t
started his log cabin, and all his neighbors turned in to help him build
his house.

American Log House

The American log house differs from the Canadian log house principally in
the shape of the roof. Our old settlers made steep gambrel roofs to shed
the rain.

"Gambrel! Gambrel? Let me beg
You'll look at a horse's hinder leg;
First great angle above the hoof,
That's the gambrel, hence the gambrel roof."

The Canadians put very flat roofs on their log cabins, usually composed of
logs laid over the rafters, making them strong enough to support the heavy
weight of snow. The American log cabins, as a rule, are built in a milder
climate, and the flat sod roof is peculiar to our Northern boundary and
the hot, arid parts of our country. We build the chimneys outside of our
log cabins because, as the old settlers would say, "thar's more room out
thar" (see Figs. 271, 273).

One-Pen Cabin

Fig. 229 is a one-pen cabin. To build it we first snake our logs to a skid
near the site of our proposed cabin (Fig. 167), from which we can roll our
logs to our house as we need them. Lay out the corners and square them
(Fig. 180); notch the logs with a rounded or U-shaped notch (Fig. 165).
Remember that all the logs should be two or three feet longer than the
walls of the proposed building, but the notches must be the same distance
apart in order to make even walls. The protruding ends of the logs may be
allowed to stick out as they happen to come, no matter how irregular they
may be, until the cabin is erected; then with a two-handed saw and a boy
at each end they can be trimmed off evenly, thus giving a neat finish to
the house.

Fig. 229. Fig. 230. Fig. 231. Fig. 232. Fig. 233. Fig. 234.

[Illustration: Hints and suggestions in cabin construction.]

Sills

The largest, straightest, and best logs should be saved for sills or
foundations. If you are building a "mudsill," that is, a building upon the
ground itself, the sill logs will be subject to dampness which will cause
them to rot unless they are protected by some wood preservative.

Wood Preservative

If the logs are painted with two or three coats of creosote before they
are laid upon the ground, it will protect them for an indefinite time and
prevent decay. Hugh P. Baker, dean of the New York State College of
Forestry, writes me that--

two or three applications of warm oil with a brush will be
very helpful and will probably be