I then laid
out the extent of the grotto at pleasure, for we had ample space. We
began by dividing it into two parts; that on the right of the entrance
was to be our dwelling; on the left were, first, our kitchen, then the
workshop and the stables; behind these were the store-rooms and the
cellar. In order to give light and air to our apartments, it was
necessary to insert in the rock the windows we had brought from the
ship; and this cost us many days of labour. The right-hand portion was
subdivided into three rooms: the first our own bedroom; the middle, the
common sitting-room, and beyond the boys' room. As we had only three
windows, we appropriated one to each bedroom, and the third to the
kitchen, contenting ourselves, at present, with a grating in the
dining-room. I constructed a sort of chimney in the kitchen, formed of
four boards, and conducted the smoke thus, through a hole made in the
face of the rock. We made bur work-room spacious enough for us to carry
on all our manufactures, and it served also for our cart-house. Finally,
all the partition-walls were put up, communicating by doors, and
completing our commodious habitation. These various labours, the removal
of our effects, and arranging them again, all the confusion of a change
when it was necessary to be at once workmen and directors, took us a
great part of summer; but the recollection of the vexations we should
escape in the rainy season gave us energy.
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