We have had adventures, but for the most part our life is simple, laborious, and quiet. We had a great deal of work that we knew we must do. Each task as we accomplished it led to others that we had not thought of. As soon as our gable was erected we went into the cave to plan what we must do in it. The floor was very uneven; the bare rock protruded through the thin layer of peaty ground. We chipped away as much of these outcrops as we could. Of course the floor of the cave, being part of the hill-side, had a considerable list as well as inequalities, though fortunately it sloped less steeply than the ground outside. A few inches of fall made matters very uncomfortable for us, especially when the gable was built and shut out most of our light. We had to sleep across the floor with our feet downhill, and if we moved we were liable to roll to the bottom side of the cave, amongst the pots and tins and duffle. If we wakened suddenly and lifted our heads we were sure to strike them on the rock.

Until the last stone was laid in the gable the cave was well lighted. We could see where we were putting our feet. But immediately the wall had shut out the sun the cave grew pitch dark. We must have light to illumine our work. We laboured for a week by the smoky flare of a bog-fir torch and the glimmer of our fire. If we made a fire big enough to light the cave it was too hot for working. Our torches produced more smoke than illumination. To crown our misfortunes the wind, which had been blowing gently from the south-east since we kindled our first fire in the new grate, commenced to back, and after several shifts it finally fetched up in the south-west.

I suppose we were foolish to imagine that because our chimney drew at its first trial it would never smoke, whatever the wind. No sooner had the breeze gone to the west of south than smoke started to belch into the cave, intermittently at first, and afterwards, when the wind went near west, almost as if the cave had become the chimney.

We are not very expert yet in this life, but I am afraid that we were absolute fools then. We fell into the utmost anguish at this reverse. I was all for knocking down the gable we had built so painfully and letting the weather do its worst. Terry cried, I could have cried too if I had not flown into a rage and kicked the fireplace with all my strength, loosening the bars we had spent days fixing.