money to erect and furnish them; on the contrary, the 'House I Live in' may be said to have scarcely coɛt me anything, for it was found ready to my hand. The necessary expense of keeping it in repair is but small, when the simple dictates of nature are fulfilled.

Nor does it contain the greatest number of rooms ever known in a building, though it may be said to contain a large number, for so small a place. Perhaps it may be considered that there are fifteen or twenty. Many public buildings contain an infinitely greater number than this, and even houses of ordinary dimensions far exceed this amount.

As to the number of its occupants, it will hardly bear a comparison with any building; for, like the huts of some of the rude tribes of New Holland, it never accommodates more than one person-and that one is myself.

But even with the rude huts of the New Hollanders, the comparison will, as I have said, not hold good. They are made with the bark of a single tree, bent in the middle, and placed with its two ends on the ground. When one of the natives has taken up his abode in a hut of this kind as long as he has seen fit, he leaves it. He journeys to another place, and builds a new one, the old hut being taken possession of, by any one who chooses to do so. Whereas I always carry my House with me wherever I go; in all countries, in all climates, in all seasons, my House is ready for my use. The 'House I Live in' is good for nothing to any one but to myself; and when I leave it, it will immediately fall into decay.

. The furniture of the 'House I Live in' is not of the most fashionable appearance. Of this the reader can

judge for himself, when he understands that it has been the same in kind, in figure, and in purpose, since my House was first designed. Fashion, you know, in general, is of a varying nature; and that which in one year is held in high estimation, becomes in the next of inferior value. But the furniture of my House, being at first admirably adapted to its wants, cannot require the slightest alteration. In Siam, the houses are frequently built on posts or pillars. This is because the country is low, and apt to be overflowed every year by the inundation of the rivers, and to build on high posts, is the only way to secure them against these floods. In Venice and Amsterdam also, the buildings are erected on piles, to elevate and protect them from the inroads of the sea. My House, as you will see hereafter, stands on pillars, but these pillars are made for motion, and to enable the building to be transported to any place that may be desired: whereas an Amsterdam or Venetian house cannot be removed at all, and a Siamese house, not without considerable injury.

The House I Live in' is, after all, most remarkable for its convenience; nothing could possibly so well answer my purpose. I have already told you that it would be good for nothing to any other person. Your House, my young reader, may be as curious, as large, and even as commodious for you, as mine is for me; but it would never answer my purpose at all, even if I had it in my power to exchange with you.

In the progress of the following chapters, I shall give you many more particulars. I shall describe to you in the best way I can, the FRAME, the COVERING, the APARTMENTS, the FURNITURE, and the EMPLOYMENTS,

of the House I Live in '; and shall briefly give you an account of the structure, uses, and abuses of each.

At

first I intended to insert a little dictionary, or vocabulary of the hard words which occur, with their meanings; but I believe it is unnecessary, for there are but few words, if any, whose meaning you will not know at once, either by their obvious sense, or by the situation in which they are placed.

CHAPTER II.

FRAME-WORK OF THE HOUSE.

A GLANCE at the picture which you see on the preceding page, will at once unravel all the mysteries of the last chapter; the 'House I Live ín' is my body-the present habitation of my immortal spirit. I will first proceed to call your attention to the frame-work of my House, which consists of bones.

The Pillars.—The pillars are the bones of the lower extremity. Standing by themselves, as they do in the next engraving, and detached from all their connexions, you may be apt to think that they are not well-proportioned; but, as you see them on the preceding page, conjoined with the rest of the building, they will appear very differently.

I spoke of the lower extremities of the human frame. These are commonly reckoned in three divisions-the thigh, the leg, and the foot. Besides these, there is the knee-pan, or patella. Each thigh has one bone, each leg two, and each foot twenty-six.

Besides these-fifty-eight in the whole in both legs -and the two patellas, or patellæ, there are in some people, at the largest joint of the great toe, one or two

small bones, having a slight resemblance to the kneepan, or patella. They are called sesamoid bones, because they have been

bone. The bone

of the thigh is called the femur. It is the longest bone in the whole human frame. At its upper end, where it is connected with the hipbone, is a round knob or head. This head fits into a corresponding hollow, or cavity of that bone, and is fastened there, in a way which will be de

scribed in another

place. The cut just

referred to, represents this important

part of the human frame very correctly.

The Leg.—The lower end of the femur joins with, or rather rests upon, the large bone of the leg. The leg below the knee consists of two bones. The tibia (so called because it resembles a pipe, or tube, or, as some