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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The House that Jill Built
+       after Jack's had proved a failure
+
+Author: E. C. Gardner
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2005 [EBook #15678]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net), from images
+generously provided by the Hearth Library, Cornell
+University (http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT,
+     AFTER JACK'S HAD PROVED A FAILURE.
+
+
+     A BOOK ON
+     HOME ARCHITECTURE,
+     WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,
+
+     BY E.C. GARDNER,
+
+     _Author of "Homes and How to Make Them." "Home Interiors,"
+     "Common Sense in Church Building," etc._
+
+
+     SPRINGFIELD, MASS.:
+     W.F. ADAMS COMPANY,
+     1896.
+
+
+
+
+     1882,
+     BY OUR CONTINENT PUBLISHING Co.
+     _All rights reserved._
+     E.C. GARDNER, 1895.
+
+
+
+     Printed and Bound by
+     CLARK W. BRYAN COMPANY,
+     Springfield, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+A WISE FATHER AND A GLAD SON-IN-LAW                             7
+
+CHAPTER II.
+MORAL SUASION FOR MALARIAL MARSHES                             20
+
+CHAPTER III.
+A FIRST VISIT AND SAGE ADVICE                                  32
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS                                48
+
+CHAPTER V.
+WHEN THE FLOODS BEAT AND THE RAINS DESCEND                     63
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE WISDOM OF JILL IN THE KITCHEN                              78
+
+CHAPTER VII
+BE HONEST AND KEEP WARM                                        90
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+TRUTH, POETRY AND ROOFS                                       103
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE--BLINDS AND BESSIE                     115
+
+CHAPTER X.
+MORE QUESTIONS OF FIRE AND WATER                              128
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+WHAT SHALL WE STAND UPON?                                     140
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+FROM MATHEMATICS TO ANCIENT BRIC-A-BRAC                       151
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS, AND HEALTH                              166
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+SAFE FLUES AND MORE LIGHT                                     177
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+A DANGEROUS RIVAL                                             189
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+A NEW WAY OF GETTING UP STAIRS AND A NEW MISSIONARY FIELD     203
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+THE RIGHT SIDE OF PAINT, A PROTEST AND A PROMISE              221
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+THE HOUSE FINISHED AND THE HOME BEGUN                         233
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+TEN YEARS AFTER                                               250
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+A DOUBLE CONCLUSION                                           258
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+_From Drawings by the Author_.
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+1. "COUSIN GEORGE'S EXTERIOR"                                  11
+
+2. COUSIN GEORGE'S FIRST FLOOR                                 14
+
+3. COUSIN GEORGE'S SECOND FLOOR                                15
+
+4. "WARMTH IS BEAUTY"                                          21
+
+5. A HIDDEN FOE                                                23
+
+6. A BURIED GRIDIRON                                           24
+
+7. THE PROTECTING "CUT-OFF"                                    25
+
+8. A "CROSS-SECTION" PROPHECY                                  28
+
+9. HEAT FROM ALL SIDES                                         30
+
+10. AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                                   33
+
+11. NO PLACE FOR THE BED                                       36
+
+12. ENLARGED BY DESTRUCTION                                    37
+
+13. A SLIGHT ADDITION                                          39
+
+14. GROUND FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                   42
+
+15. FIRST FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                    43
+
+16. A SECURE OUTLOOK                                           49
+
+17. MINED AND COUNTERMINED                                     52
+
+18. A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY                                    55
+
+19. THE TOPMOST PEAK                                           59
+
+20. WILL'S MASTERPIECE                                         65
+
+21. THE FIRST FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE                      73
+
+22. THE SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE                     75
+
+23. THE OUTSIDE OF TED'S HOUSE                                 79
+
+24. JILL'S KITCHEN IN BLACK AND WHITE                          83
+
+25. THE FIRST FLOOR OF TED'S HOUSE                             88
+
+26. THE POOR BUT MODEST ATTORNEY'S COTTAGE                     91
+
+27. A DOUBLE TEAM                                              94
+
+28. WARMTH UNDER THE WINDOW                                    96
+
+29. STEAM PIPES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE                           97
+
+30. THE ATTORNEY'S FLOOR PLAN                                 101
+
+31. NO CONCEALMENT OR DISGUISE                                105
+
+32. WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT                                110
+
+33. JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY                           112
+
+34. THE HAT MAKES THE MAN                                     113
+
+35. THE CONTRIBUTION OF BESSIE'S FATHER                       117
+
+36. THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE CONTRIBUTION                       123
+
+37. A GARGOYLE                                                130
+
+38. A CHOICE OF GUTTERS                                       131
+
+39. A SIMPLE RECESS                                           133
+
+40. IN THE MIDDLE RANK                                        135
+
+41. THE WORTH OF A COSY COTTAGE                               137
+
+42. A PROMISE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS                               141
+
+43. A REASONABLE HOPE                                         143
+
+44. FLOORS AS THEY ARE: FLOORS AS THEY MIGHT BE               145
+
+45. BRICKS AND BOULDERS ON GRANITE UNDERPINNING               149
+
+46. NOT BRILLIANT, BUT IMPRESSIVE                             153
+
+47. WOODEN RICHNESS                                           155
+
+48. NO WASTE OF WOOD                                          156
+
+49. FIRST FLOOR OF THE PROMISE                                158
+
+50. SECOND FLOOR OF THE PROMISE                               159
+
+51. NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES                                  167
+
+52. SAFE AND SAVING FLUES                                  179-80
+
+53. A PICTURE IN GLASS OVER THE FIREPLACE                     181
+
+54. GLASS OF MANY COLORS, SHAPES AND SIZES                    183
+
+55. SHELVES IN THE MIDDLE, CUPBOARDS ABOVE AND BELOW          185
+
+56. "THE OAKS"                                                191
+
+57. OUTSIDE BARRIERS                                          195
+
+58. INSIDE BARRIERS                                           196
+
+59. COMMON UGLINESS--SIMPLE GRACE                             197
+
+60. FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF "THE OAKS"                            201
+
+61. LOOKING TOWARD SUNSET                                     205
+
+62. NEAR THE TURNING-POINT                                    207
+
+63. A CHOICE OF BALUSTERS                                     209
+
+64. THE BIG FIREPLACE IN THE KEEPING-ROOM                     211
+
+65. ONE WAY TO BEGIN                                          213
+
+66. A BROADSIDE OF AN EASY ASCENT                             215
+
+67. A DIVIDING SCREEN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS               219
+
+68. BITS OF CORNICES                                          223
+
+69. MOULDINGS FAIR TO SEE, BUT HARD TO KEEP CLEAN             225
+
+70. FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITRAVES                                  227
+
+71. A CHOICE OF WAINSCOTS                                     229
+
+72. WOOD PANELS FOR WALLS AND CEILINGS, WITH IRREGULARITIES
+    IN LEATHER, PAINT AND PAPER                               231
+
+73. THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT                                 235
+
+74. THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT              239
+
+75. THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT             241
+
+76. THE EAST END OF JILL'S DINING-ROOM                        243
+
+77. A CASTLE IN SPAIN                                         263
+
+_Also Initials, Tail-Pieces, etc._
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
+
+                                    PAGE
+
+BUILDING SITES                        16
+BRICKS                        46, 53, 58
+BLINDS                               116
+CHIMNEYS                             179
+CONTRACT WORK                        233
+COMPETITIVE PLANS                    237
+DOORS                                194
+FIREPROOF CONSTRUCTION                54
+FALSE CHIMNEY-PIECE                   98
+FIREPLACES                           134
+FLOORS                               140
+FASHION                              224
+GUTTERS                              129
+HEATING                          97, 132
+HEIGHT OF ROOMS                      138
+HARD WOOD                            197
+INTERIOR FINISH                      221
+KITCHEN ARRANGEMENTS             81, 125
+PLUMBING                        166, 177
+PANTRIES                        186, 189
+PAINT                                223
+ROOFS                            69, 113
+STAIRS                           38, 214
+STAINED GLASS                    38, 183
+TERRA COTTA                           61
+UNDER-DRAINING                        24
+VENTILATING FLUES                    178
+WINDOWS                         110, 183
+WOODEN BUILDINGS                      51
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+On a recent visit to the young woman whose experiences and observations
+are contained in this book, I was greatly pleased to find her zeal and
+interest in domestic architecture unabated. She sees that there have
+been changes and improvements in the art of house building, but
+declares that while some of her opinions and suggestions of ten years
+ago have been approved and accepted, it is still true that by far the
+greater number of those who plan and build houses are guided by
+transient fashion, thoughtless conservatism and a silly seeking for
+sensational results, rather than by truth, simplicity and common sense.
+
+She has no doubt that her daughter, Bessie, will study and practice
+domestic architecture, and naturally expects the houses of the future
+to contain charms and comforts of which we have as yet only the
+faintest conception.
+
+                                               E.C. GARDNER.
+_Springfield, Mass., November, 1895._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+"MR. E.C. Gardner, architect, has consented to write us a series of
+articles upon house-building," said one of his associates to the editor
+of OUR CONTINENT a few months since. "What do you think of it?"
+
+"We have no sort of use for such a thing," replied the editor. "There
+are treatises enough professing to instruct people how to build houses.
+You can't make every man his own carpenter any more than you can make
+him his own lawyer. More's the pity."
+
+"But I thought you said you wanted some one who had sense enough to put
+a thoroughly capable and accomplished housewife's notions of what a
+house should be into readable prose?"
+
+"So I did," responded the editor, "and I still want it, and am likely
+to want it for a long time. I do not wish articles on _House_-building
+but on _Home_-building, and you will never get such from an
+architect."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," said the other, who had had a taste of the
+writer's quality before. "Suppose he should wish to try it?"
+
+"Well,--let him," was the grumbled assent.
+
+The editor did not believe in architects. He had built one or two
+houses that did well enough on paper, but were simply appalling in
+their unfitness when he came to try to adapt the occupants to the
+earthly tabernacles which had been erected for their use and
+enjoyment. He had read house-building books, examined plans and
+discoursed with architects until he verily believed that the whole
+business was a snare and a delusion. After this experience he had
+settled down to the serious belief that the best way to build a house
+was to erect first a square building containing but one room, and then
+add on rooms as the occupants learned their needs or the family
+increased in numbers. In this way, he stoutly maintained, had been
+erected all those old houses, whose irregularity of outline and
+frequent surprises in interior arrangement never cease to charm. He
+asserted boldly that a man's house ought to grow around him like an
+oyster's-shell, and should fit him just as perfectly; in fact, that it
+should be created, not built. From architects and their works he prayed
+devoutly to be delivered, and having theretofore illustrated that part
+of the proverb which avers that "fools build houses," he declared
+himself determined thenceforth only to illustrate the latter-part of
+the proverb:--"and wise men live in them."
+
+Having, however, became sponsor in some sort for what Mr. Gardner might
+write, he was bound to give attention to it. Very much to his surprise,
+he found it instead of a thankless task, a most agreeable
+entertainment. Seldom, indeed, have wit and wisdom been so happily
+blended as in these pages. The narrative that runs through the whole
+constitutes a silver thread of merriment on which the pearls of sense
+are strung with lavish freedom. Every page is sure to contain the
+subject-matter for a hearty laugh close-linked with a lesson that may
+well be conned by the most serious-minded. The philosophy of
+home-building and home-improving is expounded with a subtlety of humor
+and an aptness of illustration as rare as they are relishable.
+
+There are three classes of people to whom this little volume with its
+quaint descriptions and wise suggestions will be peculiarly welcome.
+
+    _First_--Those who contemplate, at some time, the building of a
+    home. It matters not whether it is to be humble or palatial,
+    "The House that Jill Built" will be found to contain not only
+    the most valuable suggestions, but a humorous gaiety that will
+    be sure to add pleasure to this duty.
+
+    _Second_--Those who desire at any time to enlarge, modify or
+    improve the homes in which they live; for they will find very
+    forcibly illustrated in its pages the principles which should
+    govern such modification.
+
+    _Third_--Those who, like the writer hereof, have suffered in
+    purse and comfort from the lack of such a pleasant and
+    philosophical treatise, and who will be glad to see how their
+    blunders might have been avoided.
+
+"The House that Jill Built" is founded on the rock of common sense. It
+does not profess to tell the prospective builder how to be his own
+architect and carpenter; it does not fit him out with a plan ready made
+and tested--by somebody else: but deftly and easily it leads him to
+think about the essential elements of the home he desires until, almost
+unconsciously, he finds himself prepared to give such directions to an
+honest architect as will secure for his home, convenience, safety and
+that peculiar fitness which is the chief element of beauty in domestic
+architecture. It is not so much for what is taught as for what is
+suggested that the book is valuable. What the author has written is
+perhaps not more remarkable than the peculiar art with which he compels
+the reader to think for himself. "The House that Jill Built" may fairly
+be said to take the first place among the many works that are designed
+to make our domestic architecture what it ought to be--the art by which
+the house-builder may erect a home adapted to his needs, commensurate
+with his means, in harmony with its surroundings and conducive to the
+health and comfort of its occupants. What the author's pen has so well
+described his pencil has illustrated with equal happiness.
+
+In penance for the lack of faith displayed at the outset and in hearty
+approval of the pages that follow, the Editor has written these words.
+
+                                               A.W. TOURGÉE.
+PHILADELPHIA, Oct., 1882.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A WISE FATHER AND A GLAD SON-IN-LAW.
+
+
+Among the wedding-presents was a small white envelope containing two
+smaller slips of paper. On one of these, which was folded around the
+other, was written,
+
+     "A NEW HOUSE, FROM FATHER."
+
+The enclosed slip was a bank-check, duly stamped and endorsed. Did any
+old wizard's magic-box ever hold greater promise in smaller compass!
+Certainly not more than the bride saw in imagination as she read the
+figures upon the crisp bit of tissue. Walls, roof and stately chimneys
+arose in pleasant pictures before her mental vision. There were broad
+windows taking in floods of sunshine; fireplaces that glowed with
+living flames and never smoked; lazy lounging places and cosy corners
+for busy work or quiet study; sleepy bed-rooms; a kitchen that made
+housework the finest art and the surest science, and oh, such closets,
+such stairways, such comforts! such defiance of the elements, such
+security against cold and heat, against fire, flood and tempest! such
+economy! such immunity from all the ills that domestic life is heir to,
+from intractable servants to sewer-gas!
+
+If some ardent esthete had arrested her flight of fancy by asking
+whether she found room for soul-satisfying beauty, she would have
+dropped from her air-castle, landing squarely upon her feet, and
+replied that if her house was comfortable and told no lies it would be
+beautiful enough for her--which was saying a great deal, however
+interpreted, for she loved beauty, as all well-balanced mortals ought,
+and she would have been conspicuously out of place in a house that was
+not beautiful.
+
+Perhaps I ought to explain that the house that Jack built, intending to
+establish Jill as its mistress when it should be completed, had proved
+most unsatisfactory to that extremely practical young woman. In
+consequence, she had obstinately refused to name the happy day till the
+poor, patient fellow had kept bachelor's hall nearly a year. At last,
+in consideration of an unqualified permission to "make the house over"
+to any extent, the rough place that threatened to upset them was made
+smooth. Her father's present, wisely withheld till peace was declared,
+left nothing to be desired, and they started on their wedding journey
+as happy as if they owned the universe. This excursion, however, came
+near being a failure from the sentimental standpoint, because, wherever
+Jill discovered a house that gave any outward sign of inward grace, it
+must be visited and examined as to its internal arrangements. Naturally
+this struck Jack as an unromantic diversion, but he soon caught the
+spirit, and after much practice gave his salutatory address with
+apparent eagerness:
+
+"My wife and I happen to be passing through town and have been struck
+by the appearance of your house. Will you kindly allow us to have a
+glimpse of the interior?"
+
+The request was invariably granted, for nothing is more gratifying than
+the fame of having the "finest house in town." Unhappily the interiors
+were never satisfactory to Jill, and her valedictory to the owners of
+the striking houses seldom went beyond thanks for their courtesy.
+
+"We visited several houses on our trip," she observed to her father--
+
+"Several hundred," said Jack--
+
+"But were disappointed in them all. Many of them must have cost more
+than ours will cost, but the money seemed to us foolishly spent."
+
+"Yes," said her husband, "we concluded that the chief plank in the
+platform of the architects and builders was 'Millions for display--not
+one cent for comfort.'"
+
+"Well, Jack, we have learned one thing on our travels--where _not_ to
+look for the plans of our house."
+
+A box of letters from her dear five hundred friends awaited Jill's
+return, and a whole afternoon was devoted to them. Each letter
+contained some allusion to the new house. At least ten conveyed
+underscored advice of the most vital importance, which, if not
+followed, would demoralize the servants, distress her husband and
+ultimately destroy her domestic peace. Taken at a single dose, the
+counsel was confusing, to say the least; but Jill read it faithfully,
+laid it away for future reference, and gave the summary to her husband
+somewhat as follows:
+
+"It appears, Jack, my dear, to be absolutely indispensable to our
+future happiness that the house shall front north, south, east and
+west."
+
+"Let's build it on a pivot."
+
+"We must not have large halls to keep warm in cold weather, and we
+_must_ have large halls 'for style.' The stories must not be less than
+eleven nor more than nine feet high. It must be carpeted throughout and
+all the floors must be bare. It must be warmed by steam and hot water
+and furnaces and fireplaces and base-burners and coal grates."
+
+"We shan't have to go away from home to get into purgatory, shall we?"
+
+"Hush! The walls of the rooms must be calcimined, painted, frescoed and
+papered; they must be dyed in the mortar, finished with leather, with
+tiles, with tapestry and with solid wood panels. There must be
+blinds--outside blinds, awnings, inside shutters, rolling blinds,
+Venetian shades and no blinds at all. There must be wide, low-roofed
+piazzas all around the house, so that we can live out of doors in the
+summer, and on no account must the sun be excluded from the windows of
+the first story by piazza roofs. At least eight patent sanitary
+plumbing articles, and as many cooking ranges, are each the only one
+safe and fit to be used. The house must be high and low--"
+
+"I'm Jack and you shall be game--"
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S EXTERIOR.]
+
+"It must be of bricks, wood and stone, separately and in combination;
+it must be Queen Anne, Gothic, French, Japanesque and classic American,
+and it must be painted all the colors of an autumn landscape."
+
+"Well, there's one comfort," said Jack; "you haven't paid for this
+advice, so you won't be obliged to take it in order to save it."
+
+"I should think not, indeed, but that isn't the trouble. These letters
+are from my special friends, wise, practical people, who know
+everything about building and housekeeping, and they speak from solemn
+conviction based on personal experience."
+
+"Moral: When the doctors differ, do as you please."
+
+Three of the letters, reserved for the last on account of their unusual
+bulk, contained actual plans. One was from an old school friend who had
+married an architect and couldn't afford to send a wedding present, but
+offered the plans as a sort of apology, privately feeling that they
+would be the most valuable of all the gifts; the second was from a
+married brother in Kansas who had just built himself a new house, and
+thought his sister could not do better than use the same plans, which
+he had "borrowed" from his architect; and the third was from Aunt
+Melville, who was supposed (by herself) to hold the family destiny in
+the hollow of her hand.
+
+"For once," she wrote, "your father has done a most sensible thing.
+Every girl ought to have a present of a new house on her wedding-day.
+You were very silly to make such a fuss about the house that Jack
+built, for it is a very stylish-looking house, even if it isn't quite
+so convenient inside; but of course you can improve upon it, and
+fortunately I can contribute just what you need--the plans of the house
+that your Uncle Melville built for George last year. It isn't as large
+as it ought to be, but it will suit you and Jack admirably. You must
+tell me how much you have to spend. This house can be very prettily
+built for eight or ten thousand dollars, and if you haven't as much as
+that you must ask for more. The hall is decidedly stylish, and, with
+the library at one side and drawing-room at the other, you will have
+just room enough for your little social parties. The room behind the
+drawing-room Jack needs for his private use, his study, office,
+smoking-room or whatever he calls it--a place to keep his gun, his
+top-boots, his fishing-rod and his horrid pipes; where he can revel to
+his heart's content in the hideous disorder of a 'man's room,' pile as
+much rubbish as he likes on the table, lock the doors and defy the rest
+of the household on house-cleaning days. The dining-room is good and
+the kitchen arrangements are perfect. George's wife has changed
+servants but three times since they began housekeeping, nearly a year
+ago, which certainly proves that there is every possible convenience
+for doing work easily. The outside of the house is not wholly
+satisfactory. There should be a tower, and you must put one on
+somewhere."
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S FIRST FLOOR.]
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S SECOND FLOOR.]
+
+Then followed several pages of advice about furnishings and a
+postscript announced that Colonel Livingston was charmed with the house
+and would probably build one like it for Clara. The charm of Aunt
+Melville's advice lay in its abundant variety. It was new every morning
+and fresh every evening. The latest thing was always the best. The
+plans of to-morrow were certain to be better than those of yesterday.
+
+Jill therefore made a careful study of the first installment, not
+doubting that others of superior merit would be forthcoming. She found
+many things to approve. The hall promised comfort and good cheer,
+whether stylish or not. The vista across through the parlor bay and the
+wide library window would give a pleasant freedom and breadth. The
+stairs were well placed, the second landing with its window of stained
+glass being especially attractive, whether as a point of observation or
+as a cosy retreat, itself partly visible from the hall below. Every
+chamber had a closet of its own, not to mention several extra ones, and
+there was a place for every bed.
+
+"As for your sanctum, Jack, I don't at all approve. It will be hard
+enough, I've no doubt, to keep you from lapsing into barbarism, and I
+shall never allow you to set up a den, a regular Bluebeard's room, all
+by yourself. I promise never to put your table in order, but I wouldn't
+trust the best of men with the care of a closet or a bureau-drawer for
+a single week, much less of an entire room with two closets, a case of
+drawers, a cupboard and a chimney-piece. But the chief fault of the
+plan is that it doesn't happen to suit our lot. The entrances are not
+right, the outlooks are not right, the chimneys are not right."
+
+"Turn it around."
+
+"And spoil it? No; I learned a second lesson on our journey, and it was
+well worth what it cost. We shall never find a plan made for somebody
+else that will suit us."
+
+"Not good enough?"
+
+"It isn't a question of goodness--it's a question of fitness. Neither
+Cousin George's, nor any other house I ever saw, is precisely what we
+need."
+
+"Moral: Draw your own plans."
+
+"We must, and we'll begin to-morrow."
+
+"Why not this evening?"
+
+"We couldn't see."
+
+"Light the gas."
+
+"Oh, but we must make the plans out of doors on the lot. We shall then
+know where every room will be, every door and especially every window.
+We must fix the centre of the sitting-room in the most commanding
+situation, and be certain that the dining-room windows do not look
+straight into somebody's wood-shed. Then, if there are any views of
+blue hills and forests far away over the river, I shall be
+uncomfortable if we do not get the full benefit of them."
+
+"Don't you expect to have anything interesting inside the house?"
+
+"Except my husband? Oh yes! but it would be a wicked waste of
+opportunities not to accept the blessings provided for us without money
+and without price, which only require us to stand in the right places
+and open our hearts and windows to receive them."
+
+Jill's second lesson was indeed worth learning, even if it cost a
+wedding journey. Every house must suit its own ground and fit its own
+household, otherwise it can neither be comfortable nor beautiful.
+
+The next morning, armed with a bundle of laths, sharpened at one end,
+and equipped with paper, pencil and tape-line, the prospective
+house-builders proceeded to lay out, not the house but the plan. They
+planted doors, windows, fireplaces and closets, stoves, lounges,
+easy-chairs and bedsteads, as if they were so many seeds that would
+grow up beside the laths on which their respective names were written
+and bear fruit each according to its kind. Later in the day a high
+step-ladder was introduced, from the top of which Jill scanned the
+surrounding country, while Jack stood ready to catch her if she fell.
+The neighbors were intensely interested, and their curiosity was mixed
+with indignation when, toward night, a man was discovered cutting down
+two of the rock-maple trees that Jill's grandfather planted more than
+fifty years before, and which stood entirely beyond any possible
+location of the new house.
+
+"This evening, Jack, you must write for the architect to come."
+
+"I thought you were going to make your own plans."
+
+"I have made them, or rather I have laid them out on the ground and in
+the air. I know what I want and how I want it. Now we must have every
+particular set down in black and white."
+
+Jack wrote accordingly. The architect was too busy to respond at once
+in person, but sent a letter referring to certain principles that reach
+somewhat below the lowest foundation-stones and above the tops of the
+tallest chimneys.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MORAL SUASION FOR MALARIAL MARSHES.
+
+
+"You are quite right," the architect wrote, "to fix the plan of your
+house on the lot before it is made on paper, provided first the lot is
+a good one. Nothing shows the innate perversity of mankind more
+forcibly than the average character of the sites chosen for human
+habitations in cities, in villages and in the open country. Or does it
+rather indicate the instinctive struggle for supremacy over nature? The
+'dear old nurse' is most peaceably inclined toward us, yet we shall
+never be satisfied till all the valleys are exalted and the hills laid
+low. Not because we object to hills and valleys--quite the contrary;
+but we must show our strength and daring. Nobody wants the North Pole,
+but we are furious to have a breach made in the wall that surrounds it.
+If we discover a mighty primeval forest we straightway grind our axes
+to cut it down; an open prairie we plant with trees. When we find
+ourselves in an unclean, malarious bog, instead of taking the short cut
+out, shaking the mud from our feet and keeping clear of it forever
+after, we plunge in deeper still and swear by all the bones of our
+ancestors that we will not only walk through it dry-shod, but will
+build our homes in the midst of it and keep them clean and sweet and
+dry. The good mother beckons to us with her sunshine and whispers
+with her fragrant breezes that on the other side of the river or across
+the bay the land is high and dry, that just beyond the bluffs are the
+sunny slopes where she expected us to build our houses, and, like saucy
+children as we are, we say that is the very reason we prefer to go
+somewhere else.
+
+[Illustration: WARMTH IS BEAUTY.]
+
+[Illustration: A HIDDEN FOE.]
+
+"Now, if the particular spot of earth on which you expect to set up the
+temple of your home is not well adapted to that sacred purpose, think a
+bit before you commence digging. If it is low, wet and difficult of
+drainage; if the surface water or the drains from adjacent lands have
+no outlet except across it; if its size and shape compel your house to
+stand so near your neighbor on the south that he takes all the sunshine
+and gives you the odors of his dinner and the conversation of his cook
+in exchange; if there are no pleasant outlooks; if it is shaded by
+trees owned by somebody who will not be persuaded to cut them down for
+love nor money--by all means turn it into a fish-pond, a sheep-pasture
+or a public park. You can never build upon it a satisfactory home.
+Perhaps it is within five minutes' walk of the post-office and on the
+same street with Mrs. Adoniram Brown, and these considerations outweigh
+all others. In that case there is no help for you. You must make the
+best of it as it is.
+
+[Illustration: A BURIED GRIDIRON.]
+
+"If you have a suspicion that the ground is naturally wet, that it
+contains hidden springs or conceals an impervious basin, making in
+effect a pool of standing water underground, the first necessity is a
+clean outlet--not a sewer--low enough to underdrain the lot at least a
+foot and a-half below the bottom of the cellar. Having found the clean
+outlet, lay small drain tiles, two or three inches in diameter, under
+the entire house and for several feet all around it, like a big
+gridiron. When this is buried under one or two feet of clean gravel or
+sand you will have a permanently dry plot of ground to build upon. The
+same treatment will be effective if the ground is "springy." But there
+must be a "cut-off" encircling the house. This you can make by digging
+a trench a foot wide, reaching down to the drain tiles, and filling it
+nearly to the top with loose stones or coarse gravel, the surface of
+the ground being graded to slope sharply toward the trench. The surface
+water between it and the house, and any moisture creeping toward the
+house from without, will then be caught in this porous trap and fall to
+the gridiron.
+
+[Illustration: THE PROTECTING "CUT-OFF."]
+
+"It is possible, theoretically, to build an underground cellar so tight
+that it may be lifted up on posts and used for a water-tank, or set
+afloat like a compartment-built iron steamer. Such walls may be
+necessary under certain circumstances. They may be necessary for
+cellars that are founded in swamps, in salt marshes below the level of
+the sea, and in old river-beds, where the original iniquity of the
+standing water is made still more iniquitous by the inevitable foulness
+of the washing from streets and the unclean refuse from sinks and back
+doors. But for buildings that have four independent walls, with room
+enough for a man to ride around his own house in a wheelbarrow without
+trespassing on his neighbors, and which are not hopelessly depressed
+below all their surroundings, it is better to use a little moral
+suasion on the land itself than to spend one's resources in a defiant
+water-proof construction. Instead of drain tiles, small stones covered
+with a thin layer of hay or straw before being buried in the sand may
+be used if more economical.
+
+"If you cannot find the clean outlet for these buried drains or tiles
+below the level of the cellar bottom, then raise the cellar, house and
+all. No matter if you are accused of having a 'stuck up' house--better
+be stuck up than stuck in the mud. Raise it till the entire cellar is
+well above the level of thorough drainage. If this happens to carry it
+above the surface of the ground, set the house on posts and hang the
+cellar under the floor like a work-bag under a table or the basket to a
+balloon.
+
+"The foundation walls must indeed touch solid bottom and extend below
+the action of frost; but if the wall above the gridiron and below the
+paving of the cellar is of hard stones, or very hard bricks laid in
+cement, there will be little risk from rising moisture.
+
+"After all, the chief danger is not from underground springs, from
+clean surface water or an occasional rising of the floods, but from the
+unclean wastes that in our present half-civilized state are constantly
+going out of our homes to poison and pollute the earth and air around
+them."
+
+"Half-civilized indeed!" said Jack, interrupting the reading of the
+letter. "Besides, he is premature as well as impertinent. He doesn't
+know but the house will stand on a granite boulder."
+
+"I suppose he intends to warn us, and I am not certain that our lot is
+as dry as it ought to be. At all events we will have some holes dug in
+different places and see if any water comes into them."
+
+"Of course it will. Haven't we just had the 'equinoctial'? The ground
+is full of water everywhere."
+
+"If it is full this spring it will be full every spring. We may as well
+order the drain tiles."
+
+"It shall be done," said Jack. "Now let us have the second proviso. I
+hope it will be shorter than the first."
+
+"And, secondly," Jill continued reading, "provided you know what your
+house is for. It is my conviction that of all the people who carefully
+plan and laboriously build themselves houses, scarcely one in ten could
+give a radical, intelligent reason for building them. To live in, of
+course; but how to live is the question, and why. As they have been in
+the habit of living? As their neighbors live? As they would like to
+live? As they ought to live? Is domestic comfort and well-being the
+chief motive? It is not, usually; hence, there are in the world a great
+many more houses than homes."
+
+"Oh, bother the preaching! It's all true, but we don't happen to need
+it. When is he coming?"
+
+"Next week, and he hopes we shall have 'some general idea of what we
+want.' How very condescending! We know precisely what we want, as I can
+easily show him."
+
+[Illustration: A "CROSS-SECTION" PROPHECY.]
+
+Jill accordingly produced a fresh sheet of "cross-section" paper, on
+whose double plaid lines the most helpless tyro in drawing can make a
+plan with mathematical accuracy provided he can count ten, and on this
+began to draw the plan of the first floor, expounding as she drew.
+
+"If we call the side of the house which is next the street the front,
+the main entrance must be at the east side, because we need the whole
+of the south side for our living rooms. You know the view toward the
+southwest is the finest we shall have, especially from the chambers."
+
+"How do I know? I didn't climb the step-ladder."
+
+"And we must have a large bay window directly on that corner. The hall
+must run through the house crosswise, with the stairs on the west side
+of the house. As there is nothing to be seen in this direction except
+the white walls and green blinds of the parsonage, the windows on the
+stair-landing shall have stained glass. The dining-room will be at the
+north side of the hall, with plenty of eastern windows, and behind that
+the kitchen with windows at opposite sides. But you wouldn't understand
+the beauty of my kitchen arrangements now. By-and-by, when you are
+wiser, I will explain them. Do you like a fireplace in the hall, Jack?"
+
+"I don't know as I do. Do you?"
+
+"Of course! certainly."
+
+"I shall be of all men most miserable without one. Can't we have two?"
+
+"Perhaps so; but first let me read you Cousin Bessie's letter:
+
+    MY DEAREST JILL: I'm perfectly delighted to hear about the new
+    house. It will be an immense success. I _know_ it will--you are
+    so wise and so _practical_. How I _shall_ enjoy visiting you!
+    It is delightful to build houses now. Everybody thinks so much
+    more of the beautiful than they used to. Some of my friends
+    have the _loveliest_ rooms. The tones are _so_ harmonious, the
+    decorations so _exquisite_! Such sympathetic feeling and
+    spiritual unity! I _wish_ you could see Kitty Kane's hall. It
+    isn't bigger than a bandbox, but there's the _cunningest_
+    little fireplace in one corner, with real antique andirons and
+    the quaintest old Dutch tiles. They never make a fire in it;
+    couldn't if they wanted to--it smokes so. But it is _so_ lovely
+    and gives the hall such a sweet expression. You _will_ forgive
+    me, won't you, Jill, dear? but you know you are _so_ practical,
+    and I _do_ hope you won't forget the esthetic needs of home
+    life.                    Your loving cousin,                  BET."
+
+"Let's give up the hall fireplace," said Jack.
+
+[Illustration: HEAT FROM ALL SIDES.]
+
+"By no means; our hall is large and needs a fireplace--one that will
+not smoke and will warm not only the hall in very cold weather, but the
+whole house when it isn't quite cold enough for steam. The sides and
+back will be of iron with an air-chamber behind them, into which fresh
+air will be brought from out of doors and come out well warmed at the
+sides." (Jill's idea was something like the above figure for the plan.)
+
+"It will be a capital ventilator, too, for the centre of the house.
+There will be a damper in the hearth to let the ashes down into the
+ash-pit. I suppose a stove would answer, but this will be better
+because it won't have to be blacked, and it will last as long as the
+house."
+
+"How will it look standing out there all alone by itself?"
+
+"Haven't I told you, my dear, that whatever _is_ well looks well?"
+
+"Yes, but it takes a mighty faith to believe it, and I'm not even a
+mustard-seed. What is the little room in the southwest corner for?"
+
+"That is the library, and for an ordinary family it is large enough. It
+is twelve feet by fourteen. It will hold three or four thousand books,
+a table, a writing-desk, a lounge and three or four easy chairs. More
+room would spoil the privacy which belongs to a library and make it a
+sort of common sitting-room. Moreover, by drawing aside the portières
+and opening the doors we can make it a part of the large room when we
+wish to; and, on the other hand, when they are closed and the bay
+window curtains drawn, instead of one large room we shall have three
+separate apartments for three solitary misanthropes, for three
+_tête-a-têtes_, or for three incompatible groups, not counting the
+hall--no, nor the stair-landing, which will be a capital place for a
+quiet--"
+
+"Flirtation."
+
+At this point they were interrupted by a telegram from Aunt Melville,
+begging them not to begin on George's plan, as she had found something
+much more satisfactory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A FIRST VISIT AND SAGE ADVICE.
+
+
+They didn't begin to build, from Cousin George's nor from any other
+plan, for many weeks. Until the new house should be completed, Jill had
+agreed to commence housekeeping in the house that Jack built, without
+making any alterations in it, only reserving the privilege of finding
+all the fault she pleased to Jack privately, in order, as she said, to
+convince him that it would be impossible for them to be permanently
+happy in such a house.
+
+"I supposed," said Jack, with a groan, "that my company would make you
+blissfully happy in a cave or a dug-out."
+
+"So it would, if we were bears--both of us. As we are sufficiently
+civilized, taken together, to prefer artificial dwellings, it will be
+much better for us to find out what we really need in a home by actual
+experiment for a year or two. You know everybody who builds one house
+for himself always wishes he could build another to correct the
+mistakes of the first."
+
+"Yes, and when he has done it probably finds worse blunders in the
+second. Still, I'm open to conviction, and after our late architectural
+tour perhaps my house won't seem in comparison so totally depraved."
+
+[Illustration: AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+
+When they visited it, preparatory to setting up their household
+gods--Jack's bachelor arrangements being quite inadequate to the new
+order of things--Jack, with a flourish, threw the highly ornamental
+front door wide open. Jill walked solemnly in, and, looking neither to
+the right nor the left, went straight up stairs.
+
+"Hello!" Jack called after her, "what are you going up stairs for?"
+
+"I supposed you expected everybody to go to the second floor," said
+Jill, looking over the bannister, "or you wouldn't have set the stairs
+directly across the front entrance."
+
+"I do, of course," Jack responded, following three steps at a time.
+"And now will you please signify your royal pleasure as to apartments?"
+
+"Oh, yes! The first requisite is a room with at least one south
+window."
+
+"Here it is. A southerly window and a cloudy sky--two windows, in fact.
+And look here: see what a glorious closet. It goes clear up to the
+ceiling."
+
+"It isn't a closet at all; only a little cupboard. It wouldn't hold
+one-half of your clothes nor a tenth part of mine. And there's no
+fireplace in the room--not even a hole for a stovepipe."
+
+"Furnace, my dear. We shall be warmed from the regions below. There's
+the register."
+
+"I see. But where shall the bed stand? On these two sides it would come
+directly in front of a window; on this side there isn't room between
+the two doors; on that, there's the 'set bowl'--I hate 'set
+bowls'--and the furnace register in the floor."
+
+[Illustration: NO PLACE FOR THE BED.]
+
+"That's so. I never had any bed in this room. Try the dining-room
+chamber; that has a south window. The bed can stand on the north side
+and the dressing table over in the other corner."
+
+"Yes, in the dark, with a window behind my back. Oh! Jack, why didn't
+you get a wife before you planned your house?"
+
+"I did try."
+
+"You did! You never mentioned it to me before. What is this little room
+for?"
+
+"Why, nothing in particular. It came so, I suppose--part of the hall,
+you know; but it wouldn't be of any use in the hall, so I made a room
+of it. It will hold a cot bed if we should happen to have a house full
+of company."
+
+"It will never be needed for that with three other guest rooms; but I
+see what can be done. You know I promised not to make any alterations;
+but destruction isn't alteration, and as this little room is beside the
+front chamber, with only the little cupboards between, a part of the
+partition between the rooms can be destroyed. There will be no need of
+a door; a portière will be better, and I can use the small room for a
+dressing-room and closet. So _that_ is nicely arranged; and while you
+are marking where the partition is to be cut away I will explore the
+first story."
+
+[Illustration: ENLARGED BY DESTRUCTION.]
+
+Now, the stairs were built in a very common fashion, having a sharp
+turn at the top, which made the steps near the balustrade exceedingly
+steep and narrow. Jill's foot slipped on the top step and down she
+went, feet foremost, never stopping till she reached the hall floor
+below. Jack, hearing the commotion, ran to the rescue, caught his foot
+in the carpet and came tumbling after, with twice as much noise and not
+half as much grace. Happily the staircase was well padded under the
+carpet, and finding Jill unhurt as well as himself, Jack helped her to
+rise and coolly remarked:
+
+"You certainly can't find any fault with the stairs, Jill, dear. If
+there had been one of those square landings midway it would have taken
+twice as long to come down. I--I had them made so on purpose. Will you
+walk into my parlor?"
+
+They went in and sat down in easy-chairs.
+
+"I suppose," said Jill, "that our native land contains about a million
+houses with stairs like these and just such halls--if people will
+persist in calling them 'halls,' when they are only little narrow,
+dark, uncomfortable entries. If we were going to make any alterations
+in this house--which we are not, only destructions--- I should take
+these out, cut them in two in the middle, double them up, straighten
+the crook at the top and shove them outside the house, letting the main
+roof drop down to cover them. Then I would make a large landing at the
+turn, large enough for a wide seat, a few book shelves and a pretty
+window. This could be of stained glass, unless the view outside is more
+interesting than the window itself. The merit of a stained-glass
+window," Jill observed, very wisely, "is that the sunlight makes a
+beautiful picture of it inside the house during the day, and the same
+thing, still more beautiful, is thrown out into the world by the
+evening lamps, and the darker the night the brighter the picture. After
+the stairs were moved out, the little hall, if joined by a wide
+doorway, to the room we are now in would become of some value. There is
+no grate in this room, and a chimney might be built in the outer wall,
+with a fireplace opposite the wide doorway. Then, taken all together,
+we should have a very pretty sitting-room. I shouldn't call that an
+alteration--should you, Jack?--only an addition."
+
+[Illustration: A SLIGHT ADDITION.]
+
+"Certainly not. Tearing down partitions, taking out plumbing, building
+a few chimneys, moving stairways, and such little things, can't be
+called 'alterations'--oh, no."
+
+"And the house will be worth so much more when you come to sell it."
+
+"Of course. But why do you call this a 'sitting-room?' It wouldn't be
+possible to sell a house that has no parlor; besides this is marked
+'parlor' on the plan."
+
+"I prefer the spirit of the plan to the letter of it. This is the
+pleasantest room--almost the only pleasant room on this floor. It is
+sunny and convenient, it looks out upon the street and across the lawn,
+and whatever it is labeled it will _be_ our common every-day
+sitting-room. For similar reasons we will take the chamber over it for
+our own room."
+
+"What becomes of our hospitality if we keep the best for ourselves?"
+
+"What becomes of our common sense if we make ourselves uncomfortable
+the year round in order to make a guest a little less uncomfortable
+over night. I try to love my neighbor as myself; I can't love him three
+hundred and sixty-five times as well. Now, if you are rested, we will
+go and see if the architect has come."
+
+He had not arrived, but they found a ponderous package of plans from
+Aunt Melville, with an explanatory note, a letter from Cousin Bessie
+admonishing Jill that her new home ought to be "a perfect poem,
+pervaded and perfumed by a rare feeling of tender longing and homely
+aspiration," and another from her father's oldest sister.
+
+[Illustration: GROUND FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+"For fifty years," Aunt Jerusha wrote, "I have lived in what would now
+be called an old-fashioned house, though it was new enough when I came
+to it, and I always think of the Scripture saying when I hear about the
+many inventions that men have sought out and are putting into houses
+now-a-days. The danger is not so much from the inventions themselves as
+from what they lead to. They promise great things, but I've learned to
+be suspicious of anything or anybody that makes large promises. I've
+learned, too, that realities sometimes go by contraries as well as
+dreams. The poorest folks are often the richest, and the greatest
+saving often turns out to be the greatest waste. Air-tight stoves saved
+the wood-pile, but they gave us colds and headaches. So your uncle put
+them away and we went back to the fireplaces. Then came the hot-air
+furnaces, which seemed so much less trouble than open fires, but taking
+care of the open fires wasn't half so troublesome as taking care of
+sick folks; and the same thing we learned to our bitter cost of the
+plumbing pipes that creep around like venomous serpents and promise to
+save so many steps. Perhaps they do, but it seems to me that much of
+our vaunted labor-saving is at best only a transfer. We work all the
+harder at something else or compel others to work for us. When I began
+housekeeping I had no difficulty in taking care of my large house
+without any help, nor in caring for my family while it was small. Yet I
+hadn't a single modern invention or labor-saving machine, I have had a
+great many since and have tried a great many more. When I find one that
+helps in the work that _must_ be done I am glad to keep it. If it
+merely does something new--something I had never done before--I keep
+the old way. Multiplying wants may be a means of grace to the
+half-civilized, but our danger lies in the other direction: we have too
+many wants already. And this is what I sat down to say to you, my dear
+child: Don't make housekeeping such a complex affair that you must give
+to it all your time and strength, leaving no place for the 'better
+part.' Don't fill your house with furniture too fine to be used, and
+don't try to have everything in the latest fashion. I see many
+beautiful things and read of many more, but nothing is half so
+beautiful to me as the things that were new fifty years ago and are
+still in daily use. Of planning houses I know but little. For one
+thing, I should say, have the kitchen and working departments as close
+at hand as possible. This will save many weary steps, whether you do
+your own work or leave it with servants, the best of whom need constant
+watching and encouragement, or they will not make life any easier or
+better worth living."
+
+"Isn't this rather a solemn letter?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Yes; it's a solemn subject."
+
+"_Shall_ you 'do your own work'?"
+
+"Of course I shall. How can I help it?
+
+     'Each hath a work that no other can do;'
+
+but just precisely what my own work will be I am not at present
+prepared to say."
+
+"Is Aunt Melville as solemn as Aunt Jerusha?"
+
+"Aunt Melville assures her dear niece that 'the last plans are
+absolutely beyond criticism: the rooms are large and elegant, the
+modern conveniences perfect, the kitchen and servants' quarters
+isolated from the rest of the house'--"
+
+"That won't suit the other aunty."
+
+"The porte cochère and side entrance most convenient and the front
+entrance sufficiently distinguished by the tower. I particularly like
+the porte cochère at the side. If none of your callers came on foot
+there would be no objection to having it at the front entrance, but it
+isn't pleasant to be compelled to walk up the carriage-way. As you
+see, this is a brick house, and I am persuaded you ought to build of
+bricks. It will cost ten or fifteen per cent. more--possibly
+twenty--but in building a permanent home you ought not to consider the
+cost for a moment.'"
+
+"That's a comfortable doctrine, if everybody would live up to it," said
+Jack.
+
+"Yes; and like a good many other comfortable doctrines, it contains too
+much truth to be rejected--not enough to be accepted. We _must_ count
+the cost, but if we limit ourselves to a certain outlay, and positively
+refuse to go beyond that, we shall regret it as long as we live. We may
+leave some things unfinished, but whatever is done past alteration,
+either in size or quality, must be right, whatever it costs."
+
+And herein Jill displayed her good sense. It is, indeed, a mistake to
+build a house beyond the possibility of paying for it, or of
+maintaining it without a constant struggle, but in building a permanent
+home there is more likely to be lasting regret through too close
+economy in the first outlay, than through extravagance--regret that can
+only be cured by an outlay far exceeding what the original cost would
+have been.
+
+The architect came as the sun went down, and, after being duly warmed,
+fed and cheered, was informed by Jill that all she expected from him
+that evening was an explanation of the respective merits of wood and
+brick houses. Jack begged the privilege of taking notes, to keep
+himself awake, Jill begged the architect to be as brief as possible,
+and the architect begged for a small blackboard and a piece of chalk,
+that he might, in conveying his ideas, use the only one, true, natural
+and universal language which requires no grammar, dictionary or
+interpreter.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS.
+
+
+There are two things belonging to modern civilization," the architect
+began, "that fill me with amazement. This morning, at the usual hour, I
+sat at my own breakfast table. During the day I have been reading and
+writing, eating, drinking and making merry with pleasant acquaintances,
+old and new. I have observed the architecture of a dozen cities and a
+hundred villages and have seen landscapes without number. I have been
+occupying an elegantly finished and furnished drawing-room all the
+time, with every possible comfort and convenience at hand, and now am
+sitting at your fireside, two hundred and fifty miles from home. I have
+just assured the girl I left behind me of my safe arrival, and have
+listened to her grateful reply. With my ten thousand companions going
+in the same direction I have met ten thousand others crossing and
+recrossing our path, every one of whom was as safe and comfortable as
+ourselves, every one of whom knew the hour and the minute at which he
+would reach his destination. To an observer above the clouds our
+pathways would appear more frail than the finest gossamer; and the most
+daring engineer that ever lived, seeing for the first time our mode of
+travel, would stake his reputation that we were rushing to
+inevitable destruction. Yet every foot of our way has been so guarded
+that not one of these swiftly-moving palaces has swerved from its track
+or been hindered on its course. This annihilation of space, with the
+human skill, vigilance and fidelity incidental to it, are more
+wonderful to me than any tales of magic, stranger than any fiction. I
+believe because I see; nevertheless it is incredible. My second
+amazement is that fire insurance companies should continue to live and
+thrive against such apparently fearful odds, for I see whole villages
+and cities composed of buildings that seem expressly designed to invite
+speedy combustion, and at the same time to resist all attempts to
+extinguish a fire once started in their complex interiors. Indeed, the
+most effective modes of treatment yet discovered for a burning building
+are drowning it with all its contents in a deluge of water or blowing
+it up with gunpowder. It is an open question which of the two methods
+is to be preferred.
+
+[Illustration: A SECURE OUTLOOK.]
+
+"Let me show you how a wooden house is built. The sills and joists of
+the first floor are comparatively safe, because they are not boxed in
+with dry boards, and even with furnace and ash-pits in the cellar there
+would be little danger from a fire down below if it were not for the
+careful provision made for carrying it into the upper part of the
+structure. This provision, however, is most effectively made by means
+of the upright studs and furrings that stand all around the outside of
+the building and reach across it wherever a partition is needed.
+Accordingly, every wooden house has from one hundred to one thousand
+wooden flues of a highly inflammable character arranged expressly to
+carry fire from the bottom to the top, valiantly consuming themselves
+in the operation. Furthermore, they are frequently charged with
+shavings and splinters of wood, which, becoming dry as tinder, will
+respond at once to a spark from a crack in the chimney, an overheated
+stove or furnace-pipe, or a match in the hands of an inquisitive
+mouse. They are, likewise, so arranged that no water can be poured
+inside them till they fall apart and the house collapses, for they
+reach to the roof, whose sole duty is to keep out water, whether it
+comes from the clouds or from a hose-pipe, but which, for economical
+reasons, is made sufficiently open to allow the air to pass through it
+freely, thus insuring a good draught when the fire begins to burn. To
+complete the system and prevent the possibility of finding where the
+fire began, the spaces between the joists of the upper floors
+communicate with the vertical flues, and these highways and byways for
+rats and mice, for fire and smoke, for odors from the kitchen, noises
+from the nursery and dust from the furnace and coal-bin, are also
+strewn with builders' rubbish, which carries flame like stubble on a
+harvest-field.
+
+[Illustration: MINED AND COUNTERMINED.]
+
+"Brick houses, as usually built, are not much better, but that is not
+the fault of the bricks--_they_ are tougher than good intentions; they
+have been burned once and fire agrees with them. In fact, there is no
+building material so thoroughly reliable, through thick and thin, in
+prosperity and in adversity, as good, honest, well-burned bricks. But
+the ordinary brick house is double--a house within a house--a wooden
+frame in a brick shell. Like logs in a coal-pit, the inner house is
+well protected from outside attacks, but the flames, once kindled
+within, will run about as freely as in a wooden building, and laugh at
+cold water, which, however abundantly it is poured out, can never reach
+the heart of the fire till its destructive work is accomplished. Thrown
+upon the outer walls, it runs down the bricks or clapboards; poured
+over the roof, it is carried promptly to the ground, as it ought to
+be; shot in through the windows, it runs down the plastering, washes
+off the paper, soaks the carpets, ruins the merchandise and spoils
+everything that water can spoil, while the fire itself roars behind the
+wainscot, climbs to the rafters and rages among the old papers, cobwebs
+and heirlooms in the attic till the roof falls in, the floors go down
+with a crash and an upward shower of sparks, and only the tottering
+walls, with their eyeless window sockets, or the ragged, blackened
+chimney's, remain."
+
+"One road leads to fire and the other to combustion; that's plain
+enough," said Jack; "but where do the merits come in? I thought we were
+to learn the relative merits of bricks and wood."
+
+"Wood has one conspicuous merit, a virtue that covers a multitude of
+sins--it is cheap; but let me first arrange the fire-escapes."
+
+"By all means. Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning."
+
+"If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful
+to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long
+enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.
+This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the
+draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar
+between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or
+near the level of each floor. A cut-off half way up is an additional
+safeguard. The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also
+be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke and sparks from a
+burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the
+cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote
+fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured 'there hadn't been
+a fire kindled for six months.' These occasional dampers are a partial
+remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons
+of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case
+of fire. The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be
+filled.
+
+[Illustration: A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY.]
+
+"I supposed air spaces were necessary for warmth and dryness," said
+Jill.
+
+"So they are. But there are air spaces in a woolen blanket, in a
+brickbat and in common mortar, as well as in sawdust, ashes and
+powdered charcoal, quite enough to serve as non-conductors of heat and
+of moisture too, if properly protected. One of the best and most
+available materials at present known for this purpose is 'mineral
+wool,' a product of iron 'slag.' If the open spaces between the studs
+and rafters of a wooden building (or in a brick building between the
+furrings) are filled with this substance, or anything else equally
+good, if there is anything else--of course sawdust or other
+inflammable material would not answer except for an ice-house or a
+water-tank--'fire-bugs' would find it difficult to follow their
+profession with any success, and the insurance companies would build
+more elegant offices and declare larger dividends than ever before.
+Houses might be burned possibly, but the inmates would have ample time
+to fold their nightgowns, pack their trunks, take up the carpets and
+count the spoons before vacating the premises."
+
+"How much will that sort of stuffing cost?"
+
+"For a wooden dwelling house of medium size a few hundred dollars would
+cover the first outlay, and the saving in worry would be worth twice as
+much every year."
+
+"Now to consider the relative merits of brick and wood, for I see Jack
+is going to sleep again: The chief excellence of wood has already been
+mentioned. It is cheap, so cheap that any man who can earn a dollar a
+day and live on fifty cents, may at the end of a year, have a house of
+his own in which he can live and begin to bring up a family in comfort
+and safety. He that builds of bricks may rejoice in the durability and
+strength of his house, in its security against fire and sudden changes
+of temperature, in economy of fuel in cold weather, of ice in warm
+weather, and of paint in all weathers; in the possibility of the
+highest degree of external beauty, and in the blessed consciousness
+that his real estate will not deteriorate on his hands or be a worn-out
+and worthless legacy to his children."
+
+"You must wear peculiar spectacles if you can discover beauty in a
+square brick house!"
+
+[Illustration: THE TOPMOST PEAK.]
+
+"Rectitude, of which a brick is the accepted type, certainly has a
+beauty of its own. But if a brick house is not beautiful--here again
+the fault is not, dear Jack, in the bricks; but in ourselves, our
+prejudices and our architects--other things being equal, it should be
+more beautiful than a wooden house, because the material employed is
+more appropriate for its use. (I should like to deliver an oration at
+this point, for upon this Golden Rule of utility hang all the law and
+the prophets of architectural beauty, but will defer it to a more
+fitting occasion.) There is, in truth, no limit to the grace of form,
+color and decoration possible with burned clay. As a marble statue is
+to a wooden image, so, for the outer walls of a building, is clay that
+has been moulded and baked, to the products of the saw-mill, the
+planing-mill, lathe and fret-saw."
+
+"Oh, you mean terra cotta?"
+
+"I mean clay that has been wrought into forms of use and beauty, and
+prepared by fire to endure almost to the end of time. It is most
+commonly found in plain rectangular blocks, but in accordance with the
+artistic spirit of the age, brains are now mixed with the sordid earth,
+and lasting beauty glows upon the rich, warm face of the strong brick
+walls."--
+
+"Yea, verily, amen and amen! Beauty, eloquence and true poetry, bright
+gleams of prophetic fire, patriotism, piety and the music of the
+spheres. I can see them all in my mind's eye and hear them in my mind's
+ear. Jill, my dear, our house shall be bricks--excuse me, I mean
+_brains_--and mortar, from turret to foundation stone. Consider that
+settled, and if the meeting is unanimous we will now adjourn till
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"One moment, if you please. Filling the spaces behind the lathing in a
+brick house with some fireproof and non-conducting material is a
+concession to usual modes of building. A more satisfactory construction
+still would be to build the wails of hollow bricks and with air spaces
+so disposed that neither wood furrings nor laths would be necessary.
+There is, moreover, no good reason why the inner surfaces of the main
+walls of a brick house and both sides of the partitions should not form
+the final finish of the rooms. Glazed bricks or tiles built into the
+walls, or secured to them after they are built, are vastly more
+satisfactory than a fragile and incongruous patchwork of wood, leather,
+metal, paper, paint and mortar, thrown together in some of the thousand
+and one fantastic fashions that spring up in a day, run their little
+course, and speedily return to the dust they have spent their short
+lives in collecting. I am afraid to dwell on this theme lest I should
+lie awake all night in a fever of futile protest."
+
+"Pray don't run any risks. I move we now adjourn."
+
+"Yes; but first let me ask one question," said Jill. "Would not the
+difference of cost between a house built in the ordinary combustible
+style and the same made fire-proof, or even 'slow-burning,' pay the
+cost of insurance at the usual rates many times over and leave a large
+margin besides?"
+
+"Undoubtedly it would."
+
+"Then, as an investment, what object is there in attempting to make
+buildings fireproof or even approximately so?"
+
+"Excuse me. I thought you were going to ask only one question."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHEN THE FLOODS BEAT AND THE RAINS DESCEND.
+
+
+After the architect had retired to his room it occurred to him that he
+might have answered Jill's conundrum as to the profit of building
+fire-proof houses by reminding her that pecuniary loss is not the sole
+objection to being burned out of house and home whenever the fire fiend
+happens to crave a flaming sacrifice, in the daytime or in the night,
+in summer or in midwinter, in sickness or in health; that not only
+heir-looms, but hearthstones and door posts, endeared by long
+associations, have a value beyond the power of insurance companies to
+restore, and that protection against fire means also security against
+many other ills to which the dwellers in houses are liable, not to
+refer to the larger fact that there is no real wealth without
+permanence, while the destruction of anything useful in the world,
+wherever the loss may seem to fall, impoverishes the whole. Having
+settled this point to his own satisfaction, he sought his pillow in a
+comfortable frame of mind. Comfortable, but not wholly at rest, for no
+sooner did he close his eyes than the "fever of futile protest"
+asserted itself in turbulent visions of paper, paint and plastering.
+Dados danced around in carnival dress; wall decorations went waltzing
+up and down, changing in shape, size and color like the figures in a
+kaleidoscope; Chinese pagodas on painted paper dissolved into brazen
+sconces, and candelabra sat where no light would ever shine; glazed
+plaques turned into Panama hats and cotton umbrellas, the classic
+figures in the frieze began to chase the peacocks furiously across the
+ceilings, the storks hopped wildly around on their one available leg,
+draperies of every conceivable hue and texture, from spider webs to
+sole leather, shaking the dust from their folds, slipped uneasily about
+on their glittering rings, and showers of Japanese fans floated down
+like falling apple blossoms in the month of May. He seemed to see the
+Old Curiosity Shop, the uncanny room of Mr. Venus, a dozen foreign
+departments of the Centennial, ancient garrets and modern household art
+stores, all tumbled together in hopeless confusion, and over all an
+emerald, golden halo that grew more and more concentrated till it burst
+into gloom as one gigantic sunflower, which, suddenly changing into the
+full moon just rising above the top of a neighboring roof, put an end
+to his chaotic dreams.
+
+Not willing to be moonstruck, even on the back of his head, he arose
+and went to the window to draw the curtain. There was a sort of
+curtainette at the top, opaque and immovable, serving simply to reduce
+the height of the window. At the sides there were gauzy draperies, too
+fancifully arranged to be rashly moved and too thin to serve the
+purpose of a curtain even against moonlight. He tried to close the
+inside shutters, but they clung to their boxes, refusing to stir
+without an order from the carpenter. At the risk of catching a cold or
+a fall, he opened the window and endeavored to bring the outside
+blinds together. One fold hung fast to the wall, the other he contrived
+to unloose, but the hook to hold it closed was wanting, and when he
+tried to fasten it open again the catch refused to catch, so he was
+compelled to shut the window and leave the swinging blind at the mercy
+of the wind. He then improvised a screen from a high-backed chair and
+an extra blanket, and again betook himself to bed. Stepping on a tack
+that had been left over when the floor matting was laid provoked
+certain exclamations calculated to exorcise the demon--or should I say
+alarm the angel?--of decorative art, and he was soon wrapped in the
+slumber of the just, undisturbed by esthetic visions.
+
+[Illustration: WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+After a time he became dimly conscious of a sense of alarm. At first,
+scarcely roused to understand the fear or its cause, he soon recognized
+a noise that filled his soul with terror--the stealthy sound of a
+midnight assassin; a faint rasping, intermittent and cautious, a sawing
+or filing the bolt of his door. He made a motion to spring up, upset a
+glass of water by his bedside and--frightened the rats from the
+particular hole they were trying to gnaw. In their sudden fright they
+dropped all pretense of secresy. They called each other aloud by name
+and scattered acorns, matches, butternuts and ears of corn in every
+direction, which rolled along the ceiling, fell down the partitions,
+knocked the mortar off the back of the laths and raised such a noisy
+commotion as ought to have roused the whole neighborhood. No one
+stirred, and the architect once more addressed himself to blessed
+sleep, feeling that morning must soon put an end to his tribulations.
+How long he slept he had no means of knowing. It was still dark when he
+awoke: dark but not still. A distant footfall tinkled on the matted
+floor, followed by another and another in rapid, measured succession.
+Could there be a cat or a dog in the room? He could see nothing. The
+moon was gone and the room was dark as Egypt. Possibly some animal
+escaped from a traveling menagerie had hidden in the chamber. He lay
+still and listened while the step--step--step--kept on without break or
+change. Presently he thought of ghosts, and as ghosts were the one
+thing he was not afraid of he turned over and went to sleep for good
+just as the village clock struck eleven.
+
+In the morning when he awoke, it rained. The ghostly footfalls
+continued; in fact, they had considerably increased, but they were no
+longer ghostly. A dark spot on the ceiling directly over the portfolio
+of plans he had laid on the floor betrayed their source. Portfolio and
+contents were as well soaked as if the fire companies had been at
+them--all from a leak in the roof.
+
+After breakfast, when Jill proposed to spend the time till it cleared
+off in looking over the plans he had brought, the architect was obliged
+to explain the disaster.
+
+"It is just as well," said he. "I brought them because you asked me to
+bring them, not because I supposed there would be one among them that
+would suit you. But they are not wasted. These poor, dumb, dripping
+plans preach a most eloquent sermon, the practical application of which
+is only too evident."
+
+"But how _can_ you make a tight roof? There has always been a leak here
+when it rains with the wind in a certain quarter. We keep a pan under
+it all the time, but somebody forgot to empty it; so it ran over last
+night."
+
+"You ought to see the house that I built," said Jack. "The wind may
+blow where it listeth and never a drop comes through the roof."
+
+"Oh, Jack, what a story! Only yesterday you showed me where the ceiling
+was stained and the paper just ready to come off."
+
+"That wasn't from rain water. It was from snow and ice water, which is
+a very different affair. We had peculiar weather last winter. I know a
+man who lost three thousand dollars' worth of frescoes in one night."
+
+"It is indeed a different matter as regards the construction of the
+roof, but the water is wet all the same, and a roof is inexcusable that
+fails to keep all beneath it dry, however peculiar the weather may be.
+No, it is not difficult to make a tight roof with the aid of common
+sense and common faithfulness. The most vulnerable spots during a rain
+storm are beside the dormers and the chimneys, over the bay-window
+roofs and in the valleys, that is, wherever the plane surface and the
+uniform slope of the roof is broken. In guarding these it is not safe
+to assume that water never runs up hill; a strong wind will drive it up
+the slope of a roof under slates, shingles or flashings as easily as it
+drives up the high tide of Lincolnshire. It will cause the water
+pouring down the side of a chimney, a dormer window, or any other
+vertical wall, to run off in an oblique direction and into cracks that
+never thought of being exposed to falling rain. 'Valleys' fail to
+carry their own rivers when they are punctured by nails carelessly
+driven too far within their borders; when the rust that corrupts the
+metal of which they are commonly composed has eaten their substance
+from the under side perhaps, their weakness undiscovered till the
+torrent breaks through; when they become choked with leaves and dust
+and overflow their banks; when they are torn asunder by their efforts
+to accommodate themselves to changes of temperature, and when ice cakes
+come down from the steep roofs and break holes through them.
+
+"The other danger is peculiar to cold climates, where the roof must
+protect not only from driving rain but from snow and ice in all their
+moods and tenses. When the higher peaks feel the warmth of the sun or
+the internal heat of the building, the lower slopes and valleys being
+without such influence, it sometimes happens that the rills will be set
+to running by the warmth of the upper portions, while the colder
+climate below will stop them in their course, building around the
+slate, shingles or tiles an impervious ice dam, from which the
+descending streams can find no outlet except by 'setting back' under
+the slates and running down inside. Eave spouts and conductors are
+especially liable to this climatic influence, for nothing is more
+common than to find them freezing in the shade while the roofs above
+are basking in the sun. As Jack observes, admitting water above an ice
+dam is a different kind of sin in a roof from that which caused the
+ruin of my plans last night, but it is no less unpardonable. The same
+treatment that will make a roof non-conducting of fire will, to some
+extent, overcome this danger, or a double boarding may be laid upon the
+rafters, with an air space between. This or the mineral wool packing
+will prevent the premature melting of snow from the internal heat. The
+only sure salvation for gutters is to take them down and lay them away
+in a cool, dry place. Thorough work, ample outlets and abundant room
+for an overflow on the outward side will make them reasonably safe. In
+general it is better to let the water fall to the ground, as directly
+as possible, and let the snow slide where it will, provided there is
+nothing below to be injured by an avalanche. A hundred-weight of warm
+snow or a five-pound icicle falling ten feet upon a slated roof or a
+conservatory skylight is sure to make a lasting impression."
+
+"Isn't this discourse a little out of season?" said Jack. "We don't buy
+furs in July nor refrigerators in January. If you expect advice to be
+followed, you mustn't offer it too long beforehand. Now, as your plans
+haven't yet recovered from their bath, let us see if Jill's air-castles
+can be brought down to the region of human possibilities."
+
+"I am not quite ready for that," said Jill. "First, let me show you the
+plans my old friend has sent me, and read you her description of them.
+Here are the plans and here is the letter:
+
+"'Of all the plans Will has ever made'--her 'Will' is an architect, you
+know--'these seem to me most likely to suit you and Jack, although they
+are by no means, adapted to conventional, commonplace housekeepers. In
+the centre of the first floor the large hall, opening freely to the
+outside world, is a sort of common ground, hospitable and cheerful,
+where the stranger guest and the old friend meet; where the children
+play, where the entire household are free to come and go without
+formality. The furniture it contains is for use and comfort. It is
+never out of order, because it is subject to no formal rules. At the
+left of the hall is the real family home, more secluded and more
+significant of your own taste and feeling. Instead of many separate
+apartments for general family use, here are drawing-room, sitting-room,
+library and parlor, all in one. This is the domestic sanctuary, the
+essential family home into which outsiders come only by special
+invitation. From the central hall runs the staircase that leads to the
+still more personal and private apartments above, one of which belongs
+to each member of the family. At the right of the hall is the
+dining-room, near enough to make its contribution to physical comfort
+and enjoyment at the proper time, but easily excluded when its inferior
+service is not required.'
+
+"I don't understand that," said Jill.
+
+"I do," said Jack. "It means that the meat that perisheth ought not to
+be set above the feast of reason and flow of soul; that the dining-room
+ought to be convenient but subordinate, not the most conspicuously
+elegant part of the establishment, unless we keep a boarding-house and
+reckon eating the chief end of man. Where do you say the library is?"
+
+"Included in the drawing-room. Probably the corner marked 'Boudoir'
+contains a writing desk with more or less books and other literary
+appliances. It has a fireplace of its own and portières would give it
+complete seclusion."
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+"Where is the smoking-room?"
+
+"I don't know. She didn't send the plans for the stable."
+
+"How savage! Please go on with the letter."
+
+Jill continued:
+
+"'The floors of the dining-room and hall are on the same level, but
+that of the drawing-room is one or two feet higher--'
+
+"I don't like that at all. Should stumble forty times a day."
+
+"'--which is typical of its higher social plane, makes a charming
+raised seat on the platform at the foot of the stairs, and gives a more
+picturesque effect than would be possible if all the rooms were on a
+par.'
+
+"Can't help that. I shouldn't like it. I'd rather be a commonplace
+housekeeper."
+
+"'The higher broad landing in the staircase, running quite across the
+hall, makes a sort of gallery with room for a few book-shelves, a
+lounging-seat in the window, a band of musicians on festival occasions,
+with perhaps a pretty view from the window.'
+
+"If the landscape happens to fit the plan."
+
+"'Under the lower portion, of the stairs there is a toilet room, and at
+the same end of the hall wide doors lead to the piazza. A long window
+also gives access to the same piazza from the drawing-room. In the
+second story the chambers have plenty of closets and dressing-rooms,
+and yet but few doors. Indeed, many of these may be omitted by using
+portières between each chamber and its dressing-room. You will notice,
+too, that by locking one door on each story the servants' quarters can
+be entirely detached from the rest of the house.'
+
+"Yes," said Jill, laying down the letter; "and that suggests another
+question: What do you think of a plan like this which provides no
+passage from the kitchen to the front part of the house except across
+the dining-room?"
+
+[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+"I should refer the question back to the housekeepers themselves; it
+is domestic rather than architectural. If the kitchen servant attends
+to the door bell, and is constantly sailing back and forth between the
+cooking-stove and the front door like a Fulton Ferry boat, the amount
+of travel would justify a special highway--even a suspension bridge.
+Likewise, when the side entrance for the boys and other careless
+members of the family is behind the dining-room, that apartment will
+become a noisy thoroughfare, unless there is a corridor passing around
+it. This is a common dilemma in planning the average house, and while a
+direct communication between the front and rear portions is always
+desirable, crossing one of the principal rooms is often the least of
+two evils. It seems to be so in this plan."
+
+"Go on, Jill."
+
+"There is but one more sentence about the plan: 'The outside of the
+house is severely plain, but you can easily make it more ornamental.'"
+
+"That's true. Nothing is easier than to make things ornamental. The
+hard thing is to make them simply useful. Now if you want my candid
+opinion of this plan," Jack continued, "I should say it is first-rate
+if the front door looks toward the east: if there is a grand view of
+rivers and mountains toward the southwest; if the family live on the
+west piazza all the forenoon; if they board a moderate family of
+servants in the north end (which I notice is a few steps lower than the
+dining-room--for social reasons, I suppose)--if they keep up rather a
+'tony' style of living in the south end; are not above condescending to
+men of low estate to the extent of receiving common people in the big
+hall, but holding themselves about two steps above the average human;
+and, finally, if and provided the butler's pantry is made as large
+again for a smoking-room, and the kitchen pantry made large enough to
+hold the butler. With these few remarks, I think we may lay this set of
+plans on the table."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WISDOM OF JILL IN THE KITCHEN.
+
+
+"Perhaps Jack will remember," said Jill, as she prepared to explain her
+plans, "that we examined not long ago a large number of somewhat
+pretentious houses, but did not find one that was satisfactory, the
+defects being usually in what I should call the working department of
+the house. The large front rooms were often exceedingly charming,
+elegantly furnished and well arranged."
+
+"For which reason," said Jack, "the family seemed to be religiously
+kept out of them unless they had on their company manners and their
+Sunday clothes, or wished to make themselves particularly miserable by
+having a wedding, a sewing society or an evening party."
+
+"The rear boundary of the dining-room seemed like Mason and Dixon's
+line in the old times; once beyond it, we entered a region 'without law
+or ornament or order,' a realm of architectural incompetence, confusion
+and evil work--if it is fair to call the arrangements of the domestic
+part of a house an architectural matter."
+
+"Certainly it is," Jack affirmed, "and it's my opinion that no
+architect ought to receive his diploma until he has served one year in
+a first-class family as cook, butler and maid-of-all-work."
+
+[Illustration: THE OUTSIDE OF TED'S HOUSE.]
+
+"One would almost be inclined to think that such an experience, with
+another year at bridge building, had been with certain 'practical
+architects and builders' the entire course of study."
+
+"It was plain enough," Jill continued, "that these houses were planned
+by _men_, who were not only ignorant of the details of housework but
+who held them in low esteem, as of no special importance. They
+evidently exhausted their room and their resources on what they are
+pleased to call the 'main' part of the house, leaving the kitchen and
+all its accessories to be fashioned out of the chips and fragments that
+remained. It would be a similar thing if a man should build a factory,
+fill it with machinery, furnish and equip the offices, warerooms and
+shipping docks, but leave no room for the engine that is to drive the
+whole or for the fuel that feeds the engine. When 'we women' practice
+domestic architecture, as we surely ought and shall,--"
+
+"When it's fashionable."
+
+"--we shall change all that. If there can be but two good rooms in a
+house it is better to have a kitchen and sitting-room than a
+dining-room and parlor. I propose to begin at the other end of the
+problem in planning our house. It may not suit anybody else, but if it
+suits Jack and I it will be a model home."
+
+"That sentiment is a solid foundation to build upon," said the
+architect. "I wish it was more popular. Build to suit yourselves, not
+your neighbors."
+
+"And now if you will walk into my kitchen, which is _not_ up nor down a
+winding stair? but on the same level with the dining-room, you shall
+judge whether it can be made a stern reality or must always remain the
+ghostly wing of a castle in the air. The approach from outside is
+through the little entry at the farther corner, where 'the butcher, the
+baker, and the candlestick maker,' the grocer, the fish-man, the
+milk-man and the ice-man bring their offerings. The other entrance is
+by way of the lobby adjoining the main staircase hall. This lobby or
+'garden entrance' is a sort of Mugby Junction, where we can take the
+cars for the cellar, for the second floor by the back stairs route, for
+the dining-room or for out of doors, and where we find refreshment in
+the way of a wash-basin and minor toilet conveniences. Under the main
+staircase there is also a large closet opening into this same lobby. My
+kitchen you see has windows at opposite sides, not only to admit plenty
+of light, for cleanliness is a child of light--"
+
+"That's true," said Jack. "In a dark room it's hard to tell a dried
+blueberry from a dried--currant."
+
+"Not only for light, but that the summer breezes may sweep through it
+when the windows are open, and, as far as possible, keep a river of
+fresh air rollings between the cooking range and the dining-room. It is
+long and narrow, that it may have ample wall space and yet keep the
+distance between the engine and machine shop, that is, the range with
+its appurtenances, and the packing-room--I mean the butler's pantry--as
+short as possible."
+
+"I'm glad there's going to be a 'butler's pantry,' it sounds so
+stylish. I notice that among people who have accommodations for a
+'butler' in their house plans, about one in a hundred keeps the
+genuine article. All the rest keep a waitress or a 'second girl.'
+Sometimes the cook, waitress, butler, chambermaid, valet and
+housekeeper are all combined in one tough and versatile handmaiden."
+
+[Illustration: JILL'S KITCHEN IN BLACK AND WHITE.]
+
+"Well, call it china closet, though it is really something more than
+that, or serving-room, or dining-room pantry--whatever you please. We
+shall keep two servants in the house, one of whom will wait on the
+table; consequently I do not want a door from this room-of-many-names
+to the kitchen. It is much easier to maintain the dignity and order
+that belong to our precious pottery, our blue and crackled ware, our
+fair and frail cut glass, if they are not exposed to frequent attacks
+from the kitchen side. There is, however, an ample sliding door or
+window in the partition, and a wide serving table before it, on which
+the cook will deposit the dinner as she takes it from the range. A part
+of the top of this table is of slate, and may be kept hot by steam or
+hot water from the range. With but one servant it would of course be
+necessary to make the route from the kitchen range to the dining-room
+table more direct."
+
+"What if you had none?"
