The Grass Hut.

[Illustration:  Fig. 131.  Making the Frame of the Straw Hut.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 132.  Doorway of the Hut.]

The grass 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 space 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 illustrated 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 shore 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