180 FLORIDA DAYS.

not cheerful. Should it rain, and the door be
shut, -why, then, sleep. For why should -oe
spend the empty hours looking from a window
into the dank and streaming woods, when sleep
is possible? The floor is higher in the centre,
so that the rain dripping from the broken r0bf
may not stand in pools about the feet; aid
for such weather the logs burning in the big
fireplace give some comfort. The wide hearth
is at one end of the single room, which is te
whole house, save for the loft above, -and it
at least is cheerful, with joyous flames, and s4ft
snaps, and the laughter of the bubbling sap n
green logs. But the lustreless eyes do not
brighten with the dancing light, the fire is only
merry for itself
 The chimney is on the outside of the houe,
and is built of mud, and girdled by barrel hoops
or ropes which were put around it to support
it while the mud was wet; but as the fites
within dry it, it is apt to lean away from the
wall of the house, as though with a sort of an-
noyance and disgust at the occupants. For the
most part, however, except in the rainy season,