Arriving at the house, the young people ascended¹ the outer flight of wooden steps, which bore an odd likeness² to the companion-way of a vessel³, and the gallery, or 'deck,' as it was called—where a number of nets, floats, and buoys⁴ thrown over the railing completed the nautical⁵ resemblance. This part of the building was evidently devoted⁶ to kitchen, dining-room, and domestic offices; the principal room in the centre serving as hall or living-room, and communicating on the other side with two sleeping apartments. It was of considerable size, with heavy lateral⁷ beams across the ceiling—built, like the rest of the house, with a certain maritime⁸ strength—and looked not unlike a saloon cabin. An enormous open Franklin stove between the windows, as large as a chimney, blazing with drift-wood, gave light and heat to the apartment, and brought into flickering⁹ relief the boarded walls hung with the spoils of sea and shore, and glittering with gun-barrels. Fowling-pieces of all sizes, from the long ducking-gun mounted on a swivel for boat use to the light single-barrel or carbine, stood in racks against the walls; game-bags, revolvers in their holsters, hunting and fishing knives in their sheaths, depended from hooks above them. In one corner stood a harpoon¹¹; in another, two or three Indian spears for salmon¹². The carpetless floor and rude chairs and settles were covered with

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