunt went about
urging that great effort be made to keep the houses, and the paths
ar