+
+"If I had none, my kitchen, dining-room, store-room, china-closet,
+butler's pantry and all the blessed facilities for cooking, serving and
+removing the meals should be within a radius of ten feet. How any
+mortal woman with a soul above dress trimmings can be content to spend
+three hours in preparing meals to be eaten in thirty minutes passes my
+comprehension. When I 'do my own work,' as Aunt Jerusha says, there
+will be no extra steps, no extra dishes, no French cooking, no
+multiplying of 'courses.'"
+
+"No cards, no cake, no style."
+
+"Yes, indeed! The most distinguished and elegant style. Such style as
+is not possible except where all the household service is performed by
+the most devoted, the most thoughtful, the most intelligent, if I may
+say so--"
+
+"Certainly the most intelligent, amiable, accomplished and altogether
+lovely member of the family. I agree to that."
+
+"There will be no _pretense_ of style--if that is what you mean, no
+vain endeavor to conceal poverty or ignorance, but a delightful
+Arcadian candor and simplicity that will leave the mistress of the
+house, who is also housekeeper, nurse, cook, dairymaid, butler,
+waitress, laundress, seamstress, governess and family physician,
+abundant time and strength for such other occupations and amusements as
+may be most congenial. It would be a delightful way of living, and I
+should not hesitate to try it if I felt certain that I _had_ a soul
+above dress trimmings. I am not willing to be a household drudge,
+overwhelmed by the 'work that is never done;' therefore, to be on the
+safe side, we will keep two servants.
+
+"The cooking range, whether of the portable or 'set' kind, will have a
+brick wall behind it and at each side, which, carried above, will form
+a sort of canopy to conduct into the chimney the superfluous heat in
+warm weather and the steam and smoke from cooking at all times. I
+suppose some housekeepers would object to separating the two pantries,
+but they have no common interests requiring close proximity. The
+kitchen pantry is a store-room and a kind of private laboratory, where
+the mysterious experiments are made that develop our taste for esthetic
+cooking and give us an experimental knowledge of dyspepsia. Its
+operations precede the work of the range to which it is a near
+neighbor, as it ought to be. It has also the merit of being in the cool
+northwest corner of the house, with small windows on two adjacent
+sides, which are better than a single window, for the air of a
+store-room or pantry cannot be changed too freely in warm weather.
+
+"Do you see the closets at the end of this pantry? One is for ice,
+which is shoved in through a little door just above the sink where it
+is brought by the ice-man; the other is for a cold closet and is built
+in such a way as to get the full benefit of its cold-blooded neighbor.
+Don't forget, in making the plan, that the door through which the ice
+slides must be large enough to take in the largest cakes, and must be
+so arranged that after being washed at the sink they will slide easily
+without lifting or _banging_ into their proper places inside."
+
+"And let me suggest," said the architect, "that the waste-pipe that
+carries off the melted ice be allowed to run straight out of doors,
+without making the acquaintance of the sewer or any other drain-pipe."
+
+"Please remember that then, as well as the door. The kitchen sink is at
+the west end of the room, between and under two windows, which must be
+at least three feet from the floor. It is near to the pantry door, to
+accommodate the dishes used in cooking; yet not so near that one cannot
+stand beside it without danger of being roasted or broiled; near to the
+cellar door, from whence come the Murphys and other vegetables to have
+their faces washed and their eyes put out. Of course there is a china
+sink in the china closet, to insure tender treatment for all the table
+ware, and I should like a sort of window or slide behind the sideboard
+opening through it. Sometimes it will be convenient for the waitress to
+arrange the articles to be used on the table within reach from the
+dining-room side, and save a special journey whenever a dish, or a
+spoon is changed."
+
+"It strikes me," said Jack, "that when it comes to spoons you're
+drawing it pretty fine. I suppose these are modern improvements, but
+how much better will the dinners be than the dinners cooked in my
+kitchen? Two servants will do all the work for the same wages."
+
+"Real labor-saving is a religious duty, like all other economy; and if
+we don't have better domestic service with better facilities for doing
+work the fault is our own."
+
+"But I don't see that this kitchen is any better than mine."
+
+"Of course you don't; you're a man; but for one thing, your china
+closet hasn't even a window of its own. How do you expect glasses to be
+made clean and silver bright in such a place? Now observe my plan: Not
+only is the kitchen light, but the entry where the ice comes in, the
+pantry where the food is prepared, the butler's pantry, the stairs to
+the cellar and to the second floor, and Mugby Junction, are all light.
+There isn't a dark corner on the premises, and consequently no excuse
+for uncleanness or accidents."
+
+"Just think of the flies."
+
+"Windows are easily darkened. But I am not quite ready to talk over
+these minor matters. The general plan is the first thing, and I think
+you will agree with me that it is well begun."
+
+"According to Poor Richard, then, it is half done. So it's time for
+recess."
+
+"Very well; way of change let us look at the plans of brother Ted's
+house in Kansas. Its situation is different from ours, as it stands on
+a high bluff in a bend of the Missouri, and the parlor looks over the
+water in three different directions, up and down and across the river.
+The piazza seems to be arranged to make the most of this situation, and
+Ted thinks it impossible to contrive a more charming arrangement for
+hall, parlor and dining-room. They use the parlor as a common
+sitting-room, and the hall still more commonly, especially in warm
+weather. Ted doesn't realize that half the charm of the house lies in
+its adaptation to the site."
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST FLOOR OF TED'S HOUSE.]
+
+"That ought to be the case with every country or suburban house."
+
+"It certainly will not fit our lot, and it seems to me best suited for
+a summer home or for a warm climate."
+
+Here Jack was called to his office, and Jill withdrew to attend to some
+household duties, first requesting the architect to redraw the plans so
+as to show accurately the construction and details.
+
+"That is to say," said Jack, "while Jill makes a pudding for dinner and
+I write a business letter of three lines, you are to lay out in
+complete shape the plans for a house containing all the modern
+abominations and improvements, that will cost ten thousand dollars,
+occupy two years in building and last forever. That's a modest
+request."
+
+"Not extravagant compared with the demands often made upon domestic
+architects, for it involves no downright contradictions. I am not asked
+to show how a house worth ten thousand dollars can be built for five,
+or to break the Golden Rule, or to change the multiplication table and
+the cardinal points of the compass."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BE HONEST AND KEEP WARM.
+
+
+The architect went home to translate the instructions he had received
+into the language that builders understand. Jack and Jill established
+themselves in the house that Jack built. The proposed amendments were
+indefinitely postponed; Jill having consented to take the house
+temporarily as she had taken Jack permanently--for better or
+worse--only claiming her reserved right, in the case of the house, of
+privately finding all the fault she pleased. Even the staircase, so
+favorable to a swift descent, remained unchanged, and in their own room
+the bed stood squarely in the middle of the floor. Jack averred that
+this was intended when the house was planned, because the air is so
+much better in the centre of a room, and there is not so much danger of
+being struck by lightning.
+
+One day there came a cold, gloomy rain on the wings of a raw east wind,
+and after Jack had gone to his office it occurred to Jill that a fire
+on the hearth in the parlor, which they used as a common sitting-room,
+would be exceedingly comfortable, but on removing a highly ornamental
+screen that served as a "fireboard," she found neither grate nor
+fireplace, only a blank wall plastered and papered. Her righteous
+wrath was kindled, not because she was compelled to get warm in some
+other way, but by the fraudulent character of the chimney-piece. "I can
+imagine nothing more absurdly impertinent," she declared to Jack when
+he came home, "than that huge marble mantel standing stupidly against
+the wall where there isn't even a chimney for a background. As a piece
+of furniture it is superfluous; as a wall decoration it is hideous; as
+a shelf it is preposterous; as a fireplace it is a downright lie. If
+our architect suggests anything of the kind he will be dismissed on the
+instant."
+
+[Illustration: THE POOR BUT MODEST ATTORNEY'S COTTAGE]
+
+"Don't you think the room would look rather bare without a mantel? You
+know it's the most common thing in the world to have them like this. I
+can show you a hundred without going out of town."
+
+"Common! It's worse than common; it is vulgar, it is atrocious, it is
+the sum of all villainies!" said Jill, her indignation rising with each
+succeeding epithet. "A fireplace is a sacred thing. To pretend to have
+one when you have not is like pretending to be pious when you know you
+are wicked; it is stealing the livery of a warm, gracious, kindly
+hospitality to serve you in making a cold, heartless _pretense_ of
+welcome."
+
+"I didn't mean to do anything wrong," Jack protested with exceeding
+meekness. "Such mantels were all the fashion when this house was built,
+and fashions in marble can't be changed as easily as fashions in paper
+flowers."
+
+"There ought not to be 'fashions' in marble, but of course it was
+fashion. Nothing else than the blindest of all blind guides could have
+led people into anything so hopelessly silly and unprincipled. I shall
+never enjoy this room again," she continued, "knowing, as well I know,
+that yonder stately piece of sculpture is a whited sepulchre, a
+delusion and a snare. I shall feel that I ought to unmask it the moment
+a visitor comes in, lest I should be asked to make a fire on the hearth
+and be obliged to confess the depravity in our own household."
+
+[Illustration: A DOUBLE TEAM.]
+
+"Now, really, my dear, don't you think you are coming it rather strong,
+if I may be allowed the expression? Isn't it possible that your present
+views may be slightly tinged by the color of the east wind, so to
+speak?"
+
+"Not in the least. You know perfectly well, Jack, that insincerity is
+the bane of domestic and social life; that hypocrisy is a child of the
+Evil One, and that vain and false pretensions are the fatal lures that
+lead us on to destruction. How can we respect ourselves or expect our
+friends to respect us if the most conspicuous thing in the house is a
+palpable fraud?"
+
+"Very well, dear, I'll bring up a can of nitro-glycerine to-morrow and
+blow the whole establishment into the middle of futurity. Meanwhile,
+let us see if anything can be done to make it endurable a few hours
+longer."
+
+Dropping on his knees in front of the fictitious fireplace, Jack pulled
+the paper from the wall, disclosing a sheet-iron stove-pipe receiver,
+set there for a time of need, and communicating in some mysterious way
+with a sooty smoke flue. Having found this, he telephoned to the stove
+store for a portable grate--that is to say, a Franklin stove with
+ornamental tiles in the face of it--and in less than an hour the room
+was radiant with the blaze of a hickory fire, while a hitherto unknown
+warmth came to the lifeless marble from its new neighbor. By sitting
+directly in front of it Jill discovered that in appearance the general
+effect was nearly as good as that of a genuine fireplace, the warmth
+diffused being decidedly greater.
+
+"I'm sorry I lost my temper," said she, after they had sat a while in
+silence enjoying the ameliorating influence of the blaze, "but I _do_
+hate a humbug. We will let this stove stand here all summer to remind
+you that neither your house nor your wife is perfect, and to keep me
+warm when the east wind blows."
+
+[Illustration: WARMTH UNDER THE WINDOW.]
+
+Jack's response to this magnanimous remark must be omitted, as it had
+no direct bearing upon house-building.
+
+"When I went into the kitchen this morning to get warm," Jill observed
+later in the evening, "I found Bridget ironing; the stove was red-hot,
+the bath boiler was bubbling and shaking with the imprisoned steam, and
+the outside door was wide open. It struck me that there was heat enough
+going out of doors, not to mention the superheated air of the kitchen
+itself, to have made the whole house comfortable such days as this, if
+it could only be saved. Don't you think it would be possible to attach
+a pipe to some part of the cooking-range that would carry steam or hot
+water to the front of the house. We shouldn't want it when the furnace
+was running, nor in very warm weather, and at such times it could be
+turned off."
+
+Jack thought it could be done, and expressed a willingness to be a
+roasted martyr occasionally if he could by that means make some use of
+the perennial fire in the kitchen, a fire that seemed to be the hottest
+when there was no demand for it.
+
+[Illustration: STEAM PIPES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE.]
+
+"It's my conviction," said he, "that if the heat actually evolved from
+the fuel consumed by the average cook could be conserved on strictly
+scientific principles, it would warm the house comfortably the year
+round without any damage to the cooking, and with a saving of all the
+bother of stoves, fireplaces and furnaces." And his conviction was well
+founded, provided the house is not too large and the weather is not too
+cold. "Shall we try it in the new house?"
+
+"No, not unless somebody invents a new patent low-pressure,
+automatic-cooking-range-warming-attachment before we are ready for it.
+We shall have fireplaces in every room--real ones--and steam radiators
+beside."
+
+"What! in every room, those ugly, black, bronzy, oily, noisy, leaking,
+sizzling, snapping steam radiators that are always in the way and keep
+the air in the room so dry that everybody has catarrh, the doors won't
+latch, and the furniture falls to pieces? You know how the old heirloom
+mahogany chair collapsed under Madam Abigail at Mrs. Hunter's
+party--went to pieces in a twinkling like the one-horse shay--and all
+on account of the steam heat."
+
+"Yes, I remember; it was a comical tragedy; and before we run any such
+risks let us look over our advisory letters. Here's one from Uncle
+Harry, who, as you know, is never without a hobby of some sort. Just at
+present he is devoted to sanitary questions. To be well warmed,
+ventilated and plumbed is the chief end of man. He begins by saying
+that 'sun's heat is the only external warmth that is natural or
+beneficial to human beings. When men have risen above the dark clouds
+of sin and ignorance they will discover how to preserve the extra
+warmth of the torrid zone and of the hot summers in our own latitudes
+to be evenly diffused through colder climes and seasons. Next to sun's
+heat is that which comes from visible combustion--the burning of wood
+and coal. Such spontaneous, radiant, living warmth differs essentially
+from that which we receive by contact with artificially-warmed
+substances, somewhat as fruit that has been long gathered differs from
+that taken directly from the vine.'"
+
+"Isn't this getting sort of misty, what you might call 'transcendental
+like'?"
+
+"Possibly, and this is still more so: 'Warmth is the vital atmosphere
+of life, and a living flame imparts to us some of nature's own
+mysterious vitality. Hence, the sun's rays and the blaze of burning
+fuel give not only a material but a spiritual comfort and cheer, which
+mere warm air is powerless to impart. Here is another reason why direct
+radiation, even from a black iron pipe, is preferable to a current of
+warm air brought from a distance: in a room warmed by such a current
+nothing is ever quite so warm as the air itself unless so situated as
+to obstruct its flow, but every solid substance near a hot stove or
+radiator absorbs the radiated heat and is satisfied, while the air for
+respiration remains at a comparatively low temperature.'"
+
+"There may be a little sense in that," said Jack, "but the rest is
+several fathoms too deep for me. Has he any practical advice to give?"
+
+"That depends upon what you call practical. 'I have little patience,'
+he says, 'with the common objection to direct radiation, that it brings
+no fresh air. Fresh air can be had for the asking under a small stove
+or radiator standing in a room as well as under a large stove or boiler
+standing in the cellar; neither does the dampness or dryness of the
+atmosphere depend primarily upon the mode of warming it, while, as for
+the appearance of steam pipes, if they are not beautiful as usually
+seen, it only proves that art is not wisely applied to iron work, and
+that architects have not learned the essential lesson that whatever
+gives added comfort to a house will, if rightly treated, enhance its
+beauty. Steam-pipes or radiators may stand under windows, behind an
+open screen or grill of polished brass, or they may be incorporated
+with the chimney piece, and need not, in either case, be unsightly or
+liable to work mischief upon the carpets or ceilings under them.
+Wherever placed, a flue to bring in fresh air should be provided and
+fitted with a damper to control the currents.'"
+
+"I like the notion of putting them beside the fireplace," said Jack.
+"When they are both running, it would be like hitching a pair of horses
+before an ox-team or a steam engine attachment to an overshot
+water-wheel. It means business. Uncle Harry improves. What next?"
+
+"He expounds his theories of light and shade, of plumbing, sewer-gas
+and malaria, and casually remarks that 'the variation of the north
+magnetic pole and the points of compass are not yet fully understood in
+their relation to human welfare.'"
+
+"I should hope not! He must be writing under the influence of a full
+moon. Let us try a fresh correspondent."
+
+"Very well. Here is Aunt Melville's latest, with a new set of plans.
+There will be neither trancendentalism nor vain repetitions here:
+
+    "'MY DEAR NIECE: Since writing you last I have had a most
+    interesting experience, and hasten to give you the benefit of
+    it. You remember Mr. Melville's niece married a young attorney
+    in Tumbledonville; very talented and of good family, but poor,
+    _desperately_ poor. He hadn't over two or three thousand
+    dollars in the world, but he has built a marvelous little
+    house, of which I send you the plans. You enter a lovely hall,
+    positively larger than, mine, an actual room in fact, with a
+    staircase running up at one side and a charming fireplace at
+    the right, built, if you will believe it, of common red bricks
+    that cost only five dollars a thousand. It couldn't have taken
+    over two hundred and fifty to build it.--'
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTORNEY'S FLOOR PLAN.]
+
+"Just think of that! A charming fireplace for a dollar and a
+quarter!--"
+
+    "Communicating with the hall by a wide door beautifully draped
+    with some astonishingly cheap material is the parlor, fully
+    equal in every respect to my library, and adjoining that the
+    dining-room, nearly as large. On the same side is a green-house
+    between two bay windows, the whole arrangement having a
+    wonderful air of gentility and culture. I am convinced that you
+    ought to invest three-fourths of your father's wedding present
+    in some safe business, and with the remainder build a house
+    like this, buying a small lot for it, and defer the larger
+    house for a few years. Keeping house alone with Jack and
+    perhaps one maid-of-all-work will be perfectly respectable and
+    dignified; the experience will do you good, and I have no doubt
+    you will enjoy it. It will not only be a great economy in a
+    pecuniary way, but society is very exacting, and a large house
+    entails heavy social burdens which you will escape while living
+    in a cottage. This will give you plenty of time to improve your
+    taste in art, which is indispensable at present. There will be
+    great economy, too, in the matter of furniture. A large house
+    _must_ be furnished according to prevailing fashions, but in a
+    small one you may indulge any unconventional, artistic fancy
+    you please.'"
+
+"If Aunt Melville's advice and plans could be applied where they are
+needed they would be extremely valuable. Suppose we found a society and
+present them to it for gratuitous distribution."
+
+"We can't spare them yet; we shall not use them, but it is well to hear
+all sides of a question."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TRUTH, POETRY AND ROOFS.
+
+
+"How the wind does blow!" said Jill, as she laid aside Aunt Melville's
+latest, and Jack laid another log into the open stove. "It is a genuine
+'gale from the northeast.'"
+
+"So it is, and that reminds me," Jack exclaimed, jumping up, "that a
+driving rain from the northeast always gets the better of the attic
+window over the guest-room. There's something mysterious about that
+window," he explained. "It opens like a door; I believe they call it a
+'casement' window, and in such a storm as this I have to keep sopping
+up the water that blows in. I had a carpenter look at it, but he said
+it couldn't be fixed without making a new one or fastening it up so it
+couldn't be opened at all. We don't have a northeast rain-storm very
+often, and that's the only window that ever leaks--except the skylight
+and the round one in the west gable which is hung at the top to swing
+inward and couldn't be expected to hold water."
+
+Jill found some towels, and they hurried to the attic to "sop up" the
+rain that was driving under the sash and had already made its mark on
+the ceiling below. Then they examined the skylight and the round
+window, and just as they were about to descend perceived a smell of
+burning wood. Jack rushed down to the sitting-room, telling Jill to fly
+for a pail of water, found the wall beside the stove-pipe very hot, ran
+for an axe, and, smashing a hole through the lath and plastering,
+discovered a bit of wood furring to which the laths had been nailed
+resting directly against the sheet iron pipe. Catching the pail of
+water which Jill was about to pour into the stove, he cooled the hot
+pipe and extinguished the wood about to burst into flame, the smoke of
+which, rising beside the chimney to the attic, had warned them of the
+danger below. He then cut away around the pipe till the solid brick
+chimney was exposed, gathered up the rubbish, piling the chips upon the
+fire in the stove, and lay back in his chair, evidently enjoying the
+situation.
+
+"How can you be so reckless, Jack, as to keep a fire in such a
+chimney?"
+
+"The chimneys are all right, my dear. I took special pains with them
+when the house was built. The only danger there ever was lay in that
+little piece of inch board that happened to be too near the pipe."
+
+"And how are we to know what other little pieces of board may be too
+near? I think it's a very dangerous house to live in. If we hadn't gone
+up to the attic when we did it would have been all in flames."
+
+"And we shouldn't have gone to the attic at all if my windows had been
+proof against the east wind."
+
+"No, nor would you have known we were having a gale from the northeast
+if I hadn't quoted the 'Wreck of the Hesperus.'"
+
+[Illustration: NO CONCEALMENT OR DISGUISE.]
+
+"Consequently we owe our preservation to the well-beloved poet."
+
+"Moral: Study the poets."
+
+"Moral number two: Build leaky casements."
+
+"Number three: When the wood around a chimney takes fire it doesn't
+prove a 'defective flue.'"
+
+"Number four: A small fault hidden is more dangerous than a large one
+in sight."
+
+"Very true; and if modern builders had kept to the poet's standard,
+and, like those in the elder days of art,
+
+     'wrought with greatest care,
+     Each minute and hidden part,'
+
+we should not be trembling before a black and ragged chasm in the wall,
+afraid to go to bed lest the fire should break out anew and burn us in
+our sleep."
+
+"There's not the least danger. We are as safe as a barrel of gunpowder
+in a mill pond. There is nothing to set us on fire. That bit of dry
+wood was the key to the whole situation. We have captured that and can
+make our own terms. Still, if you feel nervous we will sit up and 'talk
+house' till the fire goes out."
+
+Jill acceded to this proposal and began to discourse, taking moral
+number four for a text.
+
+"I wish it were possible," said she, "to build a house with everything
+in plain sight, the chimneys, the hot-air pipes from the furnace, if
+there are any, the steam pipes, the ventilators, the gas pipes, the
+water pipes, the speaking tubes, the cranks and wires for the
+bells--whatever really belongs to the building. They might all be
+decorated if that would make them more interesting, but even if they
+were quite unadorned they ought not to be ugly. If we could see them we
+shouldn't feel that we are surrounded by hidden mysteries liable at any
+time to explode or break loose upon us unawares. Those things that get
+out of order easily ought surely to be accessible. I don't believe
+there would have been half the trouble with plumbing, either in the way
+of danger to health or from dishonest and ignorant work, if it had not
+been the custom to keep it as much as possible out of sight. There is a
+great satisfaction, too, in knowing that everything is genuine."
+
+"We might build a log house. The logs are solid, and the chimney, if
+there happens to be one, won't pretend to be of the same material as
+the walls of the building."
+
+"I like better the notion of letting the material of which brick walls
+and partitions are composed form the actual finish inside as well as
+outside. The floors, too, should be bare, and the beams that support
+them ought to be visible, and in case of a wooden house, the posts,
+braces and other timbers should be left in sight when the building is
+finished. It is a sad pity that modern modes of building, like modern
+manners and fashions, conceal actual construction and character, making
+a mask that may hide great excellence or absolute worthlessness."
+
+"Won't all these pipes, wooden beams, bell ropes and things be
+fearfully dusty and cumber the housekeeper with too much serving? I
+supposed you would vote for smooth, flat, hard wood and painted walls,
+they are so much easier to keep clean."
+
+"Perhaps I shall; but we must remember the gnat and the camel and try
+to be consistent. A single portière, especially if it be of the
+rag-carpet style, has a greater dust-collecting capacity than a whole
+houseful of wooden floors, ceilings and wainscots, even when they are
+moulded and ornamentally wrought. Surely they will not be troublesome
+if they are plain and simple, and only think how much more interesting
+than flat square walls and ceilings, which we feel compelled to cover
+with some sort of decoration to make them endurable. I suppose
+architects have outgrown the sheet-iron and stucco style of building,
+and do not generally approve of 'graining' honest pine in imitation of
+coarse-grained chestnut. But these are not the only concealments and
+disguises that ought to be reformed. If we cannot make our house a
+model in any other respect, I hope it will be free from hypocrisy and
+silly affectations."
+
+"By all means; but you mustn't forget that reformers risk martyrdom.
+However, you can't be too honest for me; I am ready to sign any pledge
+you offer, even though it prohibit paint, putty and all other cloaks
+for poverty, ignorance and dishonesty."
+
+"There's a time and place for paint and putty, lath, plaster and paper,
+but we ought not to be helplessly dependent upon them."
+
+"Have you any idea how the house will look outside," asked Jack, giving
+the fire a poke, "or is that to be left to take care of itself?"
+
+"No, indeed! not left to take care of itself. In that part of the
+undertaking we are bound to believe that the architect is wiser than
+we, and must accept in all humility what he decrees. Still I think the
+law of domestic architecture at least should be 'from within out.' For
+the sake of the external appearance it ought not to be necessary to
+make the rooms higher or lower than we want them for use, neither
+larger nor more irregular in shape. It ought not to be necessary to
+build crooked chimneys for the sake of a dignified standing on the
+roof, or to make a pretense of a window where none is needed. The
+windows are for you and me to look out from and to let in the sunlight,
+not for the benefit of outside observers, and should be treated
+accordingly. We will not have big posts--mullions, do you call
+them?--in the middle of them, as there are in these. When I try to look
+down the street to see if you are coming home I can scarcely see
+obliquely to the corner of the lot, and we don't get half as much
+sunshine as we should if the windows were all in one."
+
+[Illustration: WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT.]
+
+"Why not, if there's the same amount of glass?"
+
+"Because the sun can't shine around a corner; and Jack, why did you set
+them so near the floor? There's no chance for a seat under them, and
+they do not give as much light or ventilation as they would if they ran
+nearly up to the ceiling."
+
+"What is the use of making them long at the top? They are always half
+covered up with lambrequins or some fanciful contrivance."
+
+"Indeed, they will not be; our windows will be arranged to be wholly
+uncovered whenever we need the light. Too many windows are not so
+unmanageable as too many doors, and I should like one room with a whole
+broadside of glass; but for most rooms the fewer windows the better,
+provided they are broad and high. I despise a room in which you can't
+sit down without being in front of a window or walk around without
+running against a door, that has no large wall spaces for pictures and
+no room for a piano, a book-case, a cabinet or a large lounge. A small
+room, that has doors or windows on all sides does not seem like a room
+intended for permanent occupation, but rather as a sort of outer court
+or vestibule belonging to something farther on."
+
+"I suppose the architect will claim the porches, balconies, and things
+of that sort, as belonging to the exterior, and design them as he
+pleases; but I think we have a right to insist that they shall add to
+our comfort. They must be large enough to be used, they must be put
+where we can use them conveniently, and they must not interfere with
+the interior arrangements; beyond that we shall accept what the
+architect sets before us."
+
+"'Asking no questions for conscience sake.' How about the roof--is that
+also a matter of evolution?"
+
+"No; because the inside of the roof is of but little consequence. It
+must keep out the rain and wind, snow and ice; it must be strong and
+economically built and have a reasonable amount of light. The rest we
+shall leave to the architect. As Uncle Harry observes, 'the material
+part of the house rests upon the foundation stones; its spiritual
+character is displayed chiefly in the roof, which may change to an
+unlimited extent the expression of the building it covers.'"
+
+[Illustration: JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY.]
+
+"That's so. Let me make the roofs for a people and I care not who
+builds the houses. The roof on the house is like the hat on the man, as
+I can show you," said Jack, taking a piece of charcoal from the stove
+and drawing on the back of the fireboard some astonishing illustrations
+of his theory.
+
+"Here is the president of a big corporation who must be dignified
+whether he has a soul or not. He represents the 'renaissance.' No
+nonsense about him, no sentiment, no sympathy, no anything but--himself
+and his own magnificence."
+
+"This fellow is a brakeman--prompt, efficient, laconic. Same head, you
+see, but different hat. He stands for the hipped roof which has one
+duty to do and does it."
+
+[Illustration: THE HAT MAKES THE MAN.]
+
+"Give the dignified president a smashing blow on the head and you see
+what he may become after an unsuccessful defalcation--an unfortunate
+tramp, who has 'seen better days.' He is a capital illustration of the
+roofs called 'French,' that were so imposing a few years ago, and are
+about as agreeable in the way of landscape decoration as the tramp
+himself, but not half so picturesque.
+
+"Pull the string again and we have a benevolent 'broad-brim,' stiff,
+symmetrical and proper to the last degree, like an Italian villa; and,
+once more changing the straight lines to crooked ones, the conventional
+formalist becomes the unconventional, free-and-easy South-westerner,
+who may stand for Swiss or any other go-as-you-please style."
+
+"It is midnight and the fire is out; let's adjourn."
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE--BLINDS AND BESSIE.
+
+
+The next demonstration from the architect was a pencil drawing of the
+floor plans, submitted for inspection and criticism. Concerning these
+he wrote to Jill's entire satisfaction. "From many of my clients I
+should expect the first question would be, 'Will a house built in this
+shape look well outside?' It is not necessary to remind you that at
+this stage of the proceedings such an inquiry is wholly irrelevant. The
+interior arrangements should be made without a thought of the exterior
+effect, precisely as if the house were to wear the ring of Gyges and be
+forever invisible to outsiders. There are several points, however, on
+which I await further instructions----"
+
+"What's the use of having an architect," Jack inquired, "if you've got
+to keep instructing him all the time?"
+
+----"provided you wish to give instructions," Jill continued reading.
+"There is often a misunderstanding between architect and client, and I
+wish to avoid it in the present case by saying at the outset that while
+there are many things which, in my opinion, should be referred to you,
+I am ready to decide them for you if you wish me to do so; but even in
+such cases I prefer to set before you the arguments pro and con, after
+which, if you still desire it, I shall accept the arbitration. This is
+not a rule that works both ways or applies universally, for while
+referring to you matters relating to use and expenditure, and at the
+same time standing ready to decide them for you, I cannot promise to
+accept your advice in matters of construction and design. I trust I
+have not yet reached the fossiliferous state of mind that prevents my
+listening with sincere respect to candid suggestions, even from those
+who are not fairly competent to give advice; but on these points you
+must not expect me to follow your taste and judgment in opposition to
+my own, even if you do pay the bills. When your physician prescribes
+arsenic and you inform him that you shall give it to your poodle and
+take strychnine instead, he will doubtless infer that his services are
+no longer desired; he will know that while he might be able to kill
+you, he could not hope to cure you. Patients have rights that
+physicians are bound to respect, but the right to commit suicide and
+ruin the physician's reputation is not among them. The relations of
+client and architect are similar.
+
+"This is one of the questions which I refer to you, but will answer for
+you if you send it back: How shall the eyes of the house be closed?
+Shall the eyelids be outside blinds, inside folding shutters, 'Queen
+Anne' rolling blinds, sliding blinds or Venetian shades? There are good
+reasons for and against each kind; either, if adopted, compels some
+compromise. Whichever road you take you will wish you had taken the
+other.
+
+[Illustration: THE CONTRIBUTION OF BESSIE'S FATHER.]
+
+"For instance, in hot weather outside blinds that shield the glass
+from the direct rays of the sun keep the rooms cooler than any form of
+inside shutters; they allow a gradation of light and a free circulation
+of air. You can even leave the window open during a summer shower
+without danger of being drenched. Last but not least they are
+inexpensive. The wrong side of the outside blinds appears when you wish
+to make wide windows, or mullioned windows, or windows that cannot
+command at each side an unobstructed wall space equal to at least half
+their own width for the blinds to rest against when open. Under such
+circumstances, which are by no means rare, outside blinds are
+stubbornly unmanageable.
+
+"Inside blinds that fold back and swing away from the windows must have
+wide recessed jambs to hold them when they are not in use. If the
+windows are broad these 'pockets' will require a thick wall and thus
+increase the actual size of the house. A little space may be saved by
+allowing them to stand out obliquely when open, or turn around upon the
+inside face of the wall, but either mode increases the cost of
+finishing the rooms. If these blinds are made of open slats, many
+housekeepers despise them as being no better than small cabinets
+maliciously contrived to accumulate dust; if of solid panels, they make
+a room perfectly dark, or when opened ever so slightly admit unbroken
+rays of sunlight. On the other hand, inside blinds are accessible; they
+can be opened and closed without leaning half one's length out of the
+window; they do not hide the glory of plate glass; they graciously
+permit windows to stand where they please and to be as large as they
+please; and they never quarrel with piazza roofs, awnings, hoods or
+other outside accessories.
+
+"Shutters that coil up into a box over the window or down into a box
+below it have the modest excellence of being always out of the way when
+they are not wanted, of staying where they are put when partially open,
+of occupying but little space and never standing in the way of the
+window curtains. They are, in fact, wooden shades similar to the
+old-fashioned green slat curtains, that were rolled up by drawing a
+cord, but are far more substantial. The single slats of which they are
+composed do not revolve, and consequently it is not easy to 'peep
+through the blind just to hear the band play.'
+
+"Venetian shades, with their multiplicity of bright-colored straps,
+cords, hooks and trimmings, are picturesque and graceful. They are
+somewhat subject to dust and repairs, and when the window is open are
+not proof against tornadoes and thunder showers.
+
+"Inside blinds are sometimes contrived to slide sideways, like barn
+doors, into cavities formed to receive them. If built with extreme care
+and handled with the utmost tenderness they are a degree less obtrusive
+than when wholly dependent on hinges. Likewise, outside blinds may be
+contrived to swing horizontally as well as vertically, standing out
+from the top of the window like a small shed roof. They are not quite
+wide enough to serve as awnings, and are liable to catch more wind than
+they can hold."
+
+"It strikes me that the whole thing is a 'blind.' What is he driving
+at?"
+
+"The conclusion of the matter seems to be given in this sentence: 'You
+will perceive, therefore, that a decision in regard to blinds should be
+made even before the house is staked out, since the size of the
+foundation itself may be affected by it, as well as the minor
+details.'"
+
+"I'm ready for the question; are you?"
+
+"Yes. In the bay windows and for the long windows that give access to
+the balconies and piazzas we will have blinds that roll up out of the
+way. A few of the windows on the sunny side will have for summer use
+outside blinds, a few more will have cloth awnings. The most of the
+windows will have no blinds at all, only such shades and curtains as we
+choose to furnish. I don't think the eyes of a house ought to be closed
+much of the time. It is certainty absurd to hang blinds at all the
+windows when we only need them at a few."
+
+"Oh, but won't the neighbors rage and imagine vain things when they see
+a house with here and there a blind and here and there an awning?"
+
+"The wise ones will approve; the foolish ones will demonstrate their
+folly by criticising what they don't understand."
+
+"Very well, that point is settled. Unless the next is sharp and short
+you must decide it without my help. It is high time I was at the
+office."
+
+"We will defer them all. It is time for me to be at my household
+duties. You know Cousin Bessie comes this afternoon, and I've noticed
+that extremely intellectual people are sometimes extremely fond of a
+good dinner."
+
+"If Bessie is coming I must anoint my beard with oil of sunflowers and
+trot out my old gold slippers. Shall I send up some pale lilies for
+dessert? And that reminds me--Jim came home last night and I asked the
+old fellow to come up to dinner. How do you suppose Bess found it out?"
+
+"Don't be spiteful, Jack. She didn't find it out at all. I invited her
+a week ago. Now go to the office, please, while I put the house in
+order."
+
+During this important process Jill entertained herself by philosophical
+reflection upon the style of living that requires a house to be
+constantly "put in order." She recalled certain of Uncle Harry's
+observations to the effect that in a truly civilized state housekeeping
+would be so conducted and houses would be so contrived that instead of
+causing care and labor proverbially endless, housekeepers would no more
+be burdened by their domestic duties than are the fowls of the air.
+Jill had too much of the rare good sense, incorrectly called "common,"
+to attempt to reduce Uncle Harry's theories to practice all at once.
+She knew that though we may not reach the summit of our ambition, it is
+well to advance toward it even by a single step, or failing in that, to
+help prepare a way for some one else. She understood the wisdom of
+striving to increase the fraction of life by dividing the denominator,
+and at the same time cherished the broader hope that her life and her
+home might be filled with whatever is of most enduring worth.
+
+Moralizing thus, but always with an architectural or house-building
+background, she continued her work, noticing the sharp grooves and
+projecting mouldings that caught the dust, the high, ugly thresholds,
+the doors that swung the wrong way, compelling half a dozen extra steps
+in passing through them; shelves that were too high or too narrow;
+drawers that refused to "draw" or dropped helplessly on the floor as
+soon as they were drawn out far enough to display the spoons and
+spices they contained; window stools that came down behind tables and
+shelves, forming a sort of receptacle for lost articles belonging to
+the kitchen or pantry--all of which she resolved should not be
+repeated. When Bessie arrived the house was in that most perfect order
+which gives no sign of unusual preparation.
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF THE CONTRIBUTION.]
+
+"This is too perfectly lovely for anything," exclaimed Bessie. "I just
+_dote_ on domestic duties. You can't help being overpoweringly happy,
+Jill, with such a home and _such_ a husband. Then only to think of the
+new house drives me completely frantic. What _will_ it be like? Are the
+plans made? Oh! I do hope not, for I have a _million_ of things to tell
+you about that are totally _unspeakable_."
+
+"Then you are just in time. We had a long letter from the architect
+this morning asking for instructions on various matters."
+
+"How perfectly fascinating! Let's sit down this minute and begin upon
+them."
+
+But Jill preferred waiting till Jack came home, bringing with him his
+younger brother, just home for summer vacation.
+
+"It isn't necessary to announce dinner," said she. "The preliminary
+odors have already advertised it through the entire house."
+
+"I thought these observations were to be strictly confidential,"
+observed Jack.
+
+"That wasn't 'finding fault.' It was a mere casual remark. Some people
+may think it pleasanter to be summoned by the odor of broiling fish
+than by the noise of a dinner-bell."
+
+"Indeed I do," said Bessie, taking Jack's proffered arm. "Odors are too
+delicious for anything. They are so refined and spiritual I'm sure I
+could live on them. I would far prefer the fragrance of a dish of
+strawberries to the fruit itself."
+
+"We shall get along capitally then. You can smell of the berries and
+I'll eat them afterwards. You see now, Jill, the advantage of having a
+house built like this. Cousin Bessie proposes that we live on the
+fragrance of the food. It won't be necessary even to come to the
+dining-room. We can all stay in the parlor or in our chambers and
+absorb sustenance from the circumambient air, as the sprightly goldfish
+gathers honey from the inside of a glass ball."
+
+"Please don't make fun of me, Cousin Jack, for I do truly _revel_ in
+fragrance, and I'm sure your house is _beautifully_ planned. Don't you
+think so, Mr. James?"
+
+"I realty don't know much about such things. I never did like to know
+what I was going to have for dinner long beforehand--it makes me so
+awfully hungry."
+
+"Precisely so, Jim; it gives you am appetite. I had the house planned
+in this way for that very purpose."
+
+"Now that you have introduced the subject," said Jill, "I will tell you
+how _I_ should have planned it. There should have been a 'cut-off'
+somewhere--a little lobby between the kitchen and the rest of the
+house, with a ventilating flue so large that neither smoke nor steam
+nor perfumed air could pass it without being caught up and carried to
+the sky. Of course these odors ought not to get away from the
+ventilator above the range, but the best contrivances are not proof
+against the carelessness of the cook when she is in a hurry--as she
+always is just before dinner."
+
+When they returned to the sitting-room Bessie brought down a set of
+plans her father had sent for Jack and Jill to examine, thinking they
+would suit their lot and taste. They did suit the lot fairly, but
+Jill's mind was too fully made up to accept any change from her own
+plan. The exterior she approved cordially, but to Bessie's despair
+would not promise to imitate it, preferring to leave the outside to her
+architect without reserve.
+
+While they were spoiling their eyes in the twilight Jack pressed the
+electric "button" that lighted the gas instantaneously all over the
+house, causing Bessie to cry out in protest against such a sudden
+transition. "It is so violent, so unlike the slow, sweet processes of
+nature. I never shall learn to like gas, and the electric light is
+absolutely _horrid_. Don't you love tapers, Mr. James?"
+
+"Tapirs? I don't think I'm a judge; I never had one. I should rather
+have a tame zebra."
+
+"Oh, I mean tapers for light!"
+
+"Excuse me--certainly: yes, that is, I think I do. We don't use them
+very often. Do you mean tallow or wax?"
+
+"Wax, of course! They have such elegant decorations on them. I had a
+most exquisite sconce Christmas, with two of the loveliest tapers
+completely covered with Moorish arabesques in crimson and old gold."
+
+"What becomes of the decorations when the tapers burn up?"
+
+"Well, we don't burn them much. Indeed, I don't think we ought to use
+artificial light at all. The mysterious light of the moon and stars is
+so much more enchanting. Don't you love to muse and dream in the fading
+twilight?"
+
+"No, not very well. The trouble is if I get to sleep before I go to bed
+I don't sleep as well afterward."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean actual dreams, but vague, dreamy musings, esthetic
+aspirations and longings. Do you never long for abstract beauty?"
+
+"Well, no, not long. If I can't get what I want pretty quick I
+generally go for something else."
+
+This irrelevant conversation was vastly entertaining to Jack, who,
+knowing how unlike were the dispositions of his brother and his wife's
+cousin, had contrived their meeting with special reference to his own
+amusement. When the clock told the hour for retiring he brought Bessie
+a tin candlestick, in which a tallow candle smoked and spluttered in a
+feeble way, but filled the soul of the young lady with admiration, it
+was so "full of feeling."
+
+"Life is so much richer when our environment is illuminated and
+glorified--"
+
+"By tapers," said Jack as he bade her an affectionate good-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MORE QUESTIONS OF FIRE AND WATER.
+
+
+"We must devote this evening exclusively to the new house," said Jill,
+as Jack started for his office. "The architect is waiting for
+instructions, and every day we lose now will give us another day of
+vexation and impatience when we are waiting for the house to be
+finished."
+
+"That's true, and it's a chronological fact that house-builders often
+forget. Very well, I'll come home early. Will Bessie be here?"
+
+"Certainly. She has come for a long visit."
+
+"Then I shall bring up Jim again. One-half Bess says he can't
+understand, and he doesn't approve of the other half; but we couldn't
+keep him away if we tried. So we'll invite him to come. It's great fun
+to hear Bessie's comments and witness Jim's helplessness."
+
+"If you are going to devote yourself to Jim and Bessie," said Jill
+severely, "I may as well answer these questions without consulting you
+at all."
+
+"Oh, pray don't do that. Give me a chance to express my opinions. Some
+of them are strikingly bold and original. Besides, you will need me to
+conduct the meeting."
+
+It happened, accidentally of course, that Bessie's evening dress was of
+a color that looked well by gaslight, and no objection was made to the
+unnatural illumination.
+
+Jill took up the architect's letter, where she had left it, at the
+conclusion of the blind question. "Another point that was mentioned
+when I was at your father's house must be decided soon: Shall there be
+gutters to catch the water from the roof, with pipes of some sort to
+convey it to the ground, or shall it be left to take care of itself? If
+there are none, the ground around the house should pitch sharply away
+from the walls and a slight depression should be formed, into which the
+water would fall. This shallow ditch should be perhaps two feet wide,
+as the drops will not always come down in straight lines. It may be
+paved with small stones or bricks, between which the grass will grow,
+or it maybe more carefully lined with asphalt paving. If it is desired
+to conduct the water to a certain point, this drain can descend
+slightly toward it, and, if the lawn will not be injured by an
+occasional inundation, even the shallow ditch may be omitted, making
+merely a one-sided slope, hardened to prevent the water from wearing a
+ragged, unsightly channel around the house. The advantages of disposing
+of the water in this way, dispensing with the gutters, are its economy
+and its permanence. Whatever the material may be of which they are
+made, gutters attached to the eaves or roof cause more or less trouble
+and expense from the time they are put in place till the house is given
+up to the owls and the bats. They are liable to be corroded by rust, to
+be clogged with leaves and dust, to be choked with ice, or to become
+loosened from their fastenings. If used at all, they should be frankly
+acknowledged. This is not, however, a point on which I am in need of
+instructions, but would remind you that one of the interesting
+illustrations of the happy skill of the old masters in making a virtue
+of necessity is found in the effective treatment of the waterspouts and
+conductors. They made them bold, quaint and picturesque in appearance,
+far removed from the tin contrivances that we hang in frail awkwardness
+to our roofs."
+
+[Illustration: A GARGOYLE]
+
+"How perfectly delightful!" exclaimed Bessie. "Those horribly grotesque
+old gargoyles are just glorious. Don't you delight in the antique, Mr.
+James, when it isn't too horrible?"
+
+"Yes, they are awfully jolly. We had a great time with them last
+'Fourth.' I got myself up as a pirate king--black flag, skull and
+cross-bones, you know. It was awfully jolly."
+
+"I never saw any of that kind, but you _will_ have some gargoyles,
+won't you, Jill?"
+
+"Possibly, for the architect says' whether you have gutters entirely
+around the house or not; it will doubtless be necessary to catch the
+water that would fall upon the steps or balconies in short
+eave-troughs, and as they are certain to be conspicuous they should be
+respectfully treated. As they add to the comfort of the house they
+should also add to its beauty.' Now what shall be said on this subject?
+His opinion appears to be that if we do not need to save the water for
+use, and if it will do no harm upon the ground around the house, it
+will be best to omit them except where protection is needed for
+something below. He sends some sketches and says 'they represent a few
+of the methods by which the water may be caught and carried to the
+ground. Number two and number three will prevent the sliding of the
+snow from the roof, which is sometimes desirable, but not always.
+Gutters made in this form should be so near the eaves that in case of
+accidental injury the water could not find its way inside the main
+walls. Number five has the advantage of leaving the house uninjured
+whatever happens to the gutter itself. It may leak through its entire
+length or run over on both sides without doing other harm than wasting
+the water.' I don't see," said Jill, laying down the letter, "how we
+can give instructions without dictating in matters of 'construction and
+design,' concerning which the architect distinctly objects to advice."
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF GUTTERS.]
+
+"Tell him we don't care what becomes of the water and the lawn will
+take care of itself. Then 'instruct' him to exercise his own
+discretion. That's what he is for. What next?"
+
+"He would like to know our wishes in regard to fireplaces."
+
+"I thought the heating question had been decided once according to
+Uncle Harry's doctrines."
+
+"Not fully. We shall have both steam and open fires; the architect
+understands that, but he doesn't know how many fireplaces nor what
+kind. We can tell him how many easily enough: one in each room of the
+first story except the kitchen, but including the hall, and one in each
+of the bed-rooms."
+
+[Illustration: "A SIMPLE RECESS."]
+
+"Including the guest chambers?"
+
+"By all means. There is nothing that makes one feel so thoroughly
+welcome, so delightfully at home as a room with an open fire. Mahogany
+four-posters, velvet carpets and sumptuous fare are trivial compliments
+in comparison. Concerning the style and cost he says: 'Of designs there
+is an endless variety, and there is a wide range in cost, from the
+simple recess in the side of a plain brick chimney'--"
+
+"One of the kind that Aunt Melville builds for a dollar and a quarter."
+
+"'--to the elaborate affairs that cost as much as a comfortable
+cottage. It would be idle for me to attempt to give you a full
+description of them all--my letter would appear like a manufacturer's
+catalogue. Indeed, you can find whole books on the subject, large books
+too, which it will be interesting and profitable for you to study; but
+first it is necessary to lay out the chimneys to accommodate the sizes
+and styles to be chosen. You will easily understand that a grate for
+burning coal alone, especially hard coal, may be much smaller than a
+fireplace to hold hickory logs that it takes two men to carry; but the
+heat of anthracite coal would soon destroy the lining of a fireplace
+adapted to an ordinary fire of wood. It cannot be necessary to remind
+you that the best open fireplaces, whether for wood or coal, are those
+which, instead of sending three-fourths of the heat up the chimney
+flue, give it out from all sides, to be saved either directly or by
+being conveyed to an adjoining or upper room. It is also possible to
+make a fireplace that will accommodate either wood or coal, but like
+all compromises this is attended with certain disadvantages. If large
+enough for wood it is too large for hard coal. The smoke flue for a
+coal fire may also be smaller, the hotter fire causing the stronger
+draught. Coal ashes, too, ought to be dropped through the hearth into
+ash pits below, even from the fires of the upper rooms. To "take up the
+ashes" of a wood fire is not so troublesome. These are some of the
+reasons why it is necessary to determine the kind and number of your
+fireplaces before the plans of the chimneys are drawn.'"
+
+[Illustration: IN THE MIDDLE RANK.]
+
+"Why not make an appropriation of fifty dollars apiece for each grate,
+mantel and hearth, and have him do the best he can with it?"
+
+"We can fix that as an average price, but shall want some better than
+others, and must mark in each room whether we wish to provide for wood,
+for coal, or for both. That is, whether we want 'set' grates or open
+fireplaces with andirons or something of that kind."
+
+"Oh, do have andirons. _Please_ have andirons," said Bessie. "You know
+you can go out into the country and buy them for old brass of the
+farmers who haven't the remotest idea of their value. They keep them up
+in those dear old musty garrets covered with dust and spider webs."
+
+"Certainly, we will have a few andirons and several spinning-wheels and
+moony clocks and solid old carved oak chests that for generations have
+been full of moths and food for worms. I never happened to come across
+one of those old bonanza garrets, but I suppose there are plenty of
+them lying around and just running over with these antique treasures.
+Jim, can't I hire you to go out among the unesthetic heathens and buy
+up a few loads of heirlooms and other relics of former greatness? We
+shall want some old associations in the new house, and if we haven't
+any of our own we must buy some."
+
+"I don't think I know much about such things. Why don't you go to a
+furniture store and get what you want first-hand? Second-hand furniture
+always looks shabby and out of date. However, if Miss Bessie could go
+with me to pick out things, I wouldn't mind taking a drive into the
+country to see what we could find."
+
+[Illustration: THE WORTH OF A COSY COTTAGE.]
+
+"Now, really, wouldn't you mind it? How enchanting! It will be
+delightful to be associated with the new house. I know we shall find
+some _lovely_ things."
+
+"All right. You shall have Bob and the express wagon to-morrow. What
+next, Jill?"
+
+"'I should be glad to know your feeling in regard to height of rooms,
+but shall not promise fully to agree with you. My purpose is to make
+the principal rooms of the first story ten and a-half or eleven feet
+high.'"
+
+"Oh, how dreadful! I don't know how high eleven feet is, but I'm sure
+they ought not to be more than seven feet."
+
+"I thought you were going to say not less than fourteen," said Jim.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed! Low rooms are so deliciously quaint and cosy."
+
+"But I should be all the time expecting to hit my head."
+
+"You wouldn't think of that for a moment if you could only feel the
+influence of Kitty Kane's library. It is a copy of an old English
+bar-room, or something of that sort, I don't exactly remember what, but
+it is in the Queen Anne style, and it's too lovely for anything. Please
+have low rooms, Jill."
+
+Jill continued reading: "For rooms of ordinary sizes and devoted to
+ordinary domestic purposes, that is high enough for use, for comfort
+and for any reasonable amount of decoration, either upon the walls
+themselves or in the shape of pictures or other ornaments. You will
+certainly think it enough when you are climbing the stairs to the rooms
+of the second story. It may be practicable to reduce the height of some
+of the smaller apartments, but it is usually much more convenient to
+keep the ceilings of the main rooms of uniform height, even if this
+does upset the 'correct proportion' which critics attempt in vain to
+establish. To make ceilings very low seems an affectation of humility
+or of antiquity not justified by common sense. In the polar regions,
+where the sun never reaches an altitude above twenty-three degrees, low
+rooms and short windows would be entirely satisfactory. In the torrid
+zone, where it is not safe to build more than one story for fear of
+earthquakes and tornadoes, where chambers would be useless, and where
+the grand question is not how to keep warm but how to keep cool, the
+higher the better. For houses in the temperate zones the medium height
+is the safest, the best--and the most _artistic_. If any one dares to
+say it is not, ask him to tell you the reason why."
+
+"How perfectly _exasperating_," said Bessie in a tragic aside to Jim.
+"No one ought to try to give reasons in art, in religion or in
+politics. Intuitions are so much more satisfactory. Don't you _always_
+rely on your intuitions, Mr. James?"
+
+"Perhaps I should if I had them, but somehow I--I never seem to have
+any."
+
+"The meeting appears to be divided," said Jack. "Bessie says seven, Jim
+says fourteen. Suppose we split the difference and call it ten and a
+half."
+
+"That is, we advise the architect to do as he pleases, then he will be
+sure to follow our advice."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHAT SHALL WE STAND UPON?
+
+
+"Splitting the difference" is a convenient compromise, but it is not
+always creditable to both parties, and Jill thought it would not be
+safe with such advisers to assume that Wisdom's house is always built
+between two extremes. She felt, too, that the architect's discussion of
+details must be tiresome to her guests, and therefore resolved to take
+up but one more of his queries, spending the remainder of the evening
+in looking over plans and letters, of which she had an ample store
+still unexplored, or in listening to Bessie's ardent description of the
+treasures she hoped to find in the lofty recesses of the old garrets.
+
+"I fear the next topic will not be deeply interesting, but it is the
+last one to-night, and Jack _must_ give me his undivided attention if
+he wishes to know what we are to stand upon in the new house."
+
+"Is it about floors?" Bessie asked. "Do please have waxed floors. I
+dote on waxed floors, don't you, Mr. James?"
+
+"Not especially; but I'm pretty apt to slip on them. _Is_ it about
+floors, Jill?"
+
+"Yes, but chiefly about the best way to build them--their
+construction."
+
+[Illustration: A PROMISE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS.]
+
+"I thought the architect was to settle questions of construction to
+suit himself."
+
+"He is, and this topic he writes 'concerns construction, cost, use and
+design, and is, therefore, one on which we may properly take counsel
+together.'"
+
+"How condescending!"
+
+[Illustration: A REASONABLE HOPE.]
+
+"I suppose you would object to iron girders with brick arches between
+them on account of their cost, but I hope to see rolled iron beams for
+brick dwelling-houses so cheaply made that they will be commonly used
+instead of wood. Such iron ribs, with the brick arches or other masonry
+between them, might well form the finish of the ceilings, and if we
+were accustomed to see them, our frail lath and plaster would seem
+stale, flat and combustible in comparison. The usual mode of making
+floors of thin joists set edgewise, from one to two feet apart, with
+one or two thicknesses of inch boards on the top to walk upon, and
+lathing underneath to hold the plastering, is perhaps the most
+economical use of materials. A more satisfactory construction would be
+to use larger beams two or three times as far apart, laying thicker
+planks upon them and dispensing with plastering altogether, or perhaps
+applying it between the timbers directly to the under-side of the
+planks, leaving the beams themselves in sight. If the floor is double
+the planks or boards lying directly upon the joists may be of common,
+coarse stock, hemlock or spruce, upon which must be laid another
+thickness of finished boards. It is for you to say whether the finished
+upper floor shall be of common, cheap stock, to be always covered by
+carpets, or of some harder wood carefully polished and not concealed at
+all, except by occasional rugs.'"
+
+"Oh, I do _hope_ she will have rugs!" Bessie's remarks were semi-asides
+addressed chiefly to Jim. "There's nothing so lovely as these oriental
+rugs. Kitty Kane had an _exquisite_ one among her wedding presents, and
+when her house was built the parlor was made to fit the rug. It makes
+it rather long and narrow, but the rug is _too_ lovely."
+
+"'It is also for you to say whether the finished floor, if you have no
+carpets, shall consist simply of plain narrow boards or be more
+expensively laid in parquetry designs. In the latter case I shall claim
+the privilege of choosing the pattern.'"
+
+"Why should he trouble himself about the pattern of the wood floors any
+more than he would about the style of the carpets?"
+
+"He would probably say, because the floors are a part of the house for
+which he is making the plans and will last as long as the house itself,
+while the carpets are subject to changing fashions and will soon return
+to their original dust. But he may attempt to dictate in regard to
+carpets if we give him a chance."
+
+[Illustration: FLOORS AS THEY ARE.]
+
+[Illustration: FLOORS AS THEY MIGHT BE.]
+
+"Undoubtedly--to the extent of pitching them out of the window."
+
+"In laying double floors one simple matter must not be neglected. The
+under, or lining boards, which are usually wide and imperfectly
+seasoned, should be laid _diagonally_ upon the joists; otherwise in
+their shrinking and swelling they will move the narrow finished boards
+resting upon them and cause ugly cracks to appear, even though the
+upper floor is most carefully laid and thoroughly seasoned. The liberal
+use of nails is another obvious but often neglected duty of
+floor-makers, who seem, at times to act upon the supposition that as a
+floor has nothing to do but lie still and be trodden upon, it only
+needs to be laid in place and let alone. This may be true of stone
+flagging; it is far from being true of inch boards, that have an
+incurable tendency to warp, twist, spring and shake. Lining floors,
+especially, whatever their thickness, should be nailed--spiked is a
+more forcible term--to every possible bearing and with generous
+frequency; to be specific, say every three inches. The finished hoards
+must also be secured by nails driven squarely through them. If you
+object to the appearance of nail heads the boards may be secured by
+nails driven through the edges in such way that they will be out of
+sight when the floor is finished; but this should never be done except
+by skillful and conscientious workmen. There is no excuse for this
+"blind" nailing in floors that are to be covered by carpets, and it is
+seldom desirable under any circumstances. All thorough nailing adds
+greatly to the strength, and will alone prevent the creaking of the
+boards, so annoying in a sick room and so discouraging to burglars.'"
+
+"Whatever else we do we must make it all right for the burglars. Tell
+him we will have floors that can be used either way, with rugs or
+without, with matting, with carpets, or with nothing at all but their
+own unadorned loveliness. Those in the chambers, where there is not
+much wear and tear, may be of common clear pine, and we can paint or
+stain a border around the edges. The others ought to be of harder wood,
+and, as they will last as long as we shall need floors, we can afford
+to have them cost rather more than a good carpet, perhaps thirty or
+forty cents a square foot."
+
+"I don't see the necessity for that," said Jill, who had a frugal
+mind--at times. "I know they will outlast a great many carpets, but it
+is considerable work to keep a bare floor in order--or rather to put it
+in order--which must be taken into account; and, as for saving the
+expense of carpets, we shall be likely to spend twice as much for rugs
+as the carpets would cost. However, extravagance in rugs is not the
+fault of the hard-wood floors and ought not to be charged against them.
+We might have a few parquetry floors, but for most of the rooms plain
+narrow strips, with a pretty border, will be good enough. What do you
+think about it, Jim?"
+
+While Jim was preparing to say that he didn't think he knew much about
+such things, there came a crash on the floor above, followed by loud
+and incoherent observations by the chambermaid. The chandelier began to
+shake, as that substantial domestic fairy flew through the passage that
+led to the back stairs, at the head of which she was distinctly heard
+to exhort the cook in good set terms to "hurry up with the mop, for the
+water-jug was upset and the mistress would be raving if the water came
+through the ceiling."
+
+The quartette below listened with conflicting emotions. Jill was
+indignant, Bessie horrified--apparently, Jim greatly amused, and Jack
+sublimely indifferent. "If there's anything I _despise_," said Jill,
+"it is a house that makes a human being seem like an elephant, and
+where I can't say my prayers or move a chair in my own room without
+rousing the entire household."
+
+"There's one good thing about it," said Jim pleasantly. "You can't help
+knowing what is going on in your own house."
+
+"Spoken like a man and a brother, James. You always go to the root of a
+matter. I like to keep posted. No skeletons and gunpowder plots for me.
+I had this house made so on purpose." Whereat they all laughed and
+again took up the floor question, while the sound of hurrying feet and
+the rattling of domestic implements went on overhead, and the
+chandelier trembled with the jarring floors.
+
+"I suppose forty dollars' worth of timber originally added to these
+floors would have made them so firm that we might drive a caravan
+across them without shaking the building. We will, at least, have solid
+floors in the new house; but the architect informs us that 'effectual
+deafening of the floors and partitions necessarily adds considerably to
+their cost, since the walls and ceilings must be virtually double or
+filled with some light porous material. The construction I have
+described for making the house fireproof, or nearly so, would also make
+it comparatively sound-proof. It would prevent the passage of any
+reasonable in-door noises, though it might not withstand the stamping
+of heavy steel-shod feet. Indeed, the question of bare, hard-wood
+floors is, in one of its aspects, rather a question of boots. It is
+most unreasonable to say the floors are noisy and slippery when the
+fault lies rather in the hard, stiff, awkward receptacles in which our
+feet are imprisoned. If we are ever clad from head to foot in the robes
+of a perfect civilization, we shall doubtless find smooth bare floors
+for general use more satisfactory than any kind of rugs, mats or
+carpets.'
+
+"And now," said Jill, "we will leave the rest of this interminable
+letter for a more convenient season and see what our indefatigable aunt
+has sent as the latest and best thing in domestic architecture. If you
+will take the plans and follow the description, I will read the letter
+straight through, though it will doubtless contain more or less advice
+not strictly pertinent to house-building. Here it is:
+
+    "MY DEAR JILL: On further reflection I have concluded that the
+    little cottage plans which I sent last will not answer. I doubt
+    whether you and Jack have sufficient independence and
+    originality to make a success of living; even temporarily, in a
+    small, unpretending cottage. It requires unusual strength of
+    character'--
+
+"Listen, Jack.
+
+    --to establish and maintain a high social standing with no
+    adventitious aids. You cannot at present afford a large
+    establishment, but you must have one that is striking and
+    elegant. I was first attracted to this house by its external
+    appearance--not especially the form, but the material, as we
+    often see a lady of inferior _physique_ whose rich and tasteful
+    attire makes her the observed of all observers."
+
+[Illustration: BRICKS AND BOULDERS ON GRANITE UNDERPINNING.]
+
+"Aunt Melville is inclined to be dumpy, and is immensely proud of her
+taste in dress.
+
+    "'The walls near the ground--the underpinning, I suppose--is of
+    solid granite blocks, irregular in size, rough and rugged in
+    appearance. Indeed, the impression is of exceeding solidity and
+    strength, perhaps because the walls slope backward as they
+    rise. The first story is also of stones, but such peculiar
+    stones as I never expected to see in a dwelling house,
+    precisely like those used in the country for fences.'"
+
+"How exquisite!" exclaimed Bessie, clapping her hands in ecstacy.
+
+    "'Some of them seemed to be covered with the gray lichens that
+    are found growing on rocks,--'
+
+"How delicious!"
+
+    "'--but I very much fear these will be destroyed by the action
+    of the lime in the mortar. The stones vary in color, and at a
+    little distance the effect is like a rich mosaic. The corners
+    of the house and the sides of the windows are made of
+    peculiarly dark, rough-looking bricks that harmonize well with
+    the general tone of the stone walls. The second story is of
+    wood, covered with shingles that have not been painted, but
+    simply oiled, and they have turned a dark reddish-brown. I
+    found on inquiry that they are California red wood. The roof is
+    of red tiles, and the chromatic effect of the entire building
+    is very charming and aristocratic.'"
+
+"That would suit _us_ perfectly," said Jack, "but I think our
+aristocratic aunt is more tiresome than the architect. Jim is asleep
+and Bessie is on the verge of slumber." But just at that moment Bessie
+gave a piercing scream and bounded from the sofa in uncontrollable
+affright, while an army of reckless June bugs came dashing in through
+the open, unscreened windows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FROM MATHEMATICS TO ANCIENT BRIC-A-BRAC.
+
+
+Taking advantage of the incursion of the June bugs, Jim withdrew in
+good order, and Bessie shortly after retired with her tin candlestick.
+
+"Do you seriously intend to allow that pair of incompatibles to go off
+to-morrow looking for old furniture and antiquated household
+implements?" asked Jill.
+
+"Most certainly I do. It will he the greatest fun in the world. I only
+wish we could go as invisible spectators; but, on the whole, we shall
+best enjoy imagining what they will say or do if left to their own
+devices, knowing, as we should, that our presence would prevent some of
+their wildest absurdities. I'm awfully sorry they are not going to
+build and furnish a house somewhere in this vicinity, according to
+their combined notions."
+
+"And I am extremely sorry you cannot take your thoughts from Bessie
+long enough at least to hear the conclusion of Aunt Melville's letter."
+
+"My dear, like John Gilpin, 'of womankind I do admire but one.' I shall
+listen with undivided attention to whatever you lay before my ears.
+Pray go on."
+
+    "'I was fortunate enough to get a drawing of the interior of
+    the reception hall, which, while it is simple and inexpensive,
+    is also dignified and impressive. Houses often resemble
+    people, and you will easily recall among your friends certain
+    ones who, without being either wealthy or brilliant, are still
+    very impressive. The other rooms which we visited are ample for
+    your needs, as you will find it far more advantageous to
+    entertain but few people at a time, and those of the best
+    society, than to have larger and more indiscriminate
+    gatherings. The amount of room in the house is surprising; but
+    that, of course, is because it is so nearly square.'"
+
+"That is feminine logic. A man would have said that the size of a house
+determines the amount of room it contains."
+
+"Undoubtedly he would; but it does not," said Jill, decidedly. "I can
+show you houses that look large and _are_ large, that make great
+pretensions in point of style, that cost a great deal of money, and yet
+have no room in them. They have no place for the beds to stand, no room
+for the doors to swing, no room for a piano, no room for a generous
+sofa, no room for the book-cases, no room for easy stairs, no room for
+fireplaces, no room for convenient attendance at the dining-table, no
+room for wholesome cooking, no room for sick people, no room for fresh
+air, no room for sunlight, no room for an unexpected guest. They have
+plenty of rooms, apartments, cells--but no real, generous, comfortable
+house room."
+
+"I suppose Aunt Melville refers to the mathematical fact that a house
+forty feet square contains more cubic feet than the same length of
+walls would hold in a more elongated or irregular shape."
+
+"By the same rule an octagon or circle would be better still, which is
+absurd. No; her feminine logic is no worse than yours, and no better.
+The amount of room a house contains depends neither upon its size
+nor its shape. Her analogy, too, is at fault when she implies that the
+outside of a house bears the same relation to the interior that
+clothing bears to the person who wears it. The art of the tailor and
+dressmaker has at present no other test of merit than fashion and
+costliness, elements to which real art, architectural or otherwise, is
+always and absolutely indifferent. The external aspect of the house
+should be the natural spontaneous outgrowth of its legitimate use and
+proper construction, as face, form and carriage express the character
+of each individual."
+
+[Illustration: NOT BRILLIANT BUT IMPRESSIVE.]
+
+[Illustration: WOODEN RICHNESS.]
+
+Jill spoke with unwonted seriousness and a wisdom beyond her years.
+Even Jack was impressed for the moment, and expressed a wish to tear
+down some of the ornamental appendages from his own house. "The
+piazzas are well enough--that is, they would be if they were twice as
+wide--but the observatory is good for nothing, because nobody can get
+into it to observe, unless he crawls along the ridge-pole, and I never
+did know what all that mess of wooden stuff under the eaves and about
+the windows was for. I suppose it was intended to give the house a
+richer look."
+
+[Illustration: NO WASTE OF WOOD.]
+
+"Yes, it enriches it just as countless rows of puffs, ruffles and
+flounces, made of coarse cotton cloth with a sewing machine and piled
+on without regard to grace or comfort, would 'enrich' a lady's dress."
+
+"I thought you objected to the dress anology?"
+
+"I do, positively, but it appears to have been the theory accepted by
+modern architects almost universally. I don't see. Jack, that your
+house is any worse than others in this respect, and I have no doubt it
+will 'sell' all the better for the superfluous lumber attached to the
+outside walls."
+
+"Thank you, my dear! That is the first good word you have spoken for
+it. Well, there is one comfort; I am convinced that you didn't commit
+the reprehensible folly of marrying me for my house."
+
+"No, indeed, Jack. It was pure devotion; a desperate case of elective
+affinity."
+
+"And yet we are happily married! _We_ shall never do for the hero and
+heroine of a modern romance. There isn't a magazine editor or a book
+publisher that would look at us for a moment."
+
+"Let us be thankful--and finish our letter.
+
+    "'I am anxious, as you know, my dear niece, that you should,
+    begin life in a manner creditable to the family, and I trust
+    you will allow no romantic or utilitarian notions to prevent
+    your conforming to the requirements of good society. This
+    house, in all such respects, will be perfectly satisfactory. I
+    have bought the plans for you from the owner, and I hope you
+    will accept them with my best wishes.'
+
+"And that is all, this time. Aunt Melville's notion of a house seems to
+be a place for entertaining the 'best society.' Her zeal is certainly
+getting the better of her conscience and judgment. She cannot honestly
+buy the plans from the owner of the house, because he never owned them;
+they belong to the architect, and she ought to know better than to
+advise the use of material that would have to be brought at great
+expense from a long distance. If cobble-stones and boulders were
+indigenous in this region, and old stone fences could be had for the
+asking, I should like to use them, but they are not. It is also evident
+that she did not penetrate far into the interior of the house or she
+would have discovered an unpardonable defect--the absence of 'back'
+stairs. I do not think it very serious in such a plan, where the one
+flight is near the centre of the house and is not very conspicuous,
+but Aunt Melville would lie awake nights if she knew there were no back
+stairs for the servants."
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF THE PROMISE.]
+
+The next morning Jim appeared with the express wagon, and Bessie
+climbed upon the high seat beside him under the big brown umbrella, her
+Gainsborough hat encircled with a garland of white daisies, huge
+bunches of the same blossoms being attached somewhat indiscriminately
+to her dress by way of imparting a rural air, and together they drove
+off in search of old and forgotten household gods. Jill had suggested
+sending them out to investigate, reporting what they found, and
+purchasing afterward if thought best, but Jack urged that it would be
+wiser to secure their treasures at once, lest the thrifty farmers,
+finding their old heir-looms in demand, should mark up the prices while
+they were deliberating--a view with which Bessie fully concurred.
+
+[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR OF THE PROMISE.]
+
+Beguiling the way with the duet that is always so delightful to the
+performers, whatever the audience may think of it, they followed the
+pleasant country roads for many miles without finding a castle that
+seemed to promise desirable plunder. A worn-out horseshoe lying in the
+road was their first prize. It presaged good luck, and was to be gilded
+and hung above the library door. At length they came to a typical old
+farm-house, gray and weather-beaten, but still dignified and well cared
+for. The big barns stood modestly back from the highway, and the yard
+about the front door, enclosed by a once white picket fence, was filled
+with the fragrance of cinnamon roses and syringas. As they drove up at
+the side of the house across the open lawn, the close cropping of which
+showed that the cows were wont to take their final bite upon it as they
+came to the yard at night, they encountered an elderly man carrying a
+large jug in one hand and apparently just starting for the fields with
+some refreshing drink for the workmen.
+
+"Good morning, sir," said Jim, touching his hat. Bessie smiled and
+asked, "Are you the farmer?"
+
+"Wal, yes ma'am; I suppose I am. Leastways I own the farm and get my
+living off from it as well as I can--same as my fathers did afore me."
+
+"How lovely! Have you got any old--I mean, can you give us a drink of
+water? We--we happen to be passing and we're very thirsty."
+
+"Just as well as not. The well is right behind the house. You can jump
+down and help yourselves."
+
+"You don't mean jump down the well," said Jim, laughing.
+
+"Not exactly. Will your horse stand?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+When Bessie saw the old well-sweep, which for some unaccountable reason
+had not been swept away by a modern pump, she exclaimed in a stage
+whisper: "Wouldn't it be glorious if we could carry it home?"
+
+Jim found the cool water most refreshing and thought he would rather
+carry home the well.
+
+"What an enormous wood pile," Bessie continued aloud, in a desperate
+endeavor to lead up to andirons by an unsuspicious route. "Do you burn
+wood?"
+
+"Not so much as we used to. The women folks think they must have it to
+cook with, but we use coal a good deal in the winter."
+
+"Don't you have fireplaces?" was the next innocent question.
+
+"Plenty of 'em in the house, but they're mostly bricked up. It takes
+too big a wood pile to keep 'em going."
+
+"So you use stoves instead; I suppose it is less trouble. Oh, and that
+reminds me, have you any old andirons, anywhere around?"
+
+"Shouldn't be surprised if there was. Yes, there's one now, hangin' on
+the gate right behind you."
+
+Bessie, as she afterwards declared, was almost ready to faint at this
+announcement, but on turning to look she saw indeed, hanging by a chain
+to keep the gate closed, a dumpy, rusty, cast-iron andiron.
+
+"Should you be willing to sell it for old brass? Isn't there a mate to
+it somewhere? They generally go in pairs, don't they?"
+
+"No, I shouldn't want to sell it for old brass, because you see it's
+iron. Most likely there was a pair of 'em once, but there's no tellin'
+where t'other one is now. Maybe in the suller and maybe in the garret."
+
+"Please could we go up in the garret and look for it? We will be very
+careful."
+
+The worthy man, considerably puzzled to know what sort of angels he was
+entertaining unawares, obtained permission from the "women folks," sent
+a boy off with the jug of drink and showed his callers to the topmost
+floor of the house.
+
+"Oh, oh! If there isn't a real spinning-wheel. This passes my wildest
+anticipations," murmured Bessie to Jim; then, restraining her
+enthusiasm for fear of spoiling a bargain, she inquired aloud: "Do any
+of your family spin?"
+
+"No, no; not now-a-days. My old mother vised to get the wheel out now
+and then, when I was a youngster, but it's broke now and part of it is
+lost."
+
+"Would you sell it?"
+
+"If it isn't all here--" Jim began, but Bessie checked him and eagerly
+accepted the old wheel, which had lost its head and two or three
+spokes, for the moderate sum of one dollar.
+
+Rummaging among old barrels, Jim found the missing half of the pair of
+andirons. One broken leg seemed to add to its value in Bessie's eyes
+and she quickly closed a bargain for them at fifteen cents, which their
+owner, after "hefting" them, "guessed" would be about their value for
+old iron. One old chair, minus a back and extremely shaky as to its
+legs, and another that had lost a rocker and never had any arms, were
+secured for a nominal price, and Bessie's attention was then attracted
+to a tall wooden vessel hooped like a barrel, but more slender, "big at
+the bottom and small at the top," which proved to be an old churn. Jim
+objected to this until his companion explained how it could be
+transformed by a judicious application of old gold and crimson into a
+most artistic umbrella stand, while the "dasher" would make a striking
+ornament for the hall chimney-piece. As they were about to depart with
+their treasures, the honest farmer invited them to look at a ponderous
+machine five or six feet high and nearly as broad--a horrid monster,
+misshapen and huge, that stood in the back chamber over the wood-shed.
+It was a cheese-press. "How magnificent!" whispered Bessie, and then,
+turning to their host, inquired--"Do you use it every day?"
+
+"Oh, law, no! Hain't used it this twenty years. Make all the cheese at
+the factory. It's kind of a queer old thing and I thought maybe you
+would like to see it. 'Tain't likely you will ever see another just
+like it."
+
+"_Would_ you be willing to sell it?"
+
+"Of course, I'd be willing enough, only it don't seem just right to
+sell a thing that ain't good for anything but firewood. However, if you
+really want it you may have it for a dollar and a-half, and I'll have
+the hired men load it up for you."
