og-hauling and other labours he
was of great service to us.

"As soon as the stable was finished, we set to work and put up a table
and six strong chairs. As I have said, we had no nails; but,
fortunately enough, I had both a chisel and auger, with several other
useful tools. All of these I had brought in the great chest from
Virginia, thinking they might be needed on our beautiful farm at Cairo.
With the help of these, and Cudjo's great skill as a joiner, we were
able to mortise and dovetail at our pleasure; and I had made a most
excellent glue from the horns and hoofs of the elk and ox. We wanted a
plane to polish our table, but this was a want which we could easily
endure. The lid of our table was made of plank sawn out of the
catalpa-tree; and with some pieces of pumice I had picked up in the
valley, and the constant scouring which it received at the hands of our
housewife, it soon exhibited a surface as smooth as glass. From my
finding this pumice-stone, I concluded that our snow-mountain had once
been a volcano--perhaps like the peak of Teneriffe, standing alone in
the water, when the great plain around us had been covered with a sea.

"Cudjo and I did not forget the promise we had made to the beavers. We
could see these little creatures, from day to day, very busy in drawing
large branches to the water, and then floating them towards their
houses. We knew that this was for their winter provisions. They had
grown quite tame, as soon as they found we were not going to molest
them; and frequently came out on our side of the lake. For this
confidence on their part we were determined to give them a treat they
little dreamt of--at least, of receiving from our hands.

"I had noticed a clump of beautiful trees, which grew near one side of
the glade, and not far from where we had built our house. Our attention
had been called to them by the aromatic fragrance of their flowers, that
blew around us all the time we were engaged in building. They were low,
crooked trees, not over thirty feet in height--with oval leaves, six
inches in length, and of a bluish-green colour. The flowers were about
the size of a rose, although more like a lily in appearance, and white
as snow. Their perfume was extremely agreeable, and Mary was in the
habit of gathering a bunch of them daily, and placing them in a vessel
of water.

"I have already said that my wife understood botany, and all botanists
take a pleasure in imparting