New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All TradesBeard, Daniel Carter
General
New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades
Beard, Daniel Carter
Amusements; Sports
From G to G you may now lay the planks of your floor, if the distance
is short: if not, put two poles across each side of the trees and nail
them to the trunks, and two more across at each end of the pieces G, G,
and nail them to G and G, and then put your flooring on parallel to the
G planks.
Frame, Walls, and Roof.
The rest of the work is simple. To shed the rain your roof must incline
one way or the other--to the front, as in Fig. 5, or to the back, as
in the one-tree house, Fig. 6. Nail on an A block to each tree, and
give them the same incline; then place two poles for rafters on the
A blocks and nail them, each with a single nail, to the tree-trunk;
this will hold them in place until you cut four straight poles for the
uprights at the four corners of your house; set these up under the ends
of the rafters, and nail the rafter to them and to the trees; then
drive two or three nails, slantingly, in the foot of the upright to
secure them to the floor (toe-nail, Fig. 92, Chap. IX.). A cross-piece
on top of the front and rear completes the skeleton of your house,
which may be roofed and the sides covered with boards, or only the roof
made of boards with narrow strips over the cracks and the sides covered
with poles, by nailing the latter to the uprights as in Fig. 5. This
gives a fine rustic effect, but unless ceiled or boarded up on the
inside it will allow the wind and rain to beat through.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Frame of a One-Tree House.]
If the trees are further apart than desirable, the house can be
built between the trees, as in Fig. 5, but if the space is no more
than required, the house can be built so that the sides enclose the
tree-trunks, as the railing of the platform does in Fig. 5.
A Rustic House.
It is really not necessary to use any plank or boards except for the
roof and floor. A boy who can handle an axe and hatchet well can make
the frame, Fig. 2, from timber cut in the woods, but unless he is an
expert, or can get the services of an expert axeman, he had better use
plank as directed.
The One-Tree House
at first thought seems to be an even more serious problem than the
two-tree house, but a glance at Fig. 6 will show how it can be built
without much trouble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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