+
+"Now, really, Miss Bessie," said Jim, when the farmer had gone to call
+the men, "don't you think it's rather a clumsy affair? We can hardly
+get it into the express wagon, and I don't see where they can put it if
+we carry it home."
+
+"Clumsy! no, indeed, it's _massive_, it's _grand_! There will be plenty
+of room in the new house. They will have one entire room for
+bric-a-brac."
+
+"But what can they _do_ with it? They won't make cheese."
+
+"Can't you see what a _delicious_ cabinet it will make? These posts and
+things can all be carved and decorated, and it will be perfectly
+_unique_. There isn't such a cabinet in the whole city of New York. Oh,
+I think our trip has been an _immense_ success already. I shall always
+believe in horseshoes after this; but _isn't_ it a pity we can't carry
+home the well-sweep?"
+
+The huge machine had to be taken from the shed chamber in sections, but
+was properly put together again in the wagon by the hired men, and made
+the turnout look like a small traveling juggernaut. Just before
+starting: Bessie espied, leaning against the fence, a hen-coop from
+which the feathered family had departed, and explaining to Jim that if
+the sides were painted red and the bars gilded it would be a charming
+ornament for the front porch, persuaded him to add that to their
+already imposing load. Then they departed, leaving the farmer and his
+men in doubt whether to advertise a pair of escaped lunatics or accept
+their visitors as "highly cultured" members of modern society.
+
+When they reached home Jack had just come in from the office. He looked
+out of the window as they drove up, felt his strength suddenly give
+way, and rolled on the floor in convulsions.
+
+"Less than five dollars for the whole lot, did you say, Jim? I wouldn't
+have missed _seeing_ that load for fifty."
+
+The next day was Sunday. Monday afternoon Bessie went home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH.
+
+
+"Dirt is matter out of place," quoted Uncle Harry, in one of his
+erratic epistles which Jack and Jill always read with interest if not
+profit. "When you find anything that seems unclean or offensive in any
+part of your house, remember this: the fault is not in the thing
+itself, but in your ignorant or thoughtless management. There isn't a
+material thing in the universe, whatever its name or characteristic
+qualities maybe; not a flaunting weed nor an unseen miasmatic vapor,
+which is not created for some good and wise purpose. It is for us to
+learn those purposes. The grand secret of safe and comfortable living
+lies in keeping yourself and everything about you in the right place. I
+hear much of the dangers and annoyances that arise from modern
+plumbing. I am not surprised by them; on the contrary, I wonder they
+are not more numerous and fatal, since nothing is more inconsistent
+with the first principles of comfort and health than our relations to
+these 'modern conveniences.' Instead of disposing of what are
+incorrectly called waste materials according to nature's modes, we
+persist in defying her examples and her laws, even after we fully
+understand them, and, in the vain hope of adding to our own case,
+bring upon ourselves untold calamities. 'Earth to earth' is a mandate
+that cannot be disregarded with impunity. The infinite laboratories of
+nature welcome to their crucibles all the strange and awful elements
+which we fail to comprehend and against which we wage a futile warfare.
+If all these miscalled 'wastes' that we find so hurtful and offensive
+when out of place in and around our homes could be consigned to the
+bosom of mother earth the moment they seem to us worthless, they would
+be at once changed to life-giving forces, out of which forms of
+freshness and beauty would arise to fill us with delight. They are
+willing to serve us whenever we give them an opportunity. The one
+direct and infallible mode of doing that is to put them in the ground
+before they have a chance to work us injury. If we bury them, or,
+rather, plant them, they will bring forth, some thirty, some sixty,
+some an hundredfold.
+
+[Illustration: NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES.]
+
+"It is my impression that sewers were originally invented by the Evil
+one. He couldn't drag men down to his dominions fast enough, so he
+moved a portion of his estate to this planet, and lest its true
+character should be discovered, buried it under paved streets and
+flowery parks. We might easily and quietly put these crude materials
+into convenient receptacles, to be carried where they will bless the
+world by making two ears of corn grow where one grew before. This we
+could do, each one for ourselves, or more advantageously by cooperating
+with one another. We are too wasteful, too indolent, too ignorant.
+Tempted by the invisible sewers we imprison these misplaced and
+inharmonious elements for a time in lead or iron pipes, while they grow
+more hostile, occasionally escaping by violence or stealth into our
+chambers, and then with many nice contrivances and much perishable
+machinery we try to wash them away with a bucket of water. Not to carry
+them where they will do any good, not to put them out of existence, but
+simply to hide them: to send them out of our immediate sight, and very
+likely into some greater mischief. The system is radically wrong, and
+while many of its existing evils may be averted, they cannot all be
+removed till we make our attacks from a different base. Improving
+sewers, like strengthening prison walls, is a good thing if the
+institutions remain; to prevent the need of maintaining them would be
+better still. Three-fourths of the solid wastes that proceed from
+human dwellings--scraps of food, waste paper, worthless vegetables,
+worn-out utensils, bones, weeds, old boots and shoes, whatever
+unmanageable and unnamable rubbish appears--ought to be at once
+consumed by fire, for which purpose a small cremating furnace should be
+found in every house. A similar trial by fire would reduce a large part
+of the liquids and semi-liquids to solid form to be also consumed, and
+the rest, absorbed by dry earth or ashes, could easily be transported
+to the barren fields that await the intelligence and power of man to
+transform them into blooming gardens.
+
+"Of the usual modes of bringing water to our houses to wash away these
+things I know but little, because there is but little to be known.
+Complications and mysteries are not to my taste. I find no satisfaction
+in overthrowing a man of straw, and am comparatively indifferent to the
+rival claims of patentees and manufacturers, except as they promise
+good material, faithful workmanship and moderate prices.
+
+"The one thing needful, if we adopt the hydraulic method of carrying
+away these waste substances, is a smooth cast-iron pipe running from
+the ground outside the house in through the lower part and up and out
+through the roof. It should be open at both ends, and so free from
+obstruction that a cat, a chimney-swallow or a summer breeze could pass
+through it without difficulty. I would, however, put screens over the
+open ends to keep out the cats and the swallows. The purifying breezes
+should blow through in summer and winter without let or hindrance, and
+to promote their circulation I would, if possible, place the pipe
+beside a warm chimney. Yet if the air it contains should sometimes move
+downward it will do no special harm; anything is better than
+stagnation. Into this open pipe, which should be not only water-tight
+but air-tight through its entire length, all waste-pipes from the house
+should empty as turbid mountain torrents pour into the larger stream
+that flows through the valley. (Fig. 1.) Now, unless the upward draught
+through this large pipe is constant and strong, you will see at once
+that the air contained in it (which we must treat as though it were
+always poisonous) would be liable to come up through these branches
+into the rooms, where they stand with open mouths ready to swallow
+whatever is poured into them. It is necessary, therefore, to build
+dams across them that will allow water to go down but prevent air from
+going up. These dams are called 'traps.' They are intended to catch
+only hurtful elements that might seek to intrude. It often happens that
+those who set them get caught, for they are not infallible. Whatever
+the form or patent assumed by these water-dams, they amount to a bend
+in the pipe rilled with water. (Fig. 2.) Sometimes a ball or other form
+of valve is used, but the water is the mainstay.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
+
+"Theoretically, this is the whole machinery of safe, 'sanitary'
+plumbing: A large open pipe kept as clean and free as possible, into
+which the smaller drains empty, these smaller drains or waste-pipes
+having their mouths always full, and being able, so to speak, to
+swallow in but one direction. Everything can go down; nothing can come
+up. That all these pipes shall be of sound material, not liable to
+corrosion; that the different pieces of which they are composed shall
+be tightly joined; that they shall be so firmly supported that they
+will not bend or break by their own weight, or through the changes of
+temperature to which they are subject, and that they shall be, if not
+always in plain sight, at most only hidden by some covering easily
+removed, are points which the commonest kind of common sense would not
+fail to observe.
+
+"Practically, there are weak spots in the system, even if plumbers were
+always as honest as George Washington---before he became a man, and as
+wise as Solomon--before he became discouraged. A water barricade,
+unless it is as wide as the English Channel, is not a safeguard against
+dangerous invasion. A slight pressure of air, as every boy blowing soap
+bubbles can show you, will force a way through a basin full, and the
+same thing would happen if there should chance to be a backward current
+of air through these pipes, with this difference, that while the soap
+bubbles are harmless beauties, these may be filled with the germs of
+direful diseases. Still another danger to which this light water-seal
+is exposed is that a downward rush of water may cause a vacuum in the
+small pipes, somewhat as the exhaust steam operates the air-brakes, and
+empty the trap, leaving merely an open crooked pipe. Both these weak
+points may be strengthened by a breathing hole in the highest part of
+the small pipe below the trap. This must, of course, have a ventilating
+pipe of its own, which, to be always effectual, should be as large as
+the waste-pipe itself. (Fig. 3.)
+
+[Illustration: Fig 3.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig 4]
+
+"Now, if the water that fills these traps and stops the open mouths of
+the drains were always clean, there would be no further trouble from
+this source. Unfortunately it is not; and although constant
+watchfulness might keep it so, the safety that only comes from eternal
+vigilance is an uncomfortable sort of safety--if we have too much of
+it life becomes a burden. This particular ill might be remedied by some
+contrivance whereby the upper ends of the waste-pipes should be
+effectually corked--not simply covered, but _corked_ as tightly as a
+bottle of beer--at all times except when in actual use. This would
+doubtless be more troublesome, but indolence is at the bottom of most
+of our woes: our labor-saving contrivances bring upon us our worst
+calamities. Even this thorough closing of the outlet of washbasins and
+bath-tubs, as they are usually made, would be of little avail, for they
+are furnished with an 'overflow' (Fig. 4), through which exhalations
+from the trap would rise, however tightly the outlet might be sealed.
+It is also customary and doubtless wise, considering our habit of doing
+things so imperfectly the first time that we have no confidence in
+their stability, to place large basins of sheet-lead under all plumbing
+articles, lest from some cause they should 'spring a leak' and damage
+the floors or ceilings below them. One strong safeguard being better
+than two weak ones, I would dispense with the 'overflow' and arrange so
+that when anything ran over accidentally the lead basin or 'safe'
+should catch the water and carry it through an ample waste-pipe of its
+own to some inoffensive outlet. This would perhaps involve setting the
+plumbing articles in the most simple and open fashion--which ought
+always to be done. 'Cabinets,' cupboards, casings and wood finish, no
+matter how full of conveniences, or how elegantly made, are worse than
+useless in connection with plumbing fixtures, which, for all reasons,
+should stand forth in absolute nakedness. They must be so strongly and
+simply made that no concealment will be necessary.
+
+"One more danger closes the list, so far as the system is concerned.
+Even if the water in the traps is clean and inoffensive it will
+evaporate quickly in warm weather, and then the prison door is open
+again. This adds another vigil which we can never lay aside if we must
+have plumbing and water traps. The burden may be somewhat
+lightened--since we are prone to forgetfulness as stones to fall
+downward--by using traps made of glass and leaving them in plain sight.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
+
+"I conclusion, I wish to remind you that the lower end of the main
+drain must be protected from the iniquity of the sewer or cesspool to
+which it runs by another trap, or dam, just below the open pipe that
+admits fresh air from outside the house (Fig. 5), and also, as I have
+before remarked, that the system is wrong. The rising tide of
+civilization will some time wash it all away."
+
+"Uncle Harry's notion of reform," said Jack, after the long letter had
+been read, "seems to be to blow the universe to pieces and then put it
+together again on a new and improved plan. It strikes me we had better
+fight it out on this line and try to straighten the evils we know
+something about rather than invent new ones. If we had begun on that
+track and tried to utilize the waste materials on strictly economical
+principles, perhaps by this time our methods and machinery would have
+been so far perfected that the real or imaginary evils of modern
+plumbing would not have existed. It seems a pity to throw away all we
+have accomplished and begin again."
+
+"That is a part of the price paid for progress," said Jill. "Stage
+coaches are useless when steam appears, and locomotives must go to the
+junk shop when electricity is ready to be harnessed. But I'm afraid we
+cannot afford to be pioneers, and I'm sure the neighbors are not ready
+to co-operate. We must still 'go by water,' and the important question
+is where to send the lower end of the main drain. There is no sewer in
+the street, and a cesspool is an atrocity worthy of the darkest ages.
+The only safe thing appears to be the sub-surface irrigation plan, for
+which, fortunately, there is plenty of room on our lot. This comes very
+near to Uncle Harry's notion of 'earth to earth' in the quickest time
+possible. If we do it and accept the architect's suggestion in the plan
+of the house we shall be reasonably safe from that most mysterious of
+all modern foes--sewer-gas."
+
+"I've forgotten the architect's suggestions; in fact, I don't believe
+my head is quite equal to housebuilding with all the latest notions.
+When _my_ house was built I just told the carpenter to get up something
+stylish and good, about like Judge Gainsboro's. He showed me the plans,
+I signed the contract, and that was the whole of it. I supposed a house
+was a house. Now, before the new house is begun, I'm like Dick
+Whittington in the days of his poverty--I've no peace by day or night."
+
+"Poor fellow!"
+
+"I shudder to think what it will he when the house is fairly under way.
+I can see five hundred different things at once, but when each one has
+five hundred sides and we get up into the hundred thousands, I begin to
+feel dizzy. Uncle Harry has settled the plumbing question to his own
+satisfaction, so far as first principles are concerned; but who will
+tell us what kind of pipes and trimmings and bowls and basins and traps
+and plugs and stops and pedals and pulls and cranks and pistons and
+plungers and hooks and staples and couplings and brakes and chains and
+pans and basins and tanks and floats and buoys and strainers and safes
+and bibbs and tuckers we are to adopt? If I should consume midnight oil
+during a full four years' course at a college for plumbers I should
+still find myself just upon the threshold of the temple of knowledge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SAFE FLUES AND MORE LIGHT.
+
+
+By a tender but vigorous application of the remedies usual in such
+cases, Jack was speedily restored to his wonted equanimity, and Jill,
+laying Uncle Harry aside, took up the architect's suggestions
+concerning the plumbing, which referred rather to its relations to the
+plan of the house than to the details of the work itself.
+
+"A bath-room, with all the plumbing articles it usually contains, must
+possess at least three special characteristics. It must be easily
+warmed in cold weather, otherwise the annual bill for repairs will be
+greater than the cost of coal for the whole house; its walls, floors
+and ceilings must be impervious to sound. The music of murmuring brooks
+is delightful to our ears, so is the patter of the soft rain on the
+roof; but the splashing of water in a, bath-tub and the gurgling of
+unseen water-pipes are not pleasant accompaniments to a dinner-table
+conversation. Thirdly, it must be perfectly ventilated--not the
+drainpipes merely,--but the room itself in summer and in winter. Two of
+the above conditions can best be secured by arranging to have this
+important room placed in a detached or semi-detached wing; and here
+begin the compromises between convenience, cost and safety. It is
+convenient to have a bath-room attached to every chamber, and there is
+no doubt that this may be done with entire safety, provided you do not
+regard the cost. In your plan I have adopted the middle course. There
+is one bath-room for all the chambers of the second floor, not too
+remote but somewhat retired, and having no communication with any other
+room. It is ventilated by a large open flue carried up directly through
+the roof; it has also an outside window and inlets for fresh air near
+the floor. All the walls and partitions around it will be double and
+filled with mineral wool, and the floors will be deafened. The 'house
+side' of the water-closet traps will have three-inch iron pipes running
+to the ventilating flue beside the kitchen-chimney, a flue that will
+always be warm, and therefore certain to give a strong upward draught
+at all times, which cannot be said of any other flue in the house, not
+even of the main drain, or soil-pipe, which passes up through the roof.
+It would be easy to keep other flues warmed in cold weather by
+steam-pipes, but in summer you will have no steam for heating purposes.
+A 'circulation-pipe' might be attached to a boiler on the kitchen range
+for this purpose, but in the present case such a contrivance would cost
+more than the iron pipe carried from the bath-room to the flue that is
+warmed by the kitchen fire. A good way to build this ventilating flue
+is to inclose the smoke-pipe from the range, which may be of iron or
+glazed earthen pipe, in a larger brick flue or chamber (Fig. 1),
+keeping it in place by bars of iron laid into the masonry. The rising
+current of warm air around the heated smoke-pipe will be as constant
+and reliable as the trade winds. It will be well, indeed, if all your
+chimneys are made in a similar manner; that is, by enclosing
+hard-burned glazed pipe in a thin wall of bricks. Such chimneys will
+not only draw better than those made in the usual way, but there will
+be less danger from 'defective flues.' A four-inch wall of bricks
+between us and destruction by fire is a frail barrier, especially if
+the work is carelessly done or the mortar has crumbled from the joints.
+To build the chimneys with double or eight-inch walls makes them very
+large, more expensive, and still not as good as when they contain the
+smooth round flues. To leave an air-chamber beside or between them for
+ventilating (Fig. 2), is better than to open directly into the
+smoke-flue, because it will not impair the draught for the fire, and
+there will be no danger of a sooty odor in the room when the
+circulation happens to be downward, as it will be occasionally. The
+outside chimney, if there is one, should have an extra air-chamber
+between the very outer wall and the back of the fireplace to save heat
+(Fig. 3), a precaution that removes to a great extent the common
+objection to such chimneys. Whatever else you do, let these 'windpipes
+of good hospitalitie' have all the room they need. I shall not
+willingly carry them off by any devious way to be hidden in an obscure
+corner or dark closet, nor yet to give them a more respectable and
+well-balanced position on the roof. Like the wild forest trees they
+shall grow straight up toward heaven from the spot where they are first
+planted. If we happen to want a window where the chimney stands in an
+outer wall we will make one between the flues, as one might build a hut
+in the huge branches of a mighty oak. It isn't the best place for the
+window or the hut, but circumstances may justify it; as, for instance,
+when we must have the outlook in a certain direction, but cannot spare
+the wall-space for a window beside the chimney. The jambs beside a
+window so situated will be very wide, and you may, if you please,
+extend the view of the landscape indefinitely by setting two mirrors
+_vis-à-vis_ in the opening at either side. This will also send the
+sunshine into the room after the sun has passed by the other windows
+on the same side of the house. It is rather a pretty fancy, too, when
+the outside view does not require a clear window, to set a picture in
+colored glass above the mantel, and the same thins: may be arranged in
+the sideboard, if it happens to stand against the outer wall. These are
+_fancies_, however, which lose their beauty and fitness unless they
+seem to have been spontaneously produced. There should be no apparent
+striving for effect."
+
+[Illustration: SAFE AND SAVING FLUES.]
+
+[Illustration: SAFE AND SAVING FLUES.]
+
+[Illustration: A PICTURE IN GLASS OVER THE FIREPLACE.]
+
+"I like the idea of setting mirrors in the deep window-jambs, whether
+they are in the chimney or out of it," said Jill. "If I was obliged to
+live in a room where the sun never shone of its own accord, I would set
+a trap for it baited with large mirrors fixed on some sort of a
+windlass in a way to send the sunshine straight into my windows."
+
+"Capital! You could do that easily, and if you wanted a green-house on
+the north side it would only be necessary to set up a few
+looking-glasses to pour a blazing sun upon it all day long. You might
+need a little clockwork to keep them adjusted at the right angles, but
+Yankee invention ought to be equal to that. I have no doubt we shall
+see patent sunshine-distributors in the market very shortly if your
+idea gets abroad; in fact, I shouldn't be surprised to hear that a
+company proposed to set up mammoth reflectors to keep the sun from
+setting at all until he drops into the Pacific Ocean."
+
+[Illustration: GLASS OF MANY COLORS, SHAPES AND SIZES.]
+
+"Well, you may laugh at my invention; I shall surely try it when I am
+obliged to live in a house that does not get sunlight in the regular
+way. As for the stained glass picture over the chimney-piece, I should
+like it for the bright color and because the lamps would make it so
+charming from the street outside. I shall also want colored glass in
+the upper part of the bay windows. The architect says we can have it
+and still keep the lower panes clear and large. He sends some sketches
+by way of suggestion, and thinks we may use it in the lower part of
+some of the windows to conceal a window-seat or other furniture. I
+should prefer screens of some other kind in such places, keeping the
+stained glass up where it would show against the sky. He says this
+colored glass is not necessarily expensive; that it may be set in
+common wood-sash or in lead-sash, as we please, and that it will not
+affect the usual opening and closing of the windows. He advises
+plate-glass for the larger lights, if we can afford it, not because it
+gives the house a more elegant appearance, though that is not a wholly
+unworthy motive, but because a beautiful landscape is so much more
+beautiful when it can be plainly seen. The instinct that prompts us to
+throw the window wide open in order to get a more satisfactory view is
+an unanswerable argument in favor of large, clear lights of glass for
+windows intended for outlooks."
+
+"And here is an illustration right before us," said Jack. "I am
+impelled by a powerful impulse to open the window and see if I can
+recognize the lady driving up the street. It wouldn't be good manners,
+but I wish the window was plate-glass."
+
+To Jack's astonishment, however, Jill threw open the window and waved
+her handkerchief in cordial salutation as Aunt Jerusha drove slowly up
+to the house. "Doing her own work" for half a century had not rendered
+her incapable of taking and enjoying a carriage ride of fifteen miles
+alone to visit her niece.
+
+Like all wise people who are able to give advice, Aunt Jerusha offered
+none until it was asked, and then gave only in small doses. She had
+never seen the house that Jack built, but had heard much of it from the
+friends and relatives who had never underrated Jill's obstinacy in
+refusing to accept it as a permanent home.
+
+"I almost wonder at you, Jill, for being so set against it. I'm sure
+it's a fine house and cost a good deal of money. There must be some
+drawback that doesn't show. I hope It isn't haunted."
+
+"That's it, Aunt Jerusha; it's haunted. Several uncomfortable demons
+have taken possession of it and Jill isn't able to exorcise them. It
+was a great grief to me at first, and I made a bargain with Jill to
+keep still about them, but it is an open secret now and she may tell
+you everything."
+
+[Illustration: SHELVES IN THE MIDDLE, CUPBOARDS ABOVE AND BELOW.]
+
+"Very well. I can easily explain the mystery. The mischief began with
+the evil spirits of Ignorance and Incompetence. The carpenter who
+planned the house knew nothing about our tastes or needs, and the
+builder was unable to make a comfortable flight of stairs, safe
+chimneys, smooth floors or tight windows. After these two came another
+pair, worse than the first--Ostentation and Avarice. They tried to make
+a grand display and at the same time a large profit on the job. How
+can I exorcise such demons as these except by tearing down the house?"
+
+"Couldn't you sell it, dear? What seem demons to you might appear like
+angels of light to some one else," said Aunt Jerusha.
+
+"You are an angel of light to me, Aunt Jerusha," said Jack. "But I
+might have known you would stand up for my house."
+
+"Aunt Jerusha, there isn't a closet in the whole establishment," said
+Jill, solemnly, knowing that defect to be an architectural sin which
+even her aunt's broad charity would fail to cover.
+
+"Oh, Jill! where have you laid your conscience? I can't stay to hear my
+house abused. Please show Aunt Jerusha the pantry and the china-closet
+and I will flee to the office."
+
+"Why, yes, to be sure you have a very nice buttery and china-cupboard."
+
+"I meant good, generous closets for the chambers. Of course there's a
+pantry, but I don't think the arrangement of shelves, drawers and
+cupboards is very convenient."
+
+"It seems very liberal."
+
+"Yes, but would you advise me to have the pantry in the new house like
+it?"
+
+"Well, no, dear; since you asked me, I wouldn't. It is possible to have
+too many conveniences even in a pantry. It is a good plan to have a few
+cupboards to keep some things from the dust and others from the light,
+but most of our raw materials now-a-days come in tight boxes or cans,
+and I find them more handy standing on the shelves than shut up in
+drawers. I don't suppose it would be so in your case, dear, but a
+drawer sometimes hides very slovenly habits. It is so easy to drop an
+untidy thing into a drawer and shove it out of sight. These large
+wooden boxes, all built in with their covers and handles, look nice and
+handy, but it's hard to clean them out. I would rather have good wide
+shelves and light movable tin boxes like those used in the groceries.
+You could buy them, I suppose, but I had mine made at the tin-shop to
+fit the shelves. I can take them out and wash them any time, and they
+never get musty, as wooden boxes will, even with the best of care. But
+you mustn't be biased by my old-fashioned notions."
+
+"I think they are very good notions if they are old-fashioned. If we
+have cupboards inside the pantry, drawers inside the cupboards, and
+boxes and cases inside the drawers, finding the spices is like opening
+a nest of. Chinese puzzles. A mechanic would never hide the tools in
+his workshop in that way."
+
+"How do you reach the upper shelves?"
+
+"I never reach them, and all that room is wasted. It is worse than
+wasted. It is a reservoir for dust and cobwebs."
+
+"Wouldn't it be well, dear, if all the upper part was made into
+cupboards for things seldom used?"
+
+"Indeed it would. I think I will have the new pantry made something
+like this: low cupboards next to the floor, for things that; need to be
+shut up and yet must be handy; on the top of these, which will be not
+quite three feet high, a very wide shelf; over this several open
+shelves, as high as I can easily reach; and above the shelves, filling
+the space to the ceiling, short cupboards entirely around the room for
+cracked dishes that are too good to throw away, but are never used: for
+ice-cream freezers in the winter, and a great many more things that
+belong to the same category--a sort of hospital for disabled or retired
+culinary utensils. Now we will look at the china closet, but we shall
+need the gas in order to see it in all its glory, and you can tell Jack
+it is lovely with a clear conscience."
+
+"I never speak without a clear conscience," said Aunt Jerusha mildly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A DANGEROUS RIVAL.
+
+
+"Dear me," said Aunt Jerusha, as Jill, after displaying the kitchen
+pantry, showed her the windowless china closet, elegant with varnished
+walnut, plate-glass and silver-plated plumbing, "dear me, this is as
+fine as a parlor. It seems a real pity to keep it all out of sight."
+
+"The pity is that it was made so fine. I should not object to polished
+walnut in a light room, although cherry, birch or some other
+fine-grained, hard, light-colored wood is preferable; but all this
+ornamental work, these mouldings, cornices and carved handles are worse
+than useless--they are ugly and troublesome. If I can have my own
+way--I'm glad Jack isn't here to make comments--I shall have every part
+of the new pantries as plain and smooth as a marble slab, with not a
+groove or a moulding to hold dust, and never a crack nor a crevice in
+which the tiniest spider can hide. The shelves will be thin, light and
+strong; some wide and some narrow; a wineglass doesn't need as much
+room as a soup tureen; the cupboard doors shall be as plain as doors
+can be made, and shall _not_ be hung like these, to swing out against
+each other at the constant risk of breaking the glass and of pushing
+something from the narrow shelf in front of them. They ought to slide,
+one before another, and the front shelf should be wide enough to hold
+_lots_ of things when they are handed down from the upper part of the
+cupboards."
+
+"I'm sure the little sink must be handy," said Aunt Jerusha, amiably
+looking for merits where Jill saw only defects.
+
+"It might be if there was room enough at each side for drainers and for
+dishes to stand before and after washing. I don't wonder that Jack's
+china is 'nicked' till the edges look like saw teeth; glass and fine
+crockery can't be piled up into pyramids even by the most experienced
+builders without serious damage to the edges. There ought to be four
+times as much space at each side."
+
+"I suppose there wasn't quite room enough."
+
+"There was _always_ room enough. There's enough now outside, and would
+have been inside, if the house had been well planned," said Jill rather
+sharply.
+
+"These are proper, nice, large drawers."
+
+"They are too nice and too large. Even when they are but half full I
+have to tumble their contents all over to find any particular thing,
+unless it lies on top. Some drawers ought to be large and some small,
+but I don't believe there ever was a man," said Jill vehemently, "who
+knew enough to arrange the small comforts and conveniences for
+housekeeping. Every day I am exasperated by something which Jack never
+so much as noticed. When I explain it he laughs and says it is
+fortunate we have so good an opportunity for learning what to avoid,
+and all the time I am certain he thinks there will be a great many more
+faults in the new house. If there are I shall be sorry it is
+fire-proof."
+
+[Illustration: "THE OAKS."]
+
+"Why, Jill, my dear, don't be rash! That doesn't sound like you. You
+mustn't set your heart on having things exactly to suit you in this
+world. I've lived a great many years, and a good many times I find it
+easier to bring my mind to things as they are than it is to make
+everything come just to my mind. I've seen plenty of women wear
+themselves out for want of things to do with, and I've seen other women
+break down from having too many; trying to keep up with all the modern
+fashions and conveniences, and to manage their houses with the same
+kind of regularity--'system' they call it--that men use in carrying on
+a manufacturing business."
+
+"Well, why shouldn't they, Aunt 'Rusha?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, my dear. A business man has a certain, single,
+definite thing to do or to make. Every day's work is very much like
+that of the day before. He may try to improve gradually, but, in the
+main, it is the same thing over and over again. Our home life ought not
+to be like that. A man ought not to be merely an engine or a cash-book;
+a woman ought to be something more than a dummy or a fashion-plate; our
+children should not be like so many spools of thread or suits of
+clothes, turned in the same lathe, spun to the same yarn, and cut
+according to the same pattern and rule. I'm sure I could never have
+done my work and brought up six children without some sort of a
+system, or if your uncle had been a bad provider. But I never could
+have got on as well as I have if I had given all my mind to keeping
+things in order and learning how to use new-fashioned labor-saving
+contrivances. There's nothing more honorable for womankind," said Aunt
+Jerusha, as she rolled up her knitting and prepared to set out on her
+homeward ride, "than housework, but it ain't the chief end of woman,
+and unless your house is something more than a workshop or a showcase,
+it will always be a good deal less than a home."
+
+Jill hardly needed this parting admonition, but listened to it and to
+much more good advice with the respect due to one who, for nearly half
+a century, had looked well to the ways of her household, whose helping
+hands were always outstretched to the poor and needy, whose children
+rose up and called her blessed, and whose husband had never ceased to
+praise her. After her departure her niece indulged in a short season of
+solemn reflection, striving faithfully to attain to that wisdom which
+always knows when to protest against existing circumstances and when to
+accept them with equanimity. Ultimately she reached the conclusion
+that, while the house that Jack built might indeed be a thoroughly
+comfortable home to one who had a contented mind, it was really her
+duty in her probationary housekeeping to be as critical as possible.
+
+Among other things the doors came in for a share of her usually amiable
+denunciation. She declared they were huge and heavy enough in
+appearance for prison cells, yet so loosely put together that their
+prolonged existence seemed to be a question of glue. They were swollen
+in the damp, warm weather till they refused to _be_ shut, and would
+doubtless shrink so much under the influence of furnace heat in the
+winter that they would refuse to _stay_ shut. The closet doors swung
+against the windows, excluding instead of admitting the light. The
+doors of the chambers opened squarely upon the beds, and there seemed
+to have been no thought of convenient wall spaces for pictures and
+furniture.
+
+[Illustration: OUTSIDE BARRIERS.]
+
+The architect's theory of doors, as expounded in one of his letters,
+was simple enough: "Outside doors are barricades; they should be solid
+and strong in fact and in appearance. Inner doors, from room to room,
+require no special strength; they should turn whichever way gives the
+freest passage and throws them most out of the way when they are open.
+Seclusion for the inmates is the chief service of chamber doors, and
+they should be placed and hung so as _not_ to give a direct glimpse
+across the bed or into the room the moment they are set even slightly
+ajar. Closet doors are screens simply, and ought to hide the interior
+of the closet when they are partially open, as well as when they are
+closed. They may be as light as it is possible to make them. In many
+houses one-half the doors might wisely be sent to the auction-room and
+the proceeds invested in portières, which are often far more suitable
+and convenient than solid doors, especially for chamber closets, for
+dressing-rooms, or other apartments communicating in suites, and not
+infrequently a heavy curtain is an ample barrier between the principal
+rooms. It may be well to supplement them, with light sliding doors, to
+be used in an emergency, but which being rarely seen, may be
+exceedingly simple and inexpensive, having no resemblance to the rest
+of the finish in the room. For that matter such conformity is not
+required of any of the doors, though it is reckoned by builders as one
+of the cardinal points in hard-wood finish that veneered doors must
+'match' the finish of the rooms in which they show. This is absurd.
+Doors are under no such obligations. They may be of any sort of wood,
+metal or fabric. They may be veneered, carved, gilded, ebonized,
+painted, stained or 'decorated.' To finish and furnish a room entirely
+with one kind of wood, making the wainscot, architraves, cornices,
+doors and mantels, the chairs, tables, piano, bookcase, or sideboard,
+all of mahogany, oak, or whatever may be chosen--the floors, too,
+perhaps, and the picture frames--is strictly orthodox and eminently
+respectable; but like the invariable use of 'low tones' in decorating
+walls and ceilings, it betrays a sort of helplessness and lack of
+courage. Discords in sound, color and form are, indeed, always hateful,
+and they are sure to be produced when ignorance or accident strikes the
+keys. Yet, on the other hand, neutrality and monotone are desperately
+tedious, and it is better to strive and fail than to be hopelessly
+commonplace."
+
+[Illustration: INSIDE BARRIERS.]
+
+[Illustration: COMMON UGLINESS.]
+
+[Illustration: SIMPLE GRACE.]
+
+This advice concerned not the doors alone, but referred to other
+queries that had been raised as to the interior finish generally.
+
+One evening Jack came home and found Jill "in the dumps," or as near as
+she ever came to that unhappy state of mind, the consequence, as it
+appeared, of Aunt Melville's zeal in her behalf.
+
+"Why should these plans worry you?" said Jack. "I thought common sense
+was your armor and decision your shield against Aunt Melville's erratic
+arrows of advice."
+
+"My armor is intact, but, for a moment, I have lowered my shield and it
+has cost me an effort to raise it again, I supposed my mind was fixed
+beyond the possibility of change, but this is a wonderfully taking
+plan. At first I felt that if our lot had not been bought and the
+foundation actually begun we would certainly begin anew and have a
+house something like these plans. Then it occurred to me that in
+building a house that is to be our home as long as we live, perhaps,
+it would be the height of absurdity to tie ourselves down to one little
+spot on the broad face of this great, beautiful world and live in a
+house that will never be satisfactory, just because we happen to have
+this bit of land in our possession and have spent upon it a few hundred
+dollars."
+
+"Sensible, as usual. What next?"
+
+"Well, this last and best discovery of Aunt Melville's was undoubtedly
+made like our own plan to fit a particular site, and it seems beginning
+at the wrong end to arrange the house first and then try to find a lot
+to suit it."
+
+"I don't see it in that light," said Jack. "I know the architect has
+been preaching the importance of adapting the plan to the lot, but if
+two thousand dollars are going into the land and eight thousand into
+the house, I should say the house is entitled to the first choice."
+
+"Certainly, if it was a city lot, with no character of its own, a mere
+rectangular piece of land shut in upon three sides and open at one. But
+ours has certain strong points not to be found in any other unoccupied
+lot in town. Besides, there are other reasons why it would not answer
+for us; but _if_ our lot was right for it, and _if_ we wanted so large
+a house, _how_ I should enjoy building it!"
+
+"I don't see anything so very remarkable about the plan," said Jack,
+taking up the drawings.
+
+"My dear, short-sighted husband," said Jill with the utmost
+impressiveness of tone and manner, "it is a _one-story house_. 'There
+shall be no more stairs' sounds almost as delightful as the scriptural
+promise of no more sea. And look at the plan itself: The great square
+vestibule, or reception-room, with the office at one side--wouldn't
+you enjoy that, Jack?--then a few steps higher the big keeping-room,
+with a huge fireplace confronting you, and room enough for--anything.
+For games, for dancing, for a billiard table, for a grand piano, for a
+hammock--or--"
+
+"Say a sewing machine, a spinning-wheel or something useful."
+
+"Anything you like, a studio or a picture gallery, for it is twice as
+high as the other rooms, and lighted from the roof. At the right of
+this, and with such a great wide door between them that they seem like
+two parts of the same room, is the sitting-room, with another great
+fireplace in the corner, bay window and a conservatory fronting the
+wide entrance to the dining-room, at the farther end of which there is
+still another grand fireplace, with a stained-glass window above it.
+These three rooms--four, if we count the conservatory--are just as near
+perfection as possible. Then see the long line of chambers, closets and
+dressing-rooms running around the south and east sides, every one with
+a southern window, and all communicating with the corridor that leads
+from the keeping-room, yet sufficiently united to form a complete
+family suite. The first floor--I mean the _one_ floor--is five or six
+feet from the ground, so there can be no dampness in the rooms--and
+just think what a cellar! Altogether too much for us."
+
+"Indeed, there isn't. I'd have a bowling alley, a skating rink, a
+machine shop, a tennis court, and--a rifle range. Yes, it _is_ a taking
+plan, but there are two things that I don't understand. How can you
+cover such a big box, and where is the cooking to be done?"
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF "THE OAKS."]
+
+"The old rule of two negatives applies. Even a one-story house must
+have a roof, and the breadth of this makes a roof large enough to hold
+not only the kitchen but the servants' room on the same upper level."
+
+"A kitchen up stairs!" exclaimed Jack, for once startled into
+solemnity.
+
+"Aunt Melville considers this the crowning glory of the plan. Owing to
+this elevation of the cooking range there is no back door, no back
+yard, no chance for an uncouth or an unsightly precinct at either side
+of the house."
+
+"That would be something worth living for. I think, Jill, we had better
+examine these plans a little farther."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A NEW WAY OF GETTING UP STAIRS AND A NEW MISSIONARY FIELD.
+
+
+"The question of getting up stairs," said Jack, as they continued the
+study of the one-story plan, "is at least an interesting one. It seems
+to be accepted as a foregone conclusion that modern dwelling houses,
+even in the country, where the cost of the land actually covered by the
+house is of no consequence, must be two stories at least above the
+basement; but I doubt whether this principle in the evolution of
+domestic habitations is well established. Between the aboriginal
+wigwam, whose first and only floor is the bare earth itself, and the
+'high-basement-four-story-and-French-roof' style, there is somewhere
+the happy medium which our blessed posterity--blessed in having had
+such wise ancestors--will universally adopt as the fittest survivor of
+our uncounted fashions. I fancy it will be much nearer to this
+one-story house, with the high basement and big attic, than to the
+seven-story mansard with sub-cellar for fuel and furnace. Still the
+tendency during the last fifty years has been upward. Our grandfathers
+preferred to sleep on the ground floor; _we_ should expect to be
+carried off by burglars or malaria if we ventured to close our eyes
+within ten feet of the ground. Our city cousins like to be two or
+three times as high. Under these circumstances building a one-story
+house would be likely to prove a flying-not in the face of Providence,
+but, what is reckoned more dangerous and discreditable--flying in the
+face of custom. Humility isn't popular in the matter of
+house-building."
+
+"I am not afraid of custom, and have no objection to a reasonable
+humility," said Jill, "but I never once thought of burglars. If a house
+has but one floor I think it should be so for from the ground as to be
+practically a 'second' floor. The main point is to have all the family
+rooms on one level."
+
+"That is, a 'flat.'"
+
+"Yes, one flat; not a pile of flats one above another, as they are
+built in cities, but one large flat raised high enough to be entirely
+removed from the moisture of the ground, to give a pleasant sense of
+security from outside intrusion and to afford convenient outlooks from
+the windows. One or two guest rooms, that are not often used, might be
+on a second floor, under the roof, if there was space enough."
+
+"But this plan has the servants' chambers, the kitchen and the store
+closets all in the roof. Isn't that rather overdoing the matter?"
+
+"Better in the attic than in the basement. It is light, dry and 'airy.'
+There is no danger that the odors of cooking will come down, and as for
+the extra trouble, a well-arranged elevator will take supplies from the
+basement up twenty feet to the level of the kitchen, store-rooms and
+pantries as easily as they could be taken the usual distances
+horizontally. In brief, a kitchen above the dining-room is at worst no
+more 'inconvenient' than below it. Of course, there must be stairs even
+in a one-story house, but they would not be in constant use. Instead of
+living edgewise, so to speak, we should be spread out flatwise. We
+could climb when we chose, but should not of necessity be forever
+climbing. Yes, I like this plan exceedingly, not alone for its one
+principal floor, but I have always had a fancy for the 'rotunda'
+arrangement--one large central apartment for any and all purposes, out
+of which the rooms for more special and private uses should open.
+Indeed, I don't see how a very large house can be built in any other
+way without leaving a considerable part of the interior as useless for
+domestic as Central Africa is for political purposes. With _this_
+arrangement the central keeping-room, lighted from above, may be as
+large as a circus tent, and all the surrounding cells will be amply
+supplied with light and air from the outside walls.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD SUNSET.]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR THE TURNING-POINT.]
+
+"According to Aunt Melville's enthusiastic account, the construction of
+the house is but little less than marvelous. 'The high walls of the
+basement are built of those native, weather-stained and lichen-covered
+boulders, the walls above being of a material hitherto unknown to
+builders. You will scarcely believe it when I tell you they are nothing
+else than the waste rubbish from brickyards, the rejected accumulations
+of years--not by any means the unburned, but the overburned, the hard,
+flinty, molten, misshapen and highly-colored masses of burned clay
+which indeed refused to be consumed, but have been twisted into
+shapeless blocks by the fervent heat. Of course, with such
+unconventional materials for the main walls it would be a silly
+affectation to embellish the exterior of the house with elaborate
+mouldings or ornamental wood-work, and the visible details are
+therefore plain to the verge of poverty. But as men of great genius can
+disregard the trifling formalities of society, so there are no
+architectural rules which this house is obliged to respect.'"
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF BALUSTERS.]
+
+"That suits me perfectly," said Jack; "but I am amazed at Aunt
+Melville. Never before did she make such a concession even to great
+genius. Never before have I felt inclined to agree with her; but the
+conviction has grown upon me of late that the new house is in danger of
+being too much like other houses. If a fellow is really going in for
+reform, I like to have him go the whole figure. What do you say to
+beginning anew and building such a house as no mortal ever built
+before--something to make everybody wonder what manner of people they
+are who live in such a habitation--something to convince our neighbors
+that we are no weak-minded time-servers, but are able to be an
+architectural as well as domestic law unto ourselves--something to make
+them stop and stare--a sort of local Greenwich from which the community
+will reckon their longitude--'so many miles from the house that Jill
+built'?"
+
+"My dear, did it ever occur to you that you cannot be too thankful for
+a wife who is not blown about by every wind of new doctrine? I _do_
+like the plan of 'The Oaks' exceedingly, not only for itself, but for
+the spirit of it, for its breadth and freedom. It seems to me a
+charming illustration of the true gospel of home architecture. There is
+no thoughtless imitation of something else that suits another place and
+another family. Neither does it appear that the owner tried to make a
+vain display for the sake of 'astonishing the natives.' He knew what he
+wanted, and built the house to suit his wants, using the simplest, the
+cheapest and the most durable materials at hand in the most direct and
+unaffected manner. Did you notice in the sketch of the keeping-room
+fireplace the little gallery passing across the end of the room above
+the entrance to the sitting-room? Probably you thought that was built
+for purely ornamental purposes, but it isn't. It is simply the walk
+from the kitchen to another part of the attic, which can be most
+conveniently reached by this interior bridge. Of course it adds to the
+interest and beauty of the room, but it was not made for that purpose,
+and, as I understand the matter, it is all the more beautiful because
+it was first made to be useful. There is another thing in this
+house--the elevator--which, queerly enough, we do not often find in
+houses of more aspiring habit, where it would he of even greater value.
+It is amazing to me that housekeepers will go on tugging trunks,
+coal-hods and heavy merchandise of all kinds up stairways, day after
+day and year after year, when a simple mechanical contrivance, moved by
+water, or weights and pulleys, would save us from all these heavy
+burdens. Think of the bruised knuckles, the trembling limbs that
+stagger along with the upper end of a Saratoga 'cottage,' the broken
+plastering at the sides, the paper patched with bright new pieces that
+look 'almost worse' than the uncovered rents, and the ugly marks of
+perspiring fingers."
+
+[Illustration: THE BIG FIREPLACE IN THE KEEPING ROOM.]
+
+[Illustration: ONE WAY TO BEGIN.]
+
+"All of which I have seen and a part of which I have been," said Jack.
+"I intended to have a lift in this house, but somehow it was left out."
+
+"Our architect." Jill continued, "must be instructed to arrange not
+only an easy staircase, but there must be a paneled wainscot at the
+side. We will dispense with elegance in any other quarter, if need be,
+in order to have the stairs ample, strong and well protected. I am not
+over-anxious to have them ornate, although handsome stairs are very
+charming if well placed; like many other beautiful things, they become
+incurably ugly when too obtrusive. The architect has sent several
+designs of balustrades from which we are to choose, and gives this
+advice about the dimensions: 'As you have plenty of room, the staircase
+should be four or four and a-half feet wide, so that two people can
+easily walk over it abreast, I have arranged to make the steps twelve
+inches wide, besides the projection that forms the finish--the
+"nosing"--and six inches high; that is, six inches "rise" and twelve
+inches "run." Some climbers think this too flat, and perhaps it is in
+certain situations; but for homes, for easy, leisurely ascent by
+children and old folks. I think it better than a steeper pitch. All
+large dwelling-houses, and some small ones, ought to be supplied with
+"passenger elevators," at least from the first to the second story.
+Those who take the rooms still higher are usually able to make the
+ascent in the common way. Such an elevator can undoubtedly be made that
+will be safe and economical, especially where there is an ample water
+supply.'"
+
+[Illustration: A BROADSIDE OF AN EASY ASCENT.]
+
+"The safety is the most troublesome part of the problem," said Jack;
+"and I can think of no way to overcome the danger of walking off the
+precipice, when the platform happens to be at the bottom, but by having
+the car run up an inclined plane. There would be no more danger of
+falling down this than down a common stairway, and the car might be
+fixed so it couldn't move up or down faster than a walk or a slow
+trot."
+
+"Would you like to experiment in the new house? You may do so--at your
+own expense--if you will promise not to spoil the plan. Among the
+designs for the stairs there is one that will be of no service to
+us--the screen at the foot of the stairs; our 'reception' hall will be
+separated from the staircase hall by the chimney and the curtains at
+the sides."
+
+"I have an idea," exclaimed Jack, "a truly philanthropic one. You know
+we are accumulating a large stock of plans, to say nothing of general
+information on architectural subjects, which we cannot possibly use
+ourselves, but which ought not to be wasted. Now you know Bessie is
+pining for a mission.".
+
+"Bessie has gone home."
+
+"I know, but she will come back if we send for her and tell her that
+she and Jim are to be sent out in the express wagon on a benevolent
+expedition to the heathens--the uncultured domestic heathens. We can
+have some of the architect's letters printed in tract form for them to
+distribute, and they can take along these superfluous plans to be
+applied where they will be most effective. Take, for instance, this
+hall screen, or whatever it may be, with the square staircase behind
+it. This would be just the thing for one of those old-fashioned square
+houses with the hall running through the middle and the long staircase
+splitting the hall in two lengthwise. If Bessie could persuade the
+owner of a single one of these old houses to take out the straight and
+narrow stairs, move them back, and, by introducing this semblance of a
+separation, make a reception hall of the front part, she would feel
+that she had not lived in vain. If she could at the same time cause
+cashmere shawls and rag carpets to be hung as portières in place of
+doors to the front rooms she would be ready for translation."
+
+Jill laughed. "I'm not sure," said she, "but this is a good field for
+people of missionary proclivities. Some of these old-fashioned houses
+have far more real, artistic excellence than those of the later,
+transition periods, and need but slight alterations to be most
+satisfactory types of architectural beauty as well as models of comfort
+and convenience. Broad, easy stairs, wide doorways and generous
+windows, with ample porches and piazzas outside, would transform them
+and make them not merely as good as new, but vastly better. Reopening
+fireplaces that have been ignominiously bricked up would be another
+promising field."
+
+"Oh! I tell you my idea is a capital one. I'll send for Bess this very
+day. They shall have Bob and the express wagon a week if they want it.
+They shall dispense an esthetic gospel and accumulate ancient
+bric-a-brac to their hearts' content. Bessie will be in ecstacies, and
+Jim will be in a helpless state of amazement and admiration."
+
+[Illustration: A DIVIDING SCREEN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS.]
+
+"How perfectly absurd, Jack! I wouldn't allow those children to go off
+on such an excursion for all the old houses in America. One would
+think you were determined to have an esthetic sister-in-law at all
+hazards."
+
+"Never thought of such a thing! But now that you suggest it--"
+
+"I haven't suggested it," said Jill indignantly.
+
+"Well, you put it into my head at all events, and really now it
+wouldn't be such a bad idea. Jim is behind the times, artistically
+speaking, and needs to be waked up; and as for Bess, she would very
+soon learn to be careful how she expressed a longing for the
+unattainable, for Jim is a practical fellow, and whatever she wanted he
+would go for in a twinkling. Honestly, Jill, it strikes me as a
+first-class notion, and I'm glad you suggested it."
+
+"I _didn't_ suggest it, and I think it would be a _dreadful_ thing--I
+mean to send them off on another excursion. I am not sure, however, but
+we might found an A.B.C.A.M. with the materials and implements in our
+possession."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE RIGHT SIDE OF PAINT; A PROTEST AND A PROMISE.
+
+
+Jack's benevolent ambition to distribute their superfluous plans among
+those in need of such aids was strengthened by the receipt of another
+roll of drawings, showing designs for the interior work, wainscots,
+cornices, architraves, paneled ceilings and such wood finishings as are
+commonly found in houses that are built in conventional fashion, with
+lathed and plastered walls, trimmed at all corners and openings with
+wood more or less elaborately wrought. Of course, it was a large
+condescension in the architect to offer such a variety, and contrary to
+his avowed determination to decide without appeal all questions of
+construction and design, but he appreciated his clients and knew when
+to break his own rules and when to insist upon their observance. If
+Jill, had required an assortment he would doubtless have suggested that
+certain "practical" builders could furnish a full line of ready-made
+"artistic" patterns for little more than the cost of the paper on which
+they were printed; from these he would have advised her to select her
+own designs, as she might have chosen from a medicine chest
+sweet-smelling drops or sugar-coated pills of varying hue and
+form--the result would doubtless he as satisfactory in one case as in
+the other. Since she had not demanded it as an inalienable right he
+gave her an opportunity to criticise and select, which she accepted by
+no means unwillingly. As a rule, the designs were, in her opinion, too
+elaborate and obtrusive. There were too many mouldings, there was too
+much carving, and too evident a purpose to provide a finish that should
+challenge attention by its extent or elegance. It would require too
+much labor to keep it in order, and--it would cost too much. If she
+could not have work that was truly artistic, and therefore enduringly
+beautiful, whatever changes of fashion might occur, it was her wish to
+keep all the essential part of the building and finish modestly in the
+background, not attempting to make it ornamental, but relying upon the
+furniture for whatever conspicuous ornament or decoration might be
+desired. Nothing annoyed her more than an elegantly-finished house
+scantily provided with shabby, incongruous and misapplied furniture.
+The amiable concession of the architect came near causing a fatal
+quarrel, as amiable concessions are apt to do, for he found it almost
+impossible to satisfy Jill's taste in the direction of simplicity; he
+seemed to feel that he was neglecting his duty if he gave her plain,
+narrow bands of wood absolutely devoid of all design beyond a
+designation of their width and thickness. Any carpenter's boy could
+make such plans. "It would be worse," he wrote, "than prescribing bread
+pills and 'herb drink' for a sick man." To which Jill replied in
+substance that the needs of the patient are more important than
+professional rules.
+
+[Illustration: BITS OF CORNICES.]
+
+Over the first great question, regarding the visible wood work of the
+interior, Jack and Jill had held many protracted discussions: should
+any of it be painted, or should all the wood be left to show its
+natural graining and color? To the argument that unpainted wood is not
+only "natural" but strictly genuine and more interesting than paint,
+Jack replied that "natural" things are not always beautiful; that
+paint, which makes no pretense of being anything but paint, is as
+genuine as shellac or varnish, and that if the object is to be
+interesting, the bark, the knots, the worm-holes, and, if possible, the
+worms themselves should be displayed. "Besides," said he, "if we decide
+on hard wood, who shall choose the kinds? There's beech, birch and
+maple; cherry, whitewood and ebony; ash and brown ash and white ash and
+black ash; ditto oak, drawn and quartered; there's rosewood, redwood,
+gopherwood and wormwood; mahogany, laurel, holly and mistletoe; cedar
+of Lebanon and pine of Georgia, not to mention chestnut, walnut,
+butternut, cocoanut and peanut, all of which are popular and available
+woods for finishing modern dwellings. If we choose from this list,
+which may be indefinitely extended, the few kinds for which we can find
+room in our house, we shall be tormented with regret as long as we both
+do live because we didn't choose something else. Now if we paint,
+behold how simple a thing it is! We buy a lot of white pine boards, put
+them up where they belong and paint them in whatever unnamable hues the
+prevailing fashion may chance to dictate. Our boards need not even be
+of the best quality; an occasional piece of sound sap, a few hard
+knots, or now and then a 'snoodledog'--as they say in Nantucket--would
+do no harm. A prudent application of shellac and putty before painting
+will make everything right. Then if the fashions change, or if we
+should be refined beyond our present tastes and wish to go up higher,
+all we should need to lift the house to the same elevated plane
+is--another coat of paint. On the other hand, if we had a room finished
+in old English oak, growing blacker and blacker every year; in mahogany
+or in cheap and mournful black walnut, what could we do if the
+imperious mistress of the world should decree light colors? With rare,
+pale, faded tints on the walls our strong, bold, heavy hard-wood finish
+would be painful in the extreme. We couldn't change the wood and we
+couldn't change the fashion."
+
+"If you were not my own husband, Jack, I should say you were dreadfully
+obtuse. Concerning _fashions_ in house-building and furnishing I feel
+very much as Martin Luther felt about certain, formal religious dogmas.
+If we are asked to respect them as a matter of amiable compliance, if
+we find them convenient, agreeable and at the same time harmless, then
+let us quietly accept them; but, if we are commanded to obey them as
+vital, if they are set before us as solemn obligations to be reverenced
+as we reverence the everlasting truth, then, for Heaven's sake, let us
+tear them in pieces and trample them under our feet, lest we lose our
+power to distinguish the substance from the shadow. The moment any
+particular style of building, finishing or furnishing becomes a
+recognized fashion, that moment I feel inclined to turn against it with
+all my might."
+
+"If you were not my own idolized wife, I should say that was 'pure
+cussedness.'"
+
+[Illustration: MOULDINGS FAIR TO SEE, BUT HARD TO KEEP CLEAN.]
+
+"On the contrary, it is high moral principle; that is, moral principle
+applied to art. It is a simple, outright impossibility for human
+beings to have any true perception of art while a shadow of a thought
+of fashion remains. It is, indeed, possible that fashion may, for a
+moment, follow the straight and narrow road that leads to artistic
+excellence, as the fitful breath of a cyclone may, at a certain point
+in its giddy whirl, run parallel with the ceaseless sweep of the mighty
+trade-winds, but whoever tries to keep constantly in its track is sure
+to be hopelessly astray."
+
+"My dear, indignant, despiser of fashion, you know you wouldn't wear a
+two-year-old bonnet to church, on a pleasant Sunday morning, for the
+price of a pew in the broad aisle."
+
+"Certainly not; that would be both mercenary and irreverent; moreover,
+my bonnet has nothing to do with artistic rules. It is not a work of
+art or of science, of nature or of grace. It is a conventional signal
+by which I announce a friendly disposition toward the follies of my
+fellow-creatures--a sort of flag of truce, a badge of my conformity in
+little things. I wear it voluntarily and could lay it aside if I
+chose."
+
+"Undoubtedly, _if_ you chose. Now, let us resume the original
+discussion. I had given one powerful argument in favor of paint when I
+was rashly interrupted: here is another--it is much cheaper."
+
+"That would depend," said Jill. "Ash, butternut, cherry and various
+other woods cost little, if any more, than the best pine, and the pine
+itself is very pretty for chambers."
+
+"Ah, but you forget the labor question. It is one thing to join two
+pieces of wood so closely as to leave no visible crack between them,
+and quite another to bring them into the same neighborhood, fill the
+chasm with putty and hide the whole under a coat of paint. The
+difference between these two kinds of joints is the difference between
+one stroke and two, between one day's work and five days, between one
+thousand dollars and five thousand. My third argument you will surely
+appreciate. Paint is more artistic." Here Jack paused to give his
+words effect; then proceeded like one walking on stilts. "Pure tones
+symphoniously gradated from contralto shadows to the tender brightness
+of the upper registers and harmoniously blended with the prevailing
+quality--"
+
+[Illustration: FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITRAVES.]
+
+"Oh, Jack! _Don't_ go any farther, you are already beyond your depth.
+When you attempt to quote Bessie's sentiments you should have her
+letter before you. Perhaps I have a dim perception of the principle
+that underlies your thirdly. If so, this room is a pertinent
+illustration of it. Instead of all this white paint, if the wood work
+had been colored to match the predominant tint in the background of the
+paper, or a trifle darker, this being also the general 'tone' of the
+carpet, it is easy to see how the coloring of the room would have been
+simple and pleasing, instead of glaring and ugly. Yes, your plea for
+paint is not without value. I think, however, it would be entirely
+possible to stain the unpainted wood to produce any desired symphony,
+fugue or discord. It might be unnatural, especially if we wished to
+look blue, but it would not conceal the marking and shading of the
+grain of the wood which is so much prettier than any moulding or
+carving, and vastly easier to keep in order. Your economical arguments
+are always worth considering. I think the happy compromise for us will
+be to use hard wood in the first story and painted pine in the
+chambers, with various combinations and exceptions. The bath-rooms,
+halls and dressing-rooms of the second story should of course be
+without paint, and we may relieve the solid monotony of the hardwood
+finish with occasional fillets or bands of color, painted panels or
+any other irregularities we choose to invent. But this is invading the
+mighty and troublous realm of 'interior decoration,' from which I had
+resolved to keep at a respectful distance until the house is at least
+definitely planned in all its details."
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF WAINSCOTS.]
+
+A wise decision, for although what we call in a general way "interior
+decoration" is closely allied to essential construction--not
+infrequently seems to be a part of it--there is still a sharp though
+often unseen line between them that cannot be crossed with impunity.
+Artistic construction is at best only second cousin to decoration, and
+while we may in building arrange to accommodate a certain style of
+furniture or ornament, as Bessie's friend built her parlor to suit the
+rug, the result of such contriving is apt to be discouraging if not
+disastrous.
+
+"Two things we must surely have," said Jill, "which the architect has
+not sent; one, an old fashion, the other, a new one. We must have
+'chair rails,' in every room down stairs that has not a solid wainscot,
+if I have to make the plans and put them up myself. We must also have
+another band of wood higher up entirely around every room in both
+stories, to which the pictures can be hung."
+
+"Perhaps the architect will object to this as interfering with his
+plans."
+
+"He cannot, for they belong to our side of the house; they are matters
+of use, not of design. He may put them where he pleases, within
+reasonable limits, and make them of any pattern, with due regard to
+cost. He may treat one as part of the dado, the other as a member of
+the cornice, if he chooses, but we _must_ have them--they are
+indispensable."
+
+"They are also dangerous, because they are fashionable."
+
+"Yes, an illustration of the temporary agreement of fashion and common
+sense. But things of real worth do not go out of fashion; fashion goes
+out of them; henceforth they live by their own merit and no one
+questions their right to be."
+
+"Have you written to Bessie?"
+
+"Written to Bessie? What for?"
+
+"Why, to come and get ready to start on her mission."
+
+"No, indeed; I supposed you had forgotten that absurd notion."
+
+"Not at all absurd. I mentioned it to Jim, and he was delighted.
+Offered to go up and escort her down. He said they could go out in a
+different direction every day and do a great deal of good in the course
+of a week."
+
+"Jack, I am ashamed of you! Don't mention the subject to me again."
+
+"What shall I say to Jim?"
+
+[Illustration: WOOD PANELS FOR WALLS AND CEILINGS, WITH IRREGULARITIES
+IN LEATHER, PAINT AND PAPER.]
+
+"You needn't say anything to Jim. Tell him I am going to invite Bessie
+to visit us in the new house, and if he is in this part of the world I
+will send for him at the same time."
+
+"And that will be a full year, for the house is hardly begun."
+
+"Yes, a full year."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE HOUSE FINISHED AND THE HOME BEGUN.
+
+
+It was indeed a full year for Jill before Bessie received the promised
+invitation. Not merely full as to its complement of days, but full of
+new cares, interests and activities. It is needless to say it was also
+a happy year. Building a house for a home is a healthful experience, a
+liberal education to one who can give personal attention to it; who has
+some knowledge of plans with enough imagination to have a fair
+conception of what they will be when executed; who is content to
+receive a reasonable return for a given outlay, not anxious to get the
+best end of every bargain, nor over-fearful of being cheated; who cares
+more for home comfort than for a fine display, and whose soul is never
+vexed by the comments of Mrs. Grundy, nor tormented by the decrees of
+fashion.
+
+The question was raised, whether the house should be built by contract
+or by "day's work." The worldly-wise friends advised the former.
+Otherwise they affirmed the cost of the house would exceed the
+appropriation by fifty, if not a hundred, per cent., since it would be
+for the interest of both architect and builders to make the house as
+costly and the job as long as possible. And, while it was doubtless
+true that "day work" is likely to be better than "job work," still, if
+the plans and specifications were clearly drawn and the contract made
+as strong as the pains and penalties of the law could make it, the
+contractor might be compelled to keep his agreement and furnish
+"first-class" work.
+
+Jill's father settled this point at once. "It is true," said he, "that
+the plans and specifications should be clearly drawn, that you may see
+the end from the beginning, and it will be well to carefully estimate
+the cost, lest, having begun to build, you should be unable to finish.
+But I am neither willing to hold any man to an agreement, however
+legal it may be, that requires him to give me more than I have paid
+for, nor, on the other hand, do I wish to pay him more than a fair
+value for his work and material. You cannot avoid doing one of these
+two things in contracting such work as your house, for it is
+impossible to estimate its cost with perfect accuracy, and no
+specifications, however binding, can draw a well-defined line between
+'first' and 'second'-class work. A general contract may be the least
+of a choice of evils in some cases; it is not so in yours. If you know
+just what you want, the right mode of securing it is to hire honest,
+competent workmen and pay them righteous wages. If, before the work is
+completed, you find the cost has been underestimated, stop when your
+money is spent. It may be mortifying and inconvenient to live in an
+unfinished house; it is far more so to be burdened with debt or an
+uneasy conscience. There is another thing to be remembered: We hear
+loud lamentations over the dearth of skillful, trusty laborers. There
+is no way of promoting intelligent, productive industry--which is
+the basis of all prosperity--but by employing artisans in such a way
+that the personal skill and fidelity of each one shall have their
+legitimate reward. The contract system, as usually practiced, acts in
+precisely an opposite direction. Your house must be built 'by the day'
+Jill, or I shall recall my gift." _That_ question was settled. The
+good and wise man had previously decided as peremptorily an early
+query relating to the plans. When it was known that a new house was to
+be built, several architects, with more conceit than self-respect,
+proposed to offer plans "in open competition"--not to be paid for
+unless accepted--concerning which Jill had asked her father's advice.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+"What should you think of a physician," said he, "who, on hearing that
+you were ill, should hasten to present himself with a prescription and
+a bottle of medicine, begging you to read the one, test the other, and,
+if they made a favorable impression, give him the job of curing you?
+There are such who call themselves physicians; other people call them
+quacks, and there is one place for their gratuitous offerings--the
+fire. I shall burn any plans that are presented in this way. Choose
+your architect at the outset, and give him all possible aid in carrying
+out your wishes, but do not employ one of those who must charge a
+double price for their actual work in order to work for nothing half
+the time. In any other business such a practice would be condemned at
+once."
+
+"Isn't it the same thing as offering samples of goods?"
+
+"No, it is offering the goods themselves--the top of the barrel at
+that."
+
+Of course this did not apply to the contributions that were prompted by
+personal friendship, of which Jill, as we have seen, received her full
+share, none of them, excepting the one-story plan, proving in the least
+tempting.
+
+As the race of competent, industrious mechanics is not yet extinct,
+whatever the croakers may say such were found to build the house, which
+was well closed in before winter. The walls and roof were completed and
+the plastering dried while the windows could be left open without
+danger of freezing, a most important thing, because although mortar may
+be kept from freezing by artificial heat, the moisture it contains,
+unless expelled from the house, will greatly retard the "seasoning" of
+the frame and the walls of the building. After it has all been blown
+out of the windows, if the house is kept warm and dry the fine
+wood-finishing will "keep its place" best if put up in winter rather
+than in summer. For the most carefully seasoned and kiln-dried lumber
+will absorb moisture so rapidly in the hot, steaming days of June and
+in the damp dog-day weather that no joiner's skill can prevent cracks
+from appearing when the dry furnace heat has drawn the moisture from
+its pores.
+
+One year is a reasonable length of time for building a common
+dwelling-house. Twelve months from the day the workmen appeared to dig
+the foundation trenches the last pile of builder's rubbish was taken
+away and the new, clean, bright, naked, empty house stood ready for the
+first load of furniture. If the social and domestic tastes of Jack and
+Jill have been even slightly indicated, it is unnecessary to say that
+this first load did not consist of the brightest and best products of
+the most fashionable manufacturers. Aunt Melville had sent a few
+ornaments and two or three elegant trifles in the way of furniture, a
+chair or two in which no one could sit without danger of mutual broken
+limbs, and a table that, like many another frail beauty, might enjoy
+being supported but could never bear any heavier burden than a
+card-basket, and was liable to be upset by the vigorous use of
+dust-brush or broom. "They will help to furnish your rooms," said the
+generous aunt, "and will give a certain style that cannot be attained
+with furniture that is simply useful."
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+The ornaments that were ornamental and nothing more Jill accepted
+gratefully. The furniture that must be protected to preserve its
+beauty, and generally avoided lest it should be broken, she returned,
+begging her aunt to give it to some one having a larger house.
+
+On one of those perfect days that are so rare, even in June, Bessie
+appeared in all the glory of the lilies. To Jill's surprise, her first
+remark after the customary effusive greeting was, "How _lovely_ it is
+to have a home of your own. I shouldn't care if it was made of slabs
+and shaped like a wigwam. Of course, _this_ house is exquisite. I knew
+it would be, but it is ten times as large as I should want. It will be
+_so_ much work to take care of it."
+
+"I don't expect to take care of it alone."
+
+"I know you don't, but I should want to take care of my own house, if I
+had one, every bit of it. Oh, you needn't look so amazed. I know what I
+am saying. I have learned to cook, and dust, and sweep, and kindle
+fires, and polish, silver, and--and black stoves!"
+
+No wonder Jill was dumb while Bessie went on at a breathless rate.
+
+"And do you know, Jill dear, I wouldn't take this house if you would
+give it to me. There! I would a thousand times rather have a little bit
+of a cottage, just large enough for--for two people, and everything in
+it just as cosy and simple as it could be. Then we--then I could learn
+to paint and decorate--I've learned a little already--and embroider and
+such things, and slowly, very slowly, you know, I would fill the house
+with pretty things that would belong to it and be a part of it, and a
+part of me, too, because I made them."
+
+"Wouldn't it be much cheaper and better to hire some skillful artist to
+do these things?" said Jill, taking refuge in matter-of-fact.
+
+[Illustration: THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+"If I hired any one of course it would be an artist, but our homes are
+not dear to us because they are beautiful, it is because they are
+_ours_, because we have worked for them and in them until they are a
+part of ourselves. I love artistic things as well as I ever did, but
+there are some things that are ten thousand times lovelier."
+
+Before Jill had recovered from her astonishment at Bessie's transformed
+sentiments or imagined their cause, who should drive up but Aunt
+Jerusha. She and Bessie had never met before, but the mysterious laws
+of affinity, that pay no regard to outward circumstances or
+expectations, brought them at once into the warmest sympathy. Jill had
+provided extremely pretty china for her table, and for Bessie's sake
+had brought out certain rare pieces not intended for every-day use. It
+was contrary to her rule to make any difference between "every-day" and
+"company days." "Nothing is too good for Jack," was the basis of her
+argument. The one exception was china. But Bessie was absolutely
+indifferent to the frail and costly pottery. She was intent on learning
+domestic wisdom from Aunt Jerusha, and insisted upon writing in her
+note-book the recipes for everything she ate and recording the rules
+for carrying on whatever household matters chanced to be mentioned,
+from waxing floors to canning tomatoes. Jack strove to enliven the
+conversation by throwing in elaborate remarks upon the true sphere of
+women, the uncertainty of matrimonial ventures and the deceitfulness of
+mankind in general. Jill meanwhile preserved her equanimity upon all
+points relating to her house. She admitted the force of Aunt
+Jerusha's suggestion that a portion of the long serving-table in the
+kitchen should be movable and a door made from kitchen to china-closet,
+to be kept locked, as a rule, but available in an emergency, when one
+or both servants were sick or discharged; she appreciated her advice to
+form the habit of washing the silver and fine glasses with her own
+hands before leaving the table; she was able to repeat her favorite
+recipes correctly; she carved gracefully, as a lady ought, and gave due
+attention to her guests. Beyond these duties she was in a state of
+bewilderment. What had happened to Bessie, and what new mischief Jack
+was incubating were puzzles she could neither solve nor dismiss.
+
+[Illustration: THE EAST END OF JILL'S DINING-ROOM.]
+
+By one of those coincidences, not half as rare as they seem, at four
+o'clock the same day Aunt and Uncle Melville appeared upon the scene.
+They were spending a short time at a summer hotel in the vicinity, and
+Jill persuaded them to stay for tea, sending their carriage back for
+Cousin George and his wife, who were at the same place. She also
+invited her father and mother to improve the opportunity to make a
+small family gathering. "I suppose you know Jim is coming over this
+evening," said Jack. "Don't you think he had better bring Uncle Harry
+along?"
+
+"I _didn't_ know Jim was coming, but he is always welcome, and Uncle
+Harry too. Your father and mother, of course, if they are able to come
+out this evening."
+
+"Oh, _they_ are coming, anyway," Jack began and stopped suddenly. "That
+is, I mean, certainly they will be delighted, if you send for them."
+
+Jill was more puzzled than ever, but they all came.
+
+"Now, you will please consider yourselves a 'board of visitors,'" said
+she, as they sat at the table after tea, "authorized to inspect this
+institution and report your impressions."
+
+"Remembering that Jill is the warden and I am the prisoner," said Jack.
+
+"But you must conduct us to the cells," said her father, rising, "and
+tell us what to admire."
+
+Jill accordingly began at the beginning. She showed them the light
+vestibule, with a closet at one side for umbrellas and overshoes, and a
+seat at the other; the central hall that would be used as a common
+reception-room, and on such occasions as the present, would become a
+part of one large apartment--the entire first floor of the main house;
+the staircase with the stained-glass windows climbing the side; the
+toilet-room from the garden entrance and the elevator reaching from the
+basement to the attic. She showed them the family suite of rooms; her
+own in the southeast corner, with the dressing-room and adjoining
+chamber toward the west, and Jack's room over the front hall, with the
+large guest-room above the dining-room. She urged them to count the
+closets and notice their ample size; referred with pride to the
+servants' rooms, and explained how there was space in the roof for two
+chambers and a billiard-room, if they should ever want them. With true
+housekeeper's pride she declared the beauties and wonders of the
+kitchen arrangements, a theme that had been often rehearsed, and from
+the kitchen they descended to the basement, which contained the
+well-lighted laundry, the servants' bath-room and store-rooms without
+name or number; some warm and sunny, others cool and dark, but all dry
+and well ventilated.
+
+Then they returned to the drawing-room to make their reports.
+
+"It's too large," said Bessie.
+
+"It isn't small enough," said Jim.
+
+"The third floor is not the proper place for a billiard-table,"
+remarked Uncle Melville, sententiously. "It is too remote for such a
+social pastime; too difficult of access; too--too--er--"
+
+"The house looks smaller than it is," said Aunt Melville, "which I
+consider a serious defect. It ought to look larger; it should have a
+tower, and the front door should be toward the street."
+
+"Your chambers are excellent," said Uncle Harry. "The personality of
+human beings should be respected. The chief object of home is to give
+to each individual a chance for unfettered development. Every soul is a
+genius at times and feels the necessity of isolation. Especially do we
+need to be alone in sleep, and to this end every person in a house is
+entitled to a separate apartment. I commend the family suite."
+
+"A nobby house," said Cousin George.
+
+"I like our own better," said his wife, _sotto voce_, which was a
+worthy sentiment and should have been openly expressed. Fondness for
+our own is the chief of domestic virtues.
+
+"Is it paid for?" inquired Jack's father. To which Jack replied:
+
+"It is: and the house that I built is sold to the most stylish people
+you ever saw. They paid me more than this cost, but I wouldn't swap
+with them for a thousand dollars to boot."
+
+"No; neither would they change with us for two thousand."
+
+Just as the clock struck nine the door-bell rang and the rector and his
+wife were announced. Before Jill could realize what was taking place
+she found herself an amazed and helpless spectator in her own house,
+for Jim and Bessie stood side by side under the curtains leading to the
+library, and the rector was reading the solemn marriage service. By way
+of calming her excitement Jack found a chance to whisper to Jill,
+
+"They have been engaged six months."
+
+"You unnatural husband! Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"Didn't know it myself till this afternoon."
+
+There was no time for further explanations, for the good rector was
+saying: "I am sure you will agree with me that building and cherishing
+a consecrated home is the noblest work we can do on earth. From such
+homes spring all public and private excellence, all patriotic virtues,
+all noble charities and philanthropies, all worthy service of God and
+man. Whether high or low, rich or poor, in all times and in all places,
+domestic life, in its purity and strength, is the safeguard of
+individuals and the bulwark of nations. And when, in after years,
+other solemn sacraments shall be performed beneath this roof, may it
+still be found a sacred temple of peace and love!"
+
+Bessie and Jim kept house in two chambers until a cottage of four
+rooms, with an attic and wood-shed, was finished, which happened before
+cold weather. Her wedding present from Jack was an express wagon full
+of obsolete household utensils. She had learned to make the fire in the
+kitchen, and nothing was more acceptable than such a load of dry
+kindling wood.
+
+The house that Jill built cost ten thousand dollars. Jim's cost less
+than one thousand. Bessie declares that the smaller the house the
+greater the happiness it contains. She may be right, but Jill denies
+it, and it is never safe to draw general conclusions from special
+cases.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+TEN YEARS AFTER.
+
+
+Jack, Jr., and his sister Bessie, were building block houses on the
+piazza. Jack was pretending to read the evening paper, in reality
+watching the builders; and Jill was making no pretense of doing
+anything else.
+
+"Really Jack, I think Bessie shows more skill in building than her
+brother. Her houses look like realities, and they have more grace and
+dignity than his."
+
+"Of course. Haven't I always said that women would make the best
+architects if they had a fair chance? Didn't you make the plans of this
+house? Hasn't it been all our fancy painted and a great deal more?
+There isn't a stick nor a stone, a brick nor a shingle that I would
+have changed if we were to build it again."
