There
was no ceiling or plastering visible anywhere, the floor of the attic
alone separated that portion of the house from the lower room, and the
joice on which it was laid were thus exposed to view, and supported on
wooden cleets, leather, oars, rudders, together with some half-dressed
pieces of ash, snow-shoes, and such other things as necessity might
require. The wood-work, wherever visible, was begrimed with smoke, and
the floor, though doubtless sometimes swept, appeared as if it had the
hydrophobia hidden in its cracks, so carefully were soap and water
kept from it. Hams and bacon were nowhere visible. It is probable, if
they had any, they were kept elsewhere, but still more probable that
they had found their way to market, and been transmuted into money,
for these people are remarkably frugal and abstemious, and there can
be no doubt, the doctor says, that there is not a house in the
settlement in which there is not a supply of ready money, though the
appearance of the buildings and their inmates would by no means
justify a stranger in supposing so. They are neither poor nor
destitute, but far better off than those who live more comfortably and
inhabit better houses.
1 Bunk is a word in common use, and means a box that makes a seat by
day and serves for a bedstead by night.
The only article of food that I saw was a barrel of eggs, most
probably accumulated for the Halifax market, and a few small fish on
rods, undergoing the process of smoking in the chimney corner.
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