With a limited amount of
stock, which found subsistence upon the cane and grass of the woods,
and with the assistance of a shot-gun, they managed to subsist--as
Peake's mother served the Lord--after a fashion.
Their houses were unique: a slender frame, often of poles cut from the
forest, and rudely squared, served the purpose. Into the studding were
placed pins, extending from one to the other, horizontally, and about
ten inches apart. The long gray moss of the country was then gathered
and thrown by layers into a pit dug for the purpose, with the soil,
until the pit was full, when water was added in sufficient quantities
to wet the mass through; this done, all who are assisting in the
construction of the house--men, women, boys, and girls--jump in upon
it, and continue to tramp until mud and moss are completely
intermingled and made of proper consistence, when it is gathered up and
made into rails about two feet long. These rolls are laid over the
pins, commencing at the bottom or sill of the building, when each roll
is bent down at the ends, covering the intervals between the pins,
pressed hardly together, and smoothed with the hands, inside and out,
forming a wall some five inches in thickness, with a perfectly smooth
surface.
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