+
+"And haven't I always said that men were more conservative than women?
+_I_ would be glad to change everything there is in the house to build
+it all over again, and build it differently."
+
+"Oh the inconstancy of women! Even the moon is more constant, for her
+changes are only superficial and temporary."
+
+"When I say; 'I have changed my mind,' it is only another way of
+saying, 'I am wiser to-day than I was yesterday.'"
+
+"I understand; what a Jacob's ladder of wisdom you must be! All right;
+change your mind every day, grow wiser and wiser; I will try to keep
+the hem of your garments in sight."
+
+"Have you selected a lot?"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For a new house."
+
+"Bless you, my dear husband, I wouldn't build another house, still less
+live in it, for all the wealth of the treasury vaults. Isn't this our
+own? Hasn't it always been perfectly suited to our wants? What upon
+earth are you thinking of?"
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular. I never think if I can help it. I have
+heard that a man ought always to build two houses, one to learn how,
+the second to correct the mistakes of the first. I thought perhaps it
+was the same way with women."
+
+"This house was exactly right when it was built, it could not have been
+improved, but that was ten years ago, and a great many things have
+happened in the last ten years; but, then, a great many more will
+happen in the next ten, and ten years hence there will be just as many
+things to change in the houses that are built this year as there are
+now in those that are of the same age as ours."
+
+"But how would you change this house if it could be done by a magic
+wand or by the exercise of faith, and without raising a speck of dust
+or upsetting the housekeeping affairs for a single minute?"
+
+"I would make it larger for one thing. Our rooms are too small. The
+number of rooms a house contains should depend on the number of people
+there are to live in it, including all the children, the guests and the
+servants, with a certain allowance for contingencies."
+
+"Depending on the hospitality of the family."
+
+"Yes; and whatever the number of rooms, they should be large enough,
+not merely to hold the occupants when the doors are shut, but for
+comfortable living and moving about. There is nothing in which all men
+and women are more conservative than in the planning of their houses;
+there seems to be something hereditary about it, as difficult to change
+as a tendency to bald heads and awkward locomotion. Americans are
+special sufferers in this respect. The primitive Anglo-American home
+was only a step removed from the wigwams of the aboriginal savages, in
+size, shape and general accommodations. Even our English ancestors,
+from whom we derived some of our domestic notions, were not accustomed
+to anything magnificent in the way of dwellings. The climate was
+against them, and they were not sufficiently luxurious in their tastes.
+Their houses were primarily places for shelter and refuge. In summer
+they lived out of doors, and in winter they crept into close quarters
+and waited for warm weather. With plenty of land and building materials
+to be had for the taking, our colonial grandfathers should have had the
+most generous homes in the world."
+
+"Yes; and to judge by some of the old colonial mansions which have
+escaped the 'making-over' vandals we have been going backwards in that
+respect during the last fifty or a hundred years."
+
+"Yes; and we ought to have been going the other way, for the size of
+rooms should increase as the cost of furniture diminishes. Take for
+instance, a parlor or sitting room fifteen feet square, which is, I
+believe, about the orthodox size for a modern house. Give such a room a
+dozen straight-backed and straight-legged chairs ranged along the
+sides, a table in the center of the room with a green cover and four
+books on it, two or three unhappy-looking family portraits on the
+walls, a pair of brass candlesticks on the high, wooden mantel, a pair
+of bellows, a shovel and tongs, with, perhaps, in the way of luxury, a
+haircloth sofa. Now compare the room furnished in that way, which was
+by no means uncommon in the days of our grandfathers with a room of the
+same size, in which are stored half a dozen chairs, no two alike, and
+some of them as large as small lounges, a center table piled with books
+and magazines and photographs, till like a heap of jack straws, it is
+impossible to remove one without disturbing the whole pile; a lounge
+with a back, a divan or something without a back, an upright piano, two
+or three bookcases, several small stools and piles of Turkish cushions
+to catch the unwary, huge Japanese vases beside the fireplace, a
+leopard skin with a solid head in front of the table, and a sprinkling
+of Persian rugs spilt over the floor; a cabinet of bric-a-brac in the
+northeast corner, a 'whatnot' with a big jardiniere bearing a
+three-foot palm on the top story in the northwest, a carved bracket
+with a sheaf of Florida grasses in the southeast, and a tall wooden
+clock that won't go in the southwest; a brass tea kettle hanging from a
+wrought iron frame beside a fragile stand that carries a half dozen of
+still more fragile 'hand-painted' teacups and saucers; lambrequins and
+heavy curtains at all the windows and most of the doors, a big
+combination gas and electric chandelier suspended from the center of
+the ceiling, bedangled with jumping jacks, Christmas cards, straw
+ornaments and other artistic 'curious'; one or two small tables
+scattered 'promiscous like' about the room; a music stand and a banjo;
+with photographs, chromos, oil paintings, water colors and etchings,
+from one to three feet square, in gilt, enameled and wooden frames of
+all styles and degrees of fitness on the walls of the room,--take a
+room furnished in this way or a great deal more so, and compare it
+with another of the same actual dimensions furnished in the
+old-fashioned way and see which is the larger. The modern furnishing
+may be 'cozy,' oppressively cozy when there are half a dozen people
+trying to move gracefully around and between it without upsetting or
+destroying anything, but what sort of hospitality can we offer our
+guests if they must be always afraid of breaking something valuable if
+they stir?"
+
+"Why not have a bonfire and liquidate some of this superfluous stock?"
+
+"It is not superfluous; all these things, if they are good add to the
+enjoyment of living, if we have room for them and are able to take good
+care of them without neglecting weightier matters. Our own rooms are
+not large enough. However, if we cannot enlarge them we can build new
+ones for special purposes. For one, we must have a children's workroom.
+If Jack is going to be an artist, and you know he shows decided talent,
+and Bessie an architect, there's no doubt of her having real genius in
+that direction, they should have one room immediately, and two by and
+by, for their own exclusive use. A room where they could keep all their
+books, and tools and toys, and where they could work in their own
+spontaneous, untrammeled way."
+
+"You mean a nursery."
+
+"No, I do _not_ mean a nursery, but a workshop, study, gymnasium, call
+it anything you please. The floor should be smooth and hard, and the
+walls should be wainscoted with smooth, hard wood. There should be
+blackboards and shelves at the sides, and the children should be
+allowed to drive nails wherever they please. I am not sure but I would
+have a sink and a water faucet."
+
+"Not unless the room is in the cellar or has a floor tight enough for a
+swimming tank. Well, what next?"
+
+"We must have a hospital."
+
+"For inebriates or the insane?"
+
+"A room similar to the private wards in a hospital. You know our own
+and the children's sleeping rooms are very simply furnished, but a sick
+room should be still more severe. The children have both had the
+measles, thank goodness, and I hope they never will have smallpox,
+scarlet fever, or diphtheria, but if they should it would be necessary
+to send them away from home or run the risk of their exposing one
+another."
+
+"You might as well include every other ill that flesh is heir to. If we
+have got to fight germs day and night in order to live, the cleaner and
+more open we can keep the battle ground the better. It strikes me that
+it might be a good thing to have the whole house sort of clean and
+wholesome."
+
+"Of course. But none of us would like to have the living rooms as
+absolutely bare of all superfluous furnishing as a hospital ward. We
+should not be willing to give up our rugs, take down the curtains,
+throw away the cushions and sit in hard wooden chairs."
+
+"No, and I wouldn't like to burn my books, although there is nothing
+quite so 'germy' as my musty old books that were made in Italy in
+plague times and smell like the 16th century every time they are
+opened. So I suppose we must have a hospital for the children to be
+sick in, a workshop for them to work in, and what would you say to a
+small chapel and penitentiary, with a dungeon or two? While we are
+about it, let's have a market and cold storage annex."
+
+"Precisely what I was going to suggest. It would be the easiest thing
+in the world to attach a small room to the cellar or the kitchen, where
+a low temperature can be kept at all times, either by ice or by the
+artificial refrigeration that will soon be distributed and sold in the
+same way that gas, water, steam, electric light and power are now
+furnished in many cities."
+
+"I never thought of it before, but why shouldn't milk and beer and
+other medicinal drinks be distributed in the same way as water and
+gas?"
+
+"Please don't interrupt me. These are really serious considerations.
+Why, Jack, we haven't begun to guess at the wonderful changes that are
+to be made in all our housekeeping affairs, as well as in everything
+else by electricity. In a few years we shall find our present cooking
+arrangements as much out of date as the old turnspit and tin ovens and
+the great wood fires on the hearth. And light! Our houses will be as
+light as day all the time, unless we choose darkness in order to sleep
+more comfortably."
+
+"Or because our deeds be evil, or for the better accommodation of
+burglars. No self-respecting burglar would think of 'burgling' without
+a dark lantern."
+
+"And heat; do you remember how something more than twenty-five years
+ago a French scientist proposed to supply all the heat needed for human
+comfort in cold climates directly from the sun's rays?"
+
+"I can't say that I do remember that particular philosopher, but I have
+a notion that the sun was considered a fair sort of furnace a good many
+years before the first Frenchman was born."
+
+"Yes, yes; but he was going to gather the sun's heat into such shape
+that it would warm our houses in winter, do all the cooking, take the
+place of all the steam boilers and furnaces. I never heard that his
+theories were reduced to practice, but we have found another source of
+light and heat that is already under our control. There is no more
+doubt that all the warmth, illumination and mechanical power that we
+can use are within our reach, when we have learned how to take
+possession of them, than there is of gravitation. It is all waiting at
+the door, we have only to clap our hands and the potent spirit is ready
+to do our bidding."
+
+"Without money and without price?"
+
+"No, not quite that, there are too many incorporated monopolies in the
+way. But it is coming nearer and nearer, and with the unlimited power
+of wind and waves and waterfalls, all these things will soon be as
+cheap as anything really worth having ought to be."
+
+"Say, Jill, do you suppose we shall live to see all our necessities
+supplied, gratis, and have nothing to work for except the luxuries?"
+
+"We have lived long enough to find that for most people in our day and
+generation, even for those who think they have to work very hard 'just
+to get a living,' their most serious toil is to provide, what might be
+called, not the 'bare' necessities of life, but the well-dressed
+necessities. But it is time for those children to be in bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A DOUBLE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+"Now Jill," this was half an hour later, the children were asleep and
+the gas was lighted, "let us by way of amusement draw plans of a castle
+in Spain. Let us forget all the houses that ever were built and fancy
+ourselves, not Adam and Eve, with the responsibility of setting the
+housekeeping pace for the rest of the human family nor Robinson Crusoe,
+whose domestic arrangements were somewhat handicapped, but a wise pair
+of semi-Bourbons, at the end of the 19th century, who forget nothing
+old but are willing to learn and adopt anything new, provided it is
+good."
+
+"All right; go ahead."
+
+"In the first place our castle will not be destructible by fire or
+water. All the walls will be of masonry and the floor beams will be of
+steel. There will be nothing to invite moth or rust."
+
+"Nor burglars; not so much as a silver spoon or a candlestick."
+
+"I have always been sorry that the roof of this house was not
+fireproof, but I suppose it would have cost too much, though the
+architect said it might have been made like the floors if we would
+consent to have it flat."
+
+"Moral: if you want a roof of the mountainous variety you must either
+pay for it or run the risk of being burned out on top. But what do
+castles in Spain care for the cost? We can have fireproof roofs in
+miniature copy of Alpine peaks or we can use them for billiard tables
+and croquet grounds."
+
+"Really," Jill continued, "there is no good reason for steep roofs.
+Snow is more troublesome on the ground around the house than on top of
+it, if it will stay there, and a very slight slope will carry off the
+rain. I fancy steep roofs must have been invented when builders used
+such clumsy materials for covering that they were obliged to lay them
+on a steep pitch in order to keep out the water. Shingles of course
+last longer the steeper the roof."
+
+"If that's the case they ought to last forever on the second story
+walls of our house, where they are straight up and down. When you come
+to think of it, high roofs must be built now-a-days mainly for show,
+incidentally they cover the house. First beautiful, then useful. How
+large will it be?"
+
+"What, the roof?"
+
+"No, the whole thing; how many rooms will it have?"
+
+"That will depend on the size of the family. Not less than ten nor more
+than forty. Ten rooms will answer for two people, and more than forty
+complicates the housekeeping."
+
+"Do you count closets?"
+
+"Oh, no. Closets and dressing rooms, storerooms, bath rooms, cupboards
+and things of that sort, are mere adjuncts. They are to the real rooms
+what the pockets are to a suit of clothes."
+
+"Excellent. I'm glad we haven't got to count the closet or the expense.
+Probably ten rooms are not too many for two young people, but a pair of
+childless octogenarians ought to get along with eight or nine; the
+other way you are all right, only I would say four hundred. While we
+are about it, let's have a comfortable, good sized, 'roomy' house. But
+how do you propose to put even forty rooms with their various pockets
+under one roof and give them all plenty of sunlight and fresh air? Will
+you pile them up one above another or set them in a row on the ground?
+In either case it would need a trolly car and a telephone to connect
+the two ends of the line."
+
+"It mustn't be more than two stories high, and I'm not sure but one
+would be better."
+
+"That means twenty rooms on each floor. The rooms will average twenty
+feet long, and that will make the entire length of our castle four or
+five hundred feet. Won't it look like an institution or a row of
+tenements if it is strung out in a line?"
+
+"It will not be."
+
+"Cut up into wings and things?"
+
+"No, it will be in the form of a hollow square. There may be a wing or
+two on one side or another, and wherever a projecting bay or oriel will
+add to the comfort or charm of the interior we shall have one, but its
+general form will be a great square with an open court in the center."
+
+"Oh, I see. An imitation Pompeian, or Florentine palace."
+
+"No, nothing of the kind. Not an imitation of anything. It will be a
+simple, straightforward, common-sense, American home, with room for a
+good-sized family, several rooms for extra occasions, and some that
+will not be finished at all but held in reserve for future
+contingencies. It sometimes costs no more to enclose a certain space in
+building than to leave it outside, and there is the same satisfaction
+in knowing we have space to spare inside the house that there is in
+owning the land that joins us even when we don't expect to sell or use
+it."
+
+"What shall we do with the big hole in the center? It will be too small
+for golf or tennis, and too big for a conservatory. We might keep
+hens."
+
+"It will not be too large for a garden, with fountains for hot weather
+and flowers for cold. It will be its own excuse for being, for it will
+give light and air to all the rooms, and if it has a glass roof the
+problem of comfortable living in cold weather will be solved. There
+will always be the temperate zone at one side of the house,--that is
+inside the court,--however high the drifts may be piled outside. Of
+course the entire building will be warmed in winter and cooled in
+summer by spicy breezes driven by electric fans, and we shall only have
+to decide what temperature we prefer on different days of the week, set
+the gauge, and there will be no more watching of the thermometer, the
+registers, the weather reports or the wood pile."
+
+"But I thought it was wrong to live in a river of warm air. Uncle John
+compares that to taking a perpetual warm bath."
+
+"It is wrong; but, my dear Jack, life is a succession of compromises,
+especially domestic life, and considering the practical difficulties in
+the way of open hickory fires in all the forty or more rooms, we must
+be content with the artificially warmed air for every day use and
+consider radiated heat from wood fires, coal grates, or sunshine, as
+luxuries."
+
+"Certainly; it would be a pity to make all luxuries impossible just
+because we happen to own a castle in Spain. Aren't you afraid our court
+will be dreadfully hot in summer, shut in by four brick walls?"
+
+"By no means; it will be particularly cool. If we like we can have a
+great awning to draw over it in the hottest weather, and wide halls
+will allow a perfect circulation of air throughout the whole structure.
+In addition to this, on the highest part of the roof there will be a
+space fitted for an outdoor sitting room, sheltered when necessary by
+awnings and screens, but most delightful on hot summer evenings."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see. A sort of copy of the old Egyptian houses."
+
+"No, not a sort of a copy of anything, but a simple application of
+common sense. In the evening when there is a breeze from any direction,
+the highest part of the house will be the coolest."
+
+"I thought it was to be a two-story house. How can one part be higher
+than the rest?"
+
+"I didn't say it was to be all of the same height. Some rooms will be
+much higher than others because they will be larger. If a room is to be
+of agreeable proportions, the height must be determined by the size. It
+may be best to make the north side three stories high and the south
+only one; that would give more sunlight on the north wall of the court
+and make the average two stories."
+
+"Nothing like keeping up the average. But aren't forty rooms with all
+the closets and storerooms, and stairways and halls, and bays and
+oriels and dungeons going to make a large house for one family? Can't
+we work the same idea on a smaller scale?"
+
+"Of course, but that is not too large for a comfortable home for a
+family of moderate size. Count your fingers and try it. To begin at
+that end of the establishment, we want a scullery, a kitchen, and a
+servants' dining room; we want a breakfast room, and a large dining
+room for the family, and the dining room, by the way, should be one of
+the largest rooms in the house, say twenty-one or two feet by thirty
+six or forty; we want a parlor, a drawing room, a library, a
+billiard room and a picture gallery; a music room and ball room, these
+being, of course, in one, but as large as two ordinary rooms; then we
+want a nursery, a workroom for the children, a sick room and a sewing
+room, an office and a smoking room, and one or two extra sitting or
+reception rooms. Each member of the family should have a private
+sitting room and bedroom, with dressing room and bath for each suite.
+That, you see, would just about suit a family of ten people without
+counting the servants."
+
+[Illustration: A CASTLE IN SPAIN.]
+
+"Have you made any calculation Jill, dear, as to how many people there
+are at present in the United States who could manage to scrape along
+with thirty-nine rooms instead of forty?"
+
+"Why should I? This is a castle in Spain. We have plenty of money,
+plenty of room, plenty of time. Our only anxiety is lest there should
+be a lack of brains to make good use of our room and time and money."
+
+"And what shall we build it of, jasper, sapphire and chalcedony?"
+
+"No, burned clay and granite, steel, copper and glass. It shall be
+defiant of fire and flood; it shall neither burn up nor rot down."
+
+"One thing more, Jill, when we come to make our wills to which one of
+the children shall we bequeath the castle?"
+
+Before Jill could answer the door was hurriedly opened and Bessie
+appeared upon the threshold.
+
+"I've just run away from Jim," she began rapidly. "We haven't had a
+family quarrel exactly, but we've argued it over and over, and we come
+out just as far apart as ever. Finally I told him I would leave it to
+you."
+
+"I haven't any idea what it is all about, but did Jim agree to that?"
+
+"I didn't give him a chance to differ. He always agrees to everything
+Jill says about building houses But don't interrupt me. The baby may
+wake up at any minute and then Jim will be helpless. The truth is he is
+dissatisfied with our home."
+
+"Jim, dissatisfied; impossible!"
+
+"Yes, he thinks it's too small."
+
+"He wants more servants, I suppose; several additional children, a lot
+more poor relations, and all the various items that go to make up a
+well-ordered household."
+
+"No, no; it is the house that is too small."
+
+"Excuse me, you said the home. The house is a very different affair."
+
+"You remember," Bessie continued, "that when it was built ten years ago
+Jim thought it was not large enough. Now he is determined to sell it
+and build a new one. There are five good rooms besides the closets, and
+as there is nobody but Jim and me and the four children and one
+servant, we have all the room we need. We have always been perfectly
+comfortable, and I can't bear the thought of selling our home."
+
+Here Bessie began to show symptoms of dissolution, but swallowing her
+emotion she continued, "If we could build on a room or two as we need
+them I wouldn't mind it. But if you advise us to sell this house for
+the sake of having another, I'll"--
+
+"We shan't advise any such thing," said Jack, "but it's perfectly
+natural for Jim to think you ought to have a larger, more modern
+house."
+
+"But I don't want a more modern house," Bessie protested, "if there is
+any created thing that I despise it is a 'modern' house, made up of bay
+windows and crooked turrets, and shingled balconies, and peaked roofs,
+and grotesque little fandangoes of wood and copper and terra cotta,
+that have no more dignity or repose, or beauty or homelike appearance,
+than a crazy quilt or a Chinese puzzle. They are simply outrageous,
+abominable. I would sooner have the children brought up in a reform
+school or a house of correction."
+
+"How would you like a colonial house?"
+
+Bessie's indignation had spent itself, and she resumed her ordinary,
+but sometimes misleading manner.
+
+"Isn't it a pity we were not all born a hundred years ago, then we
+might have had colonial houses. But why should I want to live in an
+uncomfortable old curiosity shop when I like my house just as it is?
+Our trouble is that Jim wants the house twice as large as it is now and
+I want only one more room."
+
+"Bessie," said Jack, in his most fatherly manner, "I am surprised that
+two sensible people like you and Jim should fall into such a
+distressing controversy over nothing, absolutely nothing. You are
+already in perfect accord. Jim says the house is only half large
+enough. You say you want one more room. The house is now just
+thirty-three feet long and thirty-three feet wide; add a new room
+thirty-three feet square; you will have the one extra room, and Jim
+will have the house doubled in size. Isn't that right?"
+
+"Yes," said Jill; "It is exactly what I should have suggested if you
+had given me a chance. Do you remember the charming room in the old
+Florentine palace, where we spent the winter, and how we enjoyed it,
+and finally measured it for the benefit of some other Americans who
+intended to build a new house as soon as they got home? That was just
+thirty-three feet square and eighteen feet high. There was a grand
+piano in one corner, in another a group of chairs with bookcases, in
+another sofas and chairs and tables scattered about, so that in effect
+it was equal to several small rooms. Indeed one of our party described
+it in a home letter as a magnificent apartment one hundred feet each
+way. It would accommodate several callers, with their different groups
+of friends, and it was of course a capital place for music and dancing.
+In your new room you will have one corner for the children and another
+for yourselves. The Dorcas society can meet at one side while your
+little Jack and his friends are playing games at the other. It won't be
+many years before Bessie will claim a large section, including one of
+the bay windows, for her own use."
+
+"I think I hear the baby crying. Thank you, I'll talk it over with Jim.
+Good night."
+
+"Do you think they will do it?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Of course they will; it is by far the most sensible thing. As a family
+they are always together and always will be, and one large room will
+suit them better than several small ones. Perhaps it will be the best
+thing for us, until we can build our castle in Spain. It certainly will
+not cost as much as making over and enlarging the rooms we have."
+
+"That is true, and it is my impression that the wisest way to enlarge
+an old house is to nail up the windows, seal up the doors and go ahead
+with the additions without taking out the nails or breaking the seals
+till it is all done; that would save time, money and patience."
+
+"Yes, and more than that," said Jill, "it would preserve the charm of
+the old house which grows stronger every year until the loss of the
+familiar rooms and their hallowed associations seems like parting with
+a dear old friend."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
+
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The House that Jill Built
+       after Jack's had proved a failure
+
+Author: E. C. Gardner
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2005 [EBook #15678]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net), from images
+generously provided by the Hearth Library, Cornell
+University (http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2 class="sc2" style="margin-bottom: .2em;">The</h2>
+
+<h1 style="margin-top: .2em; margin-bottom: .2em;">HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT,</h1>
+
+<h3 class="sc2" style="margin-top: .2em;">After Jack's Had Proved A Failure.</h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3 class="sc2" style="margin-bottom: .2em;">A Book On</h3>
+<h2 style="margin-top: .2em; margin-bottom: .2em;">HOME ARCHITECTURE,</h2>
+<h4 class="sc2" style="margin-top: .2em;">With Illustrations,</h4>
+
+<h2>BY E.C. GARDNER,</h2>
+
+<p class="cen"><i>Author of &quot;Homes and How to Make Them.&quot; &quot;Home Interiors,&quot;<br />
+     &quot;Common Sense in Church Building,&quot; etc.</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>SPRINGFIELD, MASS.:<br />
+     W.F. ADAMS COMPANY,<br />
+     1896.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h5>1882,<br />
+<span class="sc">By Our Continent Publishing Co.</span><br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i><br />
+E.C. GARDNER, 1895.</h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<h5>Printed and Bound by<br />
+CLARK W. BRYAN COMPANY,<br />
+Springfield, Mass.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" width="65%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdrsc">Page</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td width="90%" class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">A Wise Father And A Glad Son-in-law</span></td>
+  <td width="10%" class="tdr">7</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Moral Suasion For Malarial Marshes</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">20</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">A First Visit And Sage Advice</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">32</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Many Fires Make Small Dividends</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">48</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">When The Floods Beat And The Rains Descend</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">63</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">The Wisdom Of Jill In The Kitchen</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">78</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Be Honest And Keep Warm</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">90</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Truth, Poetry And Roofs</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">103</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Professional Etiquette&mdash;Blinds And Bessie</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">115</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a><br />
+    <span class="sc">More Questions Of Fire And Water</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">128</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">What Shall We Stand Upon?</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">140</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">From Mathematics To Ancient Bric-a-Brac</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">151</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Economy, Cleanliness, And Health</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">166</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Safe Flues And More Light</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">177</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">A Dangerous Rival</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">189</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">A New Way Of Getting Up Stairs And A New Missionary Field</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">203</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">The Right Side Of Paint, A Protest And A Promise</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">221</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">The House Finished And The Home Begun</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">233</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">Ten Years After</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">250</td>
+ </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br />
+    <span class="sc">A Double Conclusion</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">258</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<h4><i>From Drawings by the Author</i>.</h4>
+
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" width="65%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdrsc">Page</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td width="90%" class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 1. <a href="#imagep011">&quot;Cousin George's Exterior&quot;</a></td>
+  <td width="10%" class="tdr">11</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 2. <a href="#imagep014">Cousin George's First Floor</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">14</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 3. <a href="#imagep015">Cousin George's Second Floor</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">15</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 4. <a href="#imagep021">&quot;Warmth Is Beauty&quot;</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">21</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 5. <a href="#imagep023">A Hidden Foe</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">23</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 6. <a href="#imagep024">A Buried Gridiron</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">24</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 7. <a href="#imagep025">The Protecting &quot;Cut-off&quot;</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">25</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 8. <a href="#imagep028">A &quot;Cross-Section&quot; Prophecy</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">28</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">&nbsp; 9. <a href="#imagep030">Heat From All Sides</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">30</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">10. <a href="#imagep033">Aunt Melville's Ambition</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">33</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">11. <a href="#imagep036">No Place For The Bed</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">36</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">12. <a href="#imagep037">Enlarged By Destruction</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">37</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">13. <a href="#imagep039">A Slight Addition</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">39</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">14. <a href="#imagep042">Ground Floor Of Aunt Melville's Ambition</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">42</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">15. <a href="#imagep043">First Floor Of Aunt Melville's Ambition</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">43</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">16. <a href="#imagep049">A Secure Outlook</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">49</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">17. <a href="#imagep052">Mined And Countermined</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">52</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">18. <a href="#imagep055">A Dormer Of Burned Clay</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">55</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">19. <a href="#imagep059">The Topmost Peak</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">59</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">20. <a href="#imagep065">Will's Masterpiece</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">65</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">21. <a href="#imagep073">The First Floor Of Will's Masterpiece</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">73</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">22. <a href="#imagep075">The Second Floor Of Will's Masterpiece</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">75</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">23. <a href="#imagep079">The Outside Of Ted's House</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">79</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">24. <a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a><a href="#imagep083">Jill's Kitchen In Black And White</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">83</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">25. <a href="#imagep088">The First Floor Of Ted's House</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">88</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">26. <a href="#imagep091">The Poor But Modest Attorney's Cottage</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">91</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">27. <a href="#imagep094">A Double Team</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">94</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">28. <a href="#imagep096">Warmth Under The Window</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">96</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">29. <a href="#imagep097">Steam Pipes Beside The Fireplace</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">97</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">30. <a href="#imagep101">The Attorney's Floor Plan</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">101</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">31. <a href="#imagep105">No Concealment Or Disguise</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">105</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">32. <a href="#imagep110">With A Mullion And Without</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">110</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">33. <a href="#imagep112">Jack's Architectural Phrenology</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">112</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">34. <a href="#imagep113">The Hat Makes The Man</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">113</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">35. <a href="#imagep117">The Contribution Of Bessie's Father</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">117</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">36. <a href="#imagep123">The First Floor Of The Contribution</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">123</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">37. <a href="#imagep130">A Gargoyle</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">130</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">38. <a href="#imagep131">A Choice Of Gutters</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">131</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">39. <a href="#imagep133">"A Simple Recess"</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">133</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">40. <a href="#imagep135">In The Middle Rank</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">135</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">41. <a href="#imagep137">The Worth Of A Cosy Cottage</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">137</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">42. <a href="#imagep141">A Promise Of Social Success</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">141</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">43. <a href="#imagep143">A Reasonable Hope</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">143</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">44. <a href="#imagep145">Floors As They Are: Floors As They Might Be</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">145</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">45. <a href="#imagep149">Bricks And Boulders On Granite Underpinning</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">149</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">46. <a href="#imagep153">Not Brilliant, But Impressive</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">153</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">47. <a href="#imagep155">Wooden Richness</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">155</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">48. <a href="#imagep156">No Waste Of Wood</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">156</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">49. <a href="#imagep158">First Floor Of The Promise</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">158</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">50. <a href="#imagep159">Second Floor Of The Promise</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">159</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">51. <a href="#imagep167">No Place For Secret Foes</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">167</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">52. <a href="#imagep179">Safe And Saving Flues</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">179-80</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">53. <a href="#imagep181">A Picture In Glass Over The Fireplace</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">181</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">54. <a href="#imagep183">Glass Of Many Colors, Shapes And Sizes</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">183<a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">55. <a href="#imagep185">Shelves In The Middle, Cupboards Above And Below</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">185</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">56. <a href="#imagep191">&quot;The Oaks&quot;</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">191</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">57. <a href="#imagep195">Outside Barriers</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">195</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">58. <a href="#imagep196">Inside Barriers</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">196</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">59. <a href="#imagep197">Common Ugliness&mdash;Simple Grace</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">197</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">60. <a href="#imagep201">First Floor Plan Of &quot;The Oaks&quot;</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">201</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">61. <a href="#imagep205">Looking Toward Sunset</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">205</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">62. <a href="#imagep207">Near The Turning-Point</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">207</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">63. <a href="#imagep209">A Choice Of Balusters</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">209</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">64. <a href="#imagep211">The Big Fireplace In The Keeping-Room</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">211</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">65. <a href="#imagep213">One Way To Begin</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">213</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">66. <a href="#imagep215">A Broadside Of An Easy Ascent</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">215</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">67. <a href="#imagep219">A Dividing Screen At The Foot Of The Stairs</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">219</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">68. <a href="#imagep223">Bits Of Cornices</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">223</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">69. <a href="#imagep225">Mouldings Fair To See, But Hard To Keep Clean</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">225</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">70. <a href="#imagep227">Fragments Of Architraves</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">227</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">71. <a href="#imagep229">A Choice Of Wainscots</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">229</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">72. <a href="#imagep231">Wood Panels For Walls And Ceilings, <br /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; With Irregularities In Leather, Paint And Paper</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr" valign="top">231</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">73. <a href="#imagep235">The House That Jill Built</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">235</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">74. <a href="#imagep239">The First Floor Of The House That Jill Built</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">239</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">75. <a href="#imagep241">The Second Floor Of The House That Jill Built</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">241</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">76. <a href="#imagep243">The East End Of Jill's Dining-Room</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">243</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdlsc">77. <a href="#imagep263">A Castle In Spain</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">263</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class="tdcsc"><i>Also Initials, Tail-Pieces, etc.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><h2><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a>INDEX OF SUBJECTS.</h2>
+
+<br />
+
+<div style="margin-left: 5%;">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="40%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdrsc">Page</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td width="75%" class="tdlsc">Building Sites</td>
+  <td width="25%" class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Bricks</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Blinds</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Chimneys</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Contract Work</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Competitive Plans</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Doors</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Fireproof Construction</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">False Chimney-Piece</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Fireplaces</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Floors</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Fashion</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Gutters</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Heating</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Height Of Rooms</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Hard Wood</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Interior Finish</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Kitchen Arrangements</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Plumbing</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Pantries</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Paint</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Roofs</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Stairs</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Stained Glass</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Terra Cotta</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Under-Draining</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Ventilating Flues</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Windows</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Wooden Buildings</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<h3>TO THE REVISED EDITION.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>On a recent visit to the young woman whose experiences and observations
+are contained in this book, I was greatly pleased to find her zeal and
+interest in domestic architecture unabated. She sees that there have
+been changes and improvements in the art of house building, but
+declares that while some of her opinions and suggestions of ten years
+ago have been approved and accepted, it is still true that by far the
+greater number of those who plan and build houses are guided by
+transient fashion, thoughtless conservatism and a silly seeking for
+sensational results, rather than by truth, simplicity and common sense.</p>
+
+<p>She has no doubt that her daughter, Bessie, will study and practice
+domestic architecture, and naturally expects the houses of the future
+to contain charms and comforts of which we have as yet only the
+faintest conception.</p>
+
+<p class="sc" style="text-align: right;">E.C. Gardner.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
+<p><i>Springfield, Mass., November, 1895.</i></p>
+<a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"></a>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;MR. E.C. Gardner, architect, has consented to write us a series of
+articles upon house-building,&quot; said one of his associates to the editor
+of <span class="sc">Our Continent</span> a few months since. &quot;What do you think of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have no sort of use for such a thing,&quot; replied the editor. &quot;There
+are treatises enough professing to instruct people how to build houses.
+You can't make every man his own carpenter any more than you can make
+him his own lawyer. More's the pity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I thought you said you wanted some one who had sense enough to put
+a thoroughly capable and accomplished housewife's notions of what a
+house should be into readable prose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I did,&quot; responded the editor, &quot;and I still want it, and am likely
+to want it for a long time. I do not wish articles on <i>House</i>-building
+but on <i>Home</i>-building, and you will never get such from an
+architect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be too sure of that,&quot; said the other, who had had a taste of the
+writer's quality before. &quot;Suppose he should wish to try it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&mdash;let him,&quot; was the grumbled assent.</p>
+
+<p>The editor did not believe in architects. He had built one or two
+houses that did well enough on paper, but were simply appalling in
+their unfitness when he came to try to adapt the occupants to the
+earthly tabernacles <a name="Page_x" id="Page_x"></a>which had been erected for their use and
+enjoyment. He had read house-building books, examined plans and
+discoursed with architects until he verily believed that the whole
+business was a snare and a delusion. After this experience he had
+settled down to the serious belief that the best way to build a house
+was to erect first a square building containing but one room, and then
+add on rooms as the occupants learned their needs or the family
+increased in numbers. In this way, he stoutly maintained, had been
+erected all those old houses, whose irregularity of outline and
+frequent surprises in interior arrangement never cease to charm. He
+asserted boldly that a man's house ought to grow around him like an
+oyster's-shell, and should fit him just as perfectly; in fact, that it
+should be created, not built. From architects and their works he prayed
+devoutly to be delivered, and having theretofore illustrated that part
+of the proverb which avers that &quot;fools build houses,&quot; he declared
+himself determined thenceforth only to illustrate the latter-part of
+the proverb:&mdash;&quot;and wise men live in them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Having, however, became sponsor in some sort for what Mr. Gardner might
+write, he was bound to give attention to it. Very much to his surprise,
+he found it instead of a thankless task, a most agreeable
+entertainment. Seldom, indeed, have wit and wisdom been so happily
+blended as in these pages. The narrative that runs through the whole
+constitutes a silver thread of merriment on which the pearls of sense
+are strung with lavish freedom. Every page is sure to contain the
+subject-matter for a hearty laugh close-linked with a lesson <a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a>that may
+well be conned by the most serious-minded. The philosophy of
+home-building and home-improving is expounded with a subtlety of humor
+and an aptness of illustration as rare as they are relishable.</p>
+
+<p>There are three classes of people to whom this little volume with its
+quaint descriptions and wise suggestions will be peculiarly welcome.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>First</i>&mdash;Those who contemplate, at some time, the building of a
+    home. It matters not whether it is to be humble or palatial,
+    &quot;The House that Jill Built&quot; will be found to contain not only
+    the most valuable suggestions, but a humorous gaiety that will
+    be sure to add pleasure to this duty.</p>
+
+<p>    <i>Second</i>&mdash;Those who desire at any time to enlarge, modify or
+    improve the homes in which they live; for they will find very
+    forcibly illustrated in its pages the principles which should
+    govern such modification.</p>
+
+<p>    <i>Third</i>&mdash;Those who, like the writer hereof, have suffered in
+    purse and comfort from the lack of such a pleasant and
+    philosophical treatise, and who will be glad to see how their
+    blunders might have been avoided.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>&quot;The House that Jill Built&quot; is founded on the rock of common sense. It
+does not profess to tell the prospective builder how to be his own
+architect and carpenter; it does not fit him out with a plan ready made
+and tested&mdash;by somebody else: but deftly and easily it leads him to
+think about the essential elements of the home he desires until, almost
+unconsciously, he finds himself prepared to give such directions to an
+honest architect as will secure <a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii"></a>for his home, convenience, safety and
+that peculiar fitness which is the chief element of beauty in domestic
+architecture. It is not so much for what is taught as for what is
+suggested that the book is valuable. What the author has written is
+perhaps not more remarkable than the peculiar art with which he compels
+the reader to think for himself. &quot;The House that Jill Built&quot; may fairly
+be said to take the first place among the many works that are designed
+to make our domestic architecture what it ought to be&mdash;the art by which
+the house-builder may erect a home adapted to his needs, commensurate
+with his means, in harmony with its surroundings and conducive to the
+health and comfort of its occupants. What the author's pen has so well
+described his pencil has illustrated with equal happiness.</p>
+
+<p>In penance for the lack of faith displayed at the outset and in hearty
+approval of the pages that follow, the Editor has written these words.</p>
+
+<p class="sc" style="text-align: right;">A.W. Tourg&eacute;e.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="sc">Philadelphia</span>, Oct., 1882.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A WISE FATHER AND A GLAD SON-IN-LAW.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p007A.png"
+width="85" height="82" alt="A" />mong the wedding-presents was a small white envelope containing two
+smaller slips of paper. On one of these, which was folded around the
+other, was written,</p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;" class="sc">&quot;A New House, From Father.&quot;</span><br />
+
+<p>The enclosed slip was a bank-check, duly stamped and endorsed. Did any
+old wizard's magic-box ever hold greater promise in smaller compass!
+Certainly not more than the bride saw in imagination as she read the
+figures upon the crisp bit of tissue. Walls, roof and stately chimneys
+arose in pleasant pictures before her mental vision. There were broad
+windows taking in floods of sunshine; fireplaces that glowed with
+living flames and never smoked; lazy lounging places and cosy corners
+for busy work or quiet study; sleepy bed-rooms; a kitchen that made
+housework the finest art and the surest science, and oh, such closets,
+such stairways, such comforts! such defiance of the elements, such
+security against cold and <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>heat, against fire, flood and tempest! such
+economy! such immunity from all the ills that domestic life is heir to,
+from intractable servants to sewer-gas!</p>
+
+<p>If some ardent esthete had arrested her flight of fancy by asking
+whether she found room for soul-satisfying beauty, she would have
+dropped from her air-castle, landing squarely upon her feet, and
+replied that if her house was comfortable and told no lies it would be
+beautiful enough for her&mdash;which was saying a great deal, however
+interpreted, for she loved beauty, as all well-balanced mortals ought,
+and she would have been conspicuously out of place in a house that was
+not beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I ought to explain that the house that Jack built, intending to
+establish Jill as its mistress when it should be completed, had proved
+most unsatisfactory to that extremely practical young woman. In
+consequence, she had obstinately refused to name the happy day till the
+poor, patient fellow had kept bachelor's hall nearly a year. At last,
+in consideration of an unqualified permission to &quot;make the house over&quot;
+to any extent, the rough place that threatened to upset them was made
+smooth. Her father's present, wisely withheld till peace was declared,
+left nothing to be desired, and they started on their wedding journey
+as happy as if they owned the universe. This excursion, however, came
+near being a failure from the sentimental standpoint, because, wherever
+Jill discovered a house that gave any outward sign of inward grace, it
+must be visited and examined as to its internal arrangements. Naturally
+this struck Jack as an unromantic diversion, but he soon caught the
+spirit, <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>and after much practice gave his salutatory address with
+apparent eagerness:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My wife and I happen to be passing through town and have been struck
+by the appearance of your house. Will you kindly allow us to have a
+glimpse of the interior?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The request was invariably granted, for nothing is more gratifying than
+the fame of having the &quot;finest house in town.&quot; Unhappily the interiors
+were never satisfactory to Jill, and her valedictory to the owners of
+the striking houses seldom went beyond thanks for their courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We visited several houses on our trip,&quot; she observed to her father&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Several hundred,&quot; said Jack&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But were disappointed in them all. Many of them must have cost more
+than ours will cost, but the money seemed to us foolishly spent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said her husband, &quot;we concluded that the chief plank in the
+platform of the architects and builders was 'Millions for display&mdash;not
+one cent for comfort.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, Jack, we have learned one thing on our travels&mdash;where <i>not</i> to
+look for the plans of our house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A box of letters from her dear five hundred friends awaited Jill's
+return, and a whole afternoon was devoted to them. Each letter
+contained some allusion to the new house. At least ten conveyed
+underscored advice of the most vital importance, which, if not
+followed, would demoralize the servants, distress her husband and
+ultimately destroy her domestic peace. Taken at a single <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>dose, the
+counsel was confusing, to say the least; but Jill read it faithfully,
+laid it away for future reference, and gave the summary to her husband
+somewhat as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It appears, Jack, my dear, to be absolutely indispensable to our
+future happiness that the house shall front north, south, east and
+west.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's build it on a pivot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must not have large halls to keep warm in cold weather, and we
+<i>must</i> have large halls 'for style.' The stories must not be less than
+eleven nor more than nine feet high. It must be carpeted throughout and
+all the floors must be bare. It must be warmed by steam and hot water
+and furnaces and fireplaces and base-burners and coal grates.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't have to go away from home to get into purgatory, shall we?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! The walls of the rooms must be calcimined, painted, frescoed and
+papered; they must be dyed in the mortar, finished with leather, with
+tiles, with tapestry and with solid wood panels. There must be
+blinds&mdash;outside blinds, awnings, inside shutters, rolling blinds,
+Venetian shades and no blinds at all. There must be wide, low-roofed
+piazzas all around the house, so that we can live out of doors in the
+summer, and on no account must the sun be excluded from the windows of
+the first story by piazza roofs. At least eight patent sanitary
+plumbing articles, and as many cooking ranges, are each the only one
+safe and fit to be used. The house must be high and low&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm Jack and you shall be game&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep011" id="imagep011"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p011.png" alt="COUSIN GEORGE'S EXTERIOR." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Cousin George's Exterior</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>It must be of bricks, wood and stone, separately and in combination;
+it must be Queen Anne, Gothic, French, Japanesque and classic American,
+and it must be painted all the colors of an autumn landscape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, there's one comfort,&quot; said Jack; &quot;you haven't paid for this
+advice, so you won't be obliged to take it in order to save it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should think not, indeed, but that isn't the trouble. These letters
+are from my special friends, wise, practical people, who know
+everything about building and housekeeping, and they speak from solemn
+conviction based on personal experience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moral: When the doctors differ, do as you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Three of the letters, reserved for the last on account of their unusual
+bulk, contained actual plans. One was from an old school friend who had
+married an architect and couldn't afford to send a wedding present, but
+offered the plans as a sort of apology, privately feeling that they
+would be the most valuable of all the gifts; the second was from a
+married brother in Kansas who had just built himself a new house, and
+thought his sister could not do better than use the same plans, which
+he had &quot;borrowed&quot; from his architect; and the third was from Aunt
+Melville, who was supposed (by herself) to hold the family destiny in
+the hollow of her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For once,&quot; she wrote, &quot;your father has done a most sensible thing.
+Every girl ought to have a present of a new house on her wedding-day.
+You were very silly to make such a fuss about the house that Jack
+built, for it is a very stylish-looking house, even if it isn't quite
+so <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>convenient inside; but of course you can improve upon it, and
+fortunately I can contribute just what you need&mdash;the plans of the house
+that your Uncle Melville built for George last year. It isn't as large
+as it ought to be, but it will suit you and Jack admirably. You must
+tell me how much you have to spend. This house can be very prettily
+built for eight or ten thousand dollars, and if you haven't as much as
+that you must ask for more. The hall is decidedly stylish, and, with
+the library at one side and drawing-room at the other, you will have
+just room enough for your little social parties. The room behind the
+drawing-room Jack needs for his private use, his study, office,
+smoking-room or whatever he calls it&mdash;a <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>place to keep his gun, his
+top-boots, his fishing-rod and his horrid pipes; where he can revel to
+his heart's content in the hideous disorder of a 'man's room,' pile as
+much rubbish as he likes on the table, lock the doors and defy the rest
+of the household on house-cleaning days. The dining-room is good and
+the kitchen arrangements are perfect. George's wife has changed
+servants but three times since they began housekeeping, nearly a year
+ago, which certainly proves that there is every possible convenience
+for doing work easily. The outside of the house is not wholly
+satisfactory. There should be a tower, and you must put one on
+somewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep014" id="imagep014"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p014.png" alt="COUSIN GEORGE'S FIRST FLOOR." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Cousin George's First Floor</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep015" id="imagep015"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p015.png" alt="COUSIN GEORGE'S SECOND FLOOR." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Cousin George's Second Floor</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>Then followed several pages of advice about furnishings and a
+postscript announced that Colonel Livingston was charmed with the house
+and would probably build one like it for Clara. The charm of Aunt
+Melville's advice lay in its abundant variety. It was new every morning
+and fresh every evening. The latest thing was always the best. The
+plans of to-morrow were certain to be better than those of yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Jill therefore made a careful study of the first installment, not
+doubting that others of superior merit would be forthcoming. She found
+many things to approve. The hall promised comfort and good cheer,
+whether stylish or not. The vista across through the parlor bay and the
+wide library window would give a pleasant freedom and breadth. The
+stairs were well placed, the second landing with its window of stained
+glass being especially attractive, whether as a point of observation or
+as a cosy retreat, itself partly visible from the hall below. Every
+chamber had a closet of its own, not to mention several extra ones, and
+there was a place for every bed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As for your sanctum, Jack, I don't at all approve. It will be hard
+enough, I've no doubt, to keep you from lapsing into barbarism, and I
+shall never allow you to set up a den, a regular Bluebeard's room, all
+by yourself. I promise never to put your table in order, but I wouldn't
+trust the best of men with the care of a closet or a bureau-drawer for
+a single week, much less of an entire room with two closets, a case of
+drawers, a cupboard and a chimney-piece. But the chief fault of the
+plan is that it doesn't happen to suit our lot. The entrances are not
+<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>right, the outlooks are not right, the chimneys are not right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Turn it around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And spoil it? No; I learned a second lesson on our journey, and it was
+well worth what it cost. We shall never find a plan made for somebody
+else that will suit us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not good enough?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't a question of goodness&mdash;it's a question of fitness. Neither
+Cousin George's, nor any other house I ever saw, is precisely what we
+need.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moral: Draw your own plans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must, and we'll begin to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not this evening?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We couldn't see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Light the gas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, but we must make the plans out of doors on the lot. We shall then
+know where every room will be, every door and especially every window.
+We must fix the centre of the sitting-room in the most commanding
+situation, and be certain that the dining-room windows do not look
+straight into somebody's wood-shed. Then, if there are any views of
+blue hills and forests far away over the river, I shall be
+uncomfortable if we do not get the full benefit of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you expect to have anything interesting inside the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Except my husband? Oh yes! but it would be a wicked waste of
+opportunities not to accept the blessings provided for us without money
+and without price, which <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>only require us to stand in the right places
+and open our hearts and windows to receive them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill's second lesson was indeed worth learning, even if it cost a
+wedding journey. Every house must suit its own ground and fit its own
+household, otherwise it can neither be comfortable nor beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, armed with a bundle of laths, sharpened at one end,
+and equipped with paper, pencil and tape-line, the prospective
+house-builders proceeded to lay out, not the house but the plan. They
+planted doors, windows, fireplaces and closets, stoves, lounges,
+easy-chairs and bedsteads, as if they were so many seeds that would
+grow up beside the laths on which their respective names were written
+and bear fruit each according to its kind. Later in the day a high
+step-ladder was introduced, from the top of which Jill scanned the
+surrounding country, while Jack stood ready to catch her if she fell.
+The neighbors were intensely interested, and their curiosity was mixed
+with indignation when, toward night, a man was discovered cutting down
+two of the rock-maple trees that Jill's grandfather planted more than
+fifty years before, and which stood entirely beyond any possible
+location of the new house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This evening, Jack, you must write for the architect to come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought you were going to make your own plans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have made them, or rather I have laid them out on the ground and in
+the air. I know what I want and how I want it. Now we must have every
+particular set down in black and white.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>Jack wrote accordingly. The architect was too busy to respond at once
+in person, but sent a letter referring to certain principles that reach
+somewhat below the lowest foundation-stones and above the tops of the
+tallest chimneys.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p019.png" width="450" alt="End of chapter decoration." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>CHAPTER II.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>MORAL SUASION FOR MALARIAL MARSHES.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p020Y.png"
+width="85" height="78" alt="Y" />ou are quite right,&quot; the architect wrote, &quot;to fix the plan of your
+house on the lot before it is made on paper, provided first the lot is
+a good one. Nothing shows the innate perversity of mankind more
+forcibly than the average character of the sites chosen for human
+habitations in cities, in villages and in the open country. Or does it
+rather indicate the instinctive struggle for supremacy over nature? The
+'dear old nurse' is most peaceably inclined toward us, yet we shall
+never be satisfied till all the valleys are exalted and the hills laid
+low. Not because we object to hills and valleys&mdash;quite the contrary;
+but we must show our strength and daring. Nobody wants the North Pole,
+but we are furious to have a breach made in the wall that surrounds it.
+If we discover a mighty primeval forest we straightway grind our axes
+to cut it down; an open prairie we plant with trees. When we find
+ourselves in an unclean, malarious bog, instead of taking the short cut
+out, shaking the mud from our feet and keeping clear of it forever
+after, we plunge in deeper still and swear by all the bones of our
+ancestors that we will not only walk through it dry-shod, but will
+build our homes in the midst of it and keep them clean and sweet and
+dry. The <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>
+good mother beckons to us with her sunshine and whispers
+with her fragrant breezes that on the other side of the river or across
+the bay the land is high and dry, that just beyond the bluffs are the
+sunny slopes where she expected us to build our houses, and, like saucy
+children as we are, we say that is the very reason we prefer to go
+somewhere else.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep021" id="imagep021"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p021.png" width="90%" alt="WARMTH IS BEAUTY." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Warmth Is Beauty</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep023" id="imagep023"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p023.png" alt="A HIDDEN FOE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Hidden Foe</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, if the particular spot of earth on which you expect to set up the
+temple of your home is not well adapted to that sacred purpose, think a
+bit before you commence digging. If it is low, wet and difficult of
+drainage; if the surface water or the drains from adjacent lands have
+no outlet except across it; if its size and shape compel your house to
+stand so near your neighbor on the south that he takes all the sunshine
+and gives you the odors of his dinner and the conversation of his cook
+in exchange; if there are no pleasant outlooks; if it is shaded by
+trees owned by somebody who will not be persuaded to cut them down for
+love nor money&mdash;by all means turn it into a fish-pond, a sheep-pasture
+or a public park. You can never build upon it a satisfactory <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>home.
+Perhaps it is within five minutes' walk of the post-office and on the
+same street with Mrs. Adoniram Brown, and these considerations outweigh
+all others. In that case there is no help for you. You must make the
+best of it as it is.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep024" id="imagep024"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p024.png" alt="A BURIED GRIDIRON." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Buried Gridiron</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;If you have a suspicion that the ground is naturally wet, that it
+contains hidden springs or conceals an impervious basin, making in
+effect a pool of standing water underground, the first necessity is a
+clean outlet&mdash;not a sewer&mdash;low enough to underdrain the lot at least a
+foot and a-half below the bottom of the cellar. Having found the clean
+outlet, lay small drain tiles, two or three inches in diameter, under
+the entire house and for several feet all around it, like a big
+gridiron. When this is <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>buried under one or two feet of clean gravel or
+sand you will have a permanently dry plot of ground to build upon. The
+same treatment will be effective if the ground is &quot;springy.&quot; But there
+must be a &quot;cut-off&quot; encircling the house. This you can make by digging
+a trench a foot wide, reaching down to the drain tiles, and filling it
+nearly to the top with loose stones or coarse gravel, the surface of
+the ground being graded to slope sharply toward the trench. The surface
+water between it and the house, and any moisture creeping toward the
+house from without, will then be caught in this porous trap and fall to
+the gridiron.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep025" id="imagep025"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p025.png" alt="THE PROTECTING &quot;CUT-OFF.&quot;" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Protecting &quot;Cut-Off&quot;</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;It is possible, theoretically, to build an underground cellar so tight
+that it may be lifted up on posts and used for a water-tank, or set
+afloat like a compartment-built iron steamer. Such walls may be
+necessary under certain <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>circumstances. They may be necessary for
+cellars that are founded in swamps, in salt marshes below the level of
+the sea, and in old river-beds, where the original iniquity of the
+standing water is made still more iniquitous by the inevitable foulness
+of the washing from streets and the unclean refuse from sinks and back
+doors. But for buildings that have four independent walls, with room
+enough for a man to ride around his own house in a wheelbarrow without
+trespassing on his neighbors, and which are not hopelessly depressed
+below all their surroundings, it is better to use a little moral
+suasion on the land itself than to spend one's resources in a defiant
+water-proof construction. Instead of drain tiles, small stones covered
+with a thin layer of hay or straw before being buried in the sand may
+be used if more economical.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you cannot find the clean outlet for these buried drains or tiles
+below the level of the cellar bottom, then raise the cellar, house and
+all. No matter if you are accused of having a 'stuck up' house&mdash;better
+be stuck up than stuck in the mud. Raise it till the entire cellar is
+well above the level of thorough drainage. If this happens to carry it
+above the surface of the ground, set the house on posts and hang the
+cellar under the floor like a work-bag under a table or the basket to a
+balloon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The foundation walls must indeed touch solid bottom and extend below
+the action of frost; but if the wall above the gridiron and below the
+paving of the cellar is of hard stones, or very hard bricks laid in
+cement, there will be little risk from rising moisture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all, the chief danger is not from underground <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>springs, from
+clean surface water or an occasional rising of the floods, but from the
+unclean wastes that in our present half-civilized state are constantly
+going out of our homes to poison and pollute the earth and air around
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Half-civilized indeed!&quot; said Jack, interrupting the reading of the
+letter. &quot;Besides, he is premature as well as impertinent. He doesn't
+know but the house will stand on a granite boulder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose he intends to warn us, and I am not certain that our lot is
+as dry as it ought to be. At all events we will have some holes dug in
+different places and see if any water comes into them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it will. Haven't we just had the 'equinoctial'? The ground
+is full of water everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it is full this spring it will be full every spring. We may as well
+order the drain tiles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It shall be done,&quot; said Jack. &quot;Now let us have the second proviso. I
+hope it will be shorter than the first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And, secondly,&quot; Jill continued reading, &quot;provided you know what your
+house is for. It is my conviction that of all the people who carefully
+plan and laboriously build themselves houses, scarcely one in ten could
+give a radical, intelligent reason for building them. To live in, of
+course; but how to live is the question, and why. As they have been in
+the habit of living? As their neighbors live? As they would like to
+live? As they ought to live? Is domestic comfort and well-being the
+chief motive? It is not, usually; hence, there are in the world a great
+many more houses than homes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>Oh, bother the preaching! It's all true, but we don't happen to need
+it. When is he coming?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Next week, and he hopes we shall have 'some general idea of what we
+want.' How very condescending! We know precisely what we want, as I can
+easily show him.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep028" id="imagep028"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p028.png" width="50%" alt="A &quot;CROSS-SECTION&quot; PROPHECY." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A &quot;Cross-Section&quot; Prophecy</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>Jill accordingly produced a fresh sheet of &quot;cross-section&quot; paper, on
+whose double plaid lines the most helpless tyro in drawing can make a
+plan with mathematical accuracy provided he can count ten, and on this
+began to draw the plan of the first floor, expounding as she drew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we call the side of the house which is next the street the front,
+the main entrance must be at the east side, because we need the whole
+of the south side for our living rooms. You know the view toward the
+southwest is the finest we shall have, especially from the chambers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do I know? I didn't climb the step-ladder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we must have a large bay window directly on that corner. The hall
+must run through the house crosswise, with the stairs on the west side
+of the house. As there is nothing to be seen in this direction except
+the white walls and green blinds of the parsonage, the windows on the
+stair-landing shall have stained glass. The dining-room will be at the
+north side of the hall, with plenty of eastern windows, and behind that
+the kitchen with windows at opposite sides. But you wouldn't understand
+the beauty of my kitchen arrangements now. By-and-by, when you are
+wiser, I will explain them. Do you like a fireplace in the hall, Jack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know as I do. Do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course! certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be of all men most miserable without one. Can't we have two?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps so; but first let me read you Cousin Bessie's letter:</p>
+
+<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;"><span class="sc">My Dearest Jill</span>:
+    I'm perfectly delighted to hear about the new
+    house. It will be an immense success. I <i>know</i> it will&mdash;you are
+    so wise and so <i>practical</i>. How I <i>shall</i> enjoy visiting you!
+    It is delightful to build houses now. Everybody thinks so much
+    more of the beautiful than they used to. Some of my friends
+    have the <i>loveliest</i> rooms. The tones are <i>so</i> harmonious, the
+    decorations so <i>exquisite</i>! Such sympathetic feeling and
+    spiritual unity! I <i>wish</i> you could see Kitty Kane's hall. It
+    isn't bigger than a bandbox, but there's the <i>cunningest</i>
+    little fireplace in one corner, with real antique andirons and
+    the quaintest old Dutch tiles. They never make a fire in it;
+    couldn't if they wanted to&mdash;it smokes so. But it is <i>so</i> lovely
+    and gives the hall such a sweet expression. You <i>will</i> forgive
+    me, won't you, Jill, dear? but you know you are <i>so</i> practical,
+    and I <i>do</i> hope you won't forget the esthetic needs of home
+    life.<br /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Your loving cousin, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <span class="sc">Bet.</span>&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's give up the hall fireplace,&quot; said Jack.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep030" id="imagep030"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p030.png" alt="HEAT FROM ALL SIDES." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Heat From All Sides</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;By no means; our hall is large and needs a fireplace&mdash;one that will
+not smoke and will warm not only the hall in very cold weather, but the
+whole house when it isn't quite cold enough for steam. The sides and
+back will be of iron with an air-chamber behind them, into which fresh
+air will be brought from out of doors and come out well warmed at the
+sides.&quot; (Jill's idea was something like the above figure for the plan.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will be a capital ventilator, too, for the centre of <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>the house.
+There will be a damper in the hearth to let the ashes down into the
+ash-pit. I suppose a stove would answer, but this will be better
+because it won't have to be blacked, and it will last as long as the
+house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How will it look standing out there all alone by itself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haven't I told you, my dear, that whatever <i>is</i> well looks well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but it takes a mighty faith to believe it, and I'm not even a
+mustard-seed. What is the little room in the southwest corner for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is the library, and for an ordinary family it is large enough. It
+is twelve feet by fourteen. It will hold three or four thousand books,
+a table, a writing-desk, a lounge and three or four easy chairs. More
+room would spoil the privacy which belongs to a library and make it a
+sort of common sitting-room. Moreover, by drawing aside the porti&egrave;res
+and opening the doors we can make it a part of the large room when we
+wish to; and, on the other hand, when they are closed and the bay
+window curtains drawn, instead of one large room we shall have three
+separate apartments for three solitary misanthropes, for three
+<i>t&ecirc;te-a-t&ecirc;tes</i>, or for three incompatible groups, not counting the
+hall&mdash;no, nor the stair-landing, which will be a capital place for a
+quiet&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Flirtation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this point they were interrupted by a telegram from Aunt Melville,
+begging them not to begin on George's plan, as she had found something
+much more satisfactory.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>CHAPTER III.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>A FIRST VISIT AND SAGE ADVICE.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p032T.png"
+width="85" height="83" alt="T" />hey didn't begin to build, from Cousin George's nor from any other
+plan, for many weeks. Until the new house should be completed, Jill had
+agreed to commence housekeeping in the house that Jack built, without
+making any alterations in it, only reserving the privilege of finding
+all the fault she pleased to Jack privately, in order, as she said, to
+convince him that it would be impossible for them to be permanently
+happy in such a house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I supposed,&quot; said Jack, with a groan, &quot;that my company would make you
+blissfully happy in a cave or a dug-out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it would, if we were bears&mdash;both of us. As we are sufficiently
+civilized, taken together, to prefer artificial dwellings, it will be
+much better for us to find out what we really need in a home by actual
+experiment for a year or two. You know everybody who builds one house
+for himself always wishes he could build another to correct the
+mistakes of the first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and when he has done it probably finds worse blunders in the
+second. Still, I'm open to conviction, and after our late architectural
+tour perhaps my house won't seem in comparison so totally depraved.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep033" id="imagep033"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p033.png" alt="AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Aunt Melville's Ambition</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>When they visited it, preparatory to setting up their household
+gods&mdash;Jack's bachelor arrangements being quite inadequate to the new
+order of things&mdash;Jack, with a flourish, threw the highly ornamental
+front door wide open. Jill walked solemnly in, and, looking neither to
+the right nor the left, went straight up stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hello!&quot; Jack called after her, &quot;what are you going up stairs for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I supposed you expected everybody to go to the second floor,&quot; said
+Jill, looking over the bannister, &quot;or you wouldn't have set the stairs
+directly across the front entrance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do, of course,&quot; Jack responded, following three steps at a time.
+&quot;And now will you please signify your royal pleasure as to apartments?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes! The first requisite is a room with at least one south
+window.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here it is. A southerly window and a cloudy sky&mdash;two windows, in fact.
+And look here: see what a glorious closet. It goes clear up to the
+ceiling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't a closet at all; only a little cupboard. It wouldn't hold
+one-half of your clothes nor a tenth part of mine. And there's no
+fireplace in the room&mdash;not even a hole for a stovepipe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Furnace, my dear. We shall be warmed from the regions below. There's
+the register.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see. But where shall the bed stand? On these two sides it would come
+directly in front of a window; on this side there isn't room between
+the two doors; on that, <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>there's the 'set bowl'&mdash;I hate 'set
+bowls'&mdash;and the furnace register in the floor.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep036" id="imagep036"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p036.png" alt="NO PLACE FOR THE BED." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">No Place For The Bed</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That's so. I never had any bed in this room. Try the dining-room
+chamber; that has a south window. The bed can stand on the north side
+and the dressing table over in the other corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, in the dark, with a window behind my back. Oh! Jack, why didn't
+you get a wife before you planned your house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I did try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did! You never mentioned it to me before. What is this little room
+for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, nothing in particular. It came so, I suppose&mdash;part of the hall,
+you know; but it wouldn't be of any use in the hall, so I made a room
+of it. It will hold a cot bed if we should happen to have a house full
+of company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will never be needed for that with three other <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>guest rooms; but I
+see what can be done. You know I promised not to make any alterations;
+but destruction isn't alteration, and as this little room is beside the
+front chamber, with only the little cupboards between, a part of the
+partition between the rooms can be destroyed. There will be no need of
+a door; a porti&egrave;re will be better, and I can use the small room for a
+dressing-room and closet. So <i>that</i> is nicely arranged; and while you
+are marking where the partition is to be cut away I will explore the
+first story.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep037" id="imagep037"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p037.png" width="60%" alt="ENLARGED BY DESTRUCTION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Enlarged By Destruction</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, the stairs were built in a very common fashion, having a sharp
+turn at the top, which made the steps near the balustrade exceedingly
+steep and narrow. Jill's <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>foot slipped on the top step and down she
+went, feet foremost, never stopping till she reached the hall floor
+below. Jack, hearing the commotion, ran to the rescue, caught his foot
+in the carpet and came tumbling after, with twice as much noise and not
+half as much grace. Happily the staircase was well padded under the
+carpet, and finding Jill unhurt as well as himself, Jack helped her to
+rise and coolly remarked:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You certainly can't find any fault with the stairs, Jill, dear. If
+there had been one of those square landings midway it would have taken
+twice as long to come down. I&mdash;I had them made so on purpose. Will you
+walk into my parlor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They went in and sat down in easy-chairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose,&quot; said Jill, &quot;that our native land contains about a million
+houses with stairs like these and just such halls&mdash;if people will
+persist in calling them 'halls,' when they are only little narrow,
+dark, uncomfortable entries. If we were going to make any alterations
+in this house&mdash;which we are not, only destructions&mdash;- I should take
+these out, cut them in two in the middle, double them up, straighten
+the crook at the top and shove them outside the house, letting the main
+roof drop down to cover them. Then I would make a large landing at the
+turn, large enough for a wide seat, a few book shelves and a pretty
+window. This could be of stained glass, unless the view outside is more
+interesting than the window itself. The merit of a stained-glass
+window,&quot; Jill observed, very wisely, &quot;is that the sunlight makes a
+beautiful picture of it inside the house during the day, and the same
+thing,<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a> <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>still more beautiful, is thrown out into the world by the
+evening lamps, and the darker the night the brighter the picture. After
+the stairs were moved out, the little hall, if joined by a wide
+doorway, to the room we are now in would become of some value. There is
+no grate in this room, and a chimney might be built in the outer wall,
+with a fireplace opposite the wide doorway. Then, taken all together,
+we should have a very pretty sitting-room. I shouldn't call that an
+alteration&mdash;should you, Jack?&mdash;only an addition.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep039" id="imagep039"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p039.png" alt="A SLIGHT ADDITION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Slight Addition</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not. Tearing down partitions, taking out plumbing, building
+a few chimneys, moving stairways, and such little things, can't be
+called 'alterations'&mdash;oh, no.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the house will be worth so much more when you come to sell it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course. But why do you call this a 'sitting-room?' It wouldn't be
+possible to sell a house that has no parlor; besides this is marked
+'parlor' on the plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I prefer the spirit of the plan to the letter of it. This is the
+pleasantest room&mdash;almost the only pleasant room on this floor. It is
+sunny and convenient, it looks out upon the street and across the lawn,
+and whatever it is labeled it will <i>be</i> our common every-day
+sitting-room. For similar reasons we will take the chamber over it for
+our own room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What becomes of our hospitality if we keep the best for ourselves?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What becomes of our common sense if we make ourselves uncomfortable
+the year round in order to make a <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>guest a little less uncomfortable
+over night. I try to love my neighbor as myself; I can't love him three
+hundred and sixty-five times as well. Now, if you are rested, we will
+go and see if the architect has come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had not arrived, but they found a ponderous package of plans from
+Aunt Melville, with an explanatory note, a letter from Cousin Bessie
+admonishing Jill that her new home ought to be &quot;a perfect poem,
+pervaded and perfumed by a rare feeling of tender longing and homely
+aspiration,&quot; and another from her father's oldest sister.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep042" id="imagep042"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p042.png" alt="GROUND FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Ground Floor Of Aunt Melville's Ambition</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep043" id="imagep043"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p043.png" alt="FIRST FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">First Floor Of Aunt Melville's Ambition</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;For fifty years,&quot; Aunt Jerusha wrote, &quot;I have lived in what would now
+be called an old-fashioned house, though it was new enough when I came
+to it, and I always think of the Scripture saying when I hear about the
+many inventions that men have sought out and are putting into houses
+now-a-days. The danger is not so much from the inventions themselves as
+from what they lead to. They promise great things, but I've learned to
+be suspicious of anything or anybody that makes large promises. I've
+learned, too, that realities sometimes go by <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>contraries as well as
+dreams. The poorest folks are often the richest, and the greatest
+saving often turns out to be the greatest waste. Air-tight stoves saved
+the wood-pile, but they gave us colds and headaches. So your uncle put
+them away and we went back to the fireplaces. Then came the hot-air
+furnaces, which seemed so much less trouble than open fires, but taking
+care of the open fires wasn't half so troublesome as taking care of
+sick folks; and the same thing we learned to our bitter cost of the
+plumbing pipes that creep around like venomous serpents and promise to
+save so many steps. Perhaps they do, but it seems to me that much of
+our vaunted labor-saving is at best only a transfer. We work all the
+harder at something else or compel others to work for us. When I began
+housekeeping I had no difficulty in taking care of my large house
+without any help, nor in caring for my family while it was small. Yet I
+hadn't a single modern invention or labor-saving machine, I have had a
+great many since and have tried a great many more. When I find one that
+helps in the work that <i>must</i> be done I am glad to keep it. If it
+merely does something new&mdash;something I had never done before&mdash;I keep
+the old way. Multiplying wants may be a means of grace to the
+half-civilized, but our danger lies in the other direction: we have too
+many wants already. And this is what I sat down to say to you, my dear
+child: Don't make housekeeping such a complex affair that you must give
+to it all your time and strength, leaving no place for the 'better
+part.' Don't fill your house with furniture too fine to be used, and
+don't try to have everything in the latest <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>fashion. I see many
+beautiful things and read of many more, but nothing is half so
+beautiful to me as the things that were new fifty years ago and are
+still in daily use. Of planning houses I know but little. For one
+thing, I should say, have the kitchen and working departments as close
+at hand as possible. This will save many weary steps, whether you do
+your own work or leave it with servants, the best of whom need constant
+watching and encouragement, or they will not make life any easier or
+better worth living.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't this rather a solemn letter?&quot; Jack inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; it's a solemn subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Shall</i> you 'do your own work'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I shall. How can I help it?</p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Each hath a work that no other can do;'</span><br />
+
+<p>but just precisely what my own work will be I am not at present
+prepared to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is Aunt Melville as solemn as Aunt Jerusha?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunt Melville assures her dear niece that 'the last plans are
+absolutely beyond criticism: the rooms are large and elegant, the
+modern conveniences perfect, the kitchen and servants' quarters
+isolated from the rest of the house'&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That won't suit the other aunty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The porte coch&egrave;re and side entrance most convenient and the front
+entrance sufficiently distinguished by the tower. I particularly like
+the porte coch&egrave;re at the side. If none of your callers came on foot
+there would be no objection to having it at the front entrance, but it
+isn't <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>pleasant to be compelled to walk up the carriage-way. As you
+see, this is a brick house, and I am persuaded you ought to build of
+bricks. It will cost ten or fifteen per cent. more&mdash;possibly
+twenty&mdash;but in building a permanent home you ought not to consider the
+cost for a moment.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a comfortable doctrine, if everybody would live up to it,&quot; said
+Jack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; and like a good many other comfortable doctrines, it contains too
+much truth to be rejected&mdash;not enough to be accepted. We <i>must</i> count
+the cost, but if we limit ourselves to a certain outlay, and positively
+refuse to go beyond that, we shall regret it as long as we live. We may
+leave some things unfinished, but whatever is done past alteration,
+either in size or quality, must be right, whatever it costs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And herein Jill displayed her good sense. It is, indeed, a mistake to
+build a house beyond the possibility of paying for it, or of
+maintaining it without a constant struggle, but in building a permanent
+home there is more likely to be lasting regret through too close
+economy in the first outlay, than through extravagance&mdash;regret that can
+only be cured by an outlay far exceeding what the original cost would
+have been.</p>
+
+<p>The architect came as the sun went down, and, after being duly warmed,
+fed and cheered, was informed by Jill that all she expected from him
+that evening was an explanation of the respective merits of wood and
+brick houses. Jack begged the privilege of taking notes, to keep
+himself awake, Jill begged the architect to be as <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>brief as possible,
+and the architect begged for a small blackboard and a piece of chalk,
+that he might, in conveying his ideas, use the only one, true, natural
+and universal language which requires no grammar, dictionary or
+interpreter.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p047.png" width="450" alt="End of Chapter Decoration." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>CHAPTER IV.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the T image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p048T.png"
+width="85" height="101" alt="T" /><br />here are two things belonging to modern civilization,&quot; the architect
+began, &quot;that fill me with amazement. This morning, at the usual hour, I
+sat at my own breakfast table. During the day I have been reading and
+writing, eating, drinking and making merry with pleasant acquaintances,
+old and new. I have observed the architecture of a dozen cities and a
+hundred villages and have seen landscapes without number. I have been
+occupying an elegantly finished and furnished drawing-room all the
+time, with every possible comfort and convenience at hand, and now am
+sitting at your fireside, two hundred and fifty miles from home. I have
+just assured the girl I left behind me of my safe arrival, and have
+listened to her grateful reply. With my ten thousand companions going
+in the same direction I have met ten thousand others crossing and
+recrossing our path, every one of whom was as safe and comfortable as
+ourselves, every one of whom knew the hour and the minute at which he
+would reach his destination. To an observer above the clouds our
+pathways would appear more frail than the finest gossamer; and the most
+daring engineer that ever lived, seeing for the first time our mode of
+travel, would stake his reputation that we were<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a> <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>rushing to
+inevitable destruction. Yet every foot of our way has been so guarded
+that not one of these swiftly-moving palaces has swerved from its track
+or been hindered on its course. This annihilation of space, with the
+human skill, vigilance and fidelity incidental to it, are more
+wonderful to me than any tales of magic, stranger than any fiction. I
+believe because I see; nevertheless it is incredible. My second
+amazement is that fire insurance companies should continue to live and
+thrive against such apparently fearful odds, for I see whole villages
+and cities composed of buildings that seem expressly designed to invite
+speedy combustion, and at the same time to resist all attempts to
+extinguish a fire once started in their complex interiors. Indeed, the
+most effective modes of treatment yet discovered for a burning building
+are drowning it with all its contents in a deluge of water or blowing
+it up with gunpowder. It is an open question which of the two methods
+is to be preferred.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep049" id="imagep049"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p049.png" width="45%" alt="A SECURE OUTLOOK." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Secure Outlook</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me show you how a wooden house is built. The sills and joists of
+the first floor are comparatively safe, because they are not boxed in
+with dry boards, and even with furnace and ash-pits in the cellar there
+would be little danger from a fire down below if it were not for the
+careful provision made for carrying it into the upper part of the
+structure. This provision, however, is most effectively made by means
+of the upright studs and furrings that stand all around the outside of
+the building and reach across it wherever a partition is needed.
