Part 9 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 131. Making the Frame of the Straw Hut.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 132. Doorway of the Hut.]
The gra.s.s lodge appealed to us as very picturesque, and we set to work immediately on its construction. We made our hut much smaller, however, only 12 feet in diameter, and 8 or 9 feet high. First we procured two dozen light poles between 10 and 12 feet long. These we set up about 18 inches apart in a circle like a stockade, the sticks being buried in the ground to a depth of 12 inches. At one side a s.p.a.ce of 3 feet was allowed for a doorway. Inside the stockade we erected a working platform of planks supported on barrels, and standing on this we took two opposite poles, bent them inward and lashed their upper ends together.
Then a second pair of opposite poles were similarly bent inward and tied, and so we proceeded until the entire stockade had been converted into a dome-shaped cage. Around these poles we laid lighter sticks, or bands, tying them at the points of intersection. At the doorway two posts were set firmly in the ground, projecting upward to a height of 4 feet. A lintel nailed across the top of the posts completed the door frame. Sticks were nailed to the lintel and to the side posts, extending to the main frame of the hut, to which they were tied. We were now ready to thatch our hut. Reddy and Dutchy went over to Lumberville for several bales of straw. We tied the straw in bunches and applied it to the frame, copying, as best we could, the process ill.u.s.trated in the photograph.
But for its location the hut would have proved a very serviceable habitation. In order to have a good, dry dwelling without laying down a board flooring, we had selected for its site the sandy sh.o.r.e at Point Lookout. This part of the island was not sheltered with trees, and the hot sun beat down on our hut so strongly that we found the quarters very uncomfortable indeed. It was this fact that led to the construction of a tree hut--a building that would be perfectly dry and yet shaded and cool. Bill had read of such houses in the Philippines and felt confident that we could build one. We couldn't decide at first where to locate our hut until Dutchy moved that we build it in the gnarled oak tree overlooking the ”Goblins' Dancing Platform.” Immediately the motion was seconded and unanimously carried.
THE GOBLINS' DANCING PLATFORM.
Just above the town of Lumberville there was a cliff which rose sheer 200 feet above the level of the river. So perpendicular was the cliff that a stone dropped from the overhanging ledge at the top would fall straight down to the railroad track below without touching a twig in its course. Back of this broad ledge there was a very peculiar formation. A column of stone rose abruptly 40 feet higher and was topped with a large slab about 12 feet in diameter. This was known all over that region as the Goblins' Dancing Platform. The only possible way of gaining the summit of the column was by climbing a scraggly oak tree which grew on the high ground back of the pillar, crawling out on an overhanging limb, and then dropping down to the platform below. It was in this oak that we decided to build our house. It was a very inaccessible spot, and to reach it we had to make a wide detour around the back of the hill, and through the fields of a cranky farmer, who more than once threatened to fill us with bird shot for trespa.s.sing on his property. How were we to carry all our building materials up to this great height? One would think that the difficulties would be enough to discourage us, but not so with the S. S. I. E. E. of W. C. I. Nothing daunted us.
DUTCHY TAKES A DARE.
Our first task was to try some other approach to the top of the cliff.
At one side of the overhanging ledge there was a fissure in the rocks which ran from the base of the pillar to the foot of the cliff. Down this zigzag crevice Dutchy had scrambled, one afternoon, on a dare. We were rather frightened when he started, because it was a very hazardous undertaking, and we watched him anxiously, peering over the edge of the precipice. By bracing his back against one of the walls of the rock, and digging his feet into the niches and c.h.i.n.ks of the opposite wall, he safely made his way to a shelf about half-way down, where he paused to rest. From that point on the fissure widened out, and a steep, almost vertical incline, spa.r.s.ely covered with vegetation, led to the railroad track below. I think he must have become rather frightened at his position, because he hesitated long before he resumed his downward course, and when he finally did make the attempt his foot slipped upon the moss-covered rocks and down he fell, scratching and clawing at every shrub within reach. Believing him to be killed, we rushed down the hill and around to the foot of the cliff. It probably took us about fifteen or twenty minutes, though it seemed ages before we came upon our venturesome comrade coolly trying to pin together a rent of inconvenient location and dimensions in his trousers.
”Say, Dutchy, are you killed?” cried Bill, breathlessly.
”Killed, nothing,” he replied, with scorn. ”I suppose you fellows think I had a fall. Well, I didn't.”
”You didn't, eh? We saw you slip.”
”Oh, go on. I came down that way on purpose. There was no use in picking my way down like a 'fraid cat, when I could just as well take a smooth and easy toboggan slide on the bushes all the way down.”
Smooth and easy toboggan slide! Well, you should have seen the hillside.
The course was well defined by the torn and uprooted shrubs and the pile of branches and vines at Dutchy's feet. Whether the hare-brained Dutchy really imagined he could glide easily down on the shrubbery, his frantic movements on the way certainly belied his story, and when, the next day, we proposed that he repeat the trick, somehow he didn't seem to be very enthusiastic on the subject.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Wichita Indians Building a Straw Hut.]
A PATH UP THE FISSURE.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 133. The Jacob's Ladder.]
It was up this fissure that we decided to haul materials for our tree hut. Our first task was to build steps and ladders in the steepest parts. We had no tool for cutting out niches in the rock, but wherever natural depressions were formed we wedged in sticks of wood between the side walls to serve as ladder rungs. If no such niches appeared for considerable height, we would stretch a rope ladder to the next fixed rung. In most places the natural formation of the rock was such as to afford sufficient footing.
ROPE LADDERS.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 134. Rope Ladder.]
The rope ladders were made of two parallel side straps, tightly stretched between the fixed sticks, and then at intervals of fifteen inches we inserted the ends of the ladder rung between the strands of the rope. Below and above each rung the rope was bound with cord. The rungs were notched at the ends to prevent them from slipping out.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 135. A Ladder Rung.]