The smooth ground floor was strewed with fragrant hemlock branches, over which were spread blankets or buffalo robes.

In front of the opening the camp fire could be built, or on the one side or the other, in accordance with the wind.
Thus in a few hours young Carson would erect him a home, so cosey and cheerful in its aspect as to be attractive to every eye.

Reclining upon mattresses really luxurious in their softness, he could bask in the beams of the sun, circling low in its winter revolutions, or gaze at night upon the brilliant stars, and not unfrequently have spread out before him an extended prospect of as rich natural scenery as ever cheered the eye.

He had no anxiety about food.

His hook or his rifle supplied him abundantly with what he deemed the richest viands.