Cut two timbers and arrange them in an upright position at the front thirty inches apart, where the door will come, then half-way between the floor and top of the framework run a timber all around except between the door timbers. This will add a strengthening rib to which the sheathing boards can be nailed, and will also make one more anchorage to the tree-trunks. The side-rails should be spiked to the tree-trunks in a corresponding manner to that of the top or roof-strips. From a lumber-yard obtain some four, six, or ten inch matched boards, planed on both sides, and use them for the floor and sheathing.
The roof may be made from the same kind of boards, and over them a thickness or two of tarred paper is to be laid and fastened down at the edges and seams with small metal washers and nails that can be had where the paper is purchased. This will make the roof water-tight, for a season at least; and if it is given one or two coats of paint it will preserve the paper so that it may last for several years.
Two or three windows twenty-four inches square may be placed in the back and sides of the hut above the middle rib; and a door of boards held together with battens, as shown in the illustration, is to be made and hung with long, stout strap-hinges. A knob lock or a hasp and padlock will keep the door closed when the hut is unoccupied. When in use a wooden button will hold the door shut from the inside.
A ladder of hickory poles and cross-sticks should be made twenty inches wide and provided with loops at the top that will fit over large nails driven in the door-sill, so as to keep it from slipping when it bends under the weight of a boy.
Where the rungs join the side-rails of the ladder the union is made by lashing the cross-sticks fast with tarred rigging or stout cotton line. If a flexible ladder is preferred ropes may be used in place of the side-rails to which the rungs are lashed fast. When the owners are at home the ladder can be drawn up and hung on nails driven in the front edge of the roof. If a rope-ladder is used it can be drawn in and rolled up.
Inside of the hut, at either end, a seat eighteen inches wide should be built in about sixteen inches up from the floor. These seats can be used as bunks if desired. Some narrow shelving should be arranged over the windows and fastened there with brackets, on which small things may be kept.
A small table may be made from some ends of the sheathing boards and two-by-three-inch spruce sticks; and boxes may be used for seats, or small benches can easily be knocked together as shown in Fig. 6 A. Under the table a ledge twelve inches wide is to be attached to the lower cross-rails that connect the legs as shown at Fig. 6 B.
A HIGH TWIN-TREE HUT
A wall-nest may be made from a shoe-case in which four or five shelves are arranged as shown in Fig. 6 C. A door made from the box-cover is attached with hinges, and a catch or hasp will keep it closed.