Imagination is a great thing and can do wonders; it can surround the most commonplace objects with an atmosphere of romance, in which nothing is impossible or improbable. A whiff of smoke from the fireplace where wood is burning, means nothing but a faulty chimney; yet, as the smell of burning wood reaches the nostrils, Association sets the wheels of Imagination’s Mill whirring, and all unbidden come visions floating through our minds of camps, camp-fires, fish--pickerel, bass, and trout; quail, rabbits, and venison-steaks, broiling over the hot coals. My, it makes a fellow hungry to think of such good things! Roasted ears of sweet-corn, flapjacks, and corn-dodgers, “piping hot,” pass in a procession before us, and, as the sparks fly up the chimney, The Ghosts of the Fireplace troop in: and a hale and husky lot of ghosts they are, with their coon-skin caps, buckskin clothes, and beaded moccasins. Each ghost wears a strap slung over his shoulder, from which hang a bullet-pouch and a curiously engraved cow-horn powder-flask; as they file by, with their long single-barrelled flint-lock rifles, we are not surprised to see among them the great Daniel Boone, his friend Simon Kenton, and the unique, dashing, Davy Crockett. [Illustration: Home of Young Pioneers.] All in vain do the trucks thunder by our windows, and futile are the efforts of the clanging cable-car bells and the roar of the great city to recall us to the present humdrum times. We are under the spell of the king of magicians, and our minds are wandering free in the wild woods; we can even hear the distant wolves howl, and the blood curdling yell of the painted savage. Is it a wonder that we love the generous old-fashioned fireplace? Is it strange that the log-cabin is dear to the hearts of American boys? The Log-House saw the birth of our nation; its rude interior sheltered our great men, and beneath its slabbed roof heroes were born. To-day it is still the most practicable, durable, and simply constructed house invented for a forest home, and any boy can build a log-house large enough to form a comfortable camp for vacation days. For muscles unaccustomed to such exercise it is hard work to cut down large trees, and, unless the young woodsman has served an apprenticeship on a farm or in a lumber-camp, it is dangerous work to fell big timber; but any lad may cut down Trees of a Smaller Growth, without danger to life or limb. Small-sized logs save much labor in chopping, sawing, rolling, and “snaking” to camp; besides all this, logs of small diameter look best for a house of small dimensions.