"I doubt not you have often heard the saying, 'One half the world little
knows how the other half lives;' and, indeed, we have but little idea
of the shifts to which thousands of our fellow men are put, and of the
discomforts and troubles of their daily life. These people lived, for
the most part, in wretched cabins, which swarmed with men, women, and
children, while every nook and corner not thus occupied was filled with
pigs, fowls, sheep, or dogs; and the thick smoke, or, as the people
emphatically call it, 'cruel steam,' is most distressing to the
eyesight, which suffers greatly in consequence."

"But, why don't they make chimneys, and let it out grandma?"

"They have a sort of rude chimney constructed of upright planks stuffed
between with moss; but the danger of the fire is great; indeed it is
always a necessary to have buckets of water at hand ready to throw upon
the flames. In some places the chimneys were fortified against this
danger by being lined all the way up with a coating of tin, which is
found to last some years."

"I should be very sorry to have to live with the Newfoundlanders if
they have such houses as these; it seems more like what we read of the
savages in their wigwams."

"Well, George, your grandfather fell in with some of these people, a
party of Indians from Canada; and, as it was late at night when he
reached their wigwams, the guide begged to be allowed to pass the night
with them. This they courteously permitted, and showed every hospitality
to their unexpected guests. It was a curious sight, the whole party,
men, women, and children, lying around the fire in the middle of the
tent, upon spruce boughs, spread like feathers, to form the couch. The