uncoiled, and the winds were only excluded from access through the
interstices between the remotely-allied logs, by the free use of the
soft clay easily attainable in all that range of country. The light on
each side of the building was received through a few small windows, one
of which only was allotted to each apartment, and this was generally
found to possess as many modes of fastening as the jail opposite--a
precaution referable to the great dread of the Indian outrages, and
which their near neighborhood and irresponsible and vicious habits were
well calculated to inspire. The furniture of the hotel amply accorded
with all its other features. A single large and two small tables; a few
old oaken chairs, of domestic manufacture, with bottoms made of ox or
deer skin, tightly drawn over the seat, and either tied below with small
cords or tacked upon the sides; a broken mirror, that stood
ostentatiously over the mantel, surmounted in turn by a well-smoked
picture of the Washington family in a tarnished gilt frame--asserting
the Americanism of the proprietor and place--completed the contents of
the great hall, and were a fair specimen of what might be found in all
the other apartments. The tavern itself, in reference to the obvious
pursuit of many of those who made it their home, was entitled "The
Golden Egg"--a title made sufficiently notorious to the spectator, from
a huge signboard, elevated some eight or ten feet above the building
itself, bearing upon a light-blue ground a monstrous egg of the deepest
yellow, the effect of which was duly heightened by a strong and thick
shading of sable all round it--the artist, in this way, calculating no
doubt to afford the object so encircled its legitimate relief. Lest,
however, his design in the painting itself should be at all
questionable, he had taken the wise precaution of showing what was meant
by printing the words "Golden Egg" in huge Roman letters, beneath it;
these, in turn, being placed above another inscription, promising
"Entertainment for man and horse."