get
that frame-house, we are going to have it just as near to the
landing-place as we can possibly stick it. You may bet your pile on
that!

Of course, in building the shanty, we employed the usual fashion
prevalent in the colony. Because, when we set to work we said we were
going to build a proper frame-house, _not_ a shanty. That is a name for
our habitation, which has since grown up into usage. We were none of us
practised carpenters; but what did that matter? We knew how to use our
hands; and had so often seen houses built that we knew precisely how to
do it.

First of all, then, are the piles. These are of puriri wood, tough,
heavy, and durable. They are rough-split sections of the great logs,
some two feet thick, with squarely-sawn ends. They are fixed in the
ground two or three feet apart, so as to bring their flat-sawn tops upon
a uniform level. The irregularities of the ground are thus provided
against, while a suitable foundation is laid.

The next process is to build a scaffolding, or skeleton frame, of
scantling and quartering. When that has been done, the floor is planked
over, the sides weather-boarded, doors, windows, and partitions being
put in according to the design of the architect. Lastly, the roof is
shingled, that is, covered with what our chum, O'Gaygun, calls "wooden
slates."

Our shanty is thirty feet long by ten in width. The sides are seven feet
high, and the ridge-pole is double that height from the floor. There are
a door and two windows, the latter having been bought at the township.
There is a partition across the shanty, two rooms having originally been
intended; but as this partition has a doorway without a door, and is
only the height of the sides, being open above, the original intention
in raising it has been lost, and it now merely serves for a convenient
rack. There is no verandah on the outside of the shanty, for we regarded
that as a waste of material and labour.

The fireplace is an important part of the shanty. Ten feet of the side
opposite the door was left open, not boarded up. Outside of this a sort
of supplementary chamber, ten feet square, was boarded up from the
ground. The roof of this little outroom slopes away _from_ that of the
rest of the shanty, and at its highest point a long narrow slit is left
open for a chimney. There is no flooring to this chamber, the ground
being covered with stones well pounded down. Its level is necessarily
sunk a little below that o