the furnishings were the products of the colony and chiefly of the
family's own workmanship. The floor was of hewn timber, rubbed and
scrubbed to smoothness. A woolen rug or several of them, always of
vivid hues, covered the greater part of it. There were the family
dinner-table of hewn pine, chairs made of pine saplings with, seats of
rushes or woven underbark, and often in the corner a couch that would
serve as an extra bed at night. Pictures of saints hung on the walls,
sharing the space with a crucifix, but often having for ominous
company the habitant's flint-lock and his powder-horn hanging from the
beams. At one end of the room was the fireplace and hearth, the sole
means of heating the place, and usually the only means of cooking
as well. Around it hung the array of pots and pans, almost the only
things in the house which the habitant and his family were not able to
make for themselves. The lack of colonial industries had the advantage
of throwing each home upon its own resources, and the people developed
great versatility in the cruder arts of craftsmanship.

Upstairs, and reached by a ladder, was a loft or attic running the
full area of the house, but so low that one could touch, the rafters
everywhere. Here the children, often a dozen or more of them, were
stowed away at night on mattresses of straw or feathers laid along
the floor. As the windows were securely fastened, even in the coldest
weather this attic was warm, if not altogether hygienic. The love of
fresh air in his dwelling was not among the habitant's virtues. Every
one went to bed shortly after darkness fell upon the land, and all
rose with the sun. Even visits and festivities were not at that time
prolonged into the night as they are nowadays. Therein, however, New
France did not differ from other lands. In the seventeenth century
most of the world went to bed at nightfall because there was nothing
else to do, and no easy or inexpensive artificial light. Candles were