+Accordingly, every wooden house has from one hundred to <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>one thousand
+wooden flues of a highly inflammable character arranged expressly to
+carry fire from the bottom to the top, valiantly consuming themselves
+in the operation. Furthermore, they are frequently charged with
+shavings and splinters of wood, which, becoming dry as tinder, will
+respond at once to a spark from a crack in the chimney, an overheated
+stove or furnace-pipe, or a match in the hands of an inquisitive
+mouse. <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>They are, likewise, so arranged that no water can be poured
+inside them till they fall apart and the house collapses, for they
+reach to the roof, whose sole duty is to keep out water, whether it
+comes from the clouds or from a hose-pipe, but which, for economical
+reasons, is made sufficiently open to allow the air to pass through it
+freely, thus insuring a good draught when the fire begins to burn. To
+complete the system and prevent the possibility of finding where the
+fire began, the spaces between the joists of the upper floors
+communicate with the vertical flues, and these highways and byways for
+rats and mice, for fire and smoke, for odors from the kitchen, noises
+from the nursery and dust from the furnace and coal-bin, are also
+strewn with builders' rubbish, which carries flame like stubble on a
+harvest-field.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep052" id="imagep052"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p052.png" alt="MINED AND COUNTERMINED." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Mined And Countermined</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Brick houses, as usually built, are not much better, but that is not
+the fault of the bricks&mdash;<i>they</i> are tougher than good intentions; they
+have been burned once and fire agrees with them. In fact, there is no
+building material so thoroughly reliable, through thick and thin, in
+prosperity and in adversity, as good, honest, well-burned bricks. But
+the ordinary brick house is double&mdash;a house within a house&mdash;a wooden
+frame in a brick shell. Like logs in a coal-pit, the inner house is
+well protected from outside attacks, but the flames, once kindled
+within, will run about as freely as in a wooden building, and laugh at
+cold water, which, however abundantly it is poured out, can never reach
+the heart of the fire till its destructive work is accomplished. Thrown
+upon the outer walls, it runs down the bricks or clapboards; poured
+over the <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>roof, it is carried promptly to the ground, as it ought to
+be; shot in through the windows, it runs down the plastering, washes
+off the paper, soaks the carpets, ruins the merchandise and spoils
+everything that water can spoil, while the fire itself roars behind the
+wainscot, climbs to the rafters and rages among the old papers, cobwebs
+and heirlooms in the attic till the roof falls in, the floors go down
+with a crash and an upward shower of sparks, and only the tottering
+walls, with their eyeless window sockets, or the ragged, blackened
+chimney's, remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One road leads to fire and the other to combustion; that's plain
+enough,&quot; said Jack; &quot;but where do the merits come in? I thought we were
+to learn the relative merits of bricks and wood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wood has one conspicuous merit, a virtue that covers a multitude of
+sins&mdash;it is cheap; but let me first arrange the fire-escapes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means. Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful
+to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long
+enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.
+This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the
+draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar
+between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or
+near the level of each floor. A cut-off half way up is an additional
+safeguard. The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also
+be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a> <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>and sparks from a
+burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the
+cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote
+fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured 'there hadn't been
+a fire kindled for six months.' These occasional dampers are a partial
+remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons
+of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case
+of fire. The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be
+filled.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep055" id="imagep055"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p055.png" alt="A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Dormer Of Burned Clay</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I supposed air spaces were necessary for warmth and dryness,&quot; said
+Jill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So they are. But there are air spaces in a woolen blanket, in a
+brickbat and in common mortar, as well as in sawdust, ashes and
+powdered charcoal, quite enough to serve as non-conductors of heat and
+of moisture too, if properly protected. One of the best and most
+available materials at present known for this purpose is 'mineral
+wool,' a product of iron 'slag.' If the open spaces between the studs
+and rafters of a wooden building (or in a brick building between the
+furrings) are filled with this substance, or anything else equally
+good, if there is anything else&mdash;of course sawdust or other inflammable
+material would not answer except for an ice-house or a
+water-tank&mdash;'fire-bugs' would find it difficult to follow their
+profession with any success, and the insurance companies would build
+more elegant offices and declare larger dividends than ever before.
+Houses might be burned possibly, but the inmates would have ample time
+to fold their <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>nightgowns, pack their trunks, take up the carpets and
+count the spoons before vacating the premises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How much will that sort of stuffing cost?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a wooden dwelling house of medium size a few hundred dollars would
+cover the first outlay, and the saving in worry would be worth twice as
+much every year.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now to consider the relative merits of brick and wood, for I see Jack
+is going to sleep again: The chief excellence of wood has already been
+mentioned. It is cheap, so cheap that any man who can earn a dollar a
+day and live on fifty cents, may at the end of a year, have a house of
+his own in which he can live and begin to bring up a family in comfort
+and safety. He that builds of bricks may rejoice in the durability and
+strength of his house, in its security against fire and sudden changes
+of temperature, in economy of fuel in cold weather, of ice in warm
+weather, and of paint in all weathers; in the possibility of the
+highest degree of external beauty, and in the blessed consciousness
+that his real estate will not deteriorate on his hands or be a worn-out
+and worthless legacy to his children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You must wear peculiar spectacles if you can discover beauty in a
+square brick house!&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep059" id="imagep059"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p059.png" alt="THE TOPMOST PEAK." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Topmost Peak</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Rectitude, of which a brick is the accepted type, certainly has a
+beauty of its own. But if a brick house is not beautiful&mdash;here again
+the fault is not, dear Jack, in the bricks; but in ourselves, our
+prejudices and our architects&mdash;other things being equal, it should be
+more beautiful than a wooden house, because the material employed<a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a> <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>is
+more appropriate for its use. (I should like to deliver an oration at
+this point, for upon this Golden Rule of utility hang all the law and
+the prophets of architectural beauty, but will defer it to a more
+fitting occasion.) There is, in truth, no limit to the grace of form,
+color and decoration possible with burned clay. As a marble statue is
+to a wooden image, so, for the outer walls of a building, is clay that
+has been moulded and baked, to the products of the saw-mill, the
+planing-mill, lathe and fret-saw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, you mean terra cotta?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean clay that has been wrought into forms of use and beauty, and
+prepared by fire to endure almost to the end of time. It is most
+commonly found in plain rectangular blocks, but in accordance with the
+artistic spirit of the age, brains are now mixed with the sordid earth,
+and lasting beauty glows upon the rich, warm face of the strong brick
+walls.&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yea, verily, amen and amen! Beauty, eloquence and true poetry, bright
+gleams of prophetic fire, patriotism, piety and the music of the
+spheres. I can see them all in my mind's eye and hear them in my mind's
+ear. Jill, my dear, our house shall be bricks&mdash;excuse me, I mean
+<i>brains</i>&mdash;and mortar, from turret to foundation stone. Consider that
+settled, and if the meeting is unanimous we will now adjourn till
+to-morrow morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One moment, if you please. Filling the spaces behind the lathing in a
+brick house with some fireproof and non-conducting material is a
+concession to usual modes of building. A more satisfactory construction
+still would be to build the wails of hollow bricks and with air spaces
+<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>so disposed that neither wood furrings nor laths would be necessary.
+There is, moreover, no good reason why the inner surfaces of the main
+walls of a brick house and both sides of the partitions should not form
+the final finish of the rooms. Glazed bricks or tiles built into the
+walls, or secured to them after they are built, are vastly more
+satisfactory than a fragile and incongruous patchwork of wood, leather,
+metal, paper, paint and mortar, thrown together in some of the thousand
+and one fantastic fashions that spring up in a day, run their little
+course, and speedily return to the dust they have spent their short
+lives in collecting. I am afraid to dwell on this theme lest I should
+lie awake all night in a fever of futile protest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pray don't run any risks. I move we now adjourn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; but first let me ask one question,&quot; said Jill. &quot;Would not the
+difference of cost between a house built in the ordinary combustible
+style and the same made fire-proof, or even 'slow-burning,' pay the
+cost of insurance at the usual rates many times over and leave a large
+margin besides?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly it would.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, as an investment, what object is there in attempting to make
+buildings fireproof or even approximately so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me. I thought you were going to ask only one question.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>CHAPTER V.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>WHEN THE FLOODS BEAT AND THE RAINS DESCEND.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p063A.png"
+width="85" height="81" alt="A" />fter the architect had retired to his room it occurred to him that he
+might have answered Jill's conundrum as to the profit of building
+fire-proof houses by reminding her that pecuniary loss is not the sole
+objection to being burned out of house and home whenever the fire fiend
+happens to crave a flaming sacrifice, in the daytime or in the night,
+in summer or in midwinter, in sickness or in health; that not only
+heir-looms, but hearthstones and door posts, endeared by long
+associations, have a value beyond the power of insurance companies to
+restore, and that protection against fire means also security against
+many other ills to which the dwellers in houses are liable, not to
+refer to the larger fact that there is no real wealth without
+permanence, while the destruction of anything useful in the world,
+wherever the loss may seem to fall, impoverishes the whole. Having
+settled this point to his own satisfaction, he sought his pillow in a
+comfortable frame of mind. Comfortable, but not wholly at rest, for no
+sooner did he close his eyes than the &quot;fever of futile protest&quot;
+asserted itself in turbulent visions of paper, paint and plastering.
+Dados danced around in carnival dress; wall decorations went waltzing
+up and down, changing <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>in shape, size and color like the figures in a
+kaleidoscope; Chinese pagodas on painted paper dissolved into brazen
+sconces, and candelabra sat where no light would ever shine; glazed
+plaques turned into Panama hats and cotton umbrellas, the classic
+figures in the frieze began to chase the peacocks furiously across the
+ceilings, the storks hopped wildly around on their one available leg,
+draperies of every conceivable hue and texture, from spider webs to
+sole leather, shaking the dust from their folds, slipped uneasily about
+on their glittering rings, and showers of Japanese fans floated down
+like falling apple blossoms in the month of May. He seemed to see the
+Old Curiosity Shop, the uncanny room of Mr. Venus, a dozen foreign
+departments of the Centennial, ancient garrets and modern household art
+stores, all tumbled together in hopeless confusion, and over all an
+emerald, golden halo that grew more and more concentrated till it burst
+into gloom as one gigantic sunflower, which, suddenly changing into the
+full moon just rising above the top of a neighboring roof, put an end
+to his chaotic dreams.</p>
+
+<p>Not willing to be moonstruck, even on the back of his head, he arose
+and went to the window to draw the curtain. There was a sort of
+curtainette at the top, opaque and immovable, serving simply to reduce
+the height of the window. At the sides there were gauzy draperies, too
+fancifully arranged to be rashly moved and too thin to serve the
+purpose of a curtain even against moonlight. He tried to close the
+inside shutters, but they clung to their boxes, refusing to stir
+without an order from the carpenter. At the risk of catching a cold or
+a fall, he <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>opened the window and endeavored to bring the outside
+blinds together. One fold hung fast to the wall, the other he contrived
+to unloose, but the hook to hold it closed was wanting, and when he
+tried to fasten it open again the catch refused to catch, so he was
+compelled to shut the window and leave the swinging blind at the mercy
+of the wind. He then improvised a screen from a high-backed chair and
+an extra blanket, and again betook himself to bed. Stepping on a tack
+that had been left over when the floor matting was laid provoked
+certain exclamations calculated to exorcise the demon&mdash;or should I say
+alarm the angel?&mdash;of decorative art, and he was soon wrapped in the
+slumber of the just, undisturbed by esthetic visions.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep065" id="imagep065"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p065.png" alt="WILL'S MASTERPIECE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Will's Masterpiece</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>After a time he became dimly conscious of a sense of alarm. At first,
+scarcely roused to understand the fear or its cause, he soon recognized
+a noise that filled his soul with terror&mdash;the stealthy sound of a
+midnight assassin; a faint rasping, intermittent and cautious, a sawing
+or filing the bolt of his door. He made a motion to spring up, upset a
+glass of water by his bedside and&mdash;frightened the rats from the
+particular hole they were trying to gnaw. In their sudden fright they
+dropped all pretense of secresy. They called each other aloud by name
+and scattered acorns, matches, butternuts and ears of corn in every
+direction, which rolled along the ceiling, fell down the partitions,
+knocked the mortar off the back of the laths and raised such a noisy
+commotion as ought to have roused the whole neighborhood. No one
+stirred, and the architect once more addressed himself to blessed
+sleep, <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>feeling that morning must soon put an end to his tribulations.
+How long he slept he had no means of knowing. It was still dark when he
+awoke: dark but not still. A distant footfall tinkled on the matted
+floor, followed by another and another in rapid, measured succession.
+Could there be a cat or a dog in the room? He could see nothing. The
+moon was gone and the room was dark as Egypt. Possibly some animal
+escaped from a traveling menagerie had hidden in the chamber. He lay
+still and listened while the step&mdash;step&mdash;step&mdash;kept on without break or
+change. Presently he thought of ghosts, and as ghosts were the one
+thing he was not afraid of he turned over and went to sleep for good
+just as the village clock struck eleven.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning when he awoke, it rained. The ghostly footfalls
+continued; in fact, they had considerably increased, but they were no
+longer ghostly. A dark spot on the ceiling directly over the portfolio
+of plans he had laid on the floor betrayed their source. Portfolio and
+contents were as well soaked as if the fire companies had been at
+them&mdash;all from a leak in the roof.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast, when Jill proposed to spend the time till it cleared
+off in looking over the plans he had brought, the architect was obliged
+to explain the disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is just as well,&quot; said he. &quot;I brought them because you asked me to
+bring them, not because I supposed there would be one among them that
+would suit you. But they are not wasted. These poor, dumb, dripping
+plans preach a most eloquent sermon, the practical application of which
+is only too evident.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>But how <i>can</i> you make a tight roof? There has always been a leak here
+when it rains with the wind in a certain quarter. We keep a pan under
+it all the time, but somebody forgot to empty it; so it ran over last
+night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ought to see the house that I built,&quot; said Jack. &quot;The wind may
+blow where it listeth and never a drop comes through the roof.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Jack, what a story! Only yesterday you showed me where the ceiling
+was stained and the paper just ready to come off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That wasn't from rain water. It was from snow and ice water, which is
+a very different affair. We had peculiar weather last winter. I know a
+man who lost three thousand dollars' worth of frescoes in one night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is indeed a different matter as regards the construction of the
+roof, but the water is wet all the same, and a roof is inexcusable that
+fails to keep all beneath it dry, however peculiar the weather may be.
+No, it is not difficult to make a tight roof with the aid of common
+sense and common faithfulness. The most vulnerable spots during a rain
+storm are beside the dormers and the chimneys, over the bay-window
+roofs and in the valleys, that is, wherever the plane surface and the
+uniform slope of the roof is broken. In guarding these it is not safe
+to assume that water never runs up hill; a strong wind will drive it up
+the slope of a roof under slates, shingles or flashings as easily as it
+drives up the high tide of Lincolnshire. It will cause the water
+pouring down the side of a chimney, a dormer window, or any other
+vertical wall, to run off in an oblique direction and into cracks that
+never thought <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>of being exposed to falling rain. 'Valleys' fail to
+carry their own rivers when they are punctured by nails carelessly
+driven too far within their borders; when the rust that corrupts the
+metal of which they are commonly composed has eaten their substance
+from the under side perhaps, their weakness undiscovered till the
+torrent breaks through; when they become choked with leaves and dust
+and overflow their banks; when they are torn asunder by their efforts
+to accommodate themselves to changes of temperature, and when ice cakes
+come down from the steep roofs and break holes through them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The other danger is peculiar to cold climates, where the roof must
+protect not only from driving rain but from snow and ice in all their
+moods and tenses. When the higher peaks feel the warmth of the sun or
+the internal heat of the building, the lower slopes and valleys being
+without such influence, it sometimes happens that the rills will be set
+to running by the warmth of the upper portions, while the colder
+climate below will stop them in their course, building around the
+slate, shingles or tiles an impervious ice dam, from which the
+descending streams can find no outlet except by 'setting back' under
+the slates and running down inside. Eave spouts and conductors are
+especially liable to this climatic influence, for nothing is more
+common than to find them freezing in the shade while the roofs above
+are basking in the sun. As Jack observes, admitting water above an ice
+dam is a different kind of sin in a roof from that which caused the
+ruin of my plans last night, but it is no less unpardonable. The same
+treatment that will make a roof <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>non-conducting of fire will, to some
+extent, overcome this danger, or a double boarding may be laid upon the
+rafters, with an air space between. This or the mineral wool packing
+will prevent the premature melting of snow from the internal heat. The
+only sure salvation for gutters is to take them down and lay them away
+in a cool, dry place. Thorough work, ample outlets and abundant room
+for an overflow on the outward side will make them reasonably safe. In
+general it is better to let the water fall to the ground, as directly
+as possible, and let the snow slide where it will, provided there is
+nothing below to be injured by an avalanche. A hundred-weight of warm
+snow or a five-pound icicle falling ten feet upon a slated roof or a
+conservatory skylight is sure to make a lasting impression.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't this discourse a little out of season?&quot; said Jack. &quot;We don't buy
+furs in July nor refrigerators in January. If you expect advice to be
+followed, you mustn't offer it too long beforehand. Now, as your plans
+haven't yet recovered from their bath, let us see if Jill's air-castles
+can be brought down to the region of human possibilities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not quite ready for that,&quot; said Jill. &quot;First, let me show you the
+plans my old friend has sent me, and read you her description of them.
+Here are the plans and here is the letter:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Of all the plans Will has ever made'&mdash;her 'Will' is an architect, you
+know&mdash;'these seem to me most likely to suit you and Jack, although they
+are by no means, adapted to conventional, commonplace housekeepers. In
+the centre of the first floor the large hall, opening freely to the
+outside world, is a sort of common ground, <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>hospitable and cheerful,
+where the stranger guest and the old friend meet; where the children
+play, where the entire household are free to come and go without
+formality. The furniture it contains is for use and comfort. It is
+never out of order, because it is subject to no formal rules. At the
+left of the hall is the real family home, more secluded and more
+significant of your own taste and feeling. Instead of many separate
+apartments for general family use, here are drawing-room, sitting-room,
+library and parlor, all in one. This is the domestic sanctuary, the
+essential family home into which outsiders come only by special
+invitation. From the central hall runs the staircase that leads to the
+still more personal and private apartments above, one of which belongs
+to each member of the family. At the right of the hall is the
+dining-room, near enough to make its contribution to physical comfort
+and enjoyment at the proper time, but easily excluded when its inferior
+service is not required.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't understand that,&quot; said Jill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do,&quot; said Jack. &quot;It means that the meat that perisheth ought not to
+be set above the feast of reason and flow of soul; that the dining-room
+ought to be convenient but subordinate, not the most conspicuously
+elegant part of the establishment, unless we keep a boarding-house and
+reckon eating the chief end of man. Where do you say the library is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Included in the drawing-room. Probably the corner marked 'Boudoir'
+contains a writing desk with more or less books and other literary
+appliances. It has a fireplace of its own and porti&egrave;res would give it
+complete seclusion.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep073" id="imagep073"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p073.png" width="80%" alt="FIRST FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">First Floor Of Will's Masterpiece</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is the smoking-room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. She didn't send the plans for the stable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How savage! Please go on with the letter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>Jill continued:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The floors of the dining-room and hall are on the same level, but
+that of the drawing-room is one or two feet higher&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't like that at all. Should stumble forty times a day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'&mdash;which is typical of its higher social plane, makes a charming
+raised seat on the platform at the foot of the stairs, and gives a more
+picturesque effect than would be possible if all the rooms were on a
+par.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't help that. I shouldn't like it. I'd rather be a commonplace
+housekeeper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'The higher broad landing in the staircase, running quite across the
+hall, makes a sort of gallery with room for a few book-shelves, a
+lounging-seat in the window, a band of musicians on festival occasions,
+with perhaps a pretty view from the window.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the landscape happens to fit the plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Under the lower portion, of the stairs there is a toilet room, and at
+the same end of the hall wide doors lead to the piazza. A long window
+also gives access to the same piazza from the drawing-room. In the
+second story the chambers have plenty of closets and dressing-rooms,
+and yet but few doors. Indeed, many of these may be omitted by using
+porti&egrave;res between each chamber and its dressing-room. You will notice,
+too, that by locking one door on each story the servants' quarters can
+be entirely detached from the rest of the house.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jill, laying down the letter; &quot;and that suggests another
+question: What do you think of a plan <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>like this which provides no
+passage from the kitchen to the front part of the house except across
+the dining-room?&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep075" id="imagep075"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p075.png" alt="SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Second Floor Of Will's Masterpiece</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I should refer the question back to the housekeepers <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>themselves; it
+is domestic rather than architectural. If the kitchen servant attends
+to the door bell, and is constantly sailing back and forth between the
+cooking-stove and the front door like a Fulton Ferry boat, the amount
+of travel would justify a special highway&mdash;even a suspension bridge.
+Likewise, when the side entrance for the boys and other careless
+members of the family is behind the dining-room, that apartment will
+become a noisy thoroughfare, unless there is a corridor passing around
+it. This is a common dilemma in planning the average house, and while a
+direct communication between the front and rear portions is always
+desirable, crossing one of the principal rooms is often the least of
+two evils. It seems to be so in this plan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on, Jill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is but one more sentence about the plan: 'The outside of the
+house is severely plain, but you can easily make it more ornamental.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's true. Nothing is easier than to make things ornamental. The
+hard thing is to make them simply useful. Now if you want my candid
+opinion of this plan,&quot; Jack continued, &quot;I should say it is first-rate
+if the front door looks toward the east: if there is a grand view of
+rivers and mountains toward the southwest; if the family live on the
+west piazza all the forenoon; if they board a moderate family of
+servants in the north end (which I notice is a few steps lower than the
+dining-room&mdash;for social reasons, I suppose)&mdash;if they keep up rather a
+'tony' style of living in the south end; are not above condescending to
+men of low estate to the extent of <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>receiving common people in the big
+hall, but holding themselves about two steps above the average human;
+and, finally, if and provided the butler's pantry is made as large
+again for a smoking-room, and the kitchen pantry made large enough to
+hold the butler. With these few remarks, I think we may lay this set of
+plans on the table.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p077.png" width="450" alt="End of Chapter Decoration." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>CHAPTER VI.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>THE WISDOM OF JILL IN THE KITCHEN.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the P image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p078P.png"
+width="85" height="123" alt="P" /><br />erhaps Jack will remember,&quot; said Jill, as she prepared to explain her
+plans, &quot;that we examined not long ago a large number of somewhat
+pretentious houses, but did not find one that was satisfactory, the
+defects being usually in what I should call the working department of
+the house. The large front rooms were often exceedingly charming,
+elegantly furnished and well arranged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For which reason,&quot; said Jack, &quot;the family seemed to be religiously
+kept out of them unless they had on their company manners and their
+Sunday clothes, or wished to make themselves particularly miserable by
+having a wedding, a sewing society or an evening party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The rear boundary of the dining-room seemed like Mason and Dixon's
+line in the old times; once beyond it, we entered a region 'without law
+or ornament or order,' a realm of architectural incompetence, confusion
+and evil work&mdash;if it is fair to call the arrangements of the domestic
+part of a house an architectural matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly it is,&quot; Jack affirmed, &quot;and it's my opinion that no
+architect ought to receive his diploma until he has served one year in
+a first-class family as cook, butler and maid-of-all-work.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep079" id="imagep079"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p079.png" alt="THE OUTSIDE OF TED'S HOUSE" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Outside Of Ted's House</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>One would almost be inclined to think that such an experience, with
+another year at bridge building, had been with certain 'practical
+architects and builders' the entire course of study.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was plain enough,&quot; Jill continued, &quot;that these houses were planned
+by <i>men</i>, who were not only ignorant of the details of housework but
+who held them in low esteem, as of no special importance. They
+evidently exhausted their room and their resources on what they are
+pleased to call the 'main' part of the house, leaving the kitchen and
+all its accessories to be fashioned out of the chips and fragments that
+remained. It would be a similar thing if a man should build a factory,
+fill it with machinery, furnish and equip the offices, warerooms and
+shipping docks, but leave no room for the engine that is to drive the
+whole or for the fuel that feeds the engine. When 'we women' practice
+domestic architecture, as we surely ought and shall,&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When it's fashionable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;&mdash;we shall change all that. If there can be but two good rooms in a
+house it is better to have a kitchen and sitting-room than a
+dining-room and parlor. I propose to begin at the other end of the
+problem in planning our house. It may not suit anybody else, but if it
+suits Jack and I it will be a model home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That sentiment is a solid foundation to build upon,&quot; said the
+architect. &quot;I wish it was more popular. Build to suit yourselves, not
+your neighbors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now if you will walk into my kitchen, which is <i>not</i> up nor down a
+winding stair? but on the same level <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>with the dining-room, you shall
+judge whether it can be made a stern reality or must always remain the
+ghostly wing of a castle in the air. The approach from outside is
+through the little entry at the farther corner, where 'the butcher, the
+baker, and the candlestick maker,' the grocer, the fish-man, the
+milk-man and the ice-man bring their offerings. The other entrance is
+by way of the lobby adjoining the main staircase hall. This lobby or
+'garden entrance' is a sort of Mugby Junction, where we can take the
+cars for the cellar, for the second floor by the back stairs route, for
+the dining-room or for out of doors, and where we find refreshment in
+the way of a wash-basin and minor toilet conveniences. Under the main
+staircase there is also a large closet opening into this same lobby. My
+kitchen you see has windows at opposite sides, not only to admit plenty
+of light, for cleanliness is a child of light&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's true,&quot; said Jack. &quot;In a dark room it's hard to tell a dried
+blueberry from a dried&mdash;currant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not only for light, but that the summer breezes may sweep through it
+when the windows are open, and, as far as possible, keep a river of
+fresh air rollings between the cooking range and the dining-room. It is
+long and narrow, that it may have ample wall space and yet keep the
+distance between the engine and machine shop, that is, the range with
+its appurtenances, and the packing-room&mdash;I mean the butler's pantry&mdash;as
+short as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad there's going to be a 'butler's pantry,' it sounds so
+stylish. I notice that among people who have accommodations for a
+'butler' in their house plans, about <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>one in a hundred keeps the
+genuine article. All the rest keep a waitress or a 'second girl.'
+Sometimes the cook, waitress, butler, chambermaid, valet and
+housekeeper are all combined in one tough and versatile handmaiden.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep083" id="imagep083"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p083.png" alt="JILL'S KITCHEN IN BLACK AND WHITE" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Jill's Kitchen in Black and White</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, call it china closet, though it is really something more than
+that, or serving-room, or dining-room pantry&mdash;whatever you please. We
+shall keep two servants in the house, one of whom will wait on the
+table; consequently I do not want a door from this room-of-many-names
+to the kitchen. It is much easier to maintain the dignity and order
+that belong to our precious pottery, our blue <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>and crackled ware, our
+fair and frail cut glass, if they are not exposed to frequent attacks
+from the kitchen side. There is, however, an ample sliding door or
+window in the partition, and a wide serving table before it, on which
+the cook will deposit the dinner as she takes it from the range. A part
+of the top of this table is of slate, and may be kept hot by steam or
+hot water from the range. With but one servant it would of course be
+necessary to make the route from the kitchen range to the dining-room
+table more direct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What if you had none?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I had none, my kitchen, dining-room, store-room, china-closet,
+butler's pantry and all the blessed facilities for cooking, serving and
+removing the meals should be within a radius of ten feet. How any
+mortal woman with a soul above dress trimmings can be content to spend
+three hours in preparing meals to be eaten in thirty minutes passes my
+comprehension. When I 'do my own work,' as Aunt Jerusha says, there
+will be no extra steps, no extra dishes, no French cooking, no
+multiplying of 'courses.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No cards, no cake, no style.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, indeed! The most distinguished and elegant style. Such style as
+is not possible except where all the household service is performed by
+the most devoted, the most thoughtful, the most intelligent, if I may
+say so&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly the most intelligent, amiable, accomplished and altogether
+lovely member of the family. I agree to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There will be no <i>pretense</i> of style&mdash;if that is what you <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>mean, no
+vain endeavor to conceal poverty or ignorance, but a delightful
+Arcadian candor and simplicity that will leave the mistress of the
+house, who is also housekeeper, nurse, cook, dairymaid, butler,
+waitress, laundress, seamstress, governess and family physician,
+abundant time and strength for such other occupations and amusements as
+may be most congenial. It would be a delightful way of living, and I
+should not hesitate to try it if I felt certain that I <i>had</i> a soul
+above dress trimmings. I am not willing to be a household drudge,
+overwhelmed by the 'work that is never done;' therefore, to be on the
+safe side, we will keep two servants.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The cooking range, whether of the portable or 'set' kind, will have a
+brick wall behind it and at each side, which, carried above, will form
+a sort of canopy to conduct into the chimney the superfluous heat in
+warm weather and the steam and smoke from cooking at all times. I
+suppose some housekeepers would object to separating the two pantries,
+but they have no common interests requiring close proximity. The
+kitchen pantry is a store-room and a kind of private laboratory, where
+the mysterious experiments are made that develop our taste for esthetic
+cooking and give us an experimental knowledge of dyspepsia. Its
+operations precede the work of the range to which it is a near
+neighbor, as it ought to be. It has also the merit of being in the cool
+northwest corner of the house, with small windows on two adjacent
+sides, which are better than a single window, for the air of a
+store-room or pantry cannot be changed too freely in warm weather.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>Do you see the closets at the end of this pantry? One is for ice,
+which is shoved in through a little door just above the sink where it
+is brought by the ice-man; the other is for a cold closet and is built
+in such a way as to get the full benefit of its cold-blooded neighbor.
+Don't forget, in making the plan, that the door through which the ice
+slides must be large enough to take in the largest cakes, and must be
+so arranged that after being washed at the sink they will slide easily
+without lifting or <i>banging</i> into their proper places inside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And let me suggest,&quot; said the architect, &quot;that the waste-pipe that
+carries off the melted ice be allowed to run straight out of doors,
+without making the acquaintance of the sewer or any other drain-pipe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please remember that then, as well as the door. The kitchen sink is at
+the west end of the room, between and under two windows, which must be
+at least three feet from the floor. It is near to the pantry door, to
+accommodate the dishes used in cooking; yet not so near that one cannot
+stand beside it without danger of being roasted or broiled; near to the
+cellar door, from whence come the Murphys and other vegetables to have
+their faces washed and their eyes put out. Of course there is a china
+sink in the china closet, to insure tender treatment for all the table
+ware, and I should like a sort of window or slide behind the sideboard
+opening through it. Sometimes it will be convenient for the waitress to
+arrange the articles to be used on the table within reach from the
+dining-room side, and save a special journey whenever a dish, or a
+spoon is changed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>It strikes me,&quot; said Jack, &quot;that when it comes to spoons you're
+drawing it pretty fine. I suppose these are modern improvements, but
+how much better will the dinners be than the dinners cooked in my
+kitchen? Two servants will do all the work for the same wages.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Real labor-saving is a religious duty, like all other economy; and if
+we don't have better domestic service with better facilities for doing
+work the fault is our own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I don't see that this kitchen is any better than mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course you don't; you're a man; but for one thing, your china
+closet hasn't even a window of its own. How do you expect glasses to be
+made clean and silver bright in such a place? Now observe my plan: Not
+only is the kitchen light, but the entry where the ice comes in, the
+pantry where the food is prepared, the butler's pantry, the stairs to
+the cellar and to the second floor, and Mugby Junction, are all light.
+There isn't a dark corner on the premises, and consequently no excuse
+for uncleanness or accidents.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just think of the flies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Windows are easily darkened. But I am not quite ready to talk over
+these minor matters. The general plan is the first thing, and I think
+you will agree with me that it is well begun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;According to Poor Richard, then, it is half done. So it's time for
+recess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well; way of change let us look at the plans of brother Ted's
+house in Kansas. Its situation is different from ours, as it stands on
+a high bluff in a bend of <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>the Missouri, and the parlor looks over the
+water in three different directions, up and down and across the river.
+The piazza seems to be arranged to make the most of this situation, and
+Ted thinks it impossible to contrive a more charming arrangement for
+hall, parlor and dining-room. They use the parlor as a common
+sitting-room, and the hall still more commonly, especially in warm
+weather. Ted doesn't realize that half the charm of the house lies in
+its adaptation to the site.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep088" id="imagep088"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p088.png" alt="THE FIRST FLOOR OF TED'S HOUSE" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The First Floor Of Ted's House</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That ought to be the case with every country or suburban house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It certainly will not fit our lot, and it seems to me best suited for
+a summer home or for a warm climate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Jack was called to his office, and Jill withdrew to attend to some
+household duties, first requesting the architect to redraw the plans so
+as to show accurately the construction and details.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>That is to say,&quot; said Jack, &quot;while Jill makes a pudding for dinner and
+I write a business letter of three lines, you are to lay out in
+complete shape the plans for a house containing all the modern
+abominations and improvements, that will cost ten thousand dollars,
+occupy two years in building and last forever. That's a modest
+request.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not extravagant compared with the demands often made upon domestic
+architects, for it involves no downright contradictions. I am not asked
+to show how a house worth ten thousand dollars can be built for five,
+or to break the Golden Rule, or to change the multiplication table and
+the cardinal points of the compass.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>CHAPTER VII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>BE HONEST AND KEEP WARM.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p090T.png"
+width="85" height="85" alt="T" />he architect went home to translate the instructions he had received
+into the language that builders understand. Jack and Jill established
+themselves in the house that Jack built. The proposed amendments were
+indefinitely postponed; Jill having consented to take the house
+temporarily as she had taken Jack permanently&mdash;for better or
+worse&mdash;only claiming her reserved right, in the case of the house, of
+privately finding all the fault she pleased. Even the staircase, so
+favorable to a swift descent, remained unchanged, and in their own room
+the bed stood squarely in the middle of the floor. Jack averred that
+this was intended when the house was planned, because the air is so
+much better in the centre of a room, and there is not so much danger of
+being struck by lightning.</p>
+
+<p>One day there came a cold, gloomy rain on the wings of a raw east wind,
+and after Jack had gone to his office it occurred to Jill that a fire
+on the hearth in the parlor, which they used as a common sitting-room,
+would be exceedingly comfortable, but on removing a highly ornamental
+screen that served as a &quot;fireboard,&quot; she found neither grate nor
+fireplace, only a blank wall plastered<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a> <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>and papered. Her righteous
+wrath was kindled, not because she was compelled to get warm in some
+other way, but by the fraudulent character of the chimney-piece. &quot;I can
+imagine nothing more absurdly impertinent,&quot; she declared to Jack when
+he came home, &quot;than that huge marble mantel standing stupidly against
+the wall where there isn't even a chimney for a background. As a piece
+of furniture it is superfluous; as a wall decoration it is hideous; as
+a shelf it is preposterous; as a fireplace it is a downright lie. If
+our architect suggests anything of the kind he will be dismissed on the
+instant.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep091" id="imagep091"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p091.png" width="90%" alt="THE POOR BUT MODEST ATTORNEY'S COTTAGE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Poor But Modest Attorney's Cottage</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you think the room would look rather bare without a mantel? You
+know it's the most common thing in the world to have them like this. I
+can show you a hundred without going out of town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Common! It's worse than common; it is vulgar, it is atrocious, it is
+the sum of all villainies!&quot; said Jill, her indignation rising with each
+succeeding epithet. &quot;A fireplace is a sacred thing. To pretend to have
+one when you have not is like pretending to be pious when you know you
+are wicked; it is stealing the livery of a warm, gracious, kindly
+hospitality to serve you in making a cold, heartless <i>pretense</i> of
+welcome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't mean to do anything wrong,&quot; Jack protested with exceeding
+meekness. &quot;Such mantels were all the fashion when this house was built,
+and fashions in marble can't be changed as easily as fashions in paper
+flowers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There ought not to be 'fashions' in marble, but of course it was
+fashion. Nothing else than the blindest <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>of all blind guides could have
+led people into anything so hopelessly silly and unprincipled. I shall
+never enjoy this room again,&quot; she continued, &quot;knowing, as well I know,
+that yonder stately piece of sculpture is a whited <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>sepulchre, a
+delusion and a snare. I shall feel that I ought to unmask it the moment
+a visitor comes in, lest I should be asked to make a fire on the hearth
+and be obliged to confess the depravity in our own household.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep094" id="imagep094"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p094.png" alt="A DOUBLE TEAM." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Double Team</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, really, my dear, don't you think you are coming it rather strong,
+if I may be allowed the expression? Isn't it possible that your present
+views may be slightly tinged by the color of the east wind, so to
+speak?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not in the least. You know perfectly well, Jack, that insincerity is
+the bane of domestic and social life; that hypocrisy is a child of the
+Evil One, and that vain and false pretensions are the fatal lures that
+lead us on to destruction. How can we respect ourselves or expect our
+friends to respect us if the most conspicuous thing in the house is a
+palpable fraud?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, dear, I'll bring up a can of nitro-glycerine to-morrow and
+blow the whole establishment into the middle of futurity. Meanwhile,
+let us see if anything can be done to make it endurable a few hours
+longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dropping on his knees in front of the fictitious fireplace, Jack pulled
+the paper from the wall, disclosing a sheet-iron stove-pipe receiver,
+set there for a time of need, and communicating in some mysterious way
+with a sooty smoke flue. Having found this, he telephoned to the stove
+store for a portable grate&mdash;that is to say, a Franklin stove with
+ornamental tiles in the face of it&mdash;and in less than an hour the room
+was radiant with the blaze of a hickory fire, while a hitherto unknown
+warmth came to the lifeless marble from its new neighbor. By sitting
+directly in front of it Jill discovered that in <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>appearance the general
+effect was nearly as good as that of a genuine fireplace, the warmth
+diffused being decidedly greater.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry I lost my temper,&quot; said she, after they had sat a while in
+silence enjoying the ameliorating influence of the blaze, &quot;but I <i>do</i>
+hate a humbug. We will let this stove stand here all summer to remind
+you that neither your house nor your wife is perfect, and to keep me
+warm when the east wind blows.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep096" id="imagep096"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p096.png" alt="WARMTH UNDER THE WINDOW." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Warmth Under The Window</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jack's response to this magnanimous remark must be omitted, as it had
+no direct bearing upon house-building.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I went into the kitchen this morning to get warm,&quot; Jill observed
+later in the evening, &quot;I found Bridget ironing; the stove was red-hot,
+the bath boiler was bubbling and shaking with the imprisoned steam, and
+the outside door was wide open. It struck me that there was heat enough
+going out of doors, not to mention the superheated air of the kitchen
+itself, to have made <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>the whole house comfortable such days as this, if
+it could only be saved. Don't you think it would be possible to attach
+a pipe to some part of the cooking-range that would carry steam or hot
+water to the front of the house. We shouldn't want it when the furnace
+was running, nor in very warm weather, and at such times it could be
+turned off.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep097" id="imagep097"></a>
+
+<div class="imgdiv">
+<img border="0" src="images/p097.png" width="150" height="430" alt="STEAM PIPES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE." />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Steam Pipes Beside <br />The Fireplace</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jack thought it could be done,
+and expressed a willingness to be a
+roasted martyr occasionally if he could by that means make some use of
+the perennial fire in the kitchen, a fire that seemed to be the hottest
+when there was no demand for it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's my conviction,&quot; said he, &quot;that if the heat actually evolved from
+the fuel consumed by the average cook could be conserved on strictly
+scientific principles, it would warm the house comfortably the year
+round without any damage to the cooking, and with a saving of all the
+bother of stoves, fireplaces and furnaces.&quot; And his conviction was well
+founded, provided the house is not too large and the weather is not too
+cold. &quot;Shall we try it in the new house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not unless somebody invents a new patent low-pressure,
+automatic-cooking-range-warming-attachment before we are ready for it.
+We shall have fireplaces in every room&mdash;real ones&mdash;and steam radiators
+beside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>What! in every room, those ugly, black, bronzy, oily, noisy, leaking,
+sizzling, snapping steam radiators that are always in the way and keep
+the air in the room so dry that everybody has catarrh, the doors won't
+latch, and the furniture falls to pieces? You know how the old heirloom
+mahogany chair collapsed under Madam Abigail at Mrs. Hunter's
+party&mdash;went to pieces in a twinkling like the one-horse shay&mdash;and all
+on account of the steam heat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, I remember; it was a comical tragedy; and before we run any such
+risks let us look over our advisory letters. Here's one from Uncle
+Harry, who, as you know, is never without a hobby of some sort. Just at
+present he is devoted to sanitary questions. To be well warmed,
+ventilated and plumbed is the chief end of man. He begins by saying
+that 'sun's heat is the only external warmth that is natural or
+beneficial to human beings. When men have risen above the dark clouds
+of sin and ignorance they will discover how to preserve the extra
+warmth of the torrid zone and of the hot summers in our own latitudes
+to be evenly diffused through colder climes and seasons. Next to sun's
+heat is that which comes from visible combustion&mdash;the burning of wood
+and coal. Such spontaneous, radiant, living warmth differs essentially
+from that which we receive by contact with artificially-warmed
+substances, somewhat as fruit that has been long gathered differs from
+that taken directly from the vine.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't this getting sort of misty, what you might call 'transcendental
+like'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>Possibly, and this is still more so: 'Warmth is the vital atmosphere
+of life, and a living flame imparts to us some of nature's own
+mysterious vitality. Hence, the sun's rays and the blaze of burning
+fuel give not only a material but a spiritual comfort and cheer, which
+mere warm air is powerless to impart. Here is another reason why direct
+radiation, even from a black iron pipe, is preferable to a current of
+warm air brought from a distance: in a room warmed by such a current
+nothing is ever quite so warm as the air itself unless so situated as
+to obstruct its flow, but every solid substance near a hot stove or
+radiator absorbs the radiated heat and is satisfied, while the air for
+respiration remains at a comparatively low temperature.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There may be a little sense in that,&quot; said Jack, &quot;but the rest is
+several fathoms too deep for me. Has he any practical advice to give?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That depends upon what you call practical. 'I have little patience,'
+he says, 'with the common objection to direct radiation, that it brings
+no fresh air. Fresh air can be had for the asking under a small stove
+or radiator standing in a room as well as under a large stove or boiler
+standing in the cellar; neither does the dampness or dryness of the
+atmosphere depend primarily upon the mode of warming it, while, as for
+the appearance of steam pipes, if they are not beautiful as usually
+seen, it only proves that art is not wisely applied to iron work, and
+that architects have not learned the essential lesson that whatever
+gives added comfort to a house will, if rightly treated, enhance its
+beauty. Steam-pipes or radiators <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>may stand under windows, behind an
+open screen or grill of polished brass, or they may be incorporated
+with the chimney piece, and need not, in either case, be unsightly or
+liable to work mischief upon the carpets or ceilings under them.
+Wherever placed, a flue to bring in fresh air should be provided and
+fitted with a damper to control the currents.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like the notion of putting them beside the fireplace,&quot; said Jack.
+&quot;When they are both running, it would be like hitching a pair of horses
+before an ox-team or a steam engine attachment to an overshot
+water-wheel. It means business. Uncle Harry improves. What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He expounds his theories of light and shade, of plumbing, sewer-gas
+and malaria, and casually remarks that 'the variation of the north
+magnetic pole and the points of compass are not yet fully understood in
+their relation to human welfare.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I should hope not! He must be writing under the influence of a full
+moon. Let us try a fresh correspondent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. Here is Aunt Melville's latest, with a new set of plans.
+There will be neither trancendentalism nor vain repetitions here:</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;"><span class="sc">&quot;'My Dear Niece</span>: Since writing you last I have had a most
+    interesting experience, and hasten to give you the benefit of
+    it. You remember Mr. Melville's niece married a young attorney
+    in Tumbledonville; very talented and of good family, but poor,
+    <i>desperately</i> poor. He hadn't over two or three thousand
+    dollars in the world, but he has built a marvelous little
+    house, of which I send you the plans. You enter a lovely hall,
+    positively larger than, mine, an actual room in fact, with a
+    staircase running up at one side and a charming fireplace at
+    the right, built, if you will believe <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>it, of common red bricks
+    that cost only five dollars a thousand. It couldn't have taken
+    over two hundred and fifty to build it.&mdash;'</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep101" id="imagep101"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p101.png" alt="THE ATTORNEY'S FLOOR PLAN." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Attorney's Floor Plan</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Just think of that! A charming fireplace for a dollar and a
+quarter!&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;Communicating with the hall by a wide door beautifully draped
+    with some astonishingly cheap material is the parlor, fully
+    equal in every respect to my library, and adjoining that the
+    dining-room, nearly as large. On the same side is a green-house
+    between two bay windows, the whole arrangement having a
+    wonderful air of gentility and culture. I am convinced that you
+    ought to invest three-fourths of your father's wedding present
+    in some safe business, and with the remainder build a house
+    like this, buying a small lot for it, and defer the larger
+    house for a few years. Keeping house alone with Jack and
+    perhaps one maid-of-all-work will be perfectly respectable and
+    dignified; the experience will do you good, and I have no doubt
+    you will enjoy it. It will not only be a <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>great economy in a
+    pecuniary way, but society is very exacting, and a large house
+    entails heavy social burdens which you will escape while living
+    in a cottage. This will give you plenty of time to improve your
+    taste in art, which is indispensable at present. There will be
+    great economy, too, in the matter of furniture. A large house
+    <i>must</i> be furnished according to prevailing fashions, but in a
+    small one you may indulge any unconventional, artistic fancy
+    you please.'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;If Aunt Melville's advice and plans could be applied where they are
+needed they would be extremely valuable. Suppose we found a society and
+present them to it for gratuitous distribution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can't spare them yet; we shall not use them, but it is well to hear
+all sides of a question.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>TRUTH, POETRY AND ROOFS.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the H image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p103H.png"
+width="85" height="84" alt="H" /><br />ow the wind does blow!&quot; said Jill, as she laid aside Aunt Melville's
+latest, and Jack laid another log into the open stove. &quot;It is a genuine
+'gale from the northeast.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it is, and that reminds me,&quot; Jack exclaimed, jumping up, &quot;that a
+driving rain from the northeast always gets the better of the attic
+window over the guest-room. There's something mysterious about that
+window,&quot; he explained. &quot;It opens like a door; I believe they call it a
+'casement' window, and in such a storm as this I have to keep sopping
+up the water that blows in. I had a carpenter look at it, but he said
+it couldn't be fixed without making a new one or fastening it up so it
+couldn't be opened at all. We don't have a northeast rain-storm very
+often, and that's the only window that ever leaks&mdash;except the skylight
+and the round one in the west gable which is hung at the top to swing
+inward and couldn't be expected to hold water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill found some towels, and they hurried to the attic to &quot;sop up&quot; the
+rain that was driving under the sash and had already made its mark on
+the ceiling below. Then they examined the skylight and the round
+window, and <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>just as they were about to descend perceived a smell of
+burning wood. Jack rushed down to the sitting-room, telling Jill to fly
+for a pail of water, found the wall beside the stove-pipe very hot, ran
+for an axe, and, smashing a hole through the lath and plastering,
+discovered a bit of wood furring to which the laths had been nailed
+resting directly against the sheet iron pipe. Catching the pail of
+water which Jill was about to pour into the stove, he cooled the hot
+pipe and extinguished the wood about to burst into flame, the smoke of
+which, rising beside the chimney to the attic, had warned them of the
+danger below. He then cut away around the pipe till the solid brick
+chimney was exposed, gathered up the rubbish, piling the chips upon the
+fire in the stove, and lay back in his chair, evidently enjoying the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How can you be so reckless, Jack, as to keep a fire in such a
+chimney?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The chimneys are all right, my dear. I took special pains with them
+when the house was built. The only danger there ever was lay in that
+little piece of inch board that happened to be too near the pipe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how are we to know what other little pieces of board may be too
+near? I think it's a very dangerous house to live in. If we hadn't gone
+up to the attic when we did it would have been all in flames.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And we shouldn't have gone to the attic at all if my windows had been
+proof against the east wind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, nor would you have known we were having a gale from the northeast
+if I hadn't quoted the 'Wreck of the Hesperus.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep105" id="imagep105"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p105.png" alt="NO CONCEALMENT OR DISGUISE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">No Concealment Or Disguise</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>Consequently we owe our preservation to the well-beloved poet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moral: Study the poets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moral number two: Build leaky casements.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Number three: When the wood around a chimney takes fire it doesn't
+prove a 'defective flue.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Number four: A small fault hidden is more dangerous than a large one
+in sight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very true; and if modern builders had kept to the poet's standard,
+and, like those in the elder days of art,</p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">'wrought with greatest care,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Each minute and hidden part,'</span><br />
+
+<p>we should not be trembling before a black and ragged chasm in the wall,
+afraid to go to bed lest the fire should break out anew and burn us in
+our sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's not the least danger. We are as safe as a barrel of gunpowder
+in a mill pond. There is nothing to set us on fire. That bit of dry
+wood was the key to the whole situation. We have captured that and can
+make our own terms. Still, if you feel nervous we will sit up and 'talk
+house' till the fire goes out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill acceded to this proposal and began to discourse, taking moral
+number four for a text.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wish it were possible,&quot; said she, &quot;to build a house with everything
+in plain sight, the chimneys, the hot-air pipes from the furnace, if
+there are any, the steam pipes, the ventilators, the gas pipes, the
+water pipes, the speaking tubes, the cranks and wires for the
+bells&mdash;whatever really belongs to the building. They might all be
+decorated if that would make them more interesting, but <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>even if they
+were quite unadorned they ought not to be ugly. If we could see them we
+shouldn't feel that we are surrounded by hidden mysteries liable at any
+time to explode or break loose upon us unawares. Those things that get
+out of order easily ought surely to be accessible. I don't believe
+there would have been half the trouble with plumbing, either in the way
+of danger to health or from dishonest and ignorant work, if it had not
+been the custom to keep it as much as possible out of sight. There is a
+great satisfaction, too, in knowing that everything is genuine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We might build a log house. The logs are solid, and the chimney, if
+there happens to be one, won't pretend to be of the same material as
+the walls of the building.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like better the notion of letting the material of which brick walls
+and partitions are composed form the actual finish inside as well as
+outside. The floors, too, should be bare, and the beams that support
+them ought to be visible, and in case of a wooden house, the posts,
+braces and other timbers should be left in sight when the building is
+finished. It is a sad pity that modern modes of building, like modern
+manners and fashions, conceal actual construction and character, making
+a mask that may hide great excellence or absolute worthlessness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Won't all these pipes, wooden beams, bell ropes and things be
+fearfully dusty and cumber the housekeeper with too much serving? I
+supposed you would vote for smooth, flat, hard wood and painted walls,
+they are so much easier to keep clean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps I shall; but we must remember the gnat and <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>the camel and try
+to be consistent. A single porti&egrave;re, especially if it be of the
+rag-carpet style, has a greater dust-collecting capacity than a whole
+houseful of wooden floors, ceilings and wainscots, even when they are
+moulded and ornamentally wrought. Surely they will not be troublesome
+if they are plain and simple, and only think how much more interesting
+than flat square walls and ceilings, which we feel compelled to cover
+with some sort of decoration to make them endurable. I suppose
+architects have outgrown the sheet-iron and stucco style of building,
+and do not generally approve of 'graining' honest pine in imitation of
+coarse-grained chestnut. But these are not the only concealments and
+disguises that ought to be reformed. If we cannot make our house a
+model in any other respect, I hope it will be free from hypocrisy and
+silly affectations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means; but you mustn't forget that reformers risk martyrdom.
+However, you can't be too honest for me; I am ready to sign any pledge
+you offer, even though it prohibit paint, putty and all other cloaks
+for poverty, ignorance and dishonesty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's a time and place for paint and putty, lath, plaster and paper,
+but we ought not to be helplessly dependent upon them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you any idea how the house will look outside,&quot; asked Jack, giving
+the fire a poke, &quot;or is that to be left to take care of itself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, indeed! not left to take care of itself. In that part of the
+undertaking we are bound to believe that the architect is wiser than
+we, and must accept in all humility <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>what he decrees. Still I think the
+law of domestic architecture at least should be 'from within out.' For
+the sake of the external appearance it ought not to be necessary to
+make the rooms higher or lower than we want them for use, neither
+larger nor more irregular in shape. It ought not to be necessary to
+build crooked chimneys for the sake of a dignified standing on the
+roof, or to make a pretense of a window where none is needed. The
+windows are for you and me to look out from and to let in the sunlight,
+not for the benefit of outside observers, and should be treated
+accordingly. We will not have big posts&mdash;mullions, do you call
+them?&mdash;in the middle of them, as there are in these. When I try to look
+down the street to see if you are coming home I can scarcely see
+obliquely to the corner of the lot, and we don't get half as much
+sunshine as we should if the windows were all in one.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep110" id="imagep110"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p110.png" alt="WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">With A Mullion And Without</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not, if there's the same amount of glass?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because the sun can't shine around a corner; and Jack, why did you set
+them so near the floor? There's no chance for a seat under them, and
+they do not give as much light or ventilation as they would if they ran
+nearly up to the ceiling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is the use of making them long at the top? <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>They are always half
+covered up with lambrequins or some fanciful contrivance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed, they will not be; our windows will be arranged to be wholly
+uncovered whenever we need the light. Too many windows are not so
+unmanageable as too many doors, and I should like one room with a whole
+broadside of glass; but for most rooms the fewer windows the better,
+provided they are broad and high. I despise a room in which you can't
+sit down without being in front of a window or walk around without
+running against a door, that has no large wall spaces for pictures and
+no room for a piano, a book-case, a cabinet or a large lounge. A small
+room, that has doors or windows on all sides does not seem like a room
+intended for permanent occupation, but rather as a sort of outer court
+or vestibule belonging to something farther on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose the architect will claim the porches, balconies, and things
+of that sort, as belonging to the exterior, and design them as he
+pleases; but I think we have a right to insist that they shall add to
+our comfort. They must be large enough to be used, they must be put
+where we can use them conveniently, and they must not interfere with
+the interior arrangements; beyond that we shall accept what the
+architect sets before us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Asking no questions for conscience sake.' How about the roof&mdash;is that
+also a matter of evolution?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No; because the inside of the roof is of but little consequence. It
+must keep out the rain and wind, snow and ice; it must be strong and
+economically built and have a reasonable amount of light. The rest we
+shall leave to<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a> <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>the architect. As Uncle Harry observes, 'the material
+part of the house rests upon the foundation stones; its spiritual
+character is displayed chiefly in the roof, which may change to an
+unlimited extent the expression of the building it covers.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep112" id="imagep112"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p112.png" alt="JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Jack's Architectural Phrenology</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That's so. Let me make the roofs for a people and I care not who
+builds the houses. The roof on the house is like the hat on the man, as
+I can show you,&quot; said Jack, taking a piece of charcoal from the stove
+and drawing on the back of the fireboard some astonishing illustrations
+of his theory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here is the president of a big corporation who must be dignified
+whether he has a soul or not. He represents the 'renaissance.' No
+nonsense about him, no sentiment, no sympathy, no anything but&mdash;himself
+and his own magnificence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This fellow is a brakeman&mdash;prompt, efficient, laconic. Same head, you
+see, but different hat. He stands for the hipped roof which has one
+duty to do and does it.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep113" id="imagep113"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p113.png" alt="THE HAT MAKES THE MAN." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Hat Makes The Man</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Give the dignified president a smashing blow on the head and <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>you see
+what he may become after an unsuccessful defalcation&mdash;an unfortunate
+tramp, who has 'seen better days.' He is a capital illustration of the
+roofs called 'French,' that were so imposing a few years ago, and are
+about as agreeable in the way of landscape decoration as the tramp
+himself, but not half so picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pull the string again and we have a benevolent 'broad-brim,' stiff,
+symmetrical and proper to the last degree, like an Italian villa; and,
+once more changing the straight lines to crooked ones, the conventional
+formalist becomes the unconventional, free-and-easy South-westerner,
+who may stand for Swiss or any other go-as-you-please style.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is midnight and the fire is out; let's adjourn.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p114.png" width="450" alt="End of Chapter decoration." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>CHAPTER IX.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE&mdash;BLINDS AND BESSIE.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the T image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p115T.png"
+width="85" height="100" alt="T" /><br />he next demonstration from the architect was a pencil drawing of the
+floor plans, submitted for inspection and criticism. Concerning these
+he wrote to Jill's entire satisfaction. &quot;From many of my clients I
+should expect the first question would be, 'Will a house built in this
+shape look well outside?' It is not necessary to remind you that at
+this stage of the proceedings such an inquiry is wholly irrelevant. The
+interior arrangements should be made without a thought of the exterior
+effect, precisely as if the house were to wear the ring of Gyges and be
+forever invisible to outsiders. There are several points, however, on
+which I await further instructions&mdash;&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the use of having an architect,&quot; Jack inquired, &quot;if you've got
+to keep instructing him all the time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;&mdash;&quot;provided you wish to give instructions,&quot; Jill continued reading.
+&quot;There is often a misunderstanding between architect and client, and I
+wish to avoid it in the present case by saying at the outset that while
+there are many things which, in my opinion, should be referred to you,
+I am ready to decide them for you if you wish me to do so; but even in
+such cases I prefer to set before <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>you the arguments pro and con, after
+which, if you still desire it, I shall accept the arbitration. This is
+not a rule that works both ways or applies universally, for while
+referring to you matters relating to use and expenditure, and at the
+same time standing ready to decide them for you, I cannot promise to
+accept your advice in matters of construction and design. I trust I
+have not yet reached the fossiliferous state of mind that prevents my
+listening with sincere respect to candid suggestions, even from those
+who are not fairly competent to give advice; but on these points you
+must not expect me to follow your taste and judgment in opposition to
+my own, even if you do pay the bills. When your physician prescribes
+arsenic and you inform him that you shall give it to your poodle and
+take strychnine instead, he will doubtless infer that his services are
+no longer desired; he will know that while he might be able to kill
+you, he could not hope to cure you. Patients have rights that
+physicians are bound to respect, but the right to commit suicide and
+ruin the physician's reputation is not among them. The relations of
+client and architect are similar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is one of the questions which I refer to you, but will answer for
+you if you send it back: How shall the eyes of the house be closed?
+Shall the eyelids be outside blinds, inside folding shutters, 'Queen
+Anne' rolling blinds, sliding blinds or Venetian shades? There are good
+reasons for and against each kind; either, if adopted, compels some
+compromise. Whichever road you take you will wish you had taken the
+other.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep117" id="imagep117"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p117.png" alt="THE CONTRIBUTION OF BESSIE'S FATHER." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Contribution Of Bessie's Father</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;For instance, in hot weather outside blinds that shield<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a> <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>the glass
+from the direct rays of the sun keep the rooms cooler than any form of
+inside shutters; they allow a gradation of light and a free circulation
+of air. You can even leave the window open during a summer shower
+without danger of being drenched. Last but not least they are
+inexpensive. The wrong side of the outside blinds appears when you wish
+to make wide windows, or mullioned windows, or windows that cannot
+command at each side an unobstructed wall space equal to at least half
+their own width for the blinds to rest against when open. Under such
+circumstances, which are by no means rare, outside blinds are
+stubbornly unmanageable.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Inside blinds that fold back and swing away from the windows must have
+wide recessed jambs to hold them when they are not in use. If the
+windows are broad these 'pockets' will require a thick wall and thus
+increase the actual size of the house. A little space may be saved by
+allowing them to stand out obliquely when open, or turn around upon the
+inside face of the wall, but either mode increases the cost of
+finishing the rooms. If these blinds are made of open slats, many
+housekeepers despise them as being no better than small cabinets
+maliciously contrived to accumulate dust; if of solid panels, they make
+a room perfectly dark, or when opened ever so slightly admit unbroken
+rays of sunlight. On the other hand, inside blinds are accessible; they
+can be opened and closed without leaning half one's length out of the
+window; they do not hide the glory of plate glass; they graciously
+permit windows to stand where they please and to be as large as they
+please; and they never quarrel <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>with piazza roofs, awnings, hoods or
+other outside accessories.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shutters that coil up into a box over the window or down into a box
+below it have the modest excellence of being always out of the way when
+they are not wanted, of staying where they are put when partially open,
+of occupying but little space and never standing in the way of the
+window curtains. They are, in fact, wooden shades similar to the
+old-fashioned green slat curtains, that were rolled up by drawing a
+cord, but are far more substantial. The single slats of which they are
+composed do not revolve, and consequently it is not easy to 'peep
+through the blind just to hear the band play.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Venetian shades, with their multiplicity of bright-colored straps,
+cords, hooks and trimmings, are picturesque and graceful. They are
+somewhat subject to dust and repairs, and when the window is open are
+not proof against tornadoes and thunder showers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Inside blinds are sometimes contrived to slide sideways, like barn
+doors, into cavities formed to receive them. If built with extreme care
+and handled with the utmost tenderness they are a degree less obtrusive
+than when wholly dependent on hinges. Likewise, outside blinds may be
+contrived to swing horizontally as well as vertically, standing out
+from the top of the window like a small shed roof. They are not quite
+wide enough to serve as awnings, and are liable to catch more wind than
+they can hold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It strikes me that the whole thing is a 'blind.' What is he driving
+at?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>The conclusion of the matter seems to be given in this sentence: 'You
+will perceive, therefore, that a decision in regard to blinds should be
+made even before the house is staked out, since the size of the
+foundation itself may be affected by it, as well as the minor
+details.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm ready for the question; are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. In the bay windows and for the long windows that give access to
+the balconies and piazzas we will have blinds that roll up out of the
+way. A few of the windows on the sunny side will have for summer use
+outside blinds, a few more will have cloth awnings. The most of the
+windows will have no blinds at all, only such shades and curtains as we
+choose to furnish. I don't think the eyes of a house ought to be closed
+much of the time. It is certainty absurd to hang blinds at all the
+windows when we only need them at a few.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, but won't the neighbors rage and imagine vain things when they see
+a house with here and there a blind and here and there an awning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The wise ones will approve; the foolish ones will demonstrate their
+folly by criticising what they don't understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, that point is settled. Unless the next is sharp and short
+you must decide it without my help. It is high time I was at the
+office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will defer them all. It is time for me to be at my household
+duties. You know Cousin Bessie comes this afternoon, and I've noticed
+that extremely intellectual people are sometimes extremely fond of a
+good dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>If Bessie is coming I must anoint my beard with oil of sunflowers and
+trot out my old gold slippers. Shall I send up some pale lilies for
+dessert? And that reminds me&mdash;Jim came home last night and I asked the
+old fellow to come up to dinner. How do you suppose Bess found it out?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be spiteful, Jack. She didn't find it out at all. I invited her
+a week ago. Now go to the office, please, while I put the house in
+order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>During this important process Jill entertained herself by philosophical
+reflection upon the style of living that requires a house to be
+constantly &quot;put in order.&quot; She recalled certain of Uncle Harry's
+observations to the effect that in a truly civilized state housekeeping
+would be so conducted and houses would be so contrived that instead of
+causing care and labor proverbially endless, housekeepers would no more
+be burdened by their domestic duties than are the fowls of the air.
+Jill had too much of the rare good sense, incorrectly called &quot;common,&quot;
+to attempt to reduce Uncle Harry's theories to practice all at once.
+She knew that though we may not reach the summit of our ambition, it is
+well to advance toward it even by a single step, or failing in that, to
+help prepare a way for some one else. She understood the wisdom of
+striving to increase the fraction of life by dividing the denominator,
+and at the same time cherished the broader hope that her life and her
+home might be filled with whatever is of most enduring worth.</p>
+
+<p>Moralizing thus, but always with an architectural or house-building
+background, she continued her work, <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>noticing the sharp grooves and
+projecting mouldings that caught the dust, the high, ugly thresholds,
+the doors that swung the wrong way, compelling half a dozen extra steps
+in passing through them; shelves that were too high or too narrow;
+drawers that refused to &quot;draw&quot; or dropped helplessly on the floor as
+soon as they were <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>drawn out far enough to display the spoons and
+spices they contained; window stools that came down behind tables and
+shelves, forming a sort of receptacle for lost articles belonging to
+the kitchen or pantry&mdash;all of which she resolved should not be
+repeated. When Bessie arrived the house was in that most perfect order
+which gives no sign of unusual preparation.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep123" id="imagep123"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p123.png" alt="FIRST FLOOR OF THE CONTRIBUTION." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">First Floor Of The Contribution</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;This is too perfectly lovely for anything,&quot; exclaimed Bessie. &quot;I just
+<i>dote</i> on domestic duties. You can't help being overpoweringly happy,
+Jill, with such a home and <i>such</i> a husband. Then only to think of the
+new house drives me completely frantic. What <i>will</i> it be like? Are the
+plans made? Oh! I do hope not, for I have a <i>million</i> of things to tell
+you about that are totally <i>unspeakable</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you are just in time. We had a long letter from the architect
+this morning asking for instructions on various matters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How perfectly fascinating! Let's sit down this minute and begin upon
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Jill preferred waiting till Jack came home, bringing with him his
+younger brother, just home for summer vacation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't necessary to announce dinner,&quot; said she. &quot;The preliminary
+odors have already advertised it through the entire house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought these observations were to be strictly confidential,&quot;
+observed Jack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That wasn't 'finding fault.' It was a mere casual remark. Some people
+may think it pleasanter to be <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>summoned by the odor of broiling fish
+than by the noise of a dinner-bell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed I do,&quot; said Bessie, taking Jack's proffered arm. &quot;Odors are too
+delicious for anything. They are so refined and spiritual I'm sure I
+could live on them. I would far prefer the fragrance of a dish of
+strawberries to the fruit itself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shall get along capitally then. You can smell of the berries and
+I'll eat them afterwards. You see now, Jill, the advantage of having a
+house built like this. Cousin Bessie proposes that we live on the
+fragrance of the food. It won't be necessary even to come to the
+dining-room. We can all stay in the parlor or in our chambers and
+absorb sustenance from the circumambient air, as the sprightly goldfish
+gathers honey from the inside of a glass ball.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please don't make fun of me, Cousin Jack, for I do truly <i>revel</i> in
+fragrance, and I'm sure your house is <i>beautifully</i> planned. Don't you
+think so, Mr. James?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I realty don't know much about such things. I never did like to know
+what I was going to have for dinner long beforehand&mdash;it makes me so
+awfully hungry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely so, Jim; it gives you am appetite. I had the house planned
+in this way for that very purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now that you have introduced the subject,&quot; said Jill, &quot;I will tell you
+how <i>I</i> should have planned it. There should have been a 'cut-off'
+somewhere&mdash;a little lobby between the kitchen and the rest of the
+house, with a ventilating flue so large that neither smoke nor steam
+nor perfumed air could pass it without being caught up and <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>carried to
+the sky. Of course these odors ought not to get away from the
+ventilator above the range, but the best contrivances are not proof
+against the carelessness of the cook when she is in a hurry&mdash;as she
+always is just before dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When they returned to the sitting-room Bessie brought down a set of
+plans her father had sent for Jack and Jill to examine, thinking they
+would suit their lot and taste. They did suit the lot fairly, but
+Jill's mind was too fully made up to accept any change from her own
+plan. The exterior she approved cordially, but to Bessie's despair
+would not promise to imitate it, preferring to leave the outside to her
+architect without reserve.</p>
+
+<p>While they were spoiling their eyes in the twilight Jack pressed the
+electric &quot;button&quot; that lighted the gas instantaneously all over the
+house, causing Bessie to cry out in protest against such a sudden
+transition. &quot;It is so violent, so unlike the slow, sweet processes of
+nature. I never shall learn to like gas, and the electric light is
+absolutely <i>horrid</i>. Don't you love tapers, Mr. James?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tapirs? I don't think I'm a judge; I never had one. I should rather
+have a tame zebra.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I mean tapers for light!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me&mdash;certainly: yes, that is, I think I do. We don't use them
+very often. Do you mean tallow or wax?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wax, of course! They have such elegant decorations on them. I had a
+most exquisite sconce Christmas, with two of the loveliest tapers
+completely covered with Moorish arabesques in crimson and old gold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>What becomes of the decorations when the tapers burn up?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, we don't burn them much. Indeed, I don't think we ought to use
+artificial light at all. The mysterious light of the moon and stars is
+so much more enchanting. Don't you love to muse and dream in the fading
+twilight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not very well. The trouble is if I get to sleep before I go to bed
+I don't sleep as well afterward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I don't mean actual dreams, but vague, dreamy musings, esthetic
+aspirations and longings. Do you never long for abstract beauty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, no, not long. If I can't get what I want pretty quick I
+generally go for something else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This irrelevant conversation was vastly entertaining to Jack, who,
+knowing how unlike were the dispositions of his brother and his wife's
+cousin, had contrived their meeting with special reference to his own
+amusement. When the clock told the hour for retiring he brought Bessie
+a tin candlestick, in which a tallow candle smoked and spluttered in a
+feeble way, but filled the soul of the young lady with admiration, it
+was so &quot;full of feeling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Life is so much richer when our environment is illuminated and
+glorified&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By tapers,&quot; said Jack as he bade her an affectionate good-night.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>CHAPTER X.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>MORE QUESTIONS OF FIRE AND WATER.</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p128W.png"
+width="120" height="71" alt="W" />e must devote this evening exclusively to the new house,&quot; said Jill,
+as Jack started for his office. &quot;The architect is waiting for
+instructions, and every day we lose now will give us another day of
+vexation and impatience when we are waiting for the house to be
+finished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's true, and it's a chronological fact that house-builders often
+forget. Very well, I'll come home early. Will Bessie be here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly. She has come for a long visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shall bring up Jim again. One-half Bess says he can't
+understand, and he doesn't approve of the other half; but we couldn't
+keep him away if we tried. So we'll invite him to come. It's great fun
+to hear Bessie's comments and witness Jim's helplessness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you are going to devote yourself to Jim and Bessie,&quot; said Jill
+severely, &quot;I may as well answer these questions without consulting you
+at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, pray don't do that. Give me a chance to express my opinions. Some
+of them are strikingly bold and original. Besides, you will need me to
+conduct the meeting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>It happened, accidentally of course, that Bessie's evening dress was of
+a color that looked well by gaslight, and no objection was made to the
+unnatural illumination.</p>
+
+<p>Jill took up the architect's letter, where she had left it, at the
+conclusion of the blind question. &quot;Another point that was mentioned
+when I was at your father's house must be decided soon: Shall there be
+gutters to catch the water from the roof, with pipes of some sort to
+convey it to the ground, or shall it be left to take care of itself? If
+there are none, the ground around the house should pitch sharply away
+from the walls and a slight depression should be formed, into which the
+water would fall. This shallow ditch should be perhaps two feet wide,
+as the drops will not always come down in straight lines. It may be
+paved with small stones or bricks, between which the grass will grow,
+or it maybe more carefully lined with asphalt paving. If it is desired
+to conduct the water to a certain point, this drain can descend
+slightly toward it, and, if the lawn will not be injured by an
+occasional inundation, even the shallow ditch may be omitted, making
+merely a one-sided slope, hardened to prevent the water from wearing a
+ragged, unsightly channel around the house. The advantages of disposing
+of the water in this way, dispensing with the gutters, are its economy
+and its permanence. Whatever the material may be of which they are
+made, gutters attached to the eaves or roof cause more or less trouble
+and expense from the time they are put in place till the house is given
+up to the owls and the bats. They are liable to be corroded by rust, to
+be clogged with leaves and dust, to be choked with ice, or <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>to become
+loosened from their fastenings. If used at all, they should be frankly
+acknowledged. This is not, however, a point on which I am in need of
+instructions, but would remind you that one of the interesting
+illustrations of the happy skill of the old masters in making a virtue
+of necessity is found in the effective treatment of the waterspouts and
+conductors. They made them bold, quaint and picturesque in appearance,
+far removed from the tin contrivances that we hang in frail awkwardness
+to our roofs.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep130" id="imagep130"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p130.png" alt="A GARGOYLE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Gargoyle</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;How perfectly delightful!&quot; exclaimed Bessie. &quot;Those horribly grotesque
+old gargoyles are just glorious. Don't you delight in the antique, Mr.
+James, when it isn't too horrible?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, they are awfully jolly. We had a great time with them last
+'Fourth.' I got myself up as a pirate king&mdash;black flag, skull and
+cross-bones, you know. It was awfully jolly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never saw any of that kind, but you <i>will</i> have some gargoyles,
+won't you, Jill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Possibly, for the architect says' whether you have <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>gutters entirely
+around the house or not; it will doubtless be necessary to catch the
+water that would fall upon the steps or balconies in short
+eave-troughs, and as they are certain to be conspicuous they should be
+respectfully treated. As they add to the comfort of the house they
+should also add to its beauty.' Now what shall be said on this subject?
+His opinion appears to be that <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>if we do not need to save the water for
+use, and if it will do no harm upon the ground around the house, it
+will be best to omit them except where protection is needed for
+something below. He sends some sketches and says 'they represent a few
+of the methods by which the water may be caught and carried to the
+ground. Number two and number three will prevent the sliding of the
+snow from the roof, which is sometimes desirable, but not always.
+Gutters made in this form should be so near the eaves that in case of
+accidental injury the water could not find its way inside the main
+walls. Number five has the advantage of leaving the house uninjured
+whatever happens to the gutter itself. It may leak through its entire
+length or run over on both sides without doing other harm than wasting
+the water.' I don't see,&quot; said Jill, laying down the letter, &quot;how we
+can give instructions without dictating in matters of &nbsp;'construction and
+design,' concerning which the architect distinctly objects to advice.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep131" id="imagep131"></a>
+<br />
+
+<div class="imgdiv">
+<img border="0" src="images/p131b.png" width="350" height="191" alt="A CHOICE OF GUTTERS." />
+<br /><br /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Choice Of Gutters</span>.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<img border="0" src="images/p131a.png" width="350" height="280" alt="A CHOICE OF GUTTERS." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him we don't care what becomes of the water and the lawn will
+take care of itself. Then 'instruct' him to exercise his own
+discretion. That's what he is for. What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He would like to know our wishes in regard to fireplaces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought the heating question had been decided once according to
+Uncle Harry's doctrines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not fully. We shall have both steam and open fires; the architect
+understands that, but he doesn't know how many fireplaces nor what
+kind. We can tell him how <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>many easily enough: one in each room of the
+first story except the kitchen, but including the hall, and one in each
+of the bed-rooms.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep133" id="imagep133"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p133.png" alt="&quot;A SIMPLE RECESS.&quot;" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">&quot;A Simple Recess.&quot;</span><span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>Including the guest chambers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means. There is nothing that makes one feel so thoroughly
+welcome, so delightfully at home as a room with an open fire. Mahogany
+four-posters, velvet carpets and sumptuous fare are trivial compliments
+in comparison. Concerning the style and cost he says: 'Of designs there
+is an endless variety, and there is a wide range in cost, from the
+simple recess in the side of a plain brick chimney'&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the kind that Aunt Melville builds for a dollar and a quarter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'&mdash;to the elaborate affairs that cost as much as a comfortable
+cottage. It would be idle for me to attempt to give you a full
+description of them all&mdash;my letter would appear like a manufacturer's
+catalogue. Indeed, you can find whole books on the subject, large books
+too, which it will be interesting and profitable for you to study; but
+first it is necessary to lay out the chimneys to accommodate the sizes
+and styles to be chosen. You will easily understand that a grate for
+burning coal alone, especially hard coal, may be much smaller than a
+fireplace to hold hickory logs that it takes two men to carry; but the
+heat of anthracite coal would soon destroy the lining of a fireplace
+adapted to an ordinary fire of wood. It cannot be necessary to remind
+you that the best open fireplaces, whether for wood or coal, are those
+which, instead of sending three-fourths of the heat up the chimney
+flue, give it out from all sides, to be saved either directly or by
+being conveyed to an adjoining or upper room. It is also possible to
+make a fireplace that will accommodate either <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>wood or coal, but like
+all compromises this is attended with certain disadvantages. If large
+enough for wood it is too large for hard coal. The smoke flue for a
+coal fire may also be smaller, the hotter fire causing the stronger
+draught. Coal ashes, too, ought to be dropped through the hearth into
+ash pits below, even from the fires of the upper rooms. To &quot;take up the
+ashes&quot; of a wood fire is <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>not so troublesome. These are some of the
+reasons why it is necessary to determine the kind and number of your
+fireplaces before the plans of the chimneys are drawn.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep135" id="imagep135"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p135.png" alt="IN THE MIDDLE RANK." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">In The Middle Rank</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not make an appropriation of fifty dollars apiece for each grate,
+mantel and hearth, and have him do the best he can with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We can fix that as an average price, but shall want some better than
+others, and must mark in each room whether we wish to provide for wood,
+for coal, or for both. That is, whether we want 'set' grates or open
+fireplaces with andirons or something of that kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, do have andirons. <i>Please</i> have andirons,&quot; said Bessie. &quot;You know
+you can go out into the country and buy them for old brass of the
+farmers who haven't the remotest idea of their value. They keep them up
+in those dear old musty garrets covered with dust and spider webs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, we will have a few andirons and several spinning-wheels and
+moony clocks and solid old carved oak chests that for generations have
+been full of moths and food for worms. I never happened to come across
+one of those old bonanza garrets, but I suppose there are plenty of
+them lying around and just running over with these antique treasures.
+Jim, can't I hire you to go out among the unesthetic heathens and buy
+up a few loads of heirlooms and other relics of former greatness? We
+shall want some old associations in the new house, and if we haven't
+any of our own we must buy some.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't think I know much about such things. Why <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>don't you go to a
+furniture store and get what you want first-hand? Second-hand furniture
+always looks shabby and out of date. However, if Miss Bessie could go
+with me to pick out things, I wouldn't mind taking a drive into the
+country to see what we could find.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep137" id="imagep137"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p137.png" alt="THE WORTH OF A COSY COTTAGE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Worth Of A Cosy Cottage</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, really, wouldn't you mind it? How enchanting! It will be
+delightful to be associated with the new house. I know we shall find
+some <i>lovely</i> things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. You shall have Bob and the express wagon to-morrow. What
+next, Jill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>'I should be glad to know your feeling in regard to height of rooms,
+but shall not promise fully to agree with you. My purpose is to make
+the principal rooms of the first story ten and a-half or eleven feet
+high.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, how dreadful! I don't know how high eleven feet is, but I'm sure
+they ought not to be more than seven feet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought you were going to say not less than fourteen,&quot; said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, indeed! Low rooms are so deliciously quaint and cosy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I should be all the time expecting to hit my head.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You wouldn't think of that for a moment if you could only feel the
+influence of Kitty Kane's library. It is a copy of an old English
+bar-room, or something of that sort, I don't exactly remember what, but
+it is in the Queen Anne style, and it's too lovely for anything. Please
+have low rooms, Jill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill continued reading: &quot;For rooms of ordinary sizes and devoted to
+ordinary domestic purposes, that is high enough for use, for comfort
+and for any reasonable amount of decoration, either upon the walls
+themselves or in the shape of pictures or other ornaments. You will
+certainly think it enough when you are climbing the stairs to the rooms
+of the second story. It may be practicable to reduce the height of some
+of the smaller apartments, but it is usually much more convenient to
+keep the ceilings of the main rooms of uniform height, even if this
+does upset the 'correct proportion' which critics attempt <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>in vain to
+establish. To make ceilings very low seems an affectation of humility
+or of antiquity not justified by common sense. In the polar regions,
+where the sun never reaches an altitude above twenty-three degrees, low
+rooms and short windows would be entirely satisfactory. In the torrid
+zone, where it is not safe to build more than one story for fear of
+earthquakes and tornadoes, where chambers would be useless, and where
+the grand question is not how to keep warm but how to keep cool, the
+higher the better. For houses in the temperate zones the medium height
+is the safest, the best&mdash;and the most <i>artistic</i>. If any one dares to
+say it is not, ask him to tell you the reason why.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How perfectly <i>exasperating</i>,&quot; said Bessie in a tragic aside to Jim.
+&quot;No one ought to try to give reasons in art, in religion or in
+politics. Intuitions are so much more satisfactory. Don't you <i>always</i>
+rely on your intuitions, Mr. James?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps I should if I had them, but somehow I&mdash;I never seem to have
+any.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The meeting appears to be divided,&quot; said Jack. &quot;Bessie says seven, Jim
+says fourteen. Suppose we split the difference and call it ten and a
+half.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is, we advise the architect to do as he pleases, then he will be
+sure to follow our advice.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>CHAPTER XI.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT SHALL WE STAND UPON?</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the S image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p140S.png"
+width="85" height="105" alt="S" /><br />plitting the difference&quot; is a convenient compromise, but it is not
+always creditable to both parties, and Jill thought it would not be
+safe with such advisers to assume that Wisdom's house is always built
+between two extremes. She felt, too, that the architect's discussion of
+details must be tiresome to her guests, and therefore resolved to take
+up but one more of his queries, spending the remainder of the evening
+in looking over plans and letters, of which she had an ample store
+still unexplored, or in listening to Bessie's ardent description of the
+treasures she hoped to find in the lofty recesses of the old garrets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I fear the next topic will not be deeply interesting, but it is the
+last one to-night, and Jack <i>must</i> give me his undivided attention if
+he wishes to know what we are to stand upon in the new house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it about floors?&quot; Bessie asked. &quot;Do please have waxed floors. I
+dote on waxed floors, don't you, Mr. James?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not especially; but I'm pretty apt to slip on them. <i>Is</i> it about
+floors, Jill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but chiefly about the best way to build them&mdash;their
+construction.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep141" id="imagep141"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p141.png" alt="A PROMISE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Promise Of Social Success</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>I thought the architect was to settle questions of construction to
+suit himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is, and this topic he writes 'concerns construction, cost, use and
+design, and is, therefore, one on which we may properly take counsel
+together.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How condescending!&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep143" id="imagep143"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p143.png" alt="A REASONABLE HOPE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Reasonable Hope</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you would object to iron girders with brick arches between
+them on account of their cost, but I hope to see rolled iron beams for
+brick dwelling-houses so cheaply made that they will be commonly used
+instead of wood. Such iron ribs, with the brick arches or other masonry
+between them, might well form the finish of the ceilings, and if we
+were accustomed to see them, our frail lath and plaster would seem
+stale, flat and combustible in comparison. The usual mode of making
+floors of thin joists set edgewise, from one to two feet apart, with
+one or two thicknesses of inch boards on the top to walk upon, and
+lathing underneath to hold the plastering, is perhaps the most
+economical use of materials. A more satisfactory construction would be
+to use larger beams two or three times as far apart, laying thicker
+planks upon them and dispensing with plastering altogether, or <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>perhaps
+applying it between the timbers directly to the under-side of the
+planks, leaving the beams themselves in sight. If the floor is double
+the planks or boards lying directly upon the joists may be of common,
+coarse stock, hemlock or spruce, upon which must be laid another
+thickness of finished boards. It is for you to say whether the finished
+upper floor shall be of common, cheap stock, to be always covered by
+carpets, or of some harder wood carefully polished and not concealed at
+all, except by occasional rugs.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I do <i>hope</i> she will have rugs!&quot; Bessie's remarks were semi-asides
+addressed chiefly to Jim. &quot;There's nothing so lovely as these oriental
+rugs. Kitty Kane had an <i>exquisite</i> one among her wedding presents, and
+when her house was built the parlor was made to fit the rug. It makes
+it rather long and narrow, but the rug is <i>too</i> lovely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'It is also for you to say whether the finished floor, if you have no
+carpets, shall consist simply of plain narrow boards or be more
+expensively laid in parquetry designs. In the latter case I shall claim
+the privilege of choosing the pattern.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should he trouble himself about the pattern of the wood floors any
+more than he would about the style of the carpets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He would probably say, because the floors are a part of the house for
+which he is making the plans and will last as long as the house itself,
+while the carpets are subject to changing fashions and will soon return
+to their original dust. But he may attempt to dictate in regard to
+carpets if we give him a chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep145" id="imagep145"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p145a.png" alt="FLOORS AS THEY ARE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Floors As They Are</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p145b.png" alt="FLOORS AS THEY MIGHT BE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Floors As They Might Be</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly&mdash;to the extent of pitching them out of the window.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In laying double floors one simple matter must not be neglected. The
+under, or lining boards, which are usually wide and imperfectly
+seasoned, should be laid <i>diagonally</i> upon the joists; otherwise in
+their shrinking and swelling they will move the narrow finished boards
+resting upon them and cause ugly cracks to appear, even though the
+upper floor is most carefully laid and thoroughly seasoned. The liberal
+use of nails is another obvious but often neglected duty of
+floor-makers, who seem, at times to act upon the supposition that as a
+floor has nothing to do but lie still and be trodden upon, it only
+needs to be laid in place and let alone. This may be true of stone
+flagging; it is far from being true of inch boards, that have an
+incurable tendency to warp, twist, spring and shake. Lining floors,
+especially, whatever their thickness, should be nailed&mdash;spiked is a
+more forcible term&mdash;to every possible bearing and with generous
+frequency; <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>to be specific, say every three inches. The finished hoards
+must also be secured by nails driven squarely through them. If you
+object to the appearance of nail heads the boards may be secured by
+nails driven through the edges in such way that they will be out of
+sight when the floor is finished; but this should never be done except
+by skillful and conscientious workmen. There is no excuse for this
+&quot;blind&quot; nailing in floors that are to be covered by carpets, and it is
+seldom desirable under any circumstances. All thorough nailing adds
+greatly to the strength, and will alone prevent the creaking of the
+boards, so annoying in a sick room and so discouraging to burglars.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whatever else we do we must make it all right for the burglars. Tell
+him we will have floors that can be used either way, with rugs or
+without, with matting, with carpets, or with nothing at all but their
+own unadorned loveliness. Those in the chambers, where there is not
+much wear and tear, may be of common clear pine, and we can paint or
+stain a border around the edges. The others ought to be of harder wood,
+and, as they will last as long as we shall need floors, we can afford
+to have them cost rather more than a good carpet, perhaps thirty or
+forty cents a square foot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see the necessity for that,&quot; said Jill, who had a frugal
+mind&mdash;at times. &quot;I know they will outlast a great many carpets, but it
+is considerable work to keep a bare floor in order&mdash;or rather to put it
+in order&mdash;which must be taken into account; and, as for saving the
+expense of carpets, we shall be likely to spend twice as <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>much for rugs
+as the carpets would cost. However, extravagance in rugs is not the
+fault of the hard-wood floors and ought not to be charged against them.
+We might have a few parquetry floors, but for most of the rooms plain
+narrow strips, with a pretty border, will be good enough. What do you
+think about it, Jim?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>While Jim was preparing to say that he didn't think he knew much about
+such things, there came a crash on the floor above, followed by loud
+and incoherent observations by the chambermaid. The chandelier began to
+shake, as that substantial domestic fairy flew through the passage that
+led to the back stairs, at the head of which she was distinctly heard
+to exhort the cook in good set terms to &quot;hurry up with the mop, for the
+water-jug was upset and the mistress would be raving if the water came
+through the ceiling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The quartette below listened with conflicting emotions. Jill was
+indignant, Bessie horrified&mdash;apparently, Jim greatly amused, and Jack
+sublimely indifferent. &quot;If there's anything I <i>despise</i>,&quot; said Jill,
+&quot;it is a house that makes a human being seem like an elephant, and
+where I can't say my prayers or move a chair in my own room without
+rousing the entire household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's one good thing about it,&quot; said Jim pleasantly. &quot;You can't help
+knowing what is going on in your own house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Spoken like a man and a brother, James. You always go to the root of a
+matter. I like to keep posted. No skeletons and gunpowder plots for me.
+I had this house made so on purpose.&quot; Whereat they all laughed <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>and
+again took up the floor question, while the sound of hurrying feet and
+the rattling of domestic implements went on overhead, and the
+chandelier trembled with the jarring floors.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose forty dollars' worth of timber originally added to these
+floors would have made them so firm that we might drive a caravan
+across them without shaking the building. We will, at least, have solid
+floors in the new house; but the architect informs us that 'effectual
+deafening of the floors and partitions necessarily adds considerably to
+their cost, since the walls and ceilings must be virtually double or
+filled with some light porous material. The construction I have
+described for making the house fireproof, or nearly so, would also make
+it comparatively sound-proof. It would prevent the passage of any
+reasonable in-door noises, though it might not withstand the stamping
+of heavy steel-shod feet. Indeed, the question of bare, hard-wood
+floors is, in one of its aspects, rather a question of boots. It is
+most unreasonable to say the floors are noisy and slippery when the
+fault lies rather in the hard, stiff, awkward receptacles in which our
+feet are imprisoned. If we are ever clad from head to foot in the robes
+of a perfect civilization, we shall doubtless find smooth bare floors
+for general use more satisfactory than any kind of rugs, mats or
+carpets.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now,&quot; said Jill, &quot;we will leave the rest of this interminable
+letter for a more convenient season and see what our indefatigable aunt
+has sent as the latest and best thing in domestic architecture. If you
+will take the plans and follow the description, I will read the letter
+<a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>straight through, though it will doubtless contain more or less advice
+not strictly pertinent to house-building. Here it is:</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;"><span class="sc">&quot;My Dear Jill</span>:
+    On further reflection I have concluded that the
+    little cottage plans which I sent last will not answer. I doubt
+    whether you and Jack have sufficient independence and
+    originality to make a success of living; even temporarily, in a
+    small, unpretending cottage. It requires unusual strength of
+    character'&mdash;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen, Jack.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&mdash;to establish and maintain a high social standing with no
+    adventitious aids. You cannot at present afford a large
+    establishment, but you must have one that is striking and
+    elegant. I was first attracted to this house by its external
+    appearance&mdash;not especially the form, but the material, as we
+    often see a lady of inferior <i>physique</i> whose rich and tasteful
+    attire makes her the observed of all observers.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep149" id="imagep149"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p149.png" alt="BRICKS AND BOULDERS ON GRANITE UNDERPINNING." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Bricks And Boulders On Granite Underpinning</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>Aunt Melville is inclined to be dumpy, and is immensely proud of her
+taste in dress.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;'The walls near the ground&mdash;the underpinning, I suppose&mdash;is of
+    solid granite blocks, irregular in size, rough and rugged in
+    appearance. Indeed, the impression is of exceeding solidity and
+    strength, perhaps because the walls slope backward as they
+    rise. The first story is also of stones, but such peculiar
+    stones as I never expected to see in a dwelling house,
+    precisely like those used in the country for fences.'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;How exquisite!&quot; exclaimed Bessie, clapping her hands in ecstacy.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;'Some of them seemed to be covered with the gray lichens that
+    are found growing on rocks,&mdash;'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;How delicious!&quot;</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;'&mdash;but I very much fear these will be destroyed by the action
+    of the lime in the mortar. The stones vary in color, and at a
+    little distance the effect is like a rich mosaic. The corners
+    of the house and the sides of the windows are made of
+    peculiarly dark, rough-looking bricks that harmonize well with
+    the general tone of the stone walls. The second story is of
+    wood, covered with shingles that have not been painted, but
+    simply oiled, and they have turned a dark reddish-brown. I
+    found on inquiry that they are California red wood. The roof is
+    of red tiles, and the chromatic effect of the entire building
+    is very charming and aristocratic.'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That would suit <i>us</i> perfectly,&quot; said Jack, &quot;but I think our
+aristocratic aunt is more tiresome than the architect. Jim is asleep
+and Bessie is on the verge of slumber.&quot; But just at that moment Bessie
+gave a piercing scream and bounded from the sofa in uncontrollable
+affright, while an army of reckless June bugs came dashing in through
+the open, unscreened windows.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>CHAPTER XII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>FROM MATHEMATICS TO ANCIENT BRIC-A-BRAC.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the T image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p048T.png"
+width="85" height="101" alt="T" /><br />aking advantage of the incursion of the June bugs, Jim withdrew in
+good order, and Bessie shortly after retired with her tin candlestick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you seriously intend to allow that pair of incompatibles to go off
+to-morrow looking for old furniture and antiquated household
+implements?&quot; asked Jill.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Most certainly I do. It will he the greatest fun in the world. I only
+wish we could go as invisible spectators; but, on the whole, we shall
+best enjoy imagining what they will say or do if left to their own
+devices, knowing, as we should, that our presence would prevent some of
+their wildest absurdities. I'm awfully sorry they are not going to
+build and furnish a house somewhere in this vicinity, according to
+their combined notions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I am extremely sorry you cannot take your thoughts from Bessie
+long enough at least to hear the conclusion of Aunt Melville's letter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear, like John Gilpin, 'of womankind I do admire but one.' I shall
+listen with undivided attention to whatever you lay before my ears.
+Pray go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;'I was fortunate enough to get a drawing of the interior of
+    the reception hall, which, while it is simple and inexpensive,
+    is <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>also dignified and impressive. Houses often resemble
+    people, and you will easily recall among your friends certain
+    ones who, without being either wealthy or brilliant, are still
+    very impressive. The other rooms which we visited are ample for
+    your needs, as you will find it far more advantageous to
+    entertain but few people at a time, and those of the best
+    society, than to have larger and more indiscriminate
+    gatherings. The amount of room in the house is surprising; but
+    that, of course, is because it is so nearly square.'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That is feminine logic. A man would have said that the size of a house
+determines the amount of room it contains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly he would; but it does not,&quot; said Jill, decidedly. &quot;I can
+show you houses that look large and <i>are</i> large, that make great
+pretensions in point of style, that cost a great deal of money, and yet
+have no room in them. They have no place for the beds to stand, no room
+for the doors to swing, no room for a piano, no room for a generous
+sofa, no room for the book-cases, no room for easy stairs, no room for
+fireplaces, no room for convenient attendance at the dining-table, no
+room for wholesome cooking, no room for sick people, no room for fresh
+air, no room for sunlight, no room for an unexpected guest. They have
+plenty of rooms, apartments, cells&mdash;but no real, generous, comfortable
+house room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose Aunt Melville refers to the mathematical fact that a house
+forty feet square contains more cubic feet than the same length of
+walls would hold in a more elongated or irregular shape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the same rule an octagon or circle would be better still, which is
+absurd. No; her feminine logic is no worse than yours, and no better.
+The amount of room<a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a> <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>a house contains depends neither upon its size
+nor its shape. Her analogy, too, is at fault when she implies that the
+outside of a house bears the same relation to the interior that
+clothing bears to the person who wears it. The art of the tailor and
+dressmaker has at present no other test of merit than fashion and
+costliness, elements to which real art, architectural or otherwise, is
+always and absolutely indifferent. The external aspect of the house
+should be the natural spontaneous outgrowth of its legitimate use and
+proper construction, as face, form and carriage express the character
+of each individual.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep153" id="imagep153"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p153.png" alt="NOT BRILLIANT BUT IMPRESSIVE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Not Brilliant But Impressive</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep155" id="imagep155"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p155.png" alt="WOODEN RICHNESS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Wooden Richness</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Jill spoke with unwonted seriousness and a wisdom beyond her years.
+Even Jack was impressed for the moment, and expressed a wish to tear
+down some of the <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>ornamental appendages from his own house. &quot;The
+piazzas are well enough&mdash;that is, they would be if they were twice as
+wide&mdash;but the observatory is good for nothing, because nobody can get
+into it to observe, unless he crawls along the ridge-pole, and I never
+did know what all that mess of wooden stuff under the eaves and about
+the windows was for. I suppose it was intended to give the house a
+richer look.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep156" id="imagep156"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p156.png" alt="NO WASTE OF WOOD." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">No Waste Of Wood</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, it enriches it just as countless rows of puffs, ruffles and
+flounces, made of coarse cotton cloth with a sewing machine and piled
+on without regard to grace or comfort, would 'enrich' a lady's dress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought you objected to the dress anology?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do, positively, but it appears to have been the <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>theory accepted by
+modern architects almost universally. I don't see. Jack, that your
+house is any worse than others in this respect, and I have no doubt it
+will 'sell' all the better for the superfluous lumber attached to the
+outside walls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you, my dear! That is the first good word you have spoken for
+it. Well, there is one comfort; I am convinced that you didn't commit
+the reprehensible folly of marrying me for my house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, indeed, Jack. It was pure devotion; a desperate case of elective
+affinity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet we are happily married! <i>We</i> shall never do for the hero and
+heroine of a modern romance. There isn't a magazine editor or a book
+publisher that would look at us for a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let us be thankful&mdash;and finish our letter.</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;">
+<p style="font-size: 90%;">&quot;'I am anxious, as you know, my dear niece, that you should,
+    begin life in a manner creditable to the family, and I trust
+    you will allow no romantic or utilitarian notions to prevent
+    your conforming to the requirements of good society. This
+    house, in all such respects, will be perfectly satisfactory. I
+    have bought the plans for you from the owner, and I hope you
+    will accept them with my best wishes.'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;And that is all, this time. Aunt Melville's notion of a house seems to
+be a place for entertaining the 'best society.' Her zeal is certainly
+getting the better of her conscience and judgment. She cannot honestly
+buy the plans from the owner of the house, because he never owned them;
+they belong to the architect, and she ought to know better than to
+advise the use of material that would have to be brought at great
+expense from a long <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>distance. If cobble-stones and boulders were
+indigenous in this region, and old stone fences could be had for the
+asking, I should like to use them, but they are not. It is also evident
+that she did not penetrate far into the interior of the house or she
+would have discovered an unpardonable defect&mdash;the absence of 'back'
+stairs. I do not think it very serious in such a plan, where the one
+flight is near the centre of the house and is not very conspicuo<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>us,
+but Aunt Melville would lie awake nights if she knew there were no back
+stairs for the servants.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep158" id="imagep158"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p158.png" alt="FIRST FLOOR OF THE PROMISE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">First Floor Of The Promise</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next morning Jim appeared with the express wagon, and Bessie
+climbed upon the high seat beside him under the big brown umbrella, her
+Gainsborough hat encircled with a garland of white daisies, huge
+bunches of the same blossoms being attached somewhat indiscriminately
+to her dress by way of imparting a rural air, and together they drove
+off in search of old and forgotten household gods. Jill had suggested
+sending them out to <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>investigate, reporting what they found, and
+purchasing afterward if thought best, but Jack urged that it would be
+wiser to secure their treasures at once, lest the thrifty farmers,
+finding their old heir-looms in demand, should mark up the prices while
+they were deliberating&mdash;a view with which Bessie fully concurred.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep159" id="imagep159"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p159.png" alt="SECOND FLOOR OF THE PROMISE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Second Floor Of The Promise</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Beguiling the way with the duet that is always so delightful to the
+performers, whatever the audience may think of it, they followed the
+pleasant country roads for many miles without finding a castle that
+seemed to promise desirable plunder. A worn-out horseshoe lying in the
+road was their first prize. It presaged good luck, and was to be gilded
+and hung above the library door. At length they came to a typical old
+farm-house, gray and weather-beaten, but still dignified and well cared
+for. The big barns stood modestly back from the highway, and the yard
+about the front door, enclosed by a once white picket fence, was filled
+with the fragrance of cinnamon roses and syringas. As they drove up at
+the side of the house across the open lawn, the close cropping of which
+showed that the cows were wont to take their final bite upon it as they
+came to the yard at night, they encountered an elderly man carrying a
+large jug in one hand and apparently just starting for the fields with
+some refreshing drink for the workmen.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good morning, sir,&quot; said Jim, touching his hat. Bessie smiled and
+asked, &quot;Are you the farmer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wal, yes ma'am; I suppose I am. Leastways I own the farm and get my
+living off from it as well as I can&mdash;same as my fathers did afore me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>How lovely! Have you got any old&mdash;I mean, can you give us a drink of
+water? We&mdash;we happen to be passing and we're very thirsty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just as well as not. The well is right behind the house. You can jump
+down and help yourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean jump down the well,&quot; said Jim, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not exactly. Will your horse stand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When Bessie saw the old well-sweep, which for some unaccountable reason
+had not been swept away by a modern pump, she exclaimed in a stage
+whisper: &quot;Wouldn't it be glorious if we could carry it home?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jim found the cool water most refreshing and thought he would rather
+carry home the well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What an enormous wood pile,&quot; Bessie continued aloud, in a desperate
+endeavor to lead up to andirons by an unsuspicious route. &quot;Do you burn
+wood?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not so much as we used to. The women folks think they must have it to
+cook with, but we use coal a good deal in the winter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you have fireplaces?&quot; was the next innocent question.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Plenty of 'em in the house, but they're mostly bricked up. It takes
+too big a wood pile to keep 'em going.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So you use stoves instead; I suppose it is less trouble. Oh, and that
+reminds me, have you any old andirons, anywhere around?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shouldn't be surprised if there was. Yes, there's one now, hangin' on
+the gate right behind you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>Bessie, as she afterwards declared, was almost ready to faint at this
+announcement, but on turning to look she saw indeed, hanging by a chain
+to keep the gate closed, a dumpy, rusty, cast-iron andiron.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Should you be willing to sell it for old brass? Isn't there a mate to
+it somewhere? They generally go in pairs, don't they?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I shouldn't want to sell it for old brass, because you see it's
+iron. Most likely there was a pair of 'em once, but there's no tellin'
+where t'other one is now. Maybe in the suller and maybe in the garret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please could we go up in the garret and look for it? We will be very
+careful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The worthy man, considerably puzzled to know what sort of angels he was
+entertaining unawares, obtained permission from the &quot;women folks,&quot; sent
+a boy off with the jug of drink and showed his callers to the topmost
+floor of the house.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, oh! If there isn't a real spinning-wheel. This passes my wildest
+anticipations,&quot; murmured Bessie to Jim; then, restraining her
+enthusiasm for fear of spoiling a bargain, she inquired aloud: &quot;Do any
+of your family spin?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no; not now-a-days. My old mother vised to get the wheel out now
+and then, when I was a youngster, but it's broke now and part of it is
+lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would you sell it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it isn't all here&mdash;&quot; Jim began, but Bessie checked him and eagerly
+accepted the old wheel, which had lost <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>its head and two or three
+spokes, for the moderate sum of one dollar.</p>
+
+<p>Rummaging among old barrels, Jim found the missing half of the pair of
+andirons. One broken leg seemed to add to its value in Bessie's eyes
+and she quickly closed a bargain for them at fifteen cents, which their
+owner, after &quot;hefting&quot; them, &quot;guessed&quot; would be about their value for
+old iron. One old chair, minus a back and extremely shaky as to its
+legs, and another that had lost a rocker and never had any arms, were
+secured for a nominal price, and Bessie's attention was then attracted
+to a tall wooden vessel hooped like a barrel, but more slender, &quot;big at
+the bottom and small at the top,&quot; which proved to be an old churn. Jim
+objected to this until his companion explained how it could be
+transformed by a judicious application of old gold and crimson into a
+most artistic umbrella stand, while the &quot;dasher&quot; would make a striking
+ornament for the hall chimney-piece. As they were about to depart with
+their treasures, the honest farmer invited them to look at a ponderous
+machine five or six feet high and nearly as broad&mdash;a horrid monster,
+misshapen and huge, that stood in the back chamber over the wood-shed.
+It was a cheese-press. &quot;How magnificent!&quot; whispered Bessie, and then,
+turning to their host, inquired&mdash;&quot;Do you use it every day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, law, no! Hain't used it this twenty years. Make all the cheese at
+the factory. It's kind of a queer old thing and I thought maybe you
+would like to see it. 'Tain't likely you will ever see another just
+like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<i>Would</i> you be willing to sell it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>Of course, I'd be willing enough, only it don't seem just right to
+sell a thing that ain't good for anything but firewood. However, if you
+really want it you may have it for a dollar and a-half, and I'll have
+the hired men load it up for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, really, Miss Bessie,&quot; said Jim, when the farmer had gone to call
+the men, &quot;don't you think it's rather a clumsy affair? We can hardly
+get it into the express wagon, and I don't see where they can put it if
+we carry it home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Clumsy! no, indeed, it's <i>massive</i>, it's <i>grand</i>! There will be plenty
+of room in the new house. They will have one entire room for
+bric-a-brac.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what can they <i>do</i> with it? They won't make cheese.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you see what a <i>delicious</i> cabinet it will make? These posts and
+things can all be carved and decorated, and it will be perfectly
+<i>unique</i>. There isn't such a cabinet in the whole city of New York. Oh,
+I think our trip has been an <i>immense</i> success already. I shall always
+believe in horseshoes after this; but <i>isn't</i> it a pity we can't carry
+home the well-sweep?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The huge machine had to be taken from the shed chamber in sections, but
+was properly put together again in the wagon by the hired men, and made
+the turnout look like a small traveling juggernaut. Just before
+starting: Bessie espied, leaning against the fence, a hen-coop from
+which the feathered family had departed, and explaining to Jim that if
+the sides were painted red and the bars gilded it would be a charming
+ornament for the front <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>porch, persuaded him to add that to their
+already imposing load. Then they departed, leaving the farmer and his
+men in doubt whether to advertise a pair of escaped lunatics or accept
+their visitors as &quot;highly cultured&quot; members of modern society.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached home Jack had just come in from the office. He looked
+out of the window as they drove up, felt his strength suddenly give
+way, and rolled on the floor in convulsions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Less than five dollars for the whole lot, did you say, Jim? I wouldn't
+have missed <i>seeing</i> that load for fifty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The next day was Sunday. Monday afternoon Bessie went home.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the B image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p166D.png"
+width="85" height="97" alt="D" /><br />irt is matter out of place,&quot; quoted Uncle Harry, in one of his
+erratic epistles which Jack and Jill always read with interest if not
+profit. &quot;When you find anything that seems unclean or offensive in any
+part of your house, remember this: the fault is not in the thing
+itself, but in your ignorant or thoughtless management. There isn't a
+material thing in the universe, whatever its name or characteristic
+qualities maybe; not a flaunting weed nor an unseen miasmatic vapor,
+which is not created for some good and wise purpose. It is for us to
+learn those purposes. The grand secret of safe and comfortable living
+lies in keeping yourself and everything about you in the right place. I
+hear much of the dangers and annoyances that arise from modern
+plumbing. I am not surprised by them; on the contrary, I wonder they
+are not more numerous and fatal, since nothing is more inconsistent
+with the first principles of comfort and health than our relations to
+these 'modern conveniences.' Instead of disposing of what are
+incorrectly called waste materials according to nature's modes, we
+persist in defying her examples and her laws, even after we fully
+understand them, and, in the vain hope of adding to our own case,
+<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>bring upon ourselves untold calamities. 'Earth to earth' is a mandate
+that cannot be disregarded with impunity. The infinite laboratories of
+nature welcome to their crucibles all the strange and awful elements
+which we fail to comprehend and against which we wage a futile warfare.
+If all these miscalled 'wastes' that we find so hurtful and offensive
+when out of place in and around our homes could be consigned to the
+bosom of mother earth the moment they seem to us worthless, they would
+be at once changed to life-giving forces, out of which forms of
+freshness and beauty would arise to fill us with delight. They are
+willing to serve us whenever we give them an opportunity. The one
+direct and infallible mode of doing that is to put them in the ground
+before they have a chance to work us injury. If we bury them, or,
+rather, plant <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>them, they will bring forth, some thirty, some sixty,
+some an hundredfold.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep167" id="imagep167"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p167.png" alt="NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">No Place For Secret Foes</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;It is my impression that sewers were originally invented by the Evil
+one. He couldn't drag men down to his dominions fast enough, so he
+moved a portion of his estate to this planet, and lest its true
+character should be discovered, buried it under paved streets and
+flowery parks. We might easily and quietly put these crude materials
+into convenient receptacles, to be carried where they will bless the
+world by making two ears of corn grow where one grew before. This we
+could do, each one for ourselves, or more advantageously by cooperating
+with one another. We are too wasteful, too indolent, too ignorant.
+Tempted by the invisible sewers we imprison these misplaced and
+inharmonious elements for a time in lead or iron pipes, while they grow
+more hostile, occasionally escaping by violence or stealth into our
+chambers, and then with many nice contrivances and much perishable
+machinery we try to wash them away with a bucket of water. Not to carry
+them where they will do any good, not to put them out of existence, but
+simply to hide them: to send them out of our immediate sight, and very
+likely into some greater mischief. The system is radically wrong, and
+while many of its existing evils may be averted, they cannot all be
+removed till we make our attacks from a different base. Improving
+sewers, like strengthening prison walls, is a good thing if the
+institutions remain; to prevent the need of maintaining them would be
+better still. Three-fourths of the solid wastes that proceed from
+human <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>dwellings&mdash;scraps of food, waste paper, worthless vegetables,
+worn-out utensils, bones, weeds, old boots and shoes, whatever
+unmanageable and unnamable rubbish appears&mdash;ought to be at once
+consumed by fire, for which purpose a small cremating furnace should be
+found in every house. A similar trial by fire would reduce a large part
+of the liquids and semi-liquids to solid form to be also consumed, and
+the rest, absorbed by dry earth or ashes, could easily be transported
+to the barren fields that await the intelligence and power of man to
+transform them into blooming gardens.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of the usual modes of bringing water to our houses to wash away these
+things I know but little, because there is but little to be known.
+Complications and mysteries are not to my taste. I find no satisfaction
+in overthrowing a man of straw, and am comparatively indifferent to the
+rival claims of patentees and manufacturers, except as they promise
+good material, faithful workmanship and moderate prices.</p>
+
+<div class="imgdiv2">
+<a href="images/p170.png">
+<img border="0" src="images/p170.png" width="200" height="483" alt="Fig. 1." /></a><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;The one thing needful, if we adopt the hydraulic method of carrying
+away these waste substances, is a smooth cast-iron pipe running from
+the ground outside the house in through the lower part and up and out
+through the roof. It should be open at both ends, and so free from
+obstruction that a cat, a chimney-swallow or a summer breeze could pass
+through it without difficulty. I would, however, put screens over the
+open ends to keep out the cats and the swallows. The purifying breezes
+should blow through in summer and winter without let or hindrance, and
+to promote their circulation I <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>would, if possible, place the pipe
+beside a warm chimney. Yet if the air it contains should sometimes move
+downward it will do no special harm; anything is better than
+stagnation. Into this open pipe, which should be not only water-tight
+but air-tight through its entire length, all waste-pipes from the house
+should empty as turbid mountain torrents pour into the larger stream
+that flows through the valley. (Fig. 1.) Now, unless the upward draught
+through this large pipe is constant and strong, you will see at once
+that the air contained in it (which we must treat as though it were
+always poisonous) would be liable to come up through these branches
+into the rooms, where they stand with open mouths ready to swallow
+whatever is poured into them. It is <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>necessary, therefore, to build
+dams across them that will allow water to go down but prevent air from
+going up. These dams are called 'traps.' They are intended to catch
+only hurtful elements that might seek to intrude. It often happens that
+those who set them get caught, for they are not infallible. Whatever
+the form or patent assumed by these water-dams, they amount to a bend
+in the pipe rilled with water. (Fig. 2.) Sometimes a ball or other form
+of valve is used, but the water is the mainstay.</p>
+
+<div class="imgdiv">
+<img border="0" src="images/p171.png" width="118" height="150" alt="Fig. 2." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Theoretically, this is the whole machinery of safe, 'sanitary'
+plumbing: A large open pipe kept as clean and free as possible, into
+which the smaller drains empty, these smaller drains or waste-pipes
+having their mouths always full, and being able, so to speak, to
+swallow in but one direction. Everything can go down; nothing can come
+up. That all these pipes shall be of sound material, not liable to
+corrosion; that the different pieces of which they are composed shall
+be tightly joined; that they shall be so firmly supported that they
+will not bend or break by their own weight, or through the changes of
+temperature to which they are subject, and that they shall be, if not
+always in plain sight, at most only hidden by some covering easily
+removed, are points which the commonest kind of common sense would not
+fail to observe.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Practically, there are weak spots in the system, even if plumbers were
+always as honest as George <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>Washington&mdash;-before he became a man, and as
+wise as Solomon&mdash;before he became discouraged. A water barricade,
+unless it is as wide as the English Channel, is not a safeguard against
+dangerous invasion. A slight pressure of air, as every boy blowing soap
+bubbles can show you, will force a way through a basin full, and the
+same thing would happen if there should chance to be a backward current
+of air through these pipes, with this difference, that while the soap
+bubbles are harmless beauties, these may be filled with the germs of
+direful diseases. Still another danger to which this light water-seal
+is exposed is that a downward rush of water may cause a vacuum in the
+small pipes, somewhat as the exhaust steam operates the air-brakes, and
+empty the trap, leaving merely an open crooked pipe. Both these weak
+points may be strengthened by a breathing hole in the highest part of
+the small pipe below the trap. This must, of course, have a ventilating
+pipe of its own, which, to be always effectual, should be as large as
+the waste-pipe itself. (Fig. 3.)</p>
+
+<div class="imgdiv2">
+<img border="0" src="images/p172.png" width="150" height="267" alt="Fig. 3." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="imgdiv">
+<img border="0" src="images/p173.png" width="150" height="128" alt="Fig.4." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, if the water that fills these traps and stops the open mouths of
+the drains were always clean, there would be no further trouble from
+this source. Unfortunately it is not; and although constant
+watchfulness might keep it so, the safety that only comes from eternal
+vigilance is an uncomfortable sort of safety&mdash;if we have <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>too much of
+it life becomes a burden. This particular ill might be remedied by some
+contrivance whereby the upper ends of the waste-pipes should be
+effectually corked&mdash;not simply covered, but <i>corked</i> as tightly as a
+bottle of beer&mdash;at all times except when in actual use. This would
+doubtless be more troublesome, but indolence is at the bottom of most
+of our woes: our labor-saving contrivances bring upon us our worst
+calamities. Even this thorough closing of the outlet of washbasins and
+bath-tubs, as they are usually made, would be of little avail, for they
+are furnished with an 'overflow' (Fig. 4), through which exhalations
+from the trap would rise, however tightly the outlet might be sealed.
+It is also customary and doubtless wise, considering our habit of doing
+things so imperfectly the first time that we have no confidence in
+their stability, to place large basins of sheet-lead under all plumbing
+articles, lest from some cause they should 'spring a leak' and damage
+the floors or ceilings below them. One strong safeguard being better
+than two weak ones, I would dispense with the 'overflow' and arrange so
+that when anything ran over accidentally the lead basin or 'safe'
+should catch the water and carry it through an ample waste-pipe of its
+own to some inoffensive outlet. This would perhaps involve setting the
+plumbing articles in the most simple and open fashion&mdash;which ought
+always to be done. 'Cabinets,' cupboards, casings and wood finish, no
+<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>matter how full of conveniences, or how elegantly made, are worse than
+useless in connection with plumbing fixtures, which, for all reasons,
+should stand forth in absolute nakedness. They must be so strongly and
+simply made that no concealment will be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One more danger closes the list, so far as the system is concerned.
+Even if the water in the traps is clean and inoffensive it will
+evaporate quickly in warm weather, and then the prison door is open
+again. This adds another vigil which we can never lay aside if we must
+have plumbing and water traps. The burden may be somewhat
+lightened&mdash;since we are prone to forgetfulness as stones to fall
+downward&mdash;by using traps made of glass and leaving them in plain sight.</p>
+
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p174.png" alt="Fig. 5." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I conclusion, I wish to remind you that the lower end of the main
+drain must be protected from the iniquity of the sewer or cesspool to
+which it runs by another trap, or dam, just below the open pipe that
+admits fresh air from outside the house (Fig. 5), and also, as I have
+before <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>remarked, that the system is wrong. The rising tide of
+civilization will some time wash it all away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Uncle Harry's notion of reform,&quot; said Jack, after the long letter had
+been read, &quot;seems to be to blow the universe to pieces and then put it
+together again on a new and improved plan. It strikes me we had better
+fight it out on this line and try to straighten the evils we know
+something about rather than invent new ones. If we had begun on that
+track and tried to utilize the waste materials on strictly economical
+principles, perhaps by this time our methods and machinery would have
+been so far perfected that the real or imaginary evils of modern
+plumbing would not have existed. It seems a pity to throw away all we
+have accomplished and begin again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is a part of the price paid for progress,&quot; said Jill. &quot;Stage
+coaches are useless when steam appears, and locomotives must go to the
+junk shop when electricity is ready to be harnessed. But I'm afraid we
+cannot afford to be pioneers, and I'm sure the neighbors are not ready
+to co-operate. We must still 'go by water,' and the important question
+is where to send the lower end of the main drain. There is no sewer in
+the street, and a cesspool is an atrocity worthy of the darkest ages.
+The only safe thing appears to be the sub-surface irrigation plan, for
+which, fortunately, there is plenty of room on our lot. This comes very
+near to Uncle Harry's notion of 'earth to earth' in the quickest time
+possible. If we do it and accept the architect's suggestion in the plan
+of the house we shall be reasonably safe from that most mysterious of
+all modern foes&mdash;sewer-gas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>I've forgotten the architect's suggestions; in fact, I don't believe
+my head is quite equal to housebuilding with all the latest notions.
+When <i>my</i> house was built I just told the carpenter to get up something
+stylish and good, about like Judge Gainsboro's. He showed me the plans,
+I signed the contract, and that was the whole of it. I supposed a house
+was a house. Now, before the new house is begun, I'm like Dick
+Whittington in the days of his poverty&mdash;I've no peace by day or night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor fellow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shudder to think what it will he when the house is fairly under way.
+I can see five hundred different things at once, but when each one has
+five hundred sides and we get up into the hundred thousands, I begin to
+feel dizzy. Uncle Harry has settled the plumbing question to his own
+satisfaction, so far as first principles are concerned; but who will
+tell us what kind of pipes and trimmings and bowls and basins and traps
+and plugs and stops and pedals and pulls and cranks and pistons and
+plungers and hooks and staples and couplings and brakes and chains and
+pans and basins and tanks and floats and buoys and strainers and safes
+and bibbs and tuckers we are to adopt? If I should consume midnight oil
+during a full four years' course at a college for plumbers I should
+still find myself just upon the threshold of the temple of knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>SAFE FLUES AND MORE LIGHT.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the B image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p177B.png"
+width="90" height="100" alt="B" /><br />y a tender but vigorous application of the remedies usual in such
+cases, Jack was speedily restored to his wonted equanimity, and Jill,
+laying Uncle Harry aside, took up the architect's suggestions
+concerning the plumbing, which referred rather to its relations to the
+plan of the house than to the details of the work itself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A bath-room, with all the plumbing articles it usually contains, must
+possess at least three special characteristics. It must be easily
+warmed in cold weather, otherwise the annual bill for repairs will be
+greater than the cost of coal for the whole house; its walls, floors
+and ceilings must be impervious to sound. The music of murmuring brooks
+is delightful to our ears, so is the patter of the soft rain on the
+roof; but the splashing of water in a, bath-tub and the gurgling of
+unseen water-pipes are not pleasant accompaniments to a dinner-table
+conversation. Thirdly, it must be perfectly ventilated&mdash;not the
+drainpipes merely,&mdash;but the room itself in summer and in winter. Two of
+the above conditions can best be secured by arranging to have this
+important room placed in a detached or semi-detached wing; and here
+begin the compromises between convenience, cost and safety. It is
+<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>convenient to have a bath-room attached to every chamber, and there is
+no doubt that this may be done with entire safety, provided you do not
+regard the cost. In your plan I have adopted the middle course. There
+is one bath-room for all the chambers of the second floor, not too
+remote but somewhat retired, and having no communication with any other
+room. It is ventilated by a large open flue carried up directly through
+the roof; it has also an outside window and inlets for fresh air near
+the floor. All the walls and partitions around it will be double and
+filled with mineral wool, and the floors will be deafened. The 'house
+side' of the water-closet traps will have three-inch iron pipes running
+to the ventilating flue beside the kitchen-chimney, a flue that will
+always be warm, and therefore certain to give a strong upward draught
+at all times, which cannot be said of any other flue in the house, not
+even of the main drain, or soil-pipe, which passes up through the roof.
+It would be easy to keep other flues warmed in cold weather by
+steam-pipes, but in summer you will have no steam for heating purposes.
+A 'circulation-pipe' might be attached to a boiler on the kitchen range
+for this purpose, but in the present case such a contrivance would cost
+more than the iron pipe carried from the bath-room to the flue that is
+warmed by the kitchen fire. A good way to build this ventilating flue
+is to inclose the smoke-pipe from the range, which may be of iron or
+glazed earthen pipe, in a larger brick flue or chamber (Fig. 1),
+keeping it in place by bars of iron laid into the masonry. The rising
+current of warm air around the heated smoke-pipe will be as constant
+and <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>reliable as the trade winds.
+It will be well, indeed, if all your
+chimneys are made in a similar manner; that is, by enclosing
+hard-burned glazed pipe in a thin wall of bricks. Such chimneys will
+not only draw better than those made in the usual way, but there will
+be less danger from 'defective flues.' A four-inch wall of bricks
+between us and destruction by fire is a frail barrier, especially if
+the work is carelessly done or the mortar has crumbled from the joints.
+To build the chimneys with double or eight-inch walls makes them very
+large, more expensive, and still not as good as when they contain the
+smooth round flues. To leave an air-chamber beside or between them for
+ventilating (Fig. 2), is better than to open directly into the
+<a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>smoke-flue, because it will not impair the draught for the fire, and
+there will be no danger of a sooty odor in the room when the
+circulation happens to be downward, as it will be occasionally. The
+outside chimney, if there is one, should have an extra air-chamber
+between the very outer wall and the back of the fireplace to save heat
+(Fig. 3), a precaution that removes to a great extent the common
+objection to such chimneys. Whatever else you do, let these 'windpipes
+of good hospitalitie' have all the room they need. I shall not
+willingly carry them off by any devious way to be hidden in an obscure
+corner or dark closet, nor yet to give them a more respectable and
+well-balanced position on the roof. Like the wild forest trees they
+shall grow straight up toward heaven from the spot where they are first
+planted. If we happen to want a window where the chimney stands in an
+outer wall we will make one between the flues, as one might build a hut
+in the huge branches of a mighty oak. It isn't the best place for the
+window or the hut, but circumstances may <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>justify it; as, for instance,
+when we must have the outlook in a certain direction, but cannot spare
+the wall-space for a window beside the chimney. The jambs beside a
+window so situated will be very wide, and you may, if you please,
+extend the view of the landscape indefinitely by setting two mirrors
+<i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i> in the opening at either side. This will also send the
+sunshine into the room <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>after the sun has passed by the other windows
+on the same side of the house. It is rather a pretty fancy, too, when
+the outside view does not require a clear window, to set a picture in
+colored glass above the mantel, and the same thins: may be arranged in
+the sideboard, if it happens to stand against the outer wall. These are
+<i>fancies</i>, however, which lose their beauty and fitness unless they
+seem to have been spontaneously produced. There should be no apparent
+striving for effect.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep179" id="imagep179"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p179.png" alt="SAFE AND SAVING FLUES Fig. 1 and Fig. 2." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Safe And Saving Flues</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p180.png" alt="SAFE AND SAVING FLUES Fig. 3." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Safe And Saving Flues</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep181" id="imagep181"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p181.png" alt="A PICTURE IN GLASS OVER THE FIREPLACE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Picture In Glass Over The Fireplace</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I like the idea of setting mirrors in the deep window-jambs, whether
+they are in the chimney or out of it,&quot; said Jill. &quot;If I was obliged to
+live in a room where the sun never shone of its own accord, I would set
+a trap for it baited with large mirrors fixed on some sort of a
+windlass in a way to send the sunshine straight into my windows.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Capital! You could do that easily, and if you wanted a green-house on
+the north side it would only be necessary to set up a few
+looking-glasses to pour a blazing sun upon it all day long. You might
+need a little clockwork to keep them adjusted at the right angles, but
+Yankee invention ought to be equal to that. I have no doubt we shall
+see patent sunshine-distributors in the market very shortly if your
+idea gets abroad; in fact, I shouldn't be surprised to hear that a
+company proposed to set up mammoth reflectors to keep the sun from
+setting at all until he drops into the Pacific Ocean.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep183" id="imagep183"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p183.png" alt="GLASS OF MANY COLORS, SHAPES AND SIZES." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Glass Of Many Colors, Shapes And Sizes</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you may laugh at my invention; I shall surely try it when I am
+obliged to live in a house that does not get sunlight in the regular
+way. As for the stained <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>glass picture over the chimney-piece, I should
+like it for the bright color and because the lamps would make it so
+charming from the street outside. I shall also want colored glass in
+the upper part of the bay windows. The architect says we can have it
+and still keep the lower panes clear and large. He sends some sketches
+by way of suggestion, and thinks we may use it in the lower part of
+some of the windows to conceal a window-seat or other furniture. I
+should prefer screens of some other kind in such places, keeping the
+stained glass up where it would show against the sky. He says this
+colored glass is not necessarily expensive; that it may be set in
+common wood-sash or in lead-sash, as we please, and that it will not
+affect the usual opening and closing of the windows. He advises
+plate-glass for <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>the larger lights, if we can afford it, not because it
+gives the house a more elegant appearance, though that is not a wholly
+unworthy motive, but because a beautiful landscape is so much more
+beautiful when it can be plainly seen. The instinct that prompts us to
+throw the window wide open in order to get a more satisfactory view is
+an unanswerable argument in favor of large, clear lights of glass for
+windows intended for outlooks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And here is an illustration right before us,&quot; said Jack. &quot;I am
+impelled by a powerful impulse to open the window and see if I can
+recognize the lady driving up the street. It wouldn't be good manners,
+but I wish the window was plate-glass.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To Jack's astonishment, however, Jill threw open the window and waved
+her handkerchief in cordial salutation as Aunt Jerusha drove slowly up
+to the house. &quot;Doing her own work&quot; for half a century had not rendered
+her incapable of taking and enjoying a carriage ride of fifteen miles
+alone to visit her niece.</p>
+
+<p>Like all wise people who are able to give advice, Aunt Jerusha offered
+none until it was asked, and then gave only in small doses. She had
+never seen the house that Jack built, but had heard much of it from the
+friends and relatives who had never underrated Jill's obstinacy in
+refusing to accept it as a permanent home.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I almost wonder at you, Jill, for being so set against it. I'm sure
+it's a fine house and cost a good deal of money. There must be some
+drawback that doesn't show. I hope It isn't haunted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's it, Aunt Jerusha; it's haunted. Several <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>uncomfortable demons
+have taken possession of it and Jill isn't able to exorcise them. It
+was a great grief to me at first, and I made a bargain with Jill to
+keep still about them, but it is an open secret now and she may tell
+you everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep185" id="imagep185"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p185.png" alt="SHELVES IN THE MIDDLE, CUPBOARDS ABOVE AND BELOW." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Shelves In The Middle, Cupboards Above And Below</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. I can easily explain the mystery. The mischief began with
+the evil spirits of Ignorance and Incompetence. The carpenter who
+planned the house knew nothing about our tastes or needs, and the
+builder was unable to make a comfortable flight of stairs, safe
+chimneys, smooth floors or tight windows. After these two came another
+pair, worse than the first&mdash;Ostentation and Avarice. They tried to make
+a grand display and at the <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>same time a large profit on the job. How
+can I exorcise such demons as these except by tearing down the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Couldn't you sell it, dear? What seem demons to you might appear like
+angels of light to some one else,&quot; said Aunt Jerusha.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are an angel of light to me, Aunt Jerusha,&quot; said Jack. &quot;But I
+might have known you would stand up for my house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunt Jerusha, there isn't a closet in the whole establishment,&quot; said
+Jill, solemnly, knowing that defect to be an architectural sin which
+even her aunt's broad charity would fail to cover.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Jill! where have you laid your conscience? I can't stay to hear my
+house abused. Please show Aunt Jerusha the pantry and the china-closet
+and I will flee to the office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, yes, to be sure you have a very nice buttery and china-cupboard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I meant good, generous closets for the chambers. Of course there's a
+pantry, but I don't think the arrangement of shelves, drawers and
+cupboards is very convenient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It seems very liberal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, but would you advise me to have the pantry in the new house like
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, no, dear; since you asked me, I wouldn't. It is possible to have
+too many conveniences even in a pantry. It is a good plan to have a few
+cupboards to keep some things from the dust and others from the <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>light,
+but most of our raw materials now-a-days come in tight boxes or cans,
+and I find them more handy standing on the shelves than shut up in
+drawers. I don't suppose it would be so in your case, dear, but a
+drawer sometimes hides very slovenly habits. It is so easy to drop an
+untidy thing into a drawer and shove it out of sight. These large
+wooden boxes, all built in with their covers and handles, look nice and
+handy, but it's hard to clean them out. I would rather have good wide
+shelves and light movable tin boxes like those used in the groceries.
+You could buy them, I suppose, but I had mine made at the tin-shop to
+fit the shelves. I can take them out and wash them any time, and they
+never get musty, as wooden boxes will, even with the best of care. But
+you mustn't be biased by my old-fashioned notions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think they are very good notions if they are old-fashioned. If we
+have cupboards inside the pantry, drawers inside the cupboards, and
+boxes and cases inside the drawers, finding the spices is like opening
+a nest of. Chinese puzzles. A mechanic would never hide the tools in
+his workshop in that way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you reach the upper shelves?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never reach them, and all that room is wasted. It is worse than
+wasted. It is a reservoir for dust and cobwebs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wouldn't it be well, dear, if all the upper part was made into
+cupboards for things seldom used?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed it would. I think I will have the new pantry made something
+like this: low cupboards next to the floor, for things that; need to be
+shut up and yet must be <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>handy; on the top of these, which will be not
+quite three feet high, a very wide shelf; over this several open
+shelves, as high as I can easily reach; and above the shelves, filling
+the space to the ceiling, short cupboards entirely around the room for
+cracked dishes that are too good to throw away, but are never used: for
+ice-cream freezers in the winter, and a great many more things that
+belong to the same category&mdash;a sort of hospital for disabled or retired
+culinary utensils. Now we will look at the china closet, but we shall
+need the gas in order to see it in all its glory, and you can tell Jack
+it is lovely with a clear conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never speak without a clear conscience,&quot; said Aunt Jerusha mildly.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>CHAPTER XV.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>A DANGEROUS RIVAL.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the D image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p189D.png"
+width="85" height="96" alt="D" /><br />ear me,&quot; said Aunt Jerusha, as Jill, after displaying the kitchen
+pantry, showed her the windowless china closet, elegant with varnished
+walnut, plate-glass and silver-plated plumbing, &quot;dear me, this is as
+fine as a parlor. It seems a real pity to keep it all out of sight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The pity is that it was made so fine. I should not object to polished
+walnut in a light room, although cherry, birch or some other
+fine-grained, hard, light-colored wood is preferable; but all this
+ornamental work, these mouldings, cornices and carved handles are worse
+than useless&mdash;they are ugly and troublesome. If I can have my own
+way&mdash;I'm glad Jack isn't here to make comments&mdash;I shall have every part
+of the new pantries as plain and smooth as a marble slab, with not a
+groove or a moulding to hold dust, and never a crack nor a crevice in
+which the tiniest spider can hide. The shelves will be thin, light and
+strong; some wide and some narrow; a wineglass doesn't need as much
+room as a soup tureen; the cupboard doors shall be as plain as doors
+can be made, and shall <i>not</i> be hung like these, to swing out against
+each other at the constant risk of breaking the glass and <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>of pushing
+something from the narrow shelf in front of them. They ought to slide,
+one before another, and the front shelf should be wide enough to hold
+<i>lots</i> of things when they are handed down from the upper part of the
+cupboards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sure the little sink must be handy,&quot; said Aunt Jerusha, amiably
+looking for merits where Jill saw only defects.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It might be if there was room enough at each side for drainers and for
+dishes to stand before and after washing. I don't wonder that Jack's
+china is 'nicked' till the edges look like saw teeth; glass and fine
+crockery can't be piled up into pyramids even by the most experienced
+builders without serious damage to the edges. There ought to be four
+times as much space at each side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose there wasn't quite room enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was <i>always</i> room enough. There's enough now outside, and would
+have been inside, if the house had been well planned,&quot; said Jill rather
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These are proper, nice, large drawers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are too nice and too large. Even when they are but half full I
+have to tumble their contents all over to find any particular thing,
+unless it lies on top. Some drawers ought to be large and some small,
+but I don't believe there ever was a man,&quot; said Jill vehemently, &quot;who
+knew enough to arrange the small comforts and conveniences for
+housekeeping. Every day I am exasperated by something which Jack never
+so much as noticed. When I explain it he laughs and says it is
+<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>fortunate we have so good an opportunity for learning what to avoid,
+and all the time I am certain he thinks there will be a great many more
+faults in the new house. If there are I shall be sorry it is
+fire-proof.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep191" id="imagep191"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p191.png" alt="&quot;THE OAKS.&quot;" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">&quot;The Oaks.&quot;</span><span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Jill, my dear, don't be rash! That doesn't sound like you. You
+mustn't set your heart on having things exactly to suit you in this
+world. I've lived a great many years, and a good many times I find it
+easier to bring my mind to things as they are than it is to make
+everything come just to my mind. I've seen plenty of women wear
+themselves out for want of things to do with, and I've seen other women
+break down from having too many; trying to keep up with all the modern
+fashions and conveniences, and to manage their houses with the same
+kind of regularity&mdash;'system' they call it&mdash;that men use in carrying on
+a manufacturing business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, why shouldn't they, Aunt 'Rusha?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why, my dear. A business man has a certain, single,
+definite thing to do or to make. Every day's work is very much like
+that of the day before. He may try to improve gradually, but, in the
+main, it is the same thing over and over again. Our home life ought not
+to be like that. A man ought not to be merely an engine or a cash-book;
+a woman ought to be something more than a dummy or a fashion-plate; our
+children should not be like so many spools of thread or suits of
+clothes, turned in the same lathe, spun to the same yarn, and cut
+according to the same pattern and rule. I'm sure I could never have
+done my work and brought up six children without some sort of a
+system, <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>or if your uncle had been a bad provider. But I never could
+have got on as well as I have if I had given all my mind to keeping
+things in order and learning how to use new-fashioned labor-saving
+contrivances. There's nothing more honorable for womankind,&quot; said Aunt
+Jerusha, as she rolled up her knitting and prepared to set out on her
+homeward ride, &quot;than housework, but it ain't the chief end of woman,
+and unless your house is something more than a workshop or a showcase,
+it will always be a good deal less than a home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill hardly needed this parting admonition, but listened to it and to
+much more good advice with the respect due to one who, for nearly half
+a century, had looked well to the ways of her household, whose helping
+hands were always outstretched to the poor and needy, whose children
+rose up and called her blessed, and whose husband had never ceased to
+praise her. After her departure her niece indulged in a short season of
+solemn reflection, striving faithfully to attain to that wisdom which
+always knows when to protest against existing circumstances and when to
+accept them with equanimity. Ultimately she reached the conclusion
+that, while the house that Jack built might indeed be a thoroughly
+comfortable home to one who had a contented mind, it was really her
+duty in her probationary housekeeping to be as critical as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Among other things the doors came in for a share of her usually amiable
+denunciation. She declared they were huge and heavy enough in
+appearance for prison cells, yet so loosely put together that their
+prolonged <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>existence seemed to be a question of glue. They were swollen
+in the damp, warm weather till they refused to <i>be</i> shut, and would
+doubtless shrink so much under the influence of furnace heat in the
+winter that they would refuse to <i>stay</i> shut. The closet doors swung
+against the windows, excluding instead of admitting the light. The
+doors of the chambers opened squarely upon the beds, and there seemed
+to have been no thought of convenient wall spaces for pictures and
+furniture.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep195" id="imagep195"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p195.png" alt="OUTSIDE BARRIERS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Outside Barriers</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The architect's theory of doors, as expounded in one of his letters,
+was simple enough: &quot;Outside doors are barricades; they should be solid
+and strong in fact and in appearance. Inner doors, from room to room,
+require no special strength; they should turn whichever way gives the
+freest passage and throws them most out of the way when they are open.
+Seclusion for the inmates is <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>the chief service of chamber doors, and
+they should be placed and hung so as <i>not</i> to give a direct glimpse
+across the bed or into the room the moment they are set even slightly
+ajar. Closet doors are screens simply, and ought to hide the interior
+of the closet when they are partially open, as well as when they are
+closed. They may be as light as it is possible to make them. In many
+houses one-half the doors might wisely be sent to the auction-room and
+the proceeds invested in porti&egrave;res, which are often far more suitable
+and convenient than solid doors, especially for chamber closets, for
+dressing-rooms, or other apartments communicating in suites, and not
+infrequently a heavy curtain is an ample barrier between the principal
+rooms. It may be well to supplement them, <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>with light sliding doors, to
+be used in an emergency, but which being rarely seen, may be
+exceedingly simple and inexpensive, having no resemblance to the rest
+of the finish in the room. For that matter such conformity is not
+required of any of the doors, though it is reckoned by builders as one
+of the cardinal points in hard-wood finish that veneered doors must
+'match' the finish of the rooms in which they show. This is absurd.
+Doors are under no such obligations. They may be of any sort of wood,
+metal or fabric. They may be veneered, carved, gilded, ebonized,
+painted, stained or 'decorated.' To finish and furnish a room entirely
+with one kind of wood, making the wainscot, architraves, cornices,
+doors and mantels, the chairs, tables, piano, <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>bookcase, or sideboard,
+all of mahogany, oak, or whatever may be chosen&mdash;the floors, too,
+perhaps, and the picture frames&mdash;is strictly orthodox and eminently
+respectable; but like the invariable use of 'low tones' in decorating
+walls and ceilings, it betrays a sort of helplessness and lack of
+courage. Discords in sound, color and form are, indeed, always hateful,
+and they are sure to be produced when ignorance or accident strikes the
+keys. Yet, on the other hand, neutrality and monotone are desperately
+tedious, and it is better to strive and fail than to be hopelessly
+commonplace.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep196" id="imagep196"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p196.png" alt="INSIDE BARRIERS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Inside Barriers</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep197" id="imagep197"></a>
+
+<div class="imgdiv">
+<img border="0" src="images/p197a.png" width="275" height="359" alt="COMMON UGLINESS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Common Ugliness</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+<br />
+<img border="0" src="images/p197b.png" width="275" height="363" alt="SIMPLE GRACE." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Simple Grace</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This advice concerned not the doors alone, but referred to other
+queries that had been raised as to the interior finish generally.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Jack came home and found Jill &quot;in the dumps,&quot; or as near as
+she ever came to that unhappy state of mind, the consequence, as it
+appeared, of Aunt Melville's zeal in her behalf.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should these plans worry you?&quot; said Jack. &quot;I thought common sense
+was your armor and decision your shield against Aunt Melville's erratic
+arrows of advice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My armor is intact, but, for a moment, I have lowered my shield and it
+has cost me an effort to raise it again, I supposed my mind was fixed
+beyond the possibility of change, but this is a wonderfully taking
+plan. At first I felt that if our lot had not been bought and the
+foundation actually begun we would certainly begin anew and have a
+house something like these plans. Then it occurred to me that in
+building a house that is to be our <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>home as long as we live, perhaps,
+it would be the height of absurdity to tie ourselves down to one little
+spot on the broad face of this great, beautiful world and live in a
+house that will never be satisfactory, just because we happen to have
+this bit of land in our possession and have spent upon it a few hundred
+dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sensible, as usual. What next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, this last and best discovery of Aunt Melville's was undoubtedly
+made like our own plan to fit a particular site, and it seems beginning
+at the wrong end to arrange the house first and then try to find a lot
+to suit it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see it in that light,&quot; said Jack. &quot;I know the architect has
+been preaching the importance of adapting the plan to the lot, but if
+two thousand dollars are going into the land and eight thousand into
+the house, I should say the house is entitled to the first choice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly, if it was a city lot, with no character of its own, a mere
+rectangular piece of land shut in upon three sides and open at one. But
+ours has certain strong points not to be found in any other unoccupied
+lot in town. Besides, there are other reasons why it would not answer
+for us; but <i>if</i> our lot was right for it, and <i>if</i> we wanted so large
+a house, <i>how</i> I should enjoy building it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't see anything so very remarkable about the plan,&quot; said Jack,
+taking up the drawings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear, short-sighted husband,&quot; said Jill with the utmost
+impressiveness of tone and manner, &quot;it is a <i>one-story house</i>. 'There
+shall be no more stairs' sounds almost as delightful as the scriptural
+promise of no more sea. And look at the plan itself: The great square
+<a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>vestibule, or reception-room, with the office at one side&mdash;wouldn't
+you enjoy that, Jack?&mdash;then a few steps higher the big keeping-room,
+with a huge fireplace confronting you, and room enough for&mdash;anything.
+For games, for dancing, for a billiard table, for a grand piano, for a
+hammock&mdash;or&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say a sewing machine, a spinning-wheel or something useful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Anything you like, a studio or a picture gallery, for it is twice as
+high as the other rooms, and lighted from the roof. At the right of
+this, and with such a great wide door between them that they seem like
+two parts of the same room, is the sitting-room, with another great
+fireplace in the corner, bay window and a conservatory fronting the
+wide entrance to the dining-room, at the farther end of which there is
+still another grand fireplace, with a stained-glass window above it.
+These three rooms&mdash;four, if we count the conservatory&mdash;are just as near
+perfection as possible. Then see the long line of chambers, closets and
+dressing-rooms running around the south and east sides, every one with
+a southern window, and all communicating with the corridor that leads
+from the keeping-room, yet sufficiently united to form a complete
+family suite. The first floor&mdash;I mean the <i>one</i> floor&mdash;is five or six
+feet from the ground, so there can be no dampness in the rooms&mdash;and
+just think what a cellar! Altogether too much for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Indeed, there isn't. I'd have a bowling alley, a skating rink, a
+machine shop, a tennis court, and&mdash;a rifle range. Yes, it <i>is</i> a taking
+plan, but there are two <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>things that I don't understand. How can you
+cover such a big box, and where is the cooking to be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep201" id="imagep201"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p201.png" alt="FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF &quot;THE OAKS.&quot;" /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">First Floor Plan Of &quot;The Oaks.&quot;</span><span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;The old rule of two negatives applies. Even a one-story house must
+have a roof, and the breadth of this makes a roof large enough to hold
+not only the kitchen but the servants' room on the same upper level.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A kitchen up stairs!&quot; exclaimed Jack, for once startled into
+solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aunt Melville considers this the crowning glory of <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>the plan. Owing to
+this elevation of the cooking range there is no back door, no back
+yard, no chance for an uncouth or an unsightly precinct at either side
+of the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That would be something worth living for. I think, Jill, we had better
+examine these plans a little farther.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p202.png" width="450" alt="End of Chapter decoration." /><br />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW WAY OF GETTING UP STAIRS AND A NEW MISSIONARY FIELD.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the T image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p048T.png"
+width="85" height="101" alt="T" /><br />he question of getting up stairs,&quot; said Jack, as they continued the
+study of the one-story plan, &quot;is at least an interesting one. It seems
+to be accepted as a foregone conclusion that modern dwelling houses,
+even in the country, where the cost of the land actually covered by the
+house is of no consequence, must be two stories at least above the
+basement; but I doubt whether this principle in the evolution of
+domestic habitations is well established. Between the aboriginal
+wigwam, whose first and only floor is the bare earth itself, and the
+'high-basement-four-story-and-French-roof' style, there is somewhere
+the happy medium which our blessed posterity&mdash;blessed in having had
+such wise ancestors&mdash;will universally adopt as the fittest survivor of
+our uncounted fashions. I fancy it will be much nearer to this
+one-story house, with the high basement and big attic, than to the
+seven-story mansard with sub-cellar for fuel and furnace. Still the
+tendency during the last fifty years has been upward. Our grandfathers
+preferred to sleep on the ground floor; <i>we</i> should expect to be
+carried off by burglars or malaria if we ventured to close our eyes
+within <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>ten feet of the ground. Our city cousins like to be two or
+three times as high. Under these circumstances building a one-story
+house would be likely to prove a flying-not in the face of Providence,
+but, what is reckoned more dangerous and discreditable&mdash;flying in the
+face of custom. Humility isn't popular in the matter of
+house-building.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am not afraid of custom, and have no objection to a reasonable
+humility,&quot; said Jill, &quot;but I never once thought of burglars. If a house
+has but one floor I think it should be so for from the ground as to be
+practically a 'second' floor. The main point is to have all the family
+rooms on one level.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is, a 'flat.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, one flat; not a pile of flats one above another, as they are
+built in cities, but one large flat raised high enough to be entirely
+removed from the moisture of the ground, to give a pleasant sense of
+security from outside intrusion and to afford convenient outlooks from
+the windows. One or two guest rooms, that are not often used, might be
+on a second floor, under the roof, if there was space enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this plan has the servants' chambers, the kitchen and the store
+closets all in the roof. Isn't that rather overdoing the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Better in the attic than in the basement. It is light, dry and 'airy.'
+There is no danger that the odors of cooking will come down, and as for
+the extra trouble, a well-arranged elevator will take supplies from the
+basement up twenty feet to the level of the kitchen, store-rooms and
+pantries as easily as they could be taken the<a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a> <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>usual distances
+horizontally. In brief, a kitchen above the dining-room is at worst no
+more 'inconvenient' than below it. Of course, there must be stairs even
+in a one-story house, but they would not be in constant use. Instead of
+living edgewise, so to speak, we should be spread <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>out flatwise. We
+could climb when we chose, but should not of necessity be forever
+climbing. Yes, I like this plan exceedingly, not alone for its one
+principal floor, but I have always had a fancy for the 'rotunda'
+arrangement&mdash;one large central apartment for any and all purposes, out
+of which the rooms for more special and private uses should open.
+Indeed, I don't see how a very large house can be built in any other
+way without leaving a considerable part of the interior as useless for
+domestic as Central Africa is for political purposes. With <i>this</i>
+arrangement the central keeping-room, lighted from above, may be as
+large as a circus tent, and all the surrounding cells will be amply
+supplied with light and air from the outside walls.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep205" id="imagep205"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p205.png" alt="LOOKING TOWARD SUNSET." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Looking Toward Sunset</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep207" id="imagep207"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p207.png" alt="NEAR THE TURNING-POINT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Near The Turning-point</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;According to Aunt Melville's enthusiastic account, the construction of
+the house is but little less than marvelous. 'The high walls of the
+basement are built of those native, weather-stained and lichen-covered
+boulders, the walls above being of a material hitherto unknown to
+builders. You will scarcely believe it when I tell you they are nothing
+else than the waste rubbish from brickyards, the rejected accumulations
+of years&mdash;not by any means the unburned, but the overburned, the hard,
+flinty, molten, misshapen and highly-colored masses of burned clay
+which indeed refused to be consumed, but have been twisted into
+shapeless blocks by the fervent heat. Of course, with such
+unconventional materials for the main walls it would be a silly
+affectation to embellish the exterior of the house with elaborate
+mouldings or ornamental wood-work, and the visible <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>details are
+therefore plain to the verge of poverty. But as men of great genius can
+disregard the trifling formalities of society, so there are no
+architectural rules which this house is obliged to respect.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep209" id="imagep209"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p209.png" alt="A CHOICE OF BALUSTERS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Choice Of Balusters</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;That suits me perfectly,&quot; said Jack; &quot;but I am amazed at Aunt
+Melville. Never before did she make such a concession even to great
+genius. Never before have I felt inclined to agree with her; but the
+conviction has grown upon me of late that the new house is in danger of
+being too much like other houses. If a fellow is really going in for
+reform, I like to have him go the whole figure. What do you say to
+beginning anew and building such a house as no mortal ever built
+before&mdash;something to make everybody wonder what manner of <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>people they
+are who live in such a habitation&mdash;something to convince our neighbors
+that we are no weak-minded time-servers, but are able to be an
+architectural as well as domestic law unto ourselves&mdash;something to make
+them stop and stare&mdash;a sort of local Greenwich from which the community
+will reckon their longitude&mdash;'so many miles from the house that Jill
+built'?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear, did it ever occur to you that you cannot be too thankful for
+a wife who is not blown about by every wind of new doctrine? I <i>do</i>
+like the plan of 'The Oaks' exceedingly, not only for itself, but for
+the spirit of it, for its breadth and freedom. It seems to me a
+charming illustration of the true gospel of home architecture. There is
+no thoughtless imitation of something else that suits another place and
+another family. Neither does it appear that the owner tried to make a
+vain display for the sake of 'astonishing the natives.' He knew what he
+wanted, and built the house to suit his wants, using the simplest, the
+cheapest and the most durable materials at hand in the most direct and
+unaffected manner. Did you notice in the sketch of the keeping-room
+fireplace the little gallery passing across the end of the room above
+the entrance to the sitting-room? Probably you thought that was built
+for purely ornamental purposes, but it isn't. It is simply the walk
+from the kitchen to another part of the attic, which can be most
+conveniently reached by this interior bridge. Of course it adds to the
+interest and beauty of the room, but it was not made for that purpose,
+and, as I understand the matter, it is all the more beautiful because
+it was first made to be useful. There is<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a> <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>another thing in this
+house&mdash;the elevator&mdash;which, queerly enough, we do not often find in
+houses of more aspiring habit, where it would he of even greater value.
+It is amazing to me that housekeepers will go on tugging trunks,
+coal-hods and heavy merchandise of all kinds up stairways, day after
+day and year after year, when a simple mechanical contrivance, moved by
+water, or weights and pulleys, would save us from all these heavy
+burdens. Think of the bruised knuckles, the trembling limbs that
+<a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>stagger along with the upper end of a Saratoga 'cottage,' the broken
+plastering at the sides, the paper patched with bright new pieces that
+look 'almost worse' than the uncovered rents, and the ugly marks of
+perspiring fingers.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep211" id="imagep211"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p211.png" alt="THE BIG FIREPLACE IN THE KEEPING ROOM." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Big Fireplace In The Keeping Room</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<a name="imagep213" id="imagep213"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p213.png" alt="ONE WAY TO BEGIN." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">One Way To Begin</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;All of which I have seen and a part of which I have been,&quot; said Jack.
+&quot;I intended to have a lift in this house, but somehow it was left out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Our architect.&quot; Jill continued, &quot;must be instructed to arrange not
+only an easy staircase, but there must be a paneled wainscot at the
+side. We will dispense with elegance in any other quarter, if need be,
+in order to have the stairs ample, strong and well protected. I am not
+over-anxious to have them ornate, although handsome stairs are very
+charming if well placed; like many other beautiful things, they become
+incurably ugly when too obtrusive. The architect has sent several
+designs of balustrades from which we are to choose, and gives this
+advice about the dimensions: 'As you have plenty of room, the staircase
+should be four or four and a-half feet wide, so that two people can
+easily walk over it abreast, I have arranged to make the steps twelve
+inches wide, besides the projection that forms the finish&mdash;the
+&quot;nosing&quot;&mdash;and six inches high; that is, six inches &quot;rise&quot; and twelve
+inches &quot;run.&quot; Some climbers think this too flat, and perhaps it is in
+certain situations; but for homes, for easy, leisurely ascent by
+children and old folks. I think it better than a steeper pitch. All
+large dwelling-houses, and some small ones, ought to be supplied with
+&quot;passenger elevators,&quot; at least from the first to the second story.<a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>
+<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>Those who take the rooms still higher are usually able to make the
+ascent in the common way. Such an elevator can undoubtedly be made that
+will be safe and economical, especially where there is an ample water
+supply.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep215" id="imagep215"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p215.png" alt="A BROADSIDE OF AN EASY ASCENT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Broadside Of An Easy Ascent</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;The safety is the most troublesome part of the problem,&quot; said Jack;
+&quot;and I can think of no way to overcome the danger of walking off the
+precipice, when the platform happens to be at the bottom, but by having
+the car run up an inclined plane. There would be no more danger of
+falling down this than down a common stairway, and the car might be
+fixed so it couldn't move up or down faster than a walk or a slow
+trot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would you like to experiment in the new house? You may do so&mdash;at your
+own expense&mdash;if you will promise not to spoil the plan. Among the
+designs for the stairs there is one that will be of no service to
+us&mdash;the screen at the foot of the stairs; our 'reception' hall will be
+separated from the staircase hall by the chimney and the curtains at
+the sides.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an idea,&quot; exclaimed Jack, &quot;a truly philanthropic one. You know
+we are accumulating a large stock of plans, to say nothing of general
+information on architectural subjects, which we cannot possibly use
+ourselves, but which ought not to be wasted. Now you know Bessie is
+pining for a mission.&quot;.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bessie has gone home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know, but she will come back if we send for her and tell her that
+she and Jim are to be sent out in the express wagon on a benevolent
+expedition to the heathens&mdash;the uncultured domestic heathens. We can
+have some of the <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>architect's letters printed in tract form for them to
+distribute, and they can take along these superfluous plans to be
+applied where they will be most effective. Take, for instance, this
+hall screen, or whatever it may be, with the square staircase behind
+it. This would be just the thing for one of those old-fashioned square
+houses with the hall running through the middle and the long staircase
+splitting the hall in two lengthwise. If Bessie could persuade the
+owner of a single one of these old houses to take out the straight and
+narrow stairs, move them back, and, by introducing this semblance of a
+separation, make a reception hall of the front part, she would feel
+that she had not lived in vain. If she could at the same time cause
+cashmere shawls and rag carpets to be hung as porti&egrave;res in place of
+doors to the front rooms she would be ready for translation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill laughed. &quot;I'm not sure,&quot; said she, &quot;but this is a good field for
+people of missionary proclivities. Some of these old-fashioned houses
+have far more real, artistic excellence than those of the later,
+transition periods, and need but slight alterations to be most
+satisfactory types of architectural beauty as well as models of comfort
+and convenience. Broad, easy stairs, wide doorways and generous
+windows, with ample porches and piazzas outside, would transform them
+and make them not merely as good as new, but vastly better. Reopening
+fireplaces that have been ignominiously bricked up would be another
+promising field.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh! I tell you my idea is a capital one. I'll send for Bess this very
+day. They shall have Bob and the <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>express wagon a week if they want it.
+They shall dispense an esthetic gospel and accumulate ancient
+bric-a-brac to their hearts' content. Bessie will be in ecstacies, and
+Jim will be in a helpless state of amazement and admiration.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep219" id="imagep219"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p219.png" alt="A DIVIDING SCREEN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Dividing Screen At The Foot Of The Stairs</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;How perfectly absurd, Jack! I wouldn't allow those children to go off
+on such an excursion for all the old <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>houses in America. One would
+think you were determined to have an esthetic sister-in-law at all
+hazards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never thought of such a thing! But now that you suggest it&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't suggested it,&quot; said Jill indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, you put it into my head at all events, and really now it
+wouldn't be such a bad idea. Jim is behind the times, artistically
+speaking, and needs to be waked up; and as for Bess, she would very
+soon learn to be careful how she expressed a longing for the
+unattainable, for Jim is a practical fellow, and whatever she wanted he
+would go for in a twinkling. Honestly, Jill, it strikes me as a
+first-class notion, and I'm glad you suggested it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I <i>didn't</i> suggest it, and I think it would be a <i>dreadful</i> thing&mdash;I
+mean to send them off on another excursion. I am not sure, however, but
+we might found an A.B.C.A.M. with the materials and implements in our
+possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>THE RIGHT SIDE OF PAINT; A PROTEST AND A PROMISE.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the J image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p221J.png"
+width="85" height="132" alt="J" /><br />ack's benevolent ambition to distribute their superfluous plans among
+those in need of such aids was strengthened by the receipt of another
+roll of drawings, showing designs for the interior work, wainscots,
+cornices, architraves, paneled ceilings and such wood finishings as are
+commonly found in houses that are built in conventional fashion, with
+lathed and plastered walls, trimmed at all corners and openings with
+wood more or less elaborately wrought. Of course, it was a large
+condescension in the architect to offer such a variety, and contrary to
+his avowed determination to decide without appeal all questions of
+construction and design, but he appreciated his clients and knew when
+to break his own rules and when to insist upon their observance. If
+Jill, had required an assortment he would doubtless have suggested that
+certain &quot;practical&quot; builders could furnish a full line of ready-made
+&quot;artistic&quot; patterns for little more than the cost of the paper on which
+they were printed; from these he would have advised her to select her
+own designs, as she might have chosen from a medicine chest
+sweet-smelling drops or sugar-coated pills of varying hue and
+<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>form&mdash;the result would doubtless he as satisfactory in one case as in
+the other. Since she had not demanded it as an inalienable right he
+gave her an opportunity to criticise and select, which she accepted by
+no means unwillingly. As a rule, the designs were, in her opinion, too
+elaborate and obtrusive. There were too many mouldings, there was too
+much carving, and too evident a purpose to provide a finish that should
+challenge attention by its extent or elegance. It would require too
+much labor to keep it in order, and&mdash;it would cost too much. If she
+could not have work that was truly artistic, and therefore enduringly
+beautiful, whatever changes of fashion might occur, it was her wish to
+keep all the essential part of the building and finish modestly in the
+background, not attempting to make it ornamental, but relying upon the
+furniture for whatever conspicuous ornament or decoration might be
+desired. Nothing annoyed her more than an elegantly-finished house
+scantily provided with shabby, incongruous and misapplied furniture.
+The amiable concession of the architect came near causing a fatal
+quarrel, as amiable concessions are apt to do, for he found it almost
+impossible to satisfy Jill's taste in the direction of simplicity; he
+seemed to feel that he was neglecting his duty if he gave her plain,
+narrow bands of wood absolutely devoid of all design beyond a
+designation of their width and thickness. Any carpenter's boy could
+make such plans. &quot;It would be worse,&quot; he wrote, &quot;than prescribing bread
+pills and 'herb drink' for a sick man.&quot; To which Jill replied in
+substance that the needs of the patient are more important than
+professional rules.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep223" id="imagep223"></a>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>
+<img border="0" src="images/p223.png" alt="BITS OF CORNICES." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Bits Of Cornices</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Over the first great question, regarding the visible wood work of the
+interior, Jack and Jill had held many protracted discussions: should
+any of it be painted, or should all the wood be left to show its
+natural graining and color? To the argument that unpainted wood is not
+only &quot;natural&quot; but strictly genuine and more interesting than paint,
+Jack replied that &quot;natural&quot; things are not always beautiful; that
+paint, which makes no pretense of being anything but paint, is as
+genuine as shellac or varnish, and that if the object is to be
+interesting, the bark, the knots, the worm-holes, and, if possible, the
+worms themselves should be displayed. &quot;Besides,&quot; said he, &quot;if we decide
+on hard wood, who shall choose the kinds? There's beech, birch and
+maple; cherry, whitewood and ebony; ash and brown ash and white ash and
+black ash; ditto oak, drawn and quartered; there's rosewood, redwood,
+gopherwood and wormwood; mahogany, laurel, holly and mistletoe; cedar
+of Lebanon and pine of Georgia, not to mention chestnut, walnut,
+butternut, cocoanut and peanut, all of <a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>which are popular and available
+woods for finishing modern dwellings. If we choose from this list,
+which may be indefinitely extended, the few kinds for which we can find
+room in our house, we shall be tormented with regret as long as we both
+do live because we didn't choose something else. Now if we paint,
+behold how simple a thing it is! We buy a lot of white pine boards, put
+them up where they belong and paint them in whatever unnamable hues the
+prevailing fashion may chance to dictate. Our boards need not even be
+of the best quality; an occasional piece of sound sap, a few hard
+knots, or now and then a 'snoodledog'&mdash;as they say in Nantucket&mdash;would
+do no harm. A prudent application of shellac and putty before painting
+will make everything right. Then if the fashions change, or if we
+should be refined beyond our present tastes and wish to go up higher,
+all we should need to lift the house to the same elevated plane
+is&mdash;another coat of paint. On the other hand, if we had a room finished
+in old English oak, growing blacker and blacker every year; in mahogany
+or in cheap and mournful black walnut, what could we do if the
+imperious mistress of the world should decree light colors? With rare,
+pale, faded tints on the walls our strong, bold, heavy hard-wood finish
+would be painful in the extreme. We couldn't change the wood and we
+couldn't change the fashion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you were not my own husband, Jack, I should say you were dreadfully
+obtuse. Concerning <i>fashions</i> in house-building and furnishing I feel
+very much as Martin Luther felt about certain, formal religious dogmas.
+If <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>we are asked to respect them as a matter of amiable compliance, if
+we find them convenient, agreeable and at the same time harmless, then
+let us quietly accept them; but, if we are commanded to obey them as
+vital, if they are set before us as solemn obligations to be reverenced
+as we reverence the everlasting truth, then, for Heaven's sake, let us
+tear them in pieces and trample them under our feet, lest we lose our
+power to distinguish the substance from the shadow. The moment any
+particular style of building, finishing or furnishing becomes a
+recognized fashion, that moment I feel inclined to turn against it with
+all my might.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you were not my own idolized wife, I should say that was 'pure
+cussedness.'&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep225" id="imagep225"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p225.png" alt="MOULDINGS FAIR TO SEE, BUT HARD TO KEEP CLEAN." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Mouldings Fair To See, But Hard To Keep Clean</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;On the contrary, it is high moral principle; that is, moral principle
+applied to art. It is a simple, outright <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>impossibility for human
+beings to have any true perception of art while a shadow of a thought
+of fashion remains. It is, indeed, possible that fashion may, for a
+moment, follow the straight and narrow road that leads to artistic
+excellence, as the fitful breath of a cyclone may, at a certain point
+in its giddy whirl, run parallel with the ceaseless sweep of the mighty
+trade-winds, but whoever tries to keep constantly in its track is sure
+to be hopelessly astray.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear, indignant, despiser of fashion, you know you wouldn't wear a
+two-year-old bonnet to church, on a pleasant Sunday morning, for the
+price of a pew in the broad aisle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly not; that would be both mercenary and irreverent; moreover,
+my bonnet has nothing to do with artistic rules. It is not a work of
+art or of science, of nature or of grace. It is a conventional signal
+by which I announce a friendly disposition toward the follies of my
+fellow-creatures&mdash;a sort of flag of truce, a badge of my conformity in
+little things. I wear it voluntarily and could lay it aside if I
+chose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Undoubtedly, <i>if</i> you chose. Now, let us resume the original
+discussion. I had given one powerful argument in favor of paint when I
+was rashly interrupted: here is another&mdash;it is much cheaper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That would depend,&quot; said Jill. &quot;Ash, butternut, cherry and various
+other woods cost little, if any more, than the best pine, and the pine
+itself is very pretty for chambers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, but you forget the labor question. It is one <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>thing to join two
+pieces of wood so closely as to leave no visible crack between them,
+and quite another to bring them into the same neighborhood, fill the
+chasm with putty and hide the whole under a coat of paint. The
+difference between these two kinds of joints is the difference between
+one stroke and two, between one day's work and five days, between one
+thousand dollars and five thousand. My third argument you will surely
+appreciate. Paint is more artistic.&quot; Here Jack paused to <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>give his
+words effect; then proceeded like one walking on stilts. &quot;Pure tones
+symphoniously gradated from contralto shadows to the tender brightness
+of the upper registers and harmoniously blended with the prevailing
+quality&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep227" id="imagep227"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p227.png" alt="FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITRAVES." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Fragments Of Architraves</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, Jack! <i>Don't</i> go any farther, you are already beyond your depth.
+When you attempt to quote Bessie's sentiments you should have her
+letter before you. Perhaps I have a dim perception of the principle
+that underlies your thirdly. If so, this room is a pertinent
+illustration of it. Instead of all this white paint, if the wood work
+had been colored to match the predominant tint in the background of the
+paper, or a trifle darker, this being also the general 'tone' of the
+carpet, it is easy to see how the coloring of the room would have been
+simple and pleasing, instead of glaring and ugly. Yes, your plea for
+paint is not without value. I think, however, it would be entirely
+possible to stain the unpainted wood to produce any desired symphony,
+fugue or discord. It might be unnatural, especially if we wished to
+look blue, but it would not conceal the marking and shading of the
+grain of the wood which is so much prettier than any moulding or
+carving, and vastly easier to keep in order. Your economical arguments
+are always worth considering. I think the happy compromise for us will
+be to use hard wood in the first story and painted pine in the
+chambers, with various combinations and exceptions. The bath-rooms,
+halls and dressing-rooms of the second story should of course be
+without paint, and we may relieve the solid monotony of the hardwood
+finish with <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>occasional fillets or bands of color, painted panels or
+any other irregularities we choose to invent. But this is invading the
+mighty and troublous realm of 'interior decoration,' from which I had
+resolved to keep at a respectful distance until the house is at least
+definitely planned in all its details.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep229" id="imagep229"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p229.png" alt="A CHOICE OF WAINSCOTS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Choice Of Wainscots</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A wise decision, for although what we call in a general way &quot;interior
+decoration&quot; is closely allied to essential construction&mdash;not
+infrequently seems to be a part of it&mdash;there is still a sharp though
+often unseen line between them that cannot be crossed with impunity.
+Artistic construction is at best only second cousin to decoration,<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a> and
+while we may in building arrange to accommodate a certain style of
+furniture or ornament, as Bessie's friend built her parlor to suit the
+rug, the result of such contriving is apt to be discouraging if not
+disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two things we must surely have,&quot; said Jill, &quot;which the architect has
+not sent; one, an old fashion, the other, a new one. We must have
+'chair rails,' in every room down stairs that has not a solid wainscot,
+if I have to make the plans and put them up myself. We must also have
+another band of wood higher up entirely around every room in both
+stories, to which the pictures can be hung.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps the architect will object to this as interfering with his
+plans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He cannot, for they belong to our side of the house; they are matters
+of use, not of design. He may put them where he pleases, within
+reasonable limits, and make them of any pattern, with due regard to
+cost. He may treat one as part of the dado, the other as a member of
+the cornice, if he chooses, but we <i>must</i> have them&mdash;they are
+indispensable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They are also dangerous, because they are fashionable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, an illustration of the temporary agreement of fashion and common
+sense. But things of real worth do not go out of fashion; fashion goes
+out of them; henceforth they live by their own merit and no one
+questions their right to be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you written to Bessie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Written to Bessie? What for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>Why, to come and get ready to start on her mission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, indeed; I supposed you had forgotten that absurd notion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all absurd. I mentioned it to Jim, and he was delighted.
+Offered to go up and escort her down. He said they could go out in a
+different direction every day and do a great deal of good in the course
+of a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack, I am ashamed of you! Don't mention the subject to me again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall I say to Jim?&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep231" id="imagep231"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p231.png" alt="WOOD PANELS FOR WALLS AND CEILINGS." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">Wood Panels For Walls And Ceilings, With Irregularities
+In Leather, Paint And Paper</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>You needn't say anything to Jim. Tell him I am going to invite Bessie
+to visit us in the new house, and if he is in this part of the world I
+will send for him at the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that will be a full year, for the house is hardly begun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, a full year.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p232.png" width="450" alt="End of Chapter decoration." />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>THE HOUSE FINISHED AND THE HOME BEGUN.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the I image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p233I.png"
+width="56" height="120" alt="I" /><br />t was indeed a full year for Jill before Bessie received the promised
+invitation. Not merely full as to its complement of days, but full of
+new cares, interests and activities. It is needless to say it was also
+a happy year. Building a house for a home is a healthful experience, a
+liberal education to one who can give personal attention to it; who has
+some knowledge of plans with enough imagination to have a fair
+conception of what they will be when executed; who is content to
+receive a reasonable return for a given outlay, not anxious to get the
+best end of every bargain, nor over-fearful of being cheated; who cares
+more for home comfort than for a fine display, and whose soul is never
+vexed by the comments of Mrs. Grundy, nor tormented by the decrees of
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>The question was raised, whether the house should be built by contract
+or by &quot;day's work.&quot; The worldly-wise friends advised the former.
+Otherwise they affirmed the cost of the house would exceed the
+appropriation by fifty, if not a hundred, per cent., since it would be
+for the interest of both architect and builders to make the house as
+costly and the job as long as possible. And, while it was doubtless
+true that &quot;day work&quot; is likely to be better <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>than &quot;job work,&quot; still, if
+the plans and specifications were clearly drawn and the contract made
+as strong as the pains and penalties of the law could make it, the
+contractor might be compelled to keep his agreement and furnish
+&quot;first-class&quot; work.</p>
+
+<p>Jill's father settled this point at once. &quot;It is true,&quot; said he, &quot;that
+the plans and specifications should be clearly drawn, that you may see
+the end from the beginning, and it will be well to carefully estimate
+the cost, lest, having begun to build, you should be unable to finish.
+But I am neither willing to hold any man to an agreement, however
+legal it may be, that requires him to give me more than I have paid
+for, nor, on the other hand, do I wish to pay him more than a fair
+value for his work and material. You cannot avoid doing one of these
+two things in contracting such work as your house, for it is
+impossible to estimate its cost with perfect accuracy, and no
+specifications, however binding, can draw a well-defined line between
+'first' and 'second'-class work. A general contract may be the least
+of a choice of evils in some cases; it is not so in yours. If you know
+just what you want, the right mode of securing it is to hire honest,
+competent workmen and pay them righteous wages. If, before the work is
+completed, you find the cost has been underestimated, stop when your
+money is spent. It may be mortifying and inconvenient to live in an
+unfinished house; it is far more so to be burdened with debt or an
+uneasy conscience. There is another thing to be remembered: We hear
+loud lamentations over the dearth of skillful, trusty laborers. There
+is no way of promoting<a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a> <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>intelligent, productive industry&mdash;which is
+the basis of all prosperity&mdash;but by employing artisans in such a way
+that the personal skill and fidelity of each one shall have their
+legitimate reward. The contract system, as usually practiced, acts in
+precisely an opposite direction. Your house must be built 'by the day'
+Jill, or I shall recall my gift.&quot; <i>That</i> question was settled. The
+good and wise man had previously decided as peremptorily an early
+query relating to the plans. When it was known that a new house was to
+be built, several architects, with more conceit than self-respect,
+proposed to offer plans &quot;in open competition&quot;&mdash;not to be paid for
+unless accepted&mdash;concerning which Jill had asked her father's advice.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep235" id="imagep235"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p235.png" alt="THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The House That Jill Built</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;What should you think of a physician,&quot; said he, &quot;who, on hearing that
+you were ill, should hasten to present himself with a prescription and
+a bottle of medicine, begging you to read the one, test the other, and,
+if they made a favorable impression, give him the job of curing you?
+There are such who call themselves physicians; other people call them
+quacks, and there is one place for their gratuitous offerings&mdash;the
+fire. I shall burn any plans that are presented in this way. Choose
+your architect at the outset, and give him all possible aid in carrying
+out your wishes, but do not employ one of those who must charge a
+double price for their actual work in order to work for nothing half
+the time. In any other business such a practice would be condemned at
+once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't it the same thing as offering samples of goods?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, it is offering the goods themselves&mdash;the top of the barrel at
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>Of course this did not apply to the contributions that were prompted by
+personal friendship, of which Jill, as we have seen, received her full
+share, none of them, excepting the one-story plan, proving in the least
+tempting.</p>
+
+<p>As the race of competent, industrious mechanics is not yet extinct,
+whatever the croakers may say such were found to build the house, which
+was well closed in before winter. The walls and roof were completed and
+the plastering dried while the windows could be left open without
+danger of freezing, a most important thing, because although mortar may
+be kept from freezing by artificial heat, the moisture it contains,
+unless expelled from the house, will greatly retard the &quot;seasoning&quot; of
+the frame and the walls of the building. After it has all been blown
+out of the windows, if the house is kept warm and dry the fine
+wood-finishing will &quot;keep its place&quot; best if put up in winter rather
+than in summer. For the most carefully seasoned and kiln-dried lumber
+will absorb moisture so rapidly in the hot, steaming days of June and
+in the damp dog-day weather that no joiner's skill can prevent cracks
+from appearing when the dry furnace heat has drawn the moisture from
+its pores.</p>
+
+<p>One year is a reasonable length of time for building a common
+dwelling-house. Twelve months from the day the workmen appeared to dig
+the foundation trenches the last pile of builder's rubbish was taken
+away and the new, clean, bright, naked, empty house stood ready for the
+first load of furniture. If the social and domestic tastes of Jack and
+Jill have been even slightly indicated, it is unnecessary to say that
+this first load did not <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>consist of the brightest and best products of
+the most fashionable manufacturers. Aunt Melville had sent a few
+ornaments and two or three elegant trifles in the way of furniture, a
+chair or two in which no one could sit without danger of mutual broken
+limbs, and a table that, like many another frail beauty, might enjoy
+being supported but could never bear any heavier burden than a
+card-basket, and was liable to be upset by the vigorous use of
+dust-brush or broom. &quot;They will help to furnish <a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>your rooms,&quot; said the
+generous aunt, &quot;and will give a certain style that cannot be attained
+with furniture that is simply useful.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep239" id="imagep239"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p239.png" alt="THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The First Floor Of The House That Jill Built</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The ornaments that were ornamental and nothing more Jill accepted
+gratefully. The furniture that must be protected to preserve its
+beauty, and generally avoided lest it should be broken, she returned,
+begging her aunt to give it to some one having a larger house.</p>
+
+<p>On one of those perfect days that are so rare, even in June, Bessie
+appeared in all the glory of the lilies. To Jill's surprise, her first
+remark after the customary effusive greeting was, &quot;How <i>lovely</i> it is
+to have a home of your own. I shouldn't care if it was made of slabs
+and shaped like a wigwam. Of course, <i>this</i> house is exquisite. I knew
+it would be, but it is ten times as large as I should want. It will be
+<i>so</i> much work to take care of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't expect to take care of it alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know you don't, but I should want to take care of my own house, if I
+had one, every bit of it. Oh, you needn't look so amazed. I know what I
+am saying. I have learned to cook, and dust, and sweep, and kindle
+fires, and polish, silver, and&mdash;and black stoves!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No wonder Jill was dumb while Bessie went on at a breathless rate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And do you know, Jill dear, I wouldn't take this house if you would
+give it to me. There! I would a thousand times rather have a little bit
+of a cottage, just large enough for&mdash;for two people, and everything in
+it just as cosy and simple as it could be. Then we&mdash;then <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>I could learn
+to paint and decorate&mdash;I've learned a little already&mdash;and embroider and
+such things, and slowly, very slowly, you know, I would fill the house
+with pretty things that would belong to it and be a part of it, and a
+part of me, too, because I made them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wouldn't it be much cheaper and better to hire some skillful artist to
+do these things?&quot; said Jill, taking refuge in matter-of-fact.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep241" id="imagep241"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p241.png" alt="THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The Second Floor Of The House That Jill Built</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>If I hired any one of course it would be an artist, but our homes are
+not dear to us because they are beautiful, it is because they are
+<i>ours</i>, because we have worked for them and in them until they are a
+part of ourselves. I love artistic things as well as I ever did, but
+there are some things that are ten thousand times lovelier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before Jill had recovered from her astonishment at Bessie's transformed
+sentiments or imagined their cause, who should drive up but Aunt
+Jerusha. She and Bessie had never met before, but the mysterious laws
+of affinity, that pay no regard to outward circumstances or
+expectations, brought them at once into the warmest sympathy. Jill had
+provided extremely pretty china for her table, and for Bessie's sake
+had brought out certain rare pieces not intended for every-day use. It
+was contrary to her rule to make any difference between &quot;every-day&quot; and
+&quot;company days.&quot; &quot;Nothing is too good for Jack,&quot; was the basis of her
+argument. The one exception was china. But Bessie was absolutely
+indifferent to the frail and costly pottery. She was intent on learning
+domestic wisdom from Aunt Jerusha, and insisted upon writing in her
+note-book the recipes for everything she ate and recording the rules
+for carrying on whatever household matters chanced to be mentioned,
+from waxing floors to canning tomatoes. Jack strove to enliven the
+conversation by throwing in elaborate remarks upon the true sphere of
+women, the uncertainty of matrimonial ventures and the deceitfulness of
+mankind in general. Jill meanwhile preserved her equanimity upon all
+points relating to her house. She admitted the force of Aunt<a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>
+<a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>Jerusha's suggestion that a portion of the long serving-table in the
+kitchen should be movable and a door made from kitchen to china-closet,
+to be kept locked, as a rule, but available in an emergency, when one
+or both servants were sick or discharged; she appreciated her advice to
+form the habit of washing the silver and fine glasses with her own
+hands before leaving the table; she was able to repeat her favorite
+recipes correctly; she carved gracefully, as a lady ought, and gave due
+attention to her guests. Beyond these duties she was in a state of
+bewilderment. What had happened to Bessie, and what new mischief Jack
+was incubating were puzzles she could neither solve nor dismiss.</p>
+
+<a name="imagep243" id="imagep243"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p243.png" alt="THE EAST END OF JILL'S DINING-ROOM." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">The East End Of Jill's Dining-room</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>By one of those coincidences, not half as rare as they seem, at four
+o'clock the same day Aunt and Uncle Melville appeared upon the scene.
+They were spending a short time at a summer hotel in the vicinity, and
+Jill persuaded them to stay for tea, sending their carriage back for
+Cousin George and his wife, who were at the same place. She also
+invited her father and mother to improve the opportunity to make a
+small family gathering. &quot;I suppose you know Jim is coming over this
+evening,&quot; said Jack. &quot;Don't you think he had better bring Uncle Harry
+along?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I <i>didn't</i> know Jim was coming, but he is always welcome, and Uncle
+Harry too. Your father and mother, of course, if they are able to come
+out this evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, <i>they</i> are coming, anyway,&quot; Jack began and stopped suddenly. &quot;That
+is, I mean, certainly they will be delighted, if you send for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>Jill was more puzzled than ever, but they all came.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, you will please consider yourselves a 'board of visitors,'&quot; said
+she, as they sat at the table after tea, &quot;authorized to inspect this
+institution and report your impressions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remembering that Jill is the warden and I am the prisoner,&quot; said Jack.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you must conduct us to the cells,&quot; said her father, rising, &quot;and
+tell us what to admire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jill accordingly began at the beginning. She showed them the light
+vestibule, with a closet at one side for umbrellas and overshoes, and a
+seat at the other; the central hall that would be used as a common
+reception-room, and on such occasions as the present, would become a
+part of one large apartment&mdash;the entire first floor of the main house;
+the staircase with the stained-glass windows climbing the side; the
+toilet-room from the garden entrance and the elevator reaching from the
+basement to the attic. She showed them the family suite of rooms; her
+own in the southeast corner, with the dressing-room and adjoining
+chamber toward the west, and Jack's room over the front hall, with the
+large guest-room above the dining-room. She urged them to count the
+closets and notice their ample size; referred with pride to the
+servants' rooms, and explained how there was space in the roof for two
+chambers and a billiard-room, if they should ever want them. With true
+housekeeper's pride she declared the beauties and wonders of the
+kitchen arrangements, a theme that had been often rehearsed, and from
+the kitchen they descended to the <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>basement, which contained the
+well-lighted laundry, the servants' bath-room and store-rooms without
+name or number; some warm and sunny, others cool and dark, but all dry
+and well ventilated.</p>
+
+<p>Then they returned to the drawing-room to make their reports.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's too large,&quot; said Bessie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't small enough,&quot; said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The third floor is not the proper place for a billiard-table,&quot;
+remarked Uncle Melville, sententiously. &quot;It is too remote for such a
+social pastime; too difficult of access; too&mdash;too&mdash;er&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The house looks smaller than it is,&quot; said Aunt Melville, &quot;which I
+consider a serious defect. It ought to look larger; it should have a
+tower, and the front door should be toward the street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your chambers are excellent,&quot; said Uncle Harry. &quot;The personality of
+human beings should be respected. The chief object of home is to give
+to each individual a chance for unfettered development. Every soul is a
+genius at times and feels the necessity of isolation. Especially do we
+need to be alone in sleep, and to this end every person in a house is
+entitled to a separate apartment. I commend the family suite.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A nobby house,&quot; said Cousin George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I like our own better,&quot; said his wife, <i>sotto voce</i>, which was a
+worthy sentiment and should have been openly expressed. Fondness for
+our own is the chief of domestic virtues.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>Is it paid for?&quot; inquired Jack's father. To which Jack replied:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is: and the house that I built is sold to the most stylish people
+you ever saw. They paid me more than this cost, but I wouldn't swap
+with them for a thousand dollars to boot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No; neither would they change with us for two thousand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Just as the clock struck nine the door-bell rang and the rector and his
+wife were announced. Before Jill could realize what was taking place
+she found herself an amazed and helpless spectator in her own house,
+for Jim and Bessie stood side by side under the curtains leading to the
+library, and the rector was reading the solemn marriage service. By way
+of calming her excitement Jack found a chance to whisper to Jill,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They have been engaged six months.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You unnatural husband! Why didn't you tell me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Didn't know it myself till this afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for further explanations, for the good rector was
+saying: &quot;I am sure you will agree with me that building and cherishing
+a consecrated home is the noblest work we can do on earth. From such
+homes spring all public and private excellence, all patriotic virtues,
+all noble charities and philanthropies, all worthy service of God and
+man. Whether high or low, rich or poor, in all times and in all places,
+domestic life, in its purity and strength, is the safeguard of
+individuals and the bulwark of nations. And when, in after years,
+other <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>solemn sacraments shall be performed beneath this roof, may it
+still be found a sacred temple of peace and love!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bessie and Jim kept house in two chambers until a cottage of four
+rooms, with an attic and wood-shed, was finished, which happened before
+cold weather. Her wedding present from Jack was an express wagon full
+of obsolete household utensils. She had learned to make the fire in the
+kitchen, and nothing was more acceptable than such a load of dry
+kindling wood.</p>
+
+<p>The house that Jill built cost ten thousand dollars. Jim's cost less
+than one thousand. Bessie declares that the smaller the house the
+greater the happiness it contains. She may be right, but Jill denies
+it, and it is never safe to draw general conclusions from special
+cases.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>TEN YEARS AFTER.</h3>
+
+<!-- took out the normal line break here because I needed it to align the J image -->
+
+<p class="noin"><img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p250J.png"
+width="85" height="135" alt="J" /><br />ack, Jr., and his sister Bessie, were building block houses on the
+piazza. Jack was pretending to read the evening paper, in reality
+watching the builders; and Jill was making no pretense of doing
+anything else.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really Jack, I think Bessie shows more skill in building than her
+brother. Her houses look like realities, and they have more grace and
+dignity than his.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course. Haven't I always said that women would make the best
+architects if they had a fair chance? Didn't you make the plans of this
+house? Hasn't it been all our fancy painted and a great deal more?
+There isn't a stick nor a stone, a brick nor a shingle that I would
+have changed if we were to build it again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And haven't I always said that men were more conservative than women?
+<i>I</i> would be glad to change everything there is in the house to build
+it all over again, and build it differently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh the inconstancy of women! Even the moon is more constant, for her
+changes are only superficial and temporary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I say; 'I have changed my mind,' it is only another way of
+saying, 'I am wiser to-day than I was yesterday.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I understand; what a Jacob's ladder of wisdom you <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>must be! All right;
+change your mind every day, grow wiser and wiser; I will try to keep
+the hem of your garments in sight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you selected a lot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For a new house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bless you, my dear husband, I wouldn't build another house, still less
+live in it, for all the wealth of the treasury vaults. Isn't this our
+own? Hasn't it always been perfectly suited to our wants? What upon
+earth are you thinking of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, nothing in particular. I never think if I can help it. I have
+heard that a man ought always to build two houses, one to learn how,
+the second to correct the mistakes of the first. I thought perhaps it
+was the same way with women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This house was exactly right when it was built, it could not have been
+improved, but that was ten years ago, and a great many things have
+happened in the last ten years; but, then, a great many more will
+happen in the next ten, and ten years hence there will be just as many
+things to change in the houses that are built this year as there are
+now in those that are of the same age as ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how would you change this house if it could be done by a magic
+wand or by the exercise of faith, and without raising a speck of dust
+or upsetting the housekeeping affairs for a single minute?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would make it larger for one thing. Our rooms are too small. The
+number of rooms a house contains should depend on the number of people
+there are to live in it, including all the children, the guests and the
+servants, with a certain allowance for contingencies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Depending on the hospitality of the family.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; and whatever the number of rooms, they <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>should be large enough,
+not merely to hold the occupants when the doors are shut, but for
+comfortable living and moving about. There is nothing in which all men
+and women are more conservative than in the planning of their houses;
+there seems to be something hereditary about it, as difficult to change
+as a tendency to bald heads and awkward locomotion. Americans are
+special sufferers in this respect. The primitive Anglo-American home
+was only a step removed from the wigwams of the aboriginal savages, in
+size, shape and general accommodations. Even our English ancestors,
+from whom we derived some of our domestic notions, were not accustomed
+to anything magnificent in the way of dwellings. The climate was
+against them, and they were not sufficiently luxurious in their tastes.
+Their houses were primarily places for shelter and refuge. In summer
+they lived out of doors, and in winter they crept into close quarters
+and waited for warm weather. With plenty of land and building materials
+to be had for the taking, our colonial grandfathers should have had the
+most generous homes in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; and to judge by some of the old colonial mansions which have
+escaped the 'making-over' vandals we have been going backwards in that
+respect during the last fifty or a hundred years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; and we ought to have been going the other way, for the size of
+rooms should increase as the cost of furniture diminishes. Take for
+instance, a parlor or sitting room fifteen feet square, which is, I
+believe, about the orthodox size for a modern house. Give such a room a
+dozen straight-backed and straight-legged chairs ranged along the
+sides, a table in the center of the room with a green cover and four
+books on it, two or three unhappy-looking family portraits on the
+walls, <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>a pair of brass candlesticks on the high, wooden mantel, a pair
+of bellows, a shovel and tongs, with, perhaps, in the way of luxury, a
+haircloth sofa. Now compare the room furnished in that way, which was
+by no means uncommon in the days of our grandfathers with a room of the
+same size, in which are stored half a dozen chairs, no two alike, and
+some of them as large as small lounges, a center table piled with books
+and magazines and photographs, till like a heap of jack straws, it is
+impossible to remove one without disturbing the whole pile; a lounge
+with a back, a divan or something without a back, an upright piano, two
+or three bookcases, several small stools and piles of Turkish cushions
+to catch the unwary, huge Japanese vases beside the fireplace, a
+leopard skin with a solid head in front of the table, and a sprinkling
+of Persian rugs spilt over the floor; a cabinet of bric-a-brac in the
+northeast corner, a 'whatnot' with a big jardiniere bearing a
+three-foot palm on the top story in the northwest, a carved bracket
+with a sheaf of Florida grasses in the southeast, and a tall wooden
+clock that won't go in the southwest; a brass tea kettle hanging from a
+wrought iron frame beside a fragile stand that carries a half dozen of
+still more fragile 'hand-painted' teacups and saucers; lambrequins and
+heavy curtains at all the windows and most of the doors, a big
+combination gas and electric chandelier suspended from the center of
+the ceiling, bedangled with jumping jacks, Christmas cards, straw
+ornaments and other artistic 'curious'; one or two small tables
+scattered 'promiscous like' about the room; a music stand and a banjo;
+with photographs, chromos, oil paintings, water colors and etchings,
+from one to three feet square, in gilt, enameled and wooden frames of
+all styles and degrees of fitness on the walls of the room,&mdash;take a
+room furnished in this way or a <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>great deal more so, and compare it
+with another of the same actual dimensions furnished in the
+old-fashioned way and see which is the larger. The modern furnishing
+may be 'cozy,' oppressively cozy when there are half a dozen people
+trying to move gracefully around and between it without upsetting or
+destroying anything, but what sort of hospitality can we offer our
+guests if they must be always afraid of breaking something valuable if
+they stir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not have a bonfire and liquidate some of this superfluous stock?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is not superfluous; all these things, if they are good add to the
+enjoyment of living, if we have room for them and are able to take good
+care of them without neglecting weightier matters. Our own rooms are
+not large enough. However, if we cannot enlarge them we can build new
+ones for special purposes. For one, we must have a children's workroom.
+If Jack is going to be an artist, and you know he shows decided talent,
+and Bessie an architect, there's no doubt of her having real genius in
+that direction, they should have one room immediately, and two by and
+by, for their own exclusive use. A room where they could keep all their
+books, and tools and toys, and where they could work in their own
+spontaneous, untrammeled way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean a nursery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, I do <i>not</i> mean a nursery, but a workshop, study, gymnasium, call
+it anything you please. The floor should be smooth and hard, and the
+walls should be wainscoted with smooth, hard wood. There should be
+blackboards and shelves at the sides, and the children should be
+allowed to drive nails wherever they please. I am not sure but I would
+have a sink and a water faucet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>Not unless the room is in the cellar or has a floor tight enough for a
+swimming tank. Well, what next?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We must have a hospital.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For inebriates or the insane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A room similar to the private wards in a hospital. You know our own
+and the children's sleeping rooms are very simply furnished, but a sick
+room should be still more severe. The children have both had the
+measles, thank goodness, and I hope they never will have smallpox,
+scarlet fever, or diphtheria, but if they should it would be necessary
+to send them away from home or run the risk of their exposing one
+another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You might as well include every other ill that flesh is heir to. If we
+have got to fight germs day and night in order to live, the cleaner and
+more open we can keep the battle ground the better. It strikes me that
+it might be a good thing to have the whole house sort of clean and
+wholesome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course. But none of us would like to have the living rooms as
+absolutely bare of all superfluous furnishing as a hospital ward. We
+should not be willing to give up our rugs, take down the curtains,
+throw away the cushions and sit in hard wooden chairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, and I wouldn't like to burn my books, although there is nothing
+quite so 'germy' as my musty old books that were made in Italy in
+plague times and smell like the 16th century every time they are
+opened. So I suppose we must have a hospital for the children to be
+sick in, a workshop for them to work in, and what would you say to a
+small chapel and penitentiary, with a dungeon or two? While we are
+about it, let's have a market and cold storage annex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Precisely what I was going to suggest. It would be the easiest thing
+in the world to attach a small room to the cellar or the kitchen, where
+a low temperature can <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>be kept at all times, either by ice or by the
+artificial refrigeration that will soon be distributed and sold in the
+same way that gas, water, steam, electric light and power are now
+furnished in many cities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never thought of it before, but why shouldn't milk and beer and
+other medicinal drinks be distributed in the same way as water and
+gas?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Please don't interrupt me. These are really serious considerations.
+Why, Jack, we haven't begun to guess at the wonderful changes that are
+to be made in all our housekeeping affairs, as well as in everything
+else by electricity. In a few years we shall find our present cooking
+arrangements as much out of date as the old turnspit and tin ovens and
+the great wood fires on the hearth. And light! Our houses will be as
+light as day all the time, unless we choose darkness in order to sleep
+more comfortably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or because our deeds be evil, or for the better accommodation of
+burglars. No self-respecting burglar would think of 'burgling' without
+a dark lantern.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And heat; do you remember how something more than twenty-five years
+ago a French scientist proposed to supply all the heat needed for human
+comfort in cold climates directly from the sun's rays?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't say that I do remember that particular philosopher, but I have
+a notion that the sun was considered a fair sort of furnace a good many
+years before the first Frenchman was born.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes; but he was going to gather the sun's heat into such shape
+that it would warm our houses in winter, do all the cooking, take the
+place of all the steam boilers and furnaces. I never heard that his
+theories were reduced to practice, but we have found another source of
+light and heat that is already under our control. There is no more
+doubt that all the warmth, <a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>illumination and mechanical power that we
+can use are within our reach, when we have learned how to take
+possession of them, than there is of gravitation. It is all waiting at
+the door, we have only to clap our hands and the potent spirit is ready
+to do our bidding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without money and without price?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not quite that, there are too many incorporated monopolies in the
+way. But it is coming nearer and nearer, and with the unlimited power
+of wind and waves and waterfalls, all these things will soon be as
+cheap as anything really worth having ought to be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say, Jill, do you suppose we shall live to see all our necessities
+supplied, gratis, and have nothing to work for except the luxuries?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have lived long enough to find that for most people in our day and
+generation, even for those who think they have to work very hard 'just
+to get a living,' their most serious toil is to provide, what might be
+called, not the 'bare' necessities of life, but the well-dressed
+necessities. But it is time for those children to be in bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>CHAPTER XX.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>A DOUBLE CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; float: left;">"</span>
+<img border="0" style="float: left;" src="images/p258N.png"
+width="85" height="99" alt="N" />ow Jill,&quot; this was half an hour later, the children were asleep and
+the gas was lighted, &quot;let us by way of amusement draw plans of a castle
+in Spain. Let us forget all the houses that ever were built and fancy
+ourselves, not Adam and Eve, with the responsibility of setting the
+housekeeping pace for the rest of the human family nor Robinson Crusoe,
+whose domestic arrangements were somewhat handicapped, but a wise pair
+of semi-Bourbons, at the end of the 19th century, who forget nothing
+old but are willing to learn and adopt anything new, provided it is
+good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right; go ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the first place our castle will not be destructible by fire or
+water. All the walls will be of masonry and the floor beams will be of
+steel. There will be nothing to invite moth or rust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor burglars; not so much as a silver spoon or a candlestick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have always been sorry that the roof of this house was not
+fireproof, but I suppose it would have cost too much, though the
+architect said it might have been made like the floors if we would
+consent to have it flat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Moral: if you want a roof of the mountainous variety you must either
+pay for it or run the risk of being burned out on top. But what do
+castles in Spain <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>care for the cost? We can have fireproof roofs in
+miniature copy of Alpine peaks or we can use them for billiard tables
+and croquet grounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really,&quot; Jill continued, &quot;there is no good reason for steep roofs.
+Snow is more troublesome on the ground around the house than on top of
+it, if it will stay there, and a very slight slope will carry off the
+rain. I fancy steep roofs must have been invented when builders used
+such clumsy materials for covering that they were obliged to lay them
+on a steep pitch in order to keep out the water. Shingles of course
+last longer the steeper the roof.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that's the case they ought to last forever on the second story
+walls of our house, where they are straight up and down. When you come
+to think of it, high roofs must be built now-a-days mainly for show,
+incidentally they cover the house. First beautiful, then useful. How
+large will it be?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What, the roof?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, the whole thing; how many rooms will it have?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That will depend on the size of the family. Not less than ten nor more
+than forty. Ten rooms will answer for two people, and more than forty
+complicates the housekeeping.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you count closets?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no. Closets and dressing rooms, storerooms, bath rooms, cupboards
+and things of that sort, are mere adjuncts. They are to the real rooms
+what the pockets are to a suit of clothes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent. I'm glad we haven't got to count the closet or the expense.
+Probably ten rooms are not too many for two young people, but a pair of
+childless octogenarians ought to get along with eight or nine; the
+other way you are all right, only I would say four <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>hundred. While we
+are about it, let's have a comfortable, good sized, 'roomy' house. But
+how do you propose to put even forty rooms with their various pockets
+under one roof and give them all plenty of sunlight and fresh air? Will
+you pile them up one above another or set them in a row on the ground?
+In either case it would need a trolly car and a telephone to connect
+the two ends of the line.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It mustn't be more than two stories high, and I'm not sure but one
+would be better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That means twenty rooms on each floor. The rooms will average twenty
+feet long, and that will make the entire length of our castle four or
+five hundred feet. Won't it look like an institution or a row of
+tenements if it is strung out in a line?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Cut up into wings and things?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, it will be in the form of a hollow square. There may be a wing or
+two on one side or another, and wherever a projecting bay or oriel will
+add to the comfort or charm of the interior we shall have one, but its
+general form will be a great square with an open court in the center.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I see. An imitation Pompeian, or Florentine palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, nothing of the kind. Not an imitation of anything. It will be a
+simple, straightforward, common-sense, American home, with room for a
+good-sized family, several rooms for extra occasions, and some that
+will not be finished at all but held in reserve for future
+contingencies. It sometimes costs no more to enclose a certain space in
+building than to leave it outside, and there is the same satisfaction
+in knowing we have space to spare inside the house that there is in
+<a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>owning the land that joins us even when we don't expect to sell or use
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What shall we do with the big hole in the center? It will be too small
+for golf or tennis, and too big for a conservatory. We might keep
+hens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will not be too large for a garden, with fountains for hot weather
+and flowers for cold. It will be its own excuse for being, for it will
+give light and air to all the rooms, and if it has a glass roof the
+problem of comfortable living in cold weather will be solved. There
+will always be the temperate zone at one side of the house,&mdash;that is
+inside the court,&mdash;however high the drifts may be piled outside. Of
+course the entire building will be warmed in winter and cooled in
+summer by spicy breezes driven by electric fans, and we shall only have
+to decide what temperature we prefer on different days of the week, set
+the gauge, and there will be no more watching of the thermometer, the
+registers, the weather reports or the wood pile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I thought it was wrong to live in a river of warm air. Uncle John
+compares that to taking a perpetual warm bath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is wrong; but, my dear Jack, life is a succession of compromises,
+especially domestic life, and considering the practical difficulties in
+the way of open hickory fires in all the forty or more rooms, we must
+be content with the artificially warmed air for every day use and
+consider radiated heat from wood fires, coal grates, or sunshine, as
+luxuries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly; it would be a pity to make all luxuries impossible just
+because we happen to own a castle in Spain. Aren't you afraid our court
+will be dreadfully hot in summer, shut in by four brick walls?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By no means; it will be particularly cool. If we like we can have a
+great awning to draw over it in the <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>hottest weather, and wide halls
+will allow a perfect circulation of air throughout the whole structure.
+In addition to this, on the highest part of the roof there will be a
+space fitted for an outdoor sitting room, sheltered when necessary by
+awnings and screens, but most delightful on hot summer evenings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, yes, I see. A sort of copy of the old Egyptian houses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not a sort of a copy of anything, but a simple application of
+common sense. In the evening when there is a breeze from any direction,
+the highest part of the house will be the coolest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I thought it was to be a two-story house. How can one part be higher
+than the rest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't say it was to be all of the same height. Some rooms will be
+much higher than others because they will be larger. If a room is to be
+of agreeable proportions, the height must be determined by the size. It
+may be best to make the north side three stories high and the south
+only one; that would give more sunlight on the north wall of the court
+and make the average two stories.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing like keeping up the average. But aren't forty rooms with all
+the closets and storerooms, and stairways and halls, and bays and
+oriels and dungeons going to make a large house for one family? Can't
+we work the same idea on a smaller scale?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, but that is not too large for a comfortable home for a
+family of moderate size. Count your fingers and try it. To begin at
+that end of the establishment, we want a scullery, a kitchen, and a
+servants' dining room; we want a breakfast room, and a large dining
+room for the family, and the dining room, by the way, should be one of
+the largest rooms in the house, say twenty-one or two feet by thirty
+six or forty; we<a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a> <a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>want a parlor, a drawing room, a library, a
+billiard room and a picture gallery; a music room and ball room, these
+being, of course, in one, but as large as two ordinary rooms; then we
+want a nursery, a workroom for the children, a sick room and a sewing
+room, an office and a smoking room, and one or two extra sitting or
+reception rooms. Each member of the family should have a private
+sitting room and bedroom, with dressing room and bath for each suite.
+That, you see, would just about suit a family of ten people without
+counting the servants.&quot;</p>
+
+<a name="imagep263" id="imagep263"></a>
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/p263.png" alt="A CASTLE IN SPAIN." /><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;"><span class="sc">A Castle In Spain</span>.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you made any calculation Jill, dear, as to how many people there
+are at present in the United States who could manage to scrape along
+with thirty-nine rooms instead of forty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I? This is a castle in Spain. We have plenty of money,
+plenty of room, plenty of time. Our only anxiety is lest there should
+be a lack of brains to make good use of our room and time and money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what shall we build it of, jasper, sapphire and chalcedony?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, burned clay and granite, steel, copper and glass. It shall be
+defiant of fire and flood; it shall neither burn up nor rot down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing more, Jill, when we come to make our wills to which one of
+the children shall we bequeath the castle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Before Jill could answer the door was hurriedly opened and Bessie
+appeared upon the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've just run away from Jim,&quot; she began rapidly. &quot;We haven't had a
+family quarrel exactly, but we've argued it over and over, and we come
+out just as far apart as ever. Finally I told him I would leave it to
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>I haven't any idea what it is all about, but did Jim agree to that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't give him a chance to differ. He always agrees to everything
+Jill says about building houses But don't interrupt me. The baby may
+wake up at any minute and then Jim will be helpless. The truth is he is
+dissatisfied with our home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jim, dissatisfied; impossible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, he thinks it's too small.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He wants more servants, I suppose; several additional children, a lot
+more poor relations, and all the various items that go to make up a
+well-ordered household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no; it is the house that is too small.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me, you said the home. The house is a very different affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You remember,&quot; Bessie continued, &quot;that when it was built ten years ago
+Jim thought it was not large enough. Now he is determined to sell it
+and build a new one. There are five good rooms besides the closets, and
+as there is nobody but Jim and me and the four children and one
+servant, we have all the room we need. We have always been perfectly
+comfortable, and I can't bear the thought of selling our home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Bessie began to show symptoms of dissolution, but swallowing her
+emotion she continued, &quot;If we could build on a room or two as we need
+them I wouldn't mind it. But if you advise us to sell this house for
+the sake of having another, I'll&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We shan't advise any such thing,&quot; said Jack, &quot;but it's perfectly
+natural for Jim to think you ought to have a larger, more modern
+house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I don't want a more modern house,&quot; Bessie protested, &quot;if there is
+any created thing that I despise it is a 'modern' house, made up of bay
+windows and <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>crooked turrets, and shingled balconies, and peaked roofs,
+and grotesque little fandangoes of wood and copper and terra cotta,
+that have no more dignity or repose, or beauty or homelike appearance,
+than a crazy quilt or a Chinese puzzle. They are simply outrageous,
+abominable. I would sooner have the children brought up in a reform
+school or a house of correction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How would you like a colonial house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Bessie's indignation had spent itself, and she resumed her ordinary,
+but sometimes misleading manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't it a pity we were not all born a hundred years ago, then we
+might have had colonial houses. But why should I want to live in an
+uncomfortable old curiosity shop when I like my house just as it is?
+Our trouble is that Jim wants the house twice as large as it is now and
+I want only one more room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bessie,&quot; said Jack, in his most fatherly manner, &quot;I am surprised that
+two sensible people like you and Jim should fall into such a
+distressing controversy over nothing, absolutely nothing. You are
+already in perfect accord. Jim says the house is only half large
+enough. You say you want one more room. The house is now just
+thirty-three feet long and thirty-three feet wide; add a new room
+thirty-three feet square; you will have the one extra room, and Jim
+will have the house doubled in size. Isn't that right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jill; &quot;It is exactly what I should have suggested if you
+had given me a chance. Do you remember the charming room in the old
+Florentine palace, where we spent the winter, and how we enjoyed it,
+and finally measured it for the benefit of some other Americans who
+intended to build a new house as soon as they got home? That was just
+thirty-three feet square and eighteen feet high. There was a grand
+piano in one corner, in another a group of chairs with bookcases, in
+<a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>another sofas and chairs and tables scattered about, so that in effect
+it was equal to several small rooms. Indeed one of our party described
+it in a home letter as a magnificent apartment one hundred feet each
+way. It would accommodate several callers, with their different groups
+of friends, and it was of course a capital place for music and dancing.
+In your new room you will have one corner for the children and another
+for yourselves. The Dorcas society can meet at one side while your
+little Jack and his friends are playing games at the other. It won't be
+many years before Bessie will claim a large section, including one of
+the bay windows, for her own use.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think I hear the baby crying. Thank you, I'll talk it over with Jim.
+Good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think they will do it?&quot; Jack inquired.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course they will; it is by far the most sensible thing. As a family
+they are always together and always will be, and one large room will
+suit them better than several small ones. Perhaps it will be the best
+thing for us, until we can build our castle in Spain. It certainly will
+not cost as much as making over and enlarging the rooms we have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is true, and it is my impression that the wisest way to enlarge
+an old house is to nail up the windows, seal up the doors and go ahead
+with the additions without taking out the nails or breaking the seals
+till it is all done; that would save time, money and patience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, and more than that,&quot; said Jill, &quot;it would preserve the charm of
+the old house which grows stronger every year until the loss of the
+familiar rooms and their hallowed associations seems like parting with
+a dear old friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The House that Jill Built
+       after Jack's had proved a failure
+
+Author: E. C. Gardner
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2005 [EBook #15678]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading (https://www.pgdp.net), from images
+generously provided by the Hearth Library, Cornell
+University (http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT,
+     AFTER JACK'S HAD PROVED A FAILURE.
+
+
+     A BOOK ON
+     HOME ARCHITECTURE,
+     WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,
+
+     BY E.C. GARDNER,
+
+     _Author of "Homes and How to Make Them." "Home Interiors,"
+     "Common Sense in Church Building," etc._
+
+
+     SPRINGFIELD, MASS.:
+     W.F. ADAMS COMPANY,
+     1896.
+
+
+
+
+     1882,
+     BY OUR CONTINENT PUBLISHING Co.
+     _All rights reserved._
+     E.C. GARDNER, 1895.
+
+
+
+     Printed and Bound by
+     CLARK W. BRYAN COMPANY,
+     Springfield, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+CHAPTER I.
+A WISE FATHER AND A GLAD SON-IN-LAW                             7
+
+CHAPTER II.
+MORAL SUASION FOR MALARIAL MARSHES                             20
+
+CHAPTER III.
+A FIRST VISIT AND SAGE ADVICE                                  32
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS                                48
+
+CHAPTER V.
+WHEN THE FLOODS BEAT AND THE RAINS DESCEND                     63
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE WISDOM OF JILL IN THE KITCHEN                              78
+
+CHAPTER VII
+BE HONEST AND KEEP WARM                                        90
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+TRUTH, POETRY AND ROOFS                                       103
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE--BLINDS AND BESSIE                     115
+
+CHAPTER X.
+MORE QUESTIONS OF FIRE AND WATER                              128
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+WHAT SHALL WE STAND UPON?                                     140
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+FROM MATHEMATICS TO ANCIENT BRIC-A-BRAC                       151
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS, AND HEALTH                              166
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+SAFE FLUES AND MORE LIGHT                                     177
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+A DANGEROUS RIVAL                                             189
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+A NEW WAY OF GETTING UP STAIRS AND A NEW MISSIONARY FIELD     203
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+THE RIGHT SIDE OF PAINT, A PROTEST AND A PROMISE              221
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+THE HOUSE FINISHED AND THE HOME BEGUN                         233
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+TEN YEARS AFTER                                               250
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+A DOUBLE CONCLUSION                                           258
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+_From Drawings by the Author_.
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+1. "COUSIN GEORGE'S EXTERIOR"                                  11
+
+2. COUSIN GEORGE'S FIRST FLOOR                                 14
+
+3. COUSIN GEORGE'S SECOND FLOOR                                15
+
+4. "WARMTH IS BEAUTY"                                          21
+
+5. A HIDDEN FOE                                                23
+
+6. A BURIED GRIDIRON                                           24
+
+7. THE PROTECTING "CUT-OFF"                                    25
+
+8. A "CROSS-SECTION" PROPHECY                                  28
+
+9. HEAT FROM ALL SIDES                                         30
+
+10. AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                                   33
+
+11. NO PLACE FOR THE BED                                       36
+
+12. ENLARGED BY DESTRUCTION                                    37
+
+13. A SLIGHT ADDITION                                          39
+
+14. GROUND FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                   42
+
+15. FIRST FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION                    43
+
+16. A SECURE OUTLOOK                                           49
+
+17. MINED AND COUNTERMINED                                     52
+
+18. A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY                                    55
+
+19. THE TOPMOST PEAK                                           59
+
+20. WILL'S MASTERPIECE                                         65
+
+21. THE FIRST FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE                      73
+
+22. THE SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE                     75
+
+23. THE OUTSIDE OF TED'S HOUSE                                 79
+
+24. JILL'S KITCHEN IN BLACK AND WHITE                          83
+
+25. THE FIRST FLOOR OF TED'S HOUSE                             88
+
+26. THE POOR BUT MODEST ATTORNEY'S COTTAGE                     91
+
+27. A DOUBLE TEAM                                              94
+
+28. WARMTH UNDER THE WINDOW                                    96
+
+29. STEAM PIPES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE                           97
+
+30. THE ATTORNEY'S FLOOR PLAN                                 101
+
+31. NO CONCEALMENT OR DISGUISE                                105
+
+32. WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT                                110
+
+33. JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY                           112
+
+34. THE HAT MAKES THE MAN                                     113
+
+35. THE CONTRIBUTION OF BESSIE'S FATHER                       117
+
+36. THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE CONTRIBUTION                       123
+
+37. A GARGOYLE                                                130
+
+38. A CHOICE OF GUTTERS                                       131
+
+39. A SIMPLE RECESS                                           133
+
+40. IN THE MIDDLE RANK                                        135
+
+41. THE WORTH OF A COSY COTTAGE                               137
+
+42. A PROMISE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS                               141
+
+43. A REASONABLE HOPE                                         143
+
+44. FLOORS AS THEY ARE: FLOORS AS THEY MIGHT BE               145
+
+45. BRICKS AND BOULDERS ON GRANITE UNDERPINNING               149
+
+46. NOT BRILLIANT, BUT IMPRESSIVE                             153
+
+47. WOODEN RICHNESS                                           155
+
+48. NO WASTE OF WOOD                                          156
+
+49. FIRST FLOOR OF THE PROMISE                                158
+
+50. SECOND FLOOR OF THE PROMISE                               159
+
+51. NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES                                  167
+
+52. SAFE AND SAVING FLUES                                  179-80
+
+53. A PICTURE IN GLASS OVER THE FIREPLACE                     181
+
+54. GLASS OF MANY COLORS, SHAPES AND SIZES                    183
+
+55. SHELVES IN THE MIDDLE, CUPBOARDS ABOVE AND BELOW          185
+
+56. "THE OAKS"                                                191
+
+57. OUTSIDE BARRIERS                                          195
+
+58. INSIDE BARRIERS                                           196
+
+59. COMMON UGLINESS--SIMPLE GRACE                             197
+
+60. FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF "THE OAKS"                            201
+
+61. LOOKING TOWARD SUNSET                                     205
+
+62. NEAR THE TURNING-POINT                                    207
+
+63. A CHOICE OF BALUSTERS                                     209
+
+64. THE BIG FIREPLACE IN THE KEEPING-ROOM                     211
+
+65. ONE WAY TO BEGIN                                          213
+
+66. A BROADSIDE OF AN EASY ASCENT                             215
+
+67. A DIVIDING SCREEN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS               219
+
+68. BITS OF CORNICES                                          223
+
+69. MOULDINGS FAIR TO SEE, BUT HARD TO KEEP CLEAN             225
+
+70. FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITRAVES                                  227
+
+71. A CHOICE OF WAINSCOTS                                     229
+
+72. WOOD PANELS FOR WALLS AND CEILINGS, WITH IRREGULARITIES
+    IN LEATHER, PAINT AND PAPER                               231
+
+73. THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT                                 235
+
+74. THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT              239
+
+75. THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT             241
+
+76. THE EAST END OF JILL'S DINING-ROOM                        243
+
+77. A CASTLE IN SPAIN                                         263
+
+_Also Initials, Tail-Pieces, etc._
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
+
+                                    PAGE
+
+BUILDING SITES                        16
+BRICKS                        46, 53, 58
+BLINDS                               116
+CHIMNEYS                             179
+CONTRACT WORK                        233
+COMPETITIVE PLANS                    237
+DOORS                                194
+FIREPROOF CONSTRUCTION                54
+FALSE CHIMNEY-PIECE                   98
+FIREPLACES                           134
+FLOORS                               140
+FASHION                              224
+GUTTERS                              129
+HEATING                          97, 132
+HEIGHT OF ROOMS                      138
+HARD WOOD                            197
+INTERIOR FINISH                      221
+KITCHEN ARRANGEMENTS             81, 125
+PLUMBING                        166, 177
+PANTRIES                        186, 189
+PAINT                                223
+ROOFS                            69, 113
+STAIRS                           38, 214
+STAINED GLASS                    38, 183
+TERRA COTTA                           61
+UNDER-DRAINING                        24
+VENTILATING FLUES                    178
+WINDOWS                         110, 183
+WOODEN BUILDINGS                      51
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+TO THE REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+On a recent visit to the young woman whose experiences and observations
+are contained in this book, I was greatly pleased to find her zeal and
+interest in domestic architecture unabated. She sees that there have
+been changes and improvements in the art of house building, but
+declares that while some of her opinions and suggestions of ten years
+ago have been approved and accepted, it is still true that by far the
+greater number of those who plan and build houses are guided by
+transient fashion, thoughtless conservatism and a silly seeking for
+sensational results, rather than by truth, simplicity and common sense.
+
+She has no doubt that her daughter, Bessie, will study and practice
+domestic architecture, and naturally expects the houses of the future
+to contain charms and comforts of which we have as yet only the
+faintest conception.
+
+                                               E.C. GARDNER.
+_Springfield, Mass., November, 1895._
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+"MR. E.C. Gardner, architect, has consented to write us a series of
+articles upon house-building," said one of his associates to the editor
+of OUR CONTINENT a few months since. "What do you think of it?"
+
+"We have no sort of use for such a thing," replied the editor. "There
+are treatises enough professing to instruct people how to build houses.
+You can't make every man his own carpenter any more than you can make
+him his own lawyer. More's the pity."
+
+"But I thought you said you wanted some one who had sense enough to put
+a thoroughly capable and accomplished housewife's notions of what a
+house should be into readable prose?"
+
+"So I did," responded the editor, "and I still want it, and am likely
+to want it for a long time. I do not wish articles on _House_-building
+but on _Home_-building, and you will never get such from an
+architect."
+
+"Don't be too sure of that," said the other, who had had a taste of the
+writer's quality before. "Suppose he should wish to try it?"
+
+"Well,--let him," was the grumbled assent.
+
+The editor did not believe in architects. He had built one or two
+houses that did well enough on paper, but were simply appalling in
+their unfitness when he came to try to adapt the occupants to the
+earthly tabernacles which had been erected for their use and
+enjoyment. He had read house-building books, examined plans and
+discoursed with architects until he verily believed that the whole
+business was a snare and a delusion. After this experience he had
+settled down to the serious belief that the best way to build a house
+was to erect first a square building containing but one room, and then
+add on rooms as the occupants learned their needs or the family
+increased in numbers. In this way, he stoutly maintained, had been
+erected all those old houses, whose irregularity of outline and
+frequent surprises in interior arrangement never cease to charm. He
+asserted boldly that a man's house ought to grow around him like an
+oyster's-shell, and should fit him just as perfectly; in fact, that it
+should be created, not built. From architects and their works he prayed
+devoutly to be delivered, and having theretofore illustrated that part
+of the proverb which avers that "fools build houses," he declared
+himself determined thenceforth only to illustrate the latter-part of
+the proverb:--"and wise men live in them."
+
+Having, however, became sponsor in some sort for what Mr. Gardner might
+write, he was bound to give attention to it. Very much to his surprise,
+he found it instead of a thankless task, a most agreeable
+entertainment. Seldom, indeed, have wit and wisdom been so happily
+blended as in these pages. The narrative that runs through the whole
+constitutes a silver thread of merriment on which the pearls of sense
+are strung with lavish freedom. Every page is sure to contain the
+subject-matter for a hearty laugh close-linked with a lesson that may
+well be conned by the most serious-minded. The philosophy of
+home-building and home-improving is expounded with a subtlety of humor
+and an aptness of illustration as rare as they are relishable.
+
+There are three classes of people to whom this little volume with its
+quaint descriptions and wise suggestions will be peculiarly welcome.
+
+    _First_--Those who contemplate, at some time, the building of a
+    home. It matters not whether it is to be humble or palatial,
+    "The House that Jill Built" will be found to contain not only
+    the most valuable suggestions, but a humorous gaiety that will
+    be sure to add pleasure to this duty.
+
+    _Second_--Those who desire at any time to enlarge, modify or
+    improve the homes in which they live; for they will find very
+    forcibly illustrated in its pages the principles which should
+    govern such modification.
+
+    _Third_--Those who, like the writer hereof, have suffered in
+    purse and comfort from the lack of such a pleasant and
+    philosophical treatise, and who will be glad to see how their
+    blunders might have been avoided.
+
+"The House that Jill Built" is founded on the rock of common sense. It
+does not profess to tell the prospective builder how to be his own
+architect and carpenter; it does not fit him out with a plan ready made
+and tested--by somebody else: but deftly and easily it leads him to
+think about the essential elements of the home he desires until, almost
+unconsciously, he finds himself prepared to give such directions to an
+honest architect as will secure for his home, convenience, safety and
+that peculiar fitness which is the chief element of beauty in domestic
+architecture. It is not so much for what is taught as for what is
+suggested that the book is valuable. What the author has written is
+perhaps not more remarkable than the peculiar art with which he compels
+the reader to think for himself. "The House that Jill Built" may fairly
+be said to take the first place among the many works that are designed
+to make our domestic architecture what it ought to be--the art by which
+the house-builder may erect a home adapted to his needs, commensurate
+with his means, in harmony with its surroundings and conducive to the
+health and comfort of its occupants. What the author's pen has so well
+described his pencil has illustrated with equal happiness.
+
+In penance for the lack of faith displayed at the outset and in hearty
+approval of the pages that follow, the Editor has written these words.
+
+                                               A.W. TOURGEE.
+PHILADELPHIA, Oct., 1882.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A WISE FATHER AND A GLAD SON-IN-LAW.
+
+
+Among the wedding-presents was a small white envelope containing two
+smaller slips of paper. On one of these, which was folded around the
+other, was written,
+
+     "A NEW HOUSE, FROM FATHER."
+
+The enclosed slip was a bank-check, duly stamped and endorsed. Did any
+old wizard's magic-box ever hold greater promise in smaller compass!
+Certainly not more than the bride saw in imagination as she read the
+figures upon the crisp bit of tissue. Walls, roof and stately chimneys
+arose in pleasant pictures before her mental vision. There were broad
+windows taking in floods of sunshine; fireplaces that glowed with
+living flames and never smoked; lazy lounging places and cosy corners
+for busy work or quiet study; sleepy bed-rooms; a kitchen that made
+housework the finest art and the surest science, and oh, such closets,
+such stairways, such comforts! such defiance of the elements, such
+security against cold and heat, against fire, flood and tempest! such
+economy! such immunity from all the ills that domestic life is heir to,
+from intractable servants to sewer-gas!
+
+If some ardent esthete had arrested her flight of fancy by asking
+whether she found room for soul-satisfying beauty, she would have
+dropped from her air-castle, landing squarely upon her feet, and
+replied that if her house was comfortable and told no lies it would be
+beautiful enough for her--which was saying a great deal, however
+interpreted, for she loved beauty, as all well-balanced mortals ought,
+and she would have been conspicuously out of place in a house that was
+not beautiful.
+
+Perhaps I ought to explain that the house that Jack built, intending to
+establish Jill as its mistress when it should be completed, had proved
+most unsatisfactory to that extremely practical young woman. In
+consequence, she had obstinately refused to name the happy day till the
+poor, patient fellow had kept bachelor's hall nearly a year. At last,
+in consideration of an unqualified permission to "make the house over"
+to any extent, the rough place that threatened to upset them was made
+smooth. Her father's present, wisely withheld till peace was declared,
+left nothing to be desired, and they started on their wedding journey
+as happy as if they owned the universe. This excursion, however, came
+near being a failure from the sentimental standpoint, because, wherever
+Jill discovered a house that gave any outward sign of inward grace, it
+must be visited and examined as to its internal arrangements. Naturally
+this struck Jack as an unromantic diversion, but he soon caught the
+spirit, and after much practice gave his salutatory address with
+apparent eagerness:
+
+"My wife and I happen to be passing through town and have been struck
+by the appearance of your house. Will you kindly allow us to have a
+glimpse of the interior?"
+
+The request was invariably granted, for nothing is more gratifying than
+the fame of having the "finest house in town." Unhappily the interiors
+were never satisfactory to Jill, and her valedictory to the owners of
+the striking houses seldom went beyond thanks for their courtesy.
+
+"We visited several houses on our trip," she observed to her father--
+
+"Several hundred," said Jack--
+
+"But were disappointed in them all. Many of them must have cost more
+than ours will cost, but the money seemed to us foolishly spent."
+
+"Yes," said her husband, "we concluded that the chief plank in the
+platform of the architects and builders was 'Millions for display--not
+one cent for comfort.'"
+
+"Well, Jack, we have learned one thing on our travels--where _not_ to
+look for the plans of our house."
+
+A box of letters from her dear five hundred friends awaited Jill's
+return, and a whole afternoon was devoted to them. Each letter
+contained some allusion to the new house. At least ten conveyed
+underscored advice of the most vital importance, which, if not
+followed, would demoralize the servants, distress her husband and
+ultimately destroy her domestic peace. Taken at a single dose, the
+counsel was confusing, to say the least; but Jill read it faithfully,
+laid it away for future reference, and gave the summary to her husband
+somewhat as follows:
+
+"It appears, Jack, my dear, to be absolutely indispensable to our
+future happiness that the house shall front north, south, east and
+west."
+
+"Let's build it on a pivot."
+
+"We must not have large halls to keep warm in cold weather, and we
+_must_ have large halls 'for style.' The stories must not be less than
+eleven nor more than nine feet high. It must be carpeted throughout and
+all the floors must be bare. It must be warmed by steam and hot water
+and furnaces and fireplaces and base-burners and coal grates."
+
+"We shan't have to go away from home to get into purgatory, shall we?"
+
+"Hush! The walls of the rooms must be calcimined, painted, frescoed and
+papered; they must be dyed in the mortar, finished with leather, with
+tiles, with tapestry and with solid wood panels. There must be
+blinds--outside blinds, awnings, inside shutters, rolling blinds,
+Venetian shades and no blinds at all. There must be wide, low-roofed
+piazzas all around the house, so that we can live out of doors in the
+summer, and on no account must the sun be excluded from the windows of
+the first story by piazza roofs. At least eight patent sanitary
+plumbing articles, and as many cooking ranges, are each the only one
+safe and fit to be used. The house must be high and low--"
+
+"I'm Jack and you shall be game--"
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S EXTERIOR.]
+
+"It must be of bricks, wood and stone, separately and in combination;
+it must be Queen Anne, Gothic, French, Japanesque and classic American,
+and it must be painted all the colors of an autumn landscape."
+
+"Well, there's one comfort," said Jack; "you haven't paid for this
+advice, so you won't be obliged to take it in order to save it."
+
+"I should think not, indeed, but that isn't the trouble. These letters
+are from my special friends, wise, practical people, who know
+everything about building and housekeeping, and they speak from solemn
+conviction based on personal experience."
+
+"Moral: When the doctors differ, do as you please."
+
+Three of the letters, reserved for the last on account of their unusual
+bulk, contained actual plans. One was from an old school friend who had
+married an architect and couldn't afford to send a wedding present, but
+offered the plans as a sort of apology, privately feeling that they
+would be the most valuable of all the gifts; the second was from a
+married brother in Kansas who had just built himself a new house, and
+thought his sister could not do better than use the same plans, which
+he had "borrowed" from his architect; and the third was from Aunt
+Melville, who was supposed (by herself) to hold the family destiny in
+the hollow of her hand.
+
+"For once," she wrote, "your father has done a most sensible thing.
+Every girl ought to have a present of a new house on her wedding-day.
+You were very silly to make such a fuss about the house that Jack
+built, for it is a very stylish-looking house, even if it isn't quite
+so convenient inside; but of course you can improve upon it, and
+fortunately I can contribute just what you need--the plans of the house
+that your Uncle Melville built for George last year. It isn't as large
+as it ought to be, but it will suit you and Jack admirably. You must
+tell me how much you have to spend. This house can be very prettily
+built for eight or ten thousand dollars, and if you haven't as much as
+that you must ask for more. The hall is decidedly stylish, and, with
+the library at one side and drawing-room at the other, you will have
+just room enough for your little social parties. The room behind the
+drawing-room Jack needs for his private use, his study, office,
+smoking-room or whatever he calls it--a place to keep his gun, his
+top-boots, his fishing-rod and his horrid pipes; where he can revel to
+his heart's content in the hideous disorder of a 'man's room,' pile as
+much rubbish as he likes on the table, lock the doors and defy the rest
+of the household on house-cleaning days. The dining-room is good and
+the kitchen arrangements are perfect. George's wife has changed
+servants but three times since they began housekeeping, nearly a year
+ago, which certainly proves that there is every possible convenience
+for doing work easily. The outside of the house is not wholly
+satisfactory. There should be a tower, and you must put one on
+somewhere."
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S FIRST FLOOR.]
+
+[Illustration: COUSIN GEORGE'S SECOND FLOOR.]
+
+Then followed several pages of advice about furnishings and a
+postscript announced that Colonel Livingston was charmed with the house
+and would probably build one like it for Clara. The charm of Aunt
+Melville's advice lay in its abundant variety. It was new every morning
+and fresh every evening. The latest thing was always the best. The
+plans of to-morrow were certain to be better than those of yesterday.
+
+Jill therefore made a careful study of the first installment, not
+doubting that others of superior merit would be forthcoming. She found
+many things to approve. The hall promised comfort and good cheer,
+whether stylish or not. The vista across through the parlor bay and the
+wide library window would give a pleasant freedom and breadth. The
+stairs were well placed, the second landing with its window of stained
+glass being especially attractive, whether as a point of observation or
+as a cosy retreat, itself partly visible from the hall below. Every
+chamber had a closet of its own, not to mention several extra ones, and
+there was a place for every bed.
+
+"As for your sanctum, Jack, I don't at all approve. It will be hard
+enough, I've no doubt, to keep you from lapsing into barbarism, and I
+shall never allow you to set up a den, a regular Bluebeard's room, all
+by yourself. I promise never to put your table in order, but I wouldn't
+trust the best of men with the care of a closet or a bureau-drawer for
+a single week, much less of an entire room with two closets, a case of
+drawers, a cupboard and a chimney-piece. But the chief fault of the
+plan is that it doesn't happen to suit our lot. The entrances are not
+right, the outlooks are not right, the chimneys are not right."
+
+"Turn it around."
+
+"And spoil it? No; I learned a second lesson on our journey, and it was
+well worth what it cost. We shall never find a plan made for somebody
+else that will suit us."
+
+"Not good enough?"
+
+"It isn't a question of goodness--it's a question of fitness. Neither
+Cousin George's, nor any other house I ever saw, is precisely what we
+need."
+
+"Moral: Draw your own plans."
+
+"We must, and we'll begin to-morrow."
+
+"Why not this evening?"
+
+"We couldn't see."
+
+"Light the gas."
+
+"Oh, but we must make the plans out of doors on the lot. We shall then
+know where every room will be, every door and especially every window.
+We must fix the centre of the sitting-room in the most commanding
+situation, and be certain that the dining-room windows do not look
+straight into somebody's wood-shed. Then, if there are any views of
+blue hills and forests far away over the river, I shall be
+uncomfortable if we do not get the full benefit of them."
+
+"Don't you expect to have anything interesting inside the house?"
+
+"Except my husband? Oh yes! but it would be a wicked waste of
+opportunities not to accept the blessings provided for us without money
+and without price, which only require us to stand in the right places
+and open our hearts and windows to receive them."
+
+Jill's second lesson was indeed worth learning, even if it cost a
+wedding journey. Every house must suit its own ground and fit its own
+household, otherwise it can neither be comfortable nor beautiful.
+
+The next morning, armed with a bundle of laths, sharpened at one end,
+and equipped with paper, pencil and tape-line, the prospective
+house-builders proceeded to lay out, not the house but the plan. They
+planted doors, windows, fireplaces and closets, stoves, lounges,
+easy-chairs and bedsteads, as if they were so many seeds that would
+grow up beside the laths on which their respective names were written
+and bear fruit each according to its kind. Later in the day a high
+step-ladder was introduced, from the top of which Jill scanned the
+surrounding country, while Jack stood ready to catch her if she fell.
+The neighbors were intensely interested, and their curiosity was mixed
+with indignation when, toward night, a man was discovered cutting down
+two of the rock-maple trees that Jill's grandfather planted more than
+fifty years before, and which stood entirely beyond any possible
+location of the new house.
+
+"This evening, Jack, you must write for the architect to come."
+
+"I thought you were going to make your own plans."
+
+"I have made them, or rather I have laid them out on the ground and in
+the air. I know what I want and how I want it. Now we must have every
+particular set down in black and white."
+
+Jack wrote accordingly. The architect was too busy to respond at once
+in person, but sent a letter referring to certain principles that reach
+somewhat below the lowest foundation-stones and above the tops of the
+tallest chimneys.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MORAL SUASION FOR MALARIAL MARSHES.
+
+
+"You are quite right," the architect wrote, "to fix the plan of your
+house on the lot before it is made on paper, provided first the lot is
+a good one. Nothing shows the innate perversity of mankind more
+forcibly than the average character of the sites chosen for human
+habitations in cities, in villages and in the open country. Or does it
+rather indicate the instinctive struggle for supremacy over nature? The
+'dear old nurse' is most peaceably inclined toward us, yet we shall
+never be satisfied till all the valleys are exalted and the hills laid
+low. Not because we object to hills and valleys--quite the contrary;
+but we must show our strength and daring. Nobody wants the North Pole,
+but we are furious to have a breach made in the wall that surrounds it.
+If we discover a mighty primeval forest we straightway grind our axes
+to cut it down; an open prairie we plant with trees. When we find
+ourselves in an unclean, malarious bog, instead of taking the short cut
+out, shaking the mud from our feet and keeping clear of it forever
+after, we plunge in deeper still and swear by all the bones of our
+ancestors that we will not only walk through it dry-shod, but will
+build our homes in the midst of it and keep them clean and sweet and
+dry. The good mother beckons to us with her sunshine and whispers
+with her fragrant breezes that on the other side of the river or across
+the bay the land is high and dry, that just beyond the bluffs are the
+sunny slopes where she expected us to build our houses, and, like saucy
+children as we are, we say that is the very reason we prefer to go
+somewhere else.
+
+[Illustration: WARMTH IS BEAUTY.]
+
+[Illustration: A HIDDEN FOE.]
+
+"Now, if the particular spot of earth on which you expect to set up the
+temple of your home is not well adapted to that sacred purpose, think a
+bit before you commence digging. If it is low, wet and difficult of
+drainage; if the surface water or the drains from adjacent lands have
+no outlet except across it; if its size and shape compel your house to
+stand so near your neighbor on the south that he takes all the sunshine
+and gives you the odors of his dinner and the conversation of his cook
+in exchange; if there are no pleasant outlooks; if it is shaded by
+trees owned by somebody who will not be persuaded to cut them down for
+love nor money--by all means turn it into a fish-pond, a sheep-pasture
+or a public park. You can never build upon it a satisfactory home.
+Perhaps it is within five minutes' walk of the post-office and on the
+same street with Mrs. Adoniram Brown, and these considerations outweigh
+all others. In that case there is no help for you. You must make the
+best of it as it is.
+
+[Illustration: A BURIED GRIDIRON.]
+
+"If you have a suspicion that the ground is naturally wet, that it
+contains hidden springs or conceals an impervious basin, making in
+effect a pool of standing water underground, the first necessity is a
+clean outlet--not a sewer--low enough to underdrain the lot at least a
+foot and a-half below the bottom of the cellar. Having found the clean
+outlet, lay small drain tiles, two or three inches in diameter, under
+the entire house and for several feet all around it, like a big
+gridiron. When this is buried under one or two feet of clean gravel or
+sand you will have a permanently dry plot of ground to build upon. The
+same treatment will be effective if the ground is "springy." But there
+must be a "cut-off" encircling the house. This you can make by digging
+a trench a foot wide, reaching down to the drain tiles, and filling it
+nearly to the top with loose stones or coarse gravel, the surface of
+the ground being graded to slope sharply toward the trench. The surface
+water between it and the house, and any moisture creeping toward the
+house from without, will then be caught in this porous trap and fall to
+the gridiron.
+
+[Illustration: THE PROTECTING "CUT-OFF."]
+
+"It is possible, theoretically, to build an underground cellar so tight
+that it may be lifted up on posts and used for a water-tank, or set
+afloat like a compartment-built iron steamer. Such walls may be
+necessary under certain circumstances. They may be necessary for
+cellars that are founded in swamps, in salt marshes below the level of
+the sea, and in old river-beds, where the original iniquity of the
+standing water is made still more iniquitous by the inevitable foulness
+of the washing from streets and the unclean refuse from sinks and back
+doors. But for buildings that have four independent walls, with room
+enough for a man to ride around his own house in a wheelbarrow without
+trespassing on his neighbors, and which are not hopelessly depressed
+below all their surroundings, it is better to use a little moral
+suasion on the land itself than to spend one's resources in a defiant
+water-proof construction. Instead of drain tiles, small stones covered
+with a thin layer of hay or straw before being buried in the sand may
+be used if more economical.
+
+"If you cannot find the clean outlet for these buried drains or tiles
+below the level of the cellar bottom, then raise the cellar, house and
+all. No matter if you are accused of having a 'stuck up' house--better
+be stuck up than stuck in the mud. Raise it till the entire cellar is
+well above the level of thorough drainage. If this happens to carry it
+above the surface of the ground, set the house on posts and hang the
+cellar under the floor like a work-bag under a table or the basket to a
+balloon.
+
+"The foundation walls must indeed touch solid bottom and extend below
+the action of frost; but if the wall above the gridiron and below the
+paving of the cellar is of hard stones, or very hard bricks laid in
+cement, there will be little risk from rising moisture.
+
+"After all, the chief danger is not from underground springs, from
+clean surface water or an occasional rising of the floods, but from the
+unclean wastes that in our present half-civilized state are constantly
+going out of our homes to poison and pollute the earth and air around
+them."
+
+"Half-civilized indeed!" said Jack, interrupting the reading of the
+letter. "Besides, he is premature as well as impertinent. He doesn't
+know but the house will stand on a granite boulder."
+
+"I suppose he intends to warn us, and I am not certain that our lot is
+as dry as it ought to be. At all events we will have some holes dug in
+different places and see if any water comes into them."
+
+"Of course it will. Haven't we just had the 'equinoctial'? The ground
+is full of water everywhere."
+
+"If it is full this spring it will be full every spring. We may as well
+order the drain tiles."
+
+"It shall be done," said Jack. "Now let us have the second proviso. I
+hope it will be shorter than the first."
+
+"And, secondly," Jill continued reading, "provided you know what your
+house is for. It is my conviction that of all the people who carefully
+plan and laboriously build themselves houses, scarcely one in ten could
+give a radical, intelligent reason for building them. To live in, of
+course; but how to live is the question, and why. As they have been in
+the habit of living? As their neighbors live? As they would like to
+live? As they ought to live? Is domestic comfort and well-being the
+chief motive? It is not, usually; hence, there are in the world a great
+many more houses than homes."
+
+"Oh, bother the preaching! It's all true, but we don't happen to need
+it. When is he coming?"
+
+"Next week, and he hopes we shall have 'some general idea of what we
+want.' How very condescending! We know precisely what we want, as I can
+easily show him."
+
+[Illustration: A "CROSS-SECTION" PROPHECY.]
+
+Jill accordingly produced a fresh sheet of "cross-section" paper, on
+whose double plaid lines the most helpless tyro in drawing can make a
+plan with mathematical accuracy provided he can count ten, and on this
+began to draw the plan of the first floor, expounding as she drew.
+
+"If we call the side of the house which is next the street the front,
+the main entrance must be at the east side, because we need the whole
+of the south side for our living rooms. You know the view toward the
+southwest is the finest we shall have, especially from the chambers."
+
+"How do I know? I didn't climb the step-ladder."
+
+"And we must have a large bay window directly on that corner. The hall
+must run through the house crosswise, with the stairs on the west side
+of the house. As there is nothing to be seen in this direction except
+the white walls and green blinds of the parsonage, the windows on the
+stair-landing shall have stained glass. The dining-room will be at the
+north side of the hall, with plenty of eastern windows, and behind that
+the kitchen with windows at opposite sides. But you wouldn't understand
+the beauty of my kitchen arrangements now. By-and-by, when you are
+wiser, I will explain them. Do you like a fireplace in the hall, Jack?"
+
+"I don't know as I do. Do you?"
+
+"Of course! certainly."
+
+"I shall be of all men most miserable without one. Can't we have two?"
+
+"Perhaps so; but first let me read you Cousin Bessie's letter:
+
+    MY DEAREST JILL: I'm perfectly delighted to hear about the new
+    house. It will be an immense success. I _know_ it will--you are
+    so wise and so _practical_. How I _shall_ enjoy visiting you!
+    It is delightful to build houses now. Everybody thinks so much
+    more of the beautiful than they used to. Some of my friends
+    have the _loveliest_ rooms. The tones are _so_ harmonious, the
+    decorations so _exquisite_! Such sympathetic feeling and
+    spiritual unity! I _wish_ you could see Kitty Kane's hall. It
+    isn't bigger than a bandbox, but there's the _cunningest_
+    little fireplace in one corner, with real antique andirons and
+    the quaintest old Dutch tiles. They never make a fire in it;
+    couldn't if they wanted to--it smokes so. But it is _so_ lovely
+    and gives the hall such a sweet expression. You _will_ forgive
+    me, won't you, Jill, dear? but you know you are _so_ practical,
+    and I _do_ hope you won't forget the esthetic needs of home
+    life.                    Your loving cousin,                  BET."
+
+"Let's give up the hall fireplace," said Jack.
+
+[Illustration: HEAT FROM ALL SIDES.]
+
+"By no means; our hall is large and needs a fireplace--one that will
+not smoke and will warm not only the hall in very cold weather, but the
+whole house when it isn't quite cold enough for steam. The sides and
+back will be of iron with an air-chamber behind them, into which fresh
+air will be brought from out of doors and come out well warmed at the
+sides." (Jill's idea was something like the above figure for the plan.)
+
+"It will be a capital ventilator, too, for the centre of the house.
+There will be a damper in the hearth to let the ashes down into the
+ash-pit. I suppose a stove would answer, but this will be better
+because it won't have to be blacked, and it will last as long as the
+house."
+
+"How will it look standing out there all alone by itself?"
+
+"Haven't I told you, my dear, that whatever _is_ well looks well?"
+
+"Yes, but it takes a mighty faith to believe it, and I'm not even a
+mustard-seed. What is the little room in the southwest corner for?"
+
+"That is the library, and for an ordinary family it is large enough. It
+is twelve feet by fourteen. It will hold three or four thousand books,
+a table, a writing-desk, a lounge and three or four easy chairs. More
+room would spoil the privacy which belongs to a library and make it a
+sort of common sitting-room. Moreover, by drawing aside the portieres
+and opening the doors we can make it a part of the large room when we
+wish to; and, on the other hand, when they are closed and the bay
+window curtains drawn, instead of one large room we shall have three
+separate apartments for three solitary misanthropes, for three
+_tete-a-tetes_, or for three incompatible groups, not counting the
+hall--no, nor the stair-landing, which will be a capital place for a
+quiet--"
+
+"Flirtation."
+
+At this point they were interrupted by a telegram from Aunt Melville,
+begging them not to begin on George's plan, as she had found something
+much more satisfactory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A FIRST VISIT AND SAGE ADVICE.
+
+
+They didn't begin to build, from Cousin George's nor from any other
+plan, for many weeks. Until the new house should be completed, Jill had
+agreed to commence housekeeping in the house that Jack built, without
+making any alterations in it, only reserving the privilege of finding
+all the fault she pleased to Jack privately, in order, as she said, to
+convince him that it would be impossible for them to be permanently
+happy in such a house.
+
+"I supposed," said Jack, with a groan, "that my company would make you
+blissfully happy in a cave or a dug-out."
+
+"So it would, if we were bears--both of us. As we are sufficiently
+civilized, taken together, to prefer artificial dwellings, it will be
+much better for us to find out what we really need in a home by actual
+experiment for a year or two. You know everybody who builds one house
+for himself always wishes he could build another to correct the
+mistakes of the first."
+
+"Yes, and when he has done it probably finds worse blunders in the
+second. Still, I'm open to conviction, and after our late architectural
+tour perhaps my house won't seem in comparison so totally depraved."
+
+[Illustration: AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+
+When they visited it, preparatory to setting up their household
+gods--Jack's bachelor arrangements being quite inadequate to the new
+order of things--Jack, with a flourish, threw the highly ornamental
+front door wide open. Jill walked solemnly in, and, looking neither to
+the right nor the left, went straight up stairs.
+
+"Hello!" Jack called after her, "what are you going up stairs for?"
+
+"I supposed you expected everybody to go to the second floor," said
+Jill, looking over the bannister, "or you wouldn't have set the stairs
+directly across the front entrance."
+
+"I do, of course," Jack responded, following three steps at a time.
+"And now will you please signify your royal pleasure as to apartments?"
+
+"Oh, yes! The first requisite is a room with at least one south
+window."
+
+"Here it is. A southerly window and a cloudy sky--two windows, in fact.
+And look here: see what a glorious closet. It goes clear up to the
+ceiling."
+
+"It isn't a closet at all; only a little cupboard. It wouldn't hold
+one-half of your clothes nor a tenth part of mine. And there's no
+fireplace in the room--not even a hole for a stovepipe."
+
+"Furnace, my dear. We shall be warmed from the regions below. There's
+the register."
+
+"I see. But where shall the bed stand? On these two sides it would come
+directly in front of a window; on this side there isn't room between
+the two doors; on that, there's the 'set bowl'--I hate 'set
+bowls'--and the furnace register in the floor."
+
+[Illustration: NO PLACE FOR THE BED.]
+
+"That's so. I never had any bed in this room. Try the dining-room
+chamber; that has a south window. The bed can stand on the north side
+and the dressing table over in the other corner."
+
+"Yes, in the dark, with a window behind my back. Oh! Jack, why didn't
+you get a wife before you planned your house?"
+
+"I did try."
+
+"You did! You never mentioned it to me before. What is this little room
+for?"
+
+"Why, nothing in particular. It came so, I suppose--part of the hall,
+you know; but it wouldn't be of any use in the hall, so I made a room
+of it. It will hold a cot bed if we should happen to have a house full
+of company."
+
+"It will never be needed for that with three other guest rooms; but I
+see what can be done. You know I promised not to make any alterations;
+but destruction isn't alteration, and as this little room is beside the
+front chamber, with only the little cupboards between, a part of the
+partition between the rooms can be destroyed. There will be no need of
+a door; a portiere will be better, and I can use the small room for a
+dressing-room and closet. So _that_ is nicely arranged; and while you
+are marking where the partition is to be cut away I will explore the
+first story."
+
+[Illustration: ENLARGED BY DESTRUCTION.]
+
+Now, the stairs were built in a very common fashion, having a sharp
+turn at the top, which made the steps near the balustrade exceedingly
+steep and narrow. Jill's foot slipped on the top step and down she
+went, feet foremost, never stopping till she reached the hall floor
+below. Jack, hearing the commotion, ran to the rescue, caught his foot
+in the carpet and came tumbling after, with twice as much noise and not
+half as much grace. Happily the staircase was well padded under the
+carpet, and finding Jill unhurt as well as himself, Jack helped her to
+rise and coolly remarked:
+
+"You certainly can't find any fault with the stairs, Jill, dear. If
+there had been one of those square landings midway it would have taken
+twice as long to come down. I--I had them made so on purpose. Will you
+walk into my parlor?"
+
+They went in and sat down in easy-chairs.
+
+"I suppose," said Jill, "that our native land contains about a million
+houses with stairs like these and just such halls--if people will
+persist in calling them 'halls,' when they are only little narrow,
+dark, uncomfortable entries. If we were going to make any alterations
+in this house--which we are not, only destructions--- I should take
+these out, cut them in two in the middle, double them up, straighten
+the crook at the top and shove them outside the house, letting the main
+roof drop down to cover them. Then I would make a large landing at the
+turn, large enough for a wide seat, a few book shelves and a pretty
+window. This could be of stained glass, unless the view outside is more
+interesting than the window itself. The merit of a stained-glass
+window," Jill observed, very wisely, "is that the sunlight makes a
+beautiful picture of it inside the house during the day, and the same
+thing, still more beautiful, is thrown out into the world by the
+evening lamps, and the darker the night the brighter the picture. After
+the stairs were moved out, the little hall, if joined by a wide
+doorway, to the room we are now in would become of some value. There is
+no grate in this room, and a chimney might be built in the outer wall,
+with a fireplace opposite the wide doorway. Then, taken all together,
+we should have a very pretty sitting-room. I shouldn't call that an
+alteration--should you, Jack?--only an addition."
+
+[Illustration: A SLIGHT ADDITION.]
+
+"Certainly not. Tearing down partitions, taking out plumbing, building
+a few chimneys, moving stairways, and such little things, can't be
+called 'alterations'--oh, no."
+
+"And the house will be worth so much more when you come to sell it."
+
+"Of course. But why do you call this a 'sitting-room?' It wouldn't be
+possible to sell a house that has no parlor; besides this is marked
+'parlor' on the plan."
+
+"I prefer the spirit of the plan to the letter of it. This is the
+pleasantest room--almost the only pleasant room on this floor. It is
+sunny and convenient, it looks out upon the street and across the lawn,
+and whatever it is labeled it will _be_ our common every-day
+sitting-room. For similar reasons we will take the chamber over it for
+our own room."
+
+"What becomes of our hospitality if we keep the best for ourselves?"
+
+"What becomes of our common sense if we make ourselves uncomfortable
+the year round in order to make a guest a little less uncomfortable
+over night. I try to love my neighbor as myself; I can't love him three
+hundred and sixty-five times as well. Now, if you are rested, we will
+go and see if the architect has come."
+
+He had not arrived, but they found a ponderous package of plans from
+Aunt Melville, with an explanatory note, a letter from Cousin Bessie
+admonishing Jill that her new home ought to be "a perfect poem,
+pervaded and perfumed by a rare feeling of tender longing and homely
+aspiration," and another from her father's oldest sister.
+
+[Illustration: GROUND FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF AUNT MELVILLE'S AMBITION.]
+
+"For fifty years," Aunt Jerusha wrote, "I have lived in what would now
+be called an old-fashioned house, though it was new enough when I came
+to it, and I always think of the Scripture saying when I hear about the
+many inventions that men have sought out and are putting into houses
+now-a-days. The danger is not so much from the inventions themselves as
+from what they lead to. They promise great things, but I've learned to
+be suspicious of anything or anybody that makes large promises. I've
+learned, too, that realities sometimes go by contraries as well as
+dreams. The poorest folks are often the richest, and the greatest
+saving often turns out to be the greatest waste. Air-tight stoves saved
+the wood-pile, but they gave us colds and headaches. So your uncle put
+them away and we went back to the fireplaces. Then came the hot-air
+furnaces, which seemed so much less trouble than open fires, but taking
+care of the open fires wasn't half so troublesome as taking care of
+sick folks; and the same thing we learned to our bitter cost of the
+plumbing pipes that creep around like venomous serpents and promise to
+save so many steps. Perhaps they do, but it seems to me that much of
+our vaunted labor-saving is at best only a transfer. We work all the
+harder at something else or compel others to work for us. When I began
+housekeeping I had no difficulty in taking care of my large house
+without any help, nor in caring for my family while it was small. Yet I
+hadn't a single modern invention or labor-saving machine, I have had a
+great many since and have tried a great many more. When I find one that
+helps in the work that _must_ be done I am glad to keep it. If it
+merely does something new--something I had never done before--I keep
+the old way. Multiplying wants may be a means of grace to the
+half-civilized, but our danger lies in the other direction: we have too
+many wants already. And this is what I sat down to say to you, my dear
+child: Don't make housekeeping such a complex affair that you must give
+to it all your time and strength, leaving no place for the 'better
+part.' Don't fill your house with furniture too fine to be used, and
+don't try to have everything in the latest fashion. I see many
+beautiful things and read of many more, but nothing is half so
+beautiful to me as the things that were new fifty years ago and are
+still in daily use. Of planning houses I know but little. For one
+thing, I should say, have the kitchen and working departments as close
+at hand as possible. This will save many weary steps, whether you do
+your own work or leave it with servants, the best of whom need constant
+watching and encouragement, or they will not make life any easier or
+better worth living."
+
+"Isn't this rather a solemn letter?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Yes; it's a solemn subject."
+
+"_Shall_ you 'do your own work'?"
+
+"Of course I shall. How can I help it?
+
+     'Each hath a work that no other can do;'
+
+but just precisely what my own work will be I am not at present
+prepared to say."
+
+"Is Aunt Melville as solemn as Aunt Jerusha?"
+
+"Aunt Melville assures her dear niece that 'the last plans are
+absolutely beyond criticism: the rooms are large and elegant, the
+modern conveniences perfect, the kitchen and servants' quarters
+isolated from the rest of the house'--"
+
+"That won't suit the other aunty."
+
+"The porte cochere and side entrance most convenient and the front
+entrance sufficiently distinguished by the tower. I particularly like
+the porte cochere at the side. If none of your callers came on foot
+there would be no objection to having it at the front entrance, but it
+isn't pleasant to be compelled to walk up the carriage-way. As you
+see, this is a brick house, and I am persuaded you ought to build of
+bricks. It will cost ten or fifteen per cent. more--possibly
+twenty--but in building a permanent home you ought not to consider the
+cost for a moment.'"
+
+"That's a comfortable doctrine, if everybody would live up to it," said
+Jack.
+
+"Yes; and like a good many other comfortable doctrines, it contains too
+much truth to be rejected--not enough to be accepted. We _must_ count
+the cost, but if we limit ourselves to a certain outlay, and positively
+refuse to go beyond that, we shall regret it as long as we live. We may
+leave some things unfinished, but whatever is done past alteration,
+either in size or quality, must be right, whatever it costs."
+
+And herein Jill displayed her good sense. It is, indeed, a mistake to
+build a house beyond the possibility of paying for it, or of
+maintaining it without a constant struggle, but in building a permanent
+home there is more likely to be lasting regret through too close
+economy in the first outlay, than through extravagance--regret that can
+only be cured by an outlay far exceeding what the original cost would
+have been.
+
+The architect came as the sun went down, and, after being duly warmed,
+fed and cheered, was informed by Jill that all she expected from him
+that evening was an explanation of the respective merits of wood and
+brick houses. Jack begged the privilege of taking notes, to keep
+himself awake, Jill begged the architect to be as brief as possible,
+and the architect begged for a small blackboard and a piece of chalk,
+that he might, in conveying his ideas, use the only one, true, natural
+and universal language which requires no grammar, dictionary or
+interpreter.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS.
+
+
+There are two things belonging to modern civilization," the architect
+began, "that fill me with amazement. This morning, at the usual hour, I
+sat at my own breakfast table. During the day I have been reading and
+writing, eating, drinking and making merry with pleasant acquaintances,
+old and new. I have observed the architecture of a dozen cities and a
+hundred villages and have seen landscapes without number. I have been
+occupying an elegantly finished and furnished drawing-room all the
+time, with every possible comfort and convenience at hand, and now am
+sitting at your fireside, two hundred and fifty miles from home. I have
+just assured the girl I left behind me of my safe arrival, and have
+listened to her grateful reply. With my ten thousand companions going
+in the same direction I have met ten thousand others crossing and
+recrossing our path, every one of whom was as safe and comfortable as
+ourselves, every one of whom knew the hour and the minute at which he
+would reach his destination. To an observer above the clouds our
+pathways would appear more frail than the finest gossamer; and the most
+daring engineer that ever lived, seeing for the first time our mode of
+travel, would stake his reputation that we were rushing to
+inevitable destruction. Yet every foot of our way has been so guarded
+that not one of these swiftly-moving palaces has swerved from its track
+or been hindered on its course. This annihilation of space, with the
+human skill, vigilance and fidelity incidental to it, are more
+wonderful to me than any tales of magic, stranger than any fiction. I
+believe because I see; nevertheless it is incredible. My second
+amazement is that fire insurance companies should continue to live and
+thrive against such apparently fearful odds, for I see whole villages
+and cities composed of buildings that seem expressly designed to invite
+speedy combustion, and at the same time to resist all attempts to
+extinguish a fire once started in their complex interiors. Indeed, the
+most effective modes of treatment yet discovered for a burning building
+are drowning it with all its contents in a deluge of water or blowing
+it up with gunpowder. It is an open question which of the two methods
+is to be preferred.
+
+[Illustration: A SECURE OUTLOOK.]
+
+"Let me show you how a wooden house is built. The sills and joists of
+the first floor are comparatively safe, because they are not boxed in
+with dry boards, and even with furnace and ash-pits in the cellar there
+would be little danger from a fire down below if it were not for the
+careful provision made for carrying it into the upper part of the
+structure. This provision, however, is most effectively made by means
+of the upright studs and furrings that stand all around the outside of
+the building and reach across it wherever a partition is needed.
+Accordingly, every wooden house has from one hundred to one thousand
+wooden flues of a highly inflammable character arranged expressly to
+carry fire from the bottom to the top, valiantly consuming themselves
+in the operation. Furthermore, they are frequently charged with
+shavings and splinters of wood, which, becoming dry as tinder, will
+respond at once to a spark from a crack in the chimney, an overheated
+stove or furnace-pipe, or a match in the hands of an inquisitive
+mouse. They are, likewise, so arranged that no water can be poured
+inside them till they fall apart and the house collapses, for they
+reach to the roof, whose sole duty is to keep out water, whether it
+comes from the clouds or from a hose-pipe, but which, for economical
+reasons, is made sufficiently open to allow the air to pass through it
+freely, thus insuring a good draught when the fire begins to burn. To
+complete the system and prevent the possibility of finding where the
+fire began, the spaces between the joists of the upper floors
+communicate with the vertical flues, and these highways and byways for
+rats and mice, for fire and smoke, for odors from the kitchen, noises
+from the nursery and dust from the furnace and coal-bin, are also
+strewn with builders' rubbish, which carries flame like stubble on a
+harvest-field.
+
+[Illustration: MINED AND COUNTERMINED.]
+
+"Brick houses, as usually built, are not much better, but that is not
+the fault of the bricks--_they_ are tougher than good intentions; they
+have been burned once and fire agrees with them. In fact, there is no
+building material so thoroughly reliable, through thick and thin, in
+prosperity and in adversity, as good, honest, well-burned bricks. But
+the ordinary brick house is double--a house within a house--a wooden
+frame in a brick shell. Like logs in a coal-pit, the inner house is
+well protected from outside attacks, but the flames, once kindled
+within, will run about as freely as in a wooden building, and laugh at
+cold water, which, however abundantly it is poured out, can never reach
+the heart of the fire till its destructive work is accomplished. Thrown
+upon the outer walls, it runs down the bricks or clapboards; poured
+over the roof, it is carried promptly to the ground, as it ought to
+be; shot in through the windows, it runs down the plastering, washes
+off the paper, soaks the carpets, ruins the merchandise and spoils
+everything that water can spoil, while the fire itself roars behind the
+wainscot, climbs to the rafters and rages among the old papers, cobwebs
+and heirlooms in the attic till the roof falls in, the floors go down
+with a crash and an upward shower of sparks, and only the tottering
+walls, with their eyeless window sockets, or the ragged, blackened
+chimney's, remain."
+
+"One road leads to fire and the other to combustion; that's plain
+enough," said Jack; "but where do the merits come in? I thought we were
+to learn the relative merits of bricks and wood."
+
+"Wood has one conspicuous merit, a virtue that covers a multitude of
+sins--it is cheap; but let me first arrange the fire-escapes."
+
+"By all means. Otherwise we shall be cremated before morning."
+
+"If you understand my sketch you will see that but one thing is needful
+to retard the progress of hidden fire, even in a wooden building, long
+enough at least for one to go up the hill and fetch a pail of water.
+This remedy consists simply in choking the flues and stopping the
+draught, which can easily be done by filling in with bricks and mortar
+between all the studs of both outer walls and inner partitions at or
+near the level of each floor. A cut-off half way up is an additional
+safeguard. The horizontal passages between the floor-joists should also
+be closed in a similar manner, otherwise the smoke and sparks from a
+burning lath next the kitchen stove-pipe will come up through the
+cracks in the floor of the parlor, chamber, or around some remote
+fireplace, where the insurance agent will be assured 'there hadn't been
+a fire kindled for six months.' These occasional dampers are a partial
+remedy, and if carefully fitted in the right places will save many tons
+of coal and greatly diminish the chances of total destruction in case
+of fire. The complete remedy is to leave no spaces that can possibly be
+filled.
+
+[Illustration: A DORMER OF BURNED CLAY.]
+
+"I supposed air spaces were necessary for warmth and dryness," said
+Jill.
+
+"So they are. But there are air spaces in a woolen blanket, in a
+brickbat and in common mortar, as well as in sawdust, ashes and
+powdered charcoal, quite enough to serve as non-conductors of heat and
+of moisture too, if properly protected. One of the best and most
+available materials at present known for this purpose is 'mineral
+wool,' a product of iron 'slag.' If the open spaces between the studs
+and rafters of a wooden building (or in a brick building between the
+furrings) are filled with this substance, or anything else equally
+good, if there is anything else--of course sawdust or other
+inflammable material would not answer except for an ice-house or a
+water-tank--'fire-bugs' would find it difficult to follow their
+profession with any success, and the insurance companies would build
+more elegant offices and declare larger dividends than ever before.
+Houses might be burned possibly, but the inmates would have ample time
+to fold their nightgowns, pack their trunks, take up the carpets and
+count the spoons before vacating the premises."
+
+"How much will that sort of stuffing cost?"
+
+"For a wooden dwelling house of medium size a few hundred dollars would
+cover the first outlay, and the saving in worry would be worth twice as
+much every year."
+
+"Now to consider the relative merits of brick and wood, for I see Jack
+is going to sleep again: The chief excellence of wood has already been
+mentioned. It is cheap, so cheap that any man who can earn a dollar a
+day and live on fifty cents, may at the end of a year, have a house of
+his own in which he can live and begin to bring up a family in comfort
+and safety. He that builds of bricks may rejoice in the durability and
+strength of his house, in its security against fire and sudden changes
+of temperature, in economy of fuel in cold weather, of ice in warm
+weather, and of paint in all weathers; in the possibility of the
+highest degree of external beauty, and in the blessed consciousness
+that his real estate will not deteriorate on his hands or be a worn-out
+and worthless legacy to his children."
+
+"You must wear peculiar spectacles if you can discover beauty in a
+square brick house!"
+
+[Illustration: THE TOPMOST PEAK.]
+
+"Rectitude, of which a brick is the accepted type, certainly has a
+beauty of its own. But if a brick house is not beautiful--here again
+the fault is not, dear Jack, in the bricks; but in ourselves, our
+prejudices and our architects--other things being equal, it should be
+more beautiful than a wooden house, because the material employed is
+more appropriate for its use. (I should like to deliver an oration at
+this point, for upon this Golden Rule of utility hang all the law and
+the prophets of architectural beauty, but will defer it to a more
+fitting occasion.) There is, in truth, no limit to the grace of form,
+color and decoration possible with burned clay. As a marble statue is
+to a wooden image, so, for the outer walls of a building, is clay that
+has been moulded and baked, to the products of the saw-mill, the
+planing-mill, lathe and fret-saw."
+
+"Oh, you mean terra cotta?"
+
+"I mean clay that has been wrought into forms of use and beauty, and
+prepared by fire to endure almost to the end of time. It is most
+commonly found in plain rectangular blocks, but in accordance with the
+artistic spirit of the age, brains are now mixed with the sordid earth,
+and lasting beauty glows upon the rich, warm face of the strong brick
+walls."--
+
+"Yea, verily, amen and amen! Beauty, eloquence and true poetry, bright
+gleams of prophetic fire, patriotism, piety and the music of the
+spheres. I can see them all in my mind's eye and hear them in my mind's
+ear. Jill, my dear, our house shall be bricks--excuse me, I mean
+_brains_--and mortar, from turret to foundation stone. Consider that
+settled, and if the meeting is unanimous we will now adjourn till
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"One moment, if you please. Filling the spaces behind the lathing in a
+brick house with some fireproof and non-conducting material is a
+concession to usual modes of building. A more satisfactory construction
+still would be to build the wails of hollow bricks and with air spaces
+so disposed that neither wood furrings nor laths would be necessary.
+There is, moreover, no good reason why the inner surfaces of the main
+walls of a brick house and both sides of the partitions should not form
+the final finish of the rooms. Glazed bricks or tiles built into the
+walls, or secured to them after they are built, are vastly more
+satisfactory than a fragile and incongruous patchwork of wood, leather,
+metal, paper, paint and mortar, thrown together in some of the thousand
+and one fantastic fashions that spring up in a day, run their little
+course, and speedily return to the dust they have spent their short
+lives in collecting. I am afraid to dwell on this theme lest I should
+lie awake all night in a fever of futile protest."
+
+"Pray don't run any risks. I move we now adjourn."
+
+"Yes; but first let me ask one question," said Jill. "Would not the
+difference of cost between a house built in the ordinary combustible
+style and the same made fire-proof, or even 'slow-burning,' pay the
+cost of insurance at the usual rates many times over and leave a large
+margin besides?"
+
+"Undoubtedly it would."
+
+"Then, as an investment, what object is there in attempting to make
+buildings fireproof or even approximately so?"
+
+"Excuse me. I thought you were going to ask only one question."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHEN THE FLOODS BEAT AND THE RAINS DESCEND.
+
+
+After the architect had retired to his room it occurred to him that he
+might have answered Jill's conundrum as to the profit of building
+fire-proof houses by reminding her that pecuniary loss is not the sole
+objection to being burned out of house and home whenever the fire fiend
+happens to crave a flaming sacrifice, in the daytime or in the night,
+in summer or in midwinter, in sickness or in health; that not only
+heir-looms, but hearthstones and door posts, endeared by long
+associations, have a value beyond the power of insurance companies to
+restore, and that protection against fire means also security against
+many other ills to which the dwellers in houses are liable, not to
+refer to the larger fact that there is no real wealth without
+permanence, while the destruction of anything useful in the world,
+wherever the loss may seem to fall, impoverishes the whole. Having
+settled this point to his own satisfaction, he sought his pillow in a
+comfortable frame of mind. Comfortable, but not wholly at rest, for no
+sooner did he close his eyes than the "fever of futile protest"
+asserted itself in turbulent visions of paper, paint and plastering.
+Dados danced around in carnival dress; wall decorations went waltzing
+up and down, changing in shape, size and color like the figures in a
+kaleidoscope; Chinese pagodas on painted paper dissolved into brazen
+sconces, and candelabra sat where no light would ever shine; glazed
+plaques turned into Panama hats and cotton umbrellas, the classic
+figures in the frieze began to chase the peacocks furiously across the
+ceilings, the storks hopped wildly around on their one available leg,
+draperies of every conceivable hue and texture, from spider webs to
+sole leather, shaking the dust from their folds, slipped uneasily about
+on their glittering rings, and showers of Japanese fans floated down
+like falling apple blossoms in the month of May. He seemed to see the
+Old Curiosity Shop, the uncanny room of Mr. Venus, a dozen foreign
+departments of the Centennial, ancient garrets and modern household art
+stores, all tumbled together in hopeless confusion, and over all an
+emerald, golden halo that grew more and more concentrated till it burst
+into gloom as one gigantic sunflower, which, suddenly changing into the
+full moon just rising above the top of a neighboring roof, put an end
+to his chaotic dreams.
+
+Not willing to be moonstruck, even on the back of his head, he arose
+and went to the window to draw the curtain. There was a sort of
+curtainette at the top, opaque and immovable, serving simply to reduce
+the height of the window. At the sides there were gauzy draperies, too
+fancifully arranged to be rashly moved and too thin to serve the
+purpose of a curtain even against moonlight. He tried to close the
+inside shutters, but they clung to their boxes, refusing to stir
+without an order from the carpenter. At the risk of catching a cold or
+a fall, he opened the window and endeavored to bring the outside
+blinds together. One fold hung fast to the wall, the other he contrived
+to unloose, but the hook to hold it closed was wanting, and when he
+tried to fasten it open again the catch refused to catch, so he was
+compelled to shut the window and leave the swinging blind at the mercy
+of the wind. He then improvised a screen from a high-backed chair and
+an extra blanket, and again betook himself to bed. Stepping on a tack
+that had been left over when the floor matting was laid provoked
+certain exclamations calculated to exorcise the demon--or should I say
+alarm the angel?--of decorative art, and he was soon wrapped in the
+slumber of the just, undisturbed by esthetic visions.
+
+[Illustration: WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+After a time he became dimly conscious of a sense of alarm. At first,
+scarcely roused to understand the fear or its cause, he soon recognized
+a noise that filled his soul with terror--the stealthy sound of a
+midnight assassin; a faint rasping, intermittent and cautious, a sawing
+or filing the bolt of his door. He made a motion to spring up, upset a
+glass of water by his bedside and--frightened the rats from the
+particular hole they were trying to gnaw. In their sudden fright they
+dropped all pretense of secresy. They called each other aloud by name
+and scattered acorns, matches, butternuts and ears of corn in every
+direction, which rolled along the ceiling, fell down the partitions,
+knocked the mortar off the back of the laths and raised such a noisy
+commotion as ought to have roused the whole neighborhood. No one
+stirred, and the architect once more addressed himself to blessed
+sleep, feeling that morning must soon put an end to his tribulations.
+How long he slept he had no means of knowing. It was still dark when he
+awoke: dark but not still. A distant footfall tinkled on the matted
+floor, followed by another and another in rapid, measured succession.
+Could there be a cat or a dog in the room? He could see nothing. The
+moon was gone and the room was dark as Egypt. Possibly some animal
+escaped from a traveling menagerie had hidden in the chamber. He lay
+still and listened while the step--step--step--kept on without break or
+change. Presently he thought of ghosts, and as ghosts were the one
+thing he was not afraid of he turned over and went to sleep for good
+just as the village clock struck eleven.
+
+In the morning when he awoke, it rained. The ghostly footfalls
+continued; in fact, they had considerably increased, but they were no
+longer ghostly. A dark spot on the ceiling directly over the portfolio
+of plans he had laid on the floor betrayed their source. Portfolio and
+contents were as well soaked as if the fire companies had been at
+them--all from a leak in the roof.
+
+After breakfast, when Jill proposed to spend the time till it cleared
+off in looking over the plans he had brought, the architect was obliged
+to explain the disaster.
+
+"It is just as well," said he. "I brought them because you asked me to
+bring them, not because I supposed there would be one among them that
+would suit you. But they are not wasted. These poor, dumb, dripping
+plans preach a most eloquent sermon, the practical application of which
+is only too evident."
+
+"But how _can_ you make a tight roof? There has always been a leak here
+when it rains with the wind in a certain quarter. We keep a pan under
+it all the time, but somebody forgot to empty it; so it ran over last
+night."
+
+"You ought to see the house that I built," said Jack. "The wind may
+blow where it listeth and never a drop comes through the roof."
+
+"Oh, Jack, what a story! Only yesterday you showed me where the ceiling
+was stained and the paper just ready to come off."
+
+"That wasn't from rain water. It was from snow and ice water, which is
+a very different affair. We had peculiar weather last winter. I know a
+man who lost three thousand dollars' worth of frescoes in one night."
+
+"It is indeed a different matter as regards the construction of the
+roof, but the water is wet all the same, and a roof is inexcusable that
+fails to keep all beneath it dry, however peculiar the weather may be.
+No, it is not difficult to make a tight roof with the aid of common
+sense and common faithfulness. The most vulnerable spots during a rain
+storm are beside the dormers and the chimneys, over the bay-window
+roofs and in the valleys, that is, wherever the plane surface and the
+uniform slope of the roof is broken. In guarding these it is not safe
+to assume that water never runs up hill; a strong wind will drive it up
+the slope of a roof under slates, shingles or flashings as easily as it
+drives up the high tide of Lincolnshire. It will cause the water
+pouring down the side of a chimney, a dormer window, or any other
+vertical wall, to run off in an oblique direction and into cracks that
+never thought of being exposed to falling rain. 'Valleys' fail to
+carry their own rivers when they are punctured by nails carelessly
+driven too far within their borders; when the rust that corrupts the
+metal of which they are commonly composed has eaten their substance
+from the under side perhaps, their weakness undiscovered till the
+torrent breaks through; when they become choked with leaves and dust
+and overflow their banks; when they are torn asunder by their efforts
+to accommodate themselves to changes of temperature, and when ice cakes
+come down from the steep roofs and break holes through them.
+
+"The other danger is peculiar to cold climates, where the roof must
+protect not only from driving rain but from snow and ice in all their
+moods and tenses. When the higher peaks feel the warmth of the sun or
+the internal heat of the building, the lower slopes and valleys being
+without such influence, it sometimes happens that the rills will be set
+to running by the warmth of the upper portions, while the colder
+climate below will stop them in their course, building around the
+slate, shingles or tiles an impervious ice dam, from which the
+descending streams can find no outlet except by 'setting back' under
+the slates and running down inside. Eave spouts and conductors are
+especially liable to this climatic influence, for nothing is more
+common than to find them freezing in the shade while the roofs above
+are basking in the sun. As Jack observes, admitting water above an ice
+dam is a different kind of sin in a roof from that which caused the
+ruin of my plans last night, but it is no less unpardonable. The same
+treatment that will make a roof non-conducting of fire will, to some
+extent, overcome this danger, or a double boarding may be laid upon the
+rafters, with an air space between. This or the mineral wool packing
+will prevent the premature melting of snow from the internal heat. The
+only sure salvation for gutters is to take them down and lay them away
+in a cool, dry place. Thorough work, ample outlets and abundant room
+for an overflow on the outward side will make them reasonably safe. In
+general it is better to let the water fall to the ground, as directly
+as possible, and let the snow slide where it will, provided there is
+nothing below to be injured by an avalanche. A hundred-weight of warm
+snow or a five-pound icicle falling ten feet upon a slated roof or a
+conservatory skylight is sure to make a lasting impression."
+
+"Isn't this discourse a little out of season?" said Jack. "We don't buy
+furs in July nor refrigerators in January. If you expect advice to be
+followed, you mustn't offer it too long beforehand. Now, as your plans
+haven't yet recovered from their bath, let us see if Jill's air-castles
+can be brought down to the region of human possibilities."
+
+"I am not quite ready for that," said Jill. "First, let me show you the
+plans my old friend has sent me, and read you her description of them.
+Here are the plans and here is the letter:
+
+"'Of all the plans Will has ever made'--her 'Will' is an architect, you
+know--'these seem to me most likely to suit you and Jack, although they
+are by no means, adapted to conventional, commonplace housekeepers. In
+the centre of the first floor the large hall, opening freely to the
+outside world, is a sort of common ground, hospitable and cheerful,
+where the stranger guest and the old friend meet; where the children
+play, where the entire household are free to come and go without
+formality. The furniture it contains is for use and comfort. It is
+never out of order, because it is subject to no formal rules. At the
+left of the hall is the real family home, more secluded and more
+significant of your own taste and feeling. Instead of many separate
+apartments for general family use, here are drawing-room, sitting-room,
+library and parlor, all in one. This is the domestic sanctuary, the
+essential family home into which outsiders come only by special
+invitation. From the central hall runs the staircase that leads to the
+still more personal and private apartments above, one of which belongs
+to each member of the family. At the right of the hall is the
+dining-room, near enough to make its contribution to physical comfort
+and enjoyment at the proper time, but easily excluded when its inferior
+service is not required.'
+
+"I don't understand that," said Jill.
+
+"I do," said Jack. "It means that the meat that perisheth ought not to
+be set above the feast of reason and flow of soul; that the dining-room
+ought to be convenient but subordinate, not the most conspicuously
+elegant part of the establishment, unless we keep a boarding-house and
+reckon eating the chief end of man. Where do you say the library is?"
+
+"Included in the drawing-room. Probably the corner marked 'Boudoir'
+contains a writing desk with more or less books and other literary
+appliances. It has a fireplace of its own and portieres would give it
+complete seclusion."
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+"Where is the smoking-room?"
+
+"I don't know. She didn't send the plans for the stable."
+
+"How savage! Please go on with the letter."
+
+Jill continued:
+
+"'The floors of the dining-room and hall are on the same level, but
+that of the drawing-room is one or two feet higher--'
+
+"I don't like that at all. Should stumble forty times a day."
+
+"'--which is typical of its higher social plane, makes a charming
+raised seat on the platform at the foot of the stairs, and gives a more
+picturesque effect than would be possible if all the rooms were on a
+par.'
+
+"Can't help that. I shouldn't like it. I'd rather be a commonplace
+housekeeper."
+
+"'The higher broad landing in the staircase, running quite across the
+hall, makes a sort of gallery with room for a few book-shelves, a
+lounging-seat in the window, a band of musicians on festival occasions,
+with perhaps a pretty view from the window.'
+
+"If the landscape happens to fit the plan."
+
+"'Under the lower portion, of the stairs there is a toilet room, and at
+the same end of the hall wide doors lead to the piazza. A long window
+also gives access to the same piazza from the drawing-room. In the
+second story the chambers have plenty of closets and dressing-rooms,
+and yet but few doors. Indeed, many of these may be omitted by using
+portieres between each chamber and its dressing-room. You will notice,
+too, that by locking one door on each story the servants' quarters can
+be entirely detached from the rest of the house.'
+
+"Yes," said Jill, laying down the letter; "and that suggests another
+question: What do you think of a plan like this which provides no
+passage from the kitchen to the front part of the house except across
+the dining-room?"
+
+[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]
+
+"I should refer the question back to the housekeepers themselves; it
+is domestic rather than architectural. If the kitchen servant attends
+to the door bell, and is constantly sailing back and forth between the
+cooking-stove and the front door like a Fulton Ferry boat, the amount
+of travel would justify a special highway--even a suspension bridge.
+Likewise, when the side entrance for the boys and other careless
+members of the family is behind the dining-room, that apartment will
+become a noisy thoroughfare, unless there is a corridor passing around
+it. This is a common dilemma in planning the average house, and while a
+direct communication between the front and rear portions is always
+desirable, crossing one of the principal rooms is often the least of
+two evils. It seems to be so in this plan."
+
+"Go on, Jill."
+
+"There is but one more sentence about the plan: 'The outside of the
+house is severely plain, but you can easily make it more ornamental.'"
+
+"That's true. Nothing is easier than to make things ornamental. The
+hard thing is to make them simply useful. Now if you want my candid
+opinion of this plan," Jack continued, "I should say it is first-rate
+if the front door looks toward the east: if there is a grand view of
+rivers and mountains toward the southwest; if the family live on the
+west piazza all the forenoon; if they board a moderate family of
+servants in the north end (which I notice is a few steps lower than the
+dining-room--for social reasons, I suppose)--if they keep up rather a
+'tony' style of living in the south end; are not above condescending to
+men of low estate to the extent of receiving common people in the big
+hall, but holding themselves about two steps above the average human;
+and, finally, if and provided the butler's pantry is made as large
+again for a smoking-room, and the kitchen pantry made large enough to
+hold the butler. With these few remarks, I think we may lay this set of
+plans on the table."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WISDOM OF JILL IN THE KITCHEN.
+
+
+"Perhaps Jack will remember," said Jill, as she prepared to explain her
+plans, "that we examined not long ago a large number of somewhat
+pretentious houses, but did not find one that was satisfactory, the
+defects being usually in what I should call the working department of
+the house. The large front rooms were often exceedingly charming,
+elegantly furnished and well arranged."
+
+"For which reason," said Jack, "the family seemed to be religiously
+kept out of them unless they had on their company manners and their
+Sunday clothes, or wished to make themselves particularly miserable by
+having a wedding, a sewing society or an evening party."
+
+"The rear boundary of the dining-room seemed like Mason and Dixon's
+line in the old times; once beyond it, we entered a region 'without law
+or ornament or order,' a realm of architectural incompetence, confusion
+and evil work--if it is fair to call the arrangements of the domestic
+part of a house an architectural matter."
+
+"Certainly it is," Jack affirmed, "and it's my opinion that no
+architect ought to receive his diploma until he has served one year in
+a first-class family as cook, butler and maid-of-all-work."
+
+[Illustration: THE OUTSIDE OF TED'S HOUSE.]
+
+"One would almost be inclined to think that such an experience, with
+another year at bridge building, had been with certain 'practical
+architects and builders' the entire course of study."
+
+"It was plain enough," Jill continued, "that these houses were planned
+by _men_, who were not only ignorant of the details of housework but
+who held them in low esteem, as of no special importance. They
+evidently exhausted their room and their resources on what they are
+pleased to call the 'main' part of the house, leaving the kitchen and
+all its accessories to be fashioned out of the chips and fragments that
+remained. It would be a similar thing if a man should build a factory,
+fill it with machinery, furnish and equip the offices, warerooms and
+shipping docks, but leave no room for the engine that is to drive the
+whole or for the fuel that feeds the engine. When 'we women' practice
+domestic architecture, as we surely ought and shall,--"
+
+"When it's fashionable."
+
+"--we shall change all that. If there can be but two good rooms in a
+house it is better to have a kitchen and sitting-room than a
+dining-room and parlor. I propose to begin at the other end of the
+problem in planning our house. It may not suit anybody else, but if it
+suits Jack and I it will be a model home."
+
+"That sentiment is a solid foundation to build upon," said the
+architect. "I wish it was more popular. Build to suit yourselves, not
+your neighbors."
+
+"And now if you will walk into my kitchen, which is _not_ up nor down a
+winding stair? but on the same level with the dining-room, you shall
+judge whether it can be made a stern reality or must always remain the
+ghostly wing of a castle in the air. The approach from outside is
+through the little entry at the farther corner, where 'the butcher, the
+baker, and the candlestick maker,' the grocer, the fish-man, the
+milk-man and the ice-man bring their offerings. The other entrance is
+by way of the lobby adjoining the main staircase hall. This lobby or
+'garden entrance' is a sort of Mugby Junction, where we can take the
+cars for the cellar, for the second floor by the back stairs route, for
+the dining-room or for out of doors, and where we find refreshment in
+the way of a wash-basin and minor toilet conveniences. Under the main
+staircase there is also a large closet opening into this same lobby. My
+kitchen you see has windows at opposite sides, not only to admit plenty
+of light, for cleanliness is a child of light--"
+
+"That's true," said Jack. "In a dark room it's hard to tell a dried
+blueberry from a dried--currant."
+
+"Not only for light, but that the summer breezes may sweep through it
+when the windows are open, and, as far as possible, keep a river of
+fresh air rollings between the cooking range and the dining-room. It is
+long and narrow, that it may have ample wall space and yet keep the
+distance between the engine and machine shop, that is, the range with
+its appurtenances, and the packing-room--I mean the butler's pantry--as
+short as possible."
+
+"I'm glad there's going to be a 'butler's pantry,' it sounds so
+stylish. I notice that among people who have accommodations for a
+'butler' in their house plans, about one in a hundred keeps the
+genuine article. All the rest keep a waitress or a 'second girl.'
+Sometimes the cook, waitress, butler, chambermaid, valet and
+housekeeper are all combined in one tough and versatile handmaiden."
+
+[Illustration: JILL'S KITCHEN IN BLACK AND WHITE.]
+
+"Well, call it china closet, though it is really something more than
+that, or serving-room, or dining-room pantry--whatever you please. We
+shall keep two servants in the house, one of whom will wait on the
+table; consequently I do not want a door from this room-of-many-names
+to the kitchen. It is much easier to maintain the dignity and order
+that belong to our precious pottery, our blue and crackled ware, our
+fair and frail cut glass, if they are not exposed to frequent attacks
+from the kitchen side. There is, however, an ample sliding door or
+window in the partition, and a wide serving table before it, on which
+the cook will deposit the dinner as she takes it from the range. A part
+of the top of this table is of slate, and may be kept hot by steam or
+hot water from the range. With but one servant it would of course be
+necessary to make the route from the kitchen range to the dining-room
+table more direct."
+
+"What if you had none?"
+
+"If I had none, my kitchen, dining-room, store-room, china-closet,
+butler's pantry and all the blessed facilities for cooking, serving and
+removing the meals should be within a radius of ten feet. How any
+mortal woman with a soul above dress trimmings can be content to spend
+three hours in preparing meals to be eaten in thirty minutes passes my
+comprehension. When I 'do my own work,' as Aunt Jerusha says, there
+will be no extra steps, no extra dishes, no French cooking, no
+multiplying of 'courses.'"
+
+"No cards, no cake, no style."
+
+"Yes, indeed! The most distinguished and elegant style. Such style as
+is not possible except where all the household service is performed by
+the most devoted, the most thoughtful, the most intelligent, if I may
+say so--"
+
+"Certainly the most intelligent, amiable, accomplished and altogether
+lovely member of the family. I agree to that."
+
+"There will be no _pretense_ of style--if that is what you mean, no
+vain endeavor to conceal poverty or ignorance, but a delightful
+Arcadian candor and simplicity that will leave the mistress of the
+house, who is also housekeeper, nurse, cook, dairymaid, butler,
+waitress, laundress, seamstress, governess and family physician,
+abundant time and strength for such other occupations and amusements as
+may be most congenial. It would be a delightful way of living, and I
+should not hesitate to try it if I felt certain that I _had_ a soul
+above dress trimmings. I am not willing to be a household drudge,
+overwhelmed by the 'work that is never done;' therefore, to be on the
+safe side, we will keep two servants.
+
+"The cooking range, whether of the portable or 'set' kind, will have a
+brick wall behind it and at each side, which, carried above, will form
+a sort of canopy to conduct into the chimney the superfluous heat in
+warm weather and the steam and smoke from cooking at all times. I
+suppose some housekeepers would object to separating the two pantries,
+but they have no common interests requiring close proximity. The
+kitchen pantry is a store-room and a kind of private laboratory, where
+the mysterious experiments are made that develop our taste for esthetic
+cooking and give us an experimental knowledge of dyspepsia. Its
+operations precede the work of the range to which it is a near
+neighbor, as it ought to be. It has also the merit of being in the cool
+northwest corner of the house, with small windows on two adjacent
+sides, which are better than a single window, for the air of a
+store-room or pantry cannot be changed too freely in warm weather.
+
+"Do you see the closets at the end of this pantry? One is for ice,
+which is shoved in through a little door just above the sink where it
+is brought by the ice-man; the other is for a cold closet and is built
+in such a way as to get the full benefit of its cold-blooded neighbor.
+Don't forget, in making the plan, that the door through which the ice
+slides must be large enough to take in the largest cakes, and must be
+so arranged that after being washed at the sink they will slide easily
+without lifting or _banging_ into their proper places inside."
+
+"And let me suggest," said the architect, "that the waste-pipe that
+carries off the melted ice be allowed to run straight out of doors,
+without making the acquaintance of the sewer or any other drain-pipe."
+
+"Please remember that then, as well as the door. The kitchen sink is at
+the west end of the room, between and under two windows, which must be
+at least three feet from the floor. It is near to the pantry door, to
+accommodate the dishes used in cooking; yet not so near that one cannot
+stand beside it without danger of being roasted or broiled; near to the
+cellar door, from whence come the Murphys and other vegetables to have
+their faces washed and their eyes put out. Of course there is a china
+sink in the china closet, to insure tender treatment for all the table
+ware, and I should like a sort of window or slide behind the sideboard
+opening through it. Sometimes it will be convenient for the waitress to
+arrange the articles to be used on the table within reach from the
+dining-room side, and save a special journey whenever a dish, or a
+spoon is changed."
+
+"It strikes me," said Jack, "that when it comes to spoons you're
+drawing it pretty fine. I suppose these are modern improvements, but
+how much better will the dinners be than the dinners cooked in my
+kitchen? Two servants will do all the work for the same wages."
+
+"Real labor-saving is a religious duty, like all other economy; and if
+we don't have better domestic service with better facilities for doing
+work the fault is our own."
+
+"But I don't see that this kitchen is any better than mine."
+
+"Of course you don't; you're a man; but for one thing, your china
+closet hasn't even a window of its own. How do you expect glasses to be
+made clean and silver bright in such a place? Now observe my plan: Not
+only is the kitchen light, but the entry where the ice comes in, the
+pantry where the food is prepared, the butler's pantry, the stairs to
+the cellar and to the second floor, and Mugby Junction, are all light.
+There isn't a dark corner on the premises, and consequently no excuse
+for uncleanness or accidents."
+
+"Just think of the flies."
+
+"Windows are easily darkened. But I am not quite ready to talk over
+these minor matters. The general plan is the first thing, and I think
+you will agree with me that it is well begun."
+
+"According to Poor Richard, then, it is half done. So it's time for
+recess."
+
+"Very well; way of change let us look at the plans of brother Ted's
+house in Kansas. Its situation is different from ours, as it stands on
+a high bluff in a bend of the Missouri, and the parlor looks over the
+water in three different directions, up and down and across the river.
+The piazza seems to be arranged to make the most of this situation, and
+Ted thinks it impossible to contrive a more charming arrangement for
+hall, parlor and dining-room. They use the parlor as a common
+sitting-room, and the hall still more commonly, especially in warm
+weather. Ted doesn't realize that half the charm of the house lies in
+its adaptation to the site."
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST FLOOR OF TED'S HOUSE.]
+
+"That ought to be the case with every country or suburban house."
+
+"It certainly will not fit our lot, and it seems to me best suited for
+a summer home or for a warm climate."
+
+Here Jack was called to his office, and Jill withdrew to attend to some
+household duties, first requesting the architect to redraw the plans so
+as to show accurately the construction and details.
+
+"That is to say," said Jack, "while Jill makes a pudding for dinner and
+I write a business letter of three lines, you are to lay out in
+complete shape the plans for a house containing all the modern
+abominations and improvements, that will cost ten thousand dollars,
+occupy two years in building and last forever. That's a modest
+request."
+
+"Not extravagant compared with the demands often made upon domestic
+architects, for it involves no downright contradictions. I am not asked
+to show how a house worth ten thousand dollars can be built for five,
+or to break the Golden Rule, or to change the multiplication table and
+the cardinal points of the compass."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BE HONEST AND KEEP WARM.
+
+
+The architect went home to translate the instructions he had received
+into the language that builders understand. Jack and Jill established
+themselves in the house that Jack built. The proposed amendments were
+indefinitely postponed; Jill having consented to take the house
+temporarily as she had taken Jack permanently--for better or
+worse--only claiming her reserved right, in the case of the house, of
+privately finding all the fault she pleased. Even the staircase, so
+favorable to a swift descent, remained unchanged, and in their own room
+the bed stood squarely in the middle of the floor. Jack averred that
+this was intended when the house was planned, because the air is so
+much better in the centre of a room, and there is not so much danger of
+being struck by lightning.
+
+One day there came a cold, gloomy rain on the wings of a raw east wind,
+and after Jack had gone to his office it occurred to Jill that a fire
+on the hearth in the parlor, which they used as a common sitting-room,
+would be exceedingly comfortable, but on removing a highly ornamental
+screen that served as a "fireboard," she found neither grate nor
+fireplace, only a blank wall plastered and papered. Her righteous
+wrath was kindled, not because she was compelled to get warm in some
+other way, but by the fraudulent character of the chimney-piece. "I can
+imagine nothing more absurdly impertinent," she declared to Jack when
+he came home, "than that huge marble mantel standing stupidly against
+the wall where there isn't even a chimney for a background. As a piece
+of furniture it is superfluous; as a wall decoration it is hideous; as
+a shelf it is preposterous; as a fireplace it is a downright lie. If
+our architect suggests anything of the kind he will be dismissed on the
+instant."
+
+[Illustration: THE POOR BUT MODEST ATTORNEY'S COTTAGE]
+
+"Don't you think the room would look rather bare without a mantel? You
+know it's the most common thing in the world to have them like this. I
+can show you a hundred without going out of town."
+
+"Common! It's worse than common; it is vulgar, it is atrocious, it is
+the sum of all villainies!" said Jill, her indignation rising with each
+succeeding epithet. "A fireplace is a sacred thing. To pretend to have
+one when you have not is like pretending to be pious when you know you
+are wicked; it is stealing the livery of a warm, gracious, kindly
+hospitality to serve you in making a cold, heartless _pretense_ of
+welcome."
+
+"I didn't mean to do anything wrong," Jack protested with exceeding
+meekness. "Such mantels were all the fashion when this house was built,
+and fashions in marble can't be changed as easily as fashions in paper
+flowers."
+
+"There ought not to be 'fashions' in marble, but of course it was
+fashion. Nothing else than the blindest of all blind guides could have
+led people into anything so hopelessly silly and unprincipled. I shall
+never enjoy this room again," she continued, "knowing, as well I know,
+that yonder stately piece of sculpture is a whited sepulchre, a
+delusion and a snare. I shall feel that I ought to unmask it the moment
+a visitor comes in, lest I should be asked to make a fire on the hearth
+and be obliged to confess the depravity in our own household."
+
+[Illustration: A DOUBLE TEAM.]
+
+"Now, really, my dear, don't you think you are coming it rather strong,
+if I may be allowed the expression? Isn't it possible that your present
+views may be slightly tinged by the color of the east wind, so to
+speak?"
+
+"Not in the least. You know perfectly well, Jack, that insincerity is
+the bane of domestic and social life; that hypocrisy is a child of the
+Evil One, and that vain and false pretensions are the fatal lures that
+lead us on to destruction. How can we respect ourselves or expect our
+friends to respect us if the most conspicuous thing in the house is a
+palpable fraud?"
+
+"Very well, dear, I'll bring up a can of nitro-glycerine to-morrow and
+blow the whole establishment into the middle of futurity. Meanwhile,
+let us see if anything can be done to make it endurable a few hours
+longer."
+
+Dropping on his knees in front of the fictitious fireplace, Jack pulled
+the paper from the wall, disclosing a sheet-iron stove-pipe receiver,
+set there for a time of need, and communicating in some mysterious way
+with a sooty smoke flue. Having found this, he telephoned to the stove
+store for a portable grate--that is to say, a Franklin stove with
+ornamental tiles in the face of it--and in less than an hour the room
+was radiant with the blaze of a hickory fire, while a hitherto unknown
+warmth came to the lifeless marble from its new neighbor. By sitting
+directly in front of it Jill discovered that in appearance the general
+effect was nearly as good as that of a genuine fireplace, the warmth
+diffused being decidedly greater.
+
+"I'm sorry I lost my temper," said she, after they had sat a while in
+silence enjoying the ameliorating influence of the blaze, "but I _do_
+hate a humbug. We will let this stove stand here all summer to remind
+you that neither your house nor your wife is perfect, and to keep me
+warm when the east wind blows."
+
+[Illustration: WARMTH UNDER THE WINDOW.]
+
+Jack's response to this magnanimous remark must be omitted, as it had
+no direct bearing upon house-building.
+
+"When I went into the kitchen this morning to get warm," Jill observed
+later in the evening, "I found Bridget ironing; the stove was red-hot,
+the bath boiler was bubbling and shaking with the imprisoned steam, and
+the outside door was wide open. It struck me that there was heat enough
+going out of doors, not to mention the superheated air of the kitchen
+itself, to have made the whole house comfortable such days as this, if
+it could only be saved. Don't you think it would be possible to attach
+a pipe to some part of the cooking-range that would carry steam or hot
+water to the front of the house. We shouldn't want it when the furnace
+was running, nor in very warm weather, and at such times it could be
+turned off."
+
+Jack thought it could be done, and expressed a willingness to be a
+roasted martyr occasionally if he could by that means make some use of
+the perennial fire in the kitchen, a fire that seemed to be the hottest
+when there was no demand for it.
+
+[Illustration: STEAM PIPES BESIDE THE FIREPLACE.]
+
+"It's my conviction," said he, "that if the heat actually evolved from
+the fuel consumed by the average cook could be conserved on strictly
+scientific principles, it would warm the house comfortably the year
+round without any damage to the cooking, and with a saving of all the
+bother of stoves, fireplaces and furnaces." And his conviction was well
+founded, provided the house is not too large and the weather is not too
+cold. "Shall we try it in the new house?"
+
+"No, not unless somebody invents a new patent low-pressure,
+automatic-cooking-range-warming-attachment before we are ready for it.
+We shall have fireplaces in every room--real ones--and steam radiators
+beside."
+
+"What! in every room, those ugly, black, bronzy, oily, noisy, leaking,
+sizzling, snapping steam radiators that are always in the way and keep
+the air in the room so dry that everybody has catarrh, the doors won't
+latch, and the furniture falls to pieces? You know how the old heirloom
+mahogany chair collapsed under Madam Abigail at Mrs. Hunter's
+party--went to pieces in a twinkling like the one-horse shay--and all
+on account of the steam heat."
+
+"Yes, I remember; it was a comical tragedy; and before we run any such
+risks let us look over our advisory letters. Here's one from Uncle
+Harry, who, as you know, is never without a hobby of some sort. Just at
+present he is devoted to sanitary questions. To be well warmed,
+ventilated and plumbed is the chief end of man. He begins by saying
+that 'sun's heat is the only external warmth that is natural or
+beneficial to human beings. When men have risen above the dark clouds
+of sin and ignorance they will discover how to preserve the extra
+warmth of the torrid zone and of the hot summers in our own latitudes
+to be evenly diffused through colder climes and seasons. Next to sun's
+heat is that which comes from visible combustion--the burning of wood
+and coal. Such spontaneous, radiant, living warmth differs essentially
+from that which we receive by contact with artificially-warmed
+substances, somewhat as fruit that has been long gathered differs from
+that taken directly from the vine.'"
+
+"Isn't this getting sort of misty, what you might call 'transcendental
+like'?"
+
+"Possibly, and this is still more so: 'Warmth is the vital atmosphere
+of life, and a living flame imparts to us some of nature's own
+mysterious vitality. Hence, the sun's rays and the blaze of burning
+fuel give not only a material but a spiritual comfort and cheer, which
+mere warm air is powerless to impart. Here is another reason why direct
+radiation, even from a black iron pipe, is preferable to a current of
+warm air brought from a distance: in a room warmed by such a current
+nothing is ever quite so warm as the air itself unless so situated as
+to obstruct its flow, but every solid substance near a hot stove or
+radiator absorbs the radiated heat and is satisfied, while the air for
+respiration remains at a comparatively low temperature.'"
+
+"There may be a little sense in that," said Jack, "but the rest is
+several fathoms too deep for me. Has he any practical advice to give?"
+
+"That depends upon what you call practical. 'I have little patience,'
+he says, 'with the common objection to direct radiation, that it brings
+no fresh air. Fresh air can be had for the asking under a small stove
+or radiator standing in a room as well as under a large stove or boiler
+standing in the cellar; neither does the dampness or dryness of the
+atmosphere depend primarily upon the mode of warming it, while, as for
+the appearance of steam pipes, if they are not beautiful as usually
+seen, it only proves that art is not wisely applied to iron work, and
+that architects have not learned the essential lesson that whatever
+gives added comfort to a house will, if rightly treated, enhance its
+beauty. Steam-pipes or radiators may stand under windows, behind an
+open screen or grill of polished brass, or they may be incorporated
+with the chimney piece, and need not, in either case, be unsightly or
+liable to work mischief upon the carpets or ceilings under them.
+Wherever placed, a flue to bring in fresh air should be provided and
+fitted with a damper to control the currents.'"
+
+"I like the notion of putting them beside the fireplace," said Jack.
+"When they are both running, it would be like hitching a pair of horses
+before an ox-team or a steam engine attachment to an overshot
+water-wheel. It means business. Uncle Harry improves. What next?"
+
+"He expounds his theories of light and shade, of plumbing, sewer-gas
+and malaria, and casually remarks that 'the variation of the north
+magnetic pole and the points of compass are not yet fully understood in
+their relation to human welfare.'"
+
+"I should hope not! He must be writing under the influence of a full
+moon. Let us try a fresh correspondent."
+
+"Very well. Here is Aunt Melville's latest, with a new set of plans.
+There will be neither trancendentalism nor vain repetitions here:
+
+    "'MY DEAR NIECE: Since writing you last I have had a most
+    interesting experience, and hasten to give you the benefit of
+    it. You remember Mr. Melville's niece married a young attorney
+    in Tumbledonville; very talented and of good family, but poor,
+    _desperately_ poor. He hadn't over two or three thousand
+    dollars in the world, but he has built a marvelous little
+    house, of which I send you the plans. You enter a lovely hall,
+    positively larger than, mine, an actual room in fact, with a
+    staircase running up at one side and a charming fireplace at
+    the right, built, if you will believe it, of common red bricks
+    that cost only five dollars a thousand. It couldn't have taken
+    over two hundred and fifty to build it.--'
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTORNEY'S FLOOR PLAN.]
+
+"Just think of that! A charming fireplace for a dollar and a
+quarter!--"
+
+    "Communicating with the hall by a wide door beautifully draped
+    with some astonishingly cheap material is the parlor, fully
+    equal in every respect to my library, and adjoining that the
+    dining-room, nearly as large. On the same side is a green-house
+    between two bay windows, the whole arrangement having a
+    wonderful air of gentility and culture. I am convinced that you
+    ought to invest three-fourths of your father's wedding present
+    in some safe business, and with the remainder build a house
+    like this, buying a small lot for it, and defer the larger
+    house for a few years. Keeping house alone with Jack and
+    perhaps one maid-of-all-work will be perfectly respectable and
+    dignified; the experience will do you good, and I have no doubt
+    you will enjoy it. It will not only be a great economy in a
+    pecuniary way, but society is very exacting, and a large house
+    entails heavy social burdens which you will escape while living
+    in a cottage. This will give you plenty of time to improve your
+    taste in art, which is indispensable at present. There will be
+    great economy, too, in the matter of furniture. A large house
+    _must_ be furnished according to prevailing fashions, but in a
+    small one you may indulge any unconventional, artistic fancy
+    you please.'"
+
+"If Aunt Melville's advice and plans could be applied where they are
+needed they would be extremely valuable. Suppose we found a society and
+present them to it for gratuitous distribution."
+
+"We can't spare them yet; we shall not use them, but it is well to hear
+all sides of a question."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TRUTH, POETRY AND ROOFS.
+
+
+"How the wind does blow!" said Jill, as she laid aside Aunt Melville's
+latest, and Jack laid another log into the open stove. "It is a genuine
+'gale from the northeast.'"
+
+"So it is, and that reminds me," Jack exclaimed, jumping up, "that a
+driving rain from the northeast always gets the better of the attic
+window over the guest-room. There's something mysterious about that
+window," he explained. "It opens like a door; I believe they call it a
+'casement' window, and in such a storm as this I have to keep sopping
+up the water that blows in. I had a carpenter look at it, but he said
+it couldn't be fixed without making a new one or fastening it up so it
+couldn't be opened at all. We don't have a northeast rain-storm very
+often, and that's the only window that ever leaks--except the skylight
+and the round one in the west gable which is hung at the top to swing
+inward and couldn't be expected to hold water."
+
+Jill found some towels, and they hurried to the attic to "sop up" the
+rain that was driving under the sash and had already made its mark on
+the ceiling below. Then they examined the skylight and the round
+window, and just as they were about to descend perceived a smell of
+burning wood. Jack rushed down to the sitting-room, telling Jill to fly
+for a pail of water, found the wall beside the stove-pipe very hot, ran
+for an axe, and, smashing a hole through the lath and plastering,
+discovered a bit of wood furring to which the laths had been nailed
+resting directly against the sheet iron pipe. Catching the pail of
+water which Jill was about to pour into the stove, he cooled the hot
+pipe and extinguished the wood about to burst into flame, the smoke of
+which, rising beside the chimney to the attic, had warned them of the
+danger below. He then cut away around the pipe till the solid brick
+chimney was exposed, gathered up the rubbish, piling the chips upon the
+fire in the stove, and lay back in his chair, evidently enjoying the
+situation.
+
+"How can you be so reckless, Jack, as to keep a fire in such a
+chimney?"
+
+"The chimneys are all right, my dear. I took special pains with them
+when the house was built. The only danger there ever was lay in that
+little piece of inch board that happened to be too near the pipe."
+
+"And how are we to know what other little pieces of board may be too
+near? I think it's a very dangerous house to live in. If we hadn't gone
+up to the attic when we did it would have been all in flames."
+
+"And we shouldn't have gone to the attic at all if my windows had been
+proof against the east wind."
+
+"No, nor would you have known we were having a gale from the northeast
+if I hadn't quoted the 'Wreck of the Hesperus.'"
+
+[Illustration: NO CONCEALMENT OR DISGUISE.]
+
+"Consequently we owe our preservation to the well-beloved poet."
+
+"Moral: Study the poets."
+
+"Moral number two: Build leaky casements."
+
+"Number three: When the wood around a chimney takes fire it doesn't
+prove a 'defective flue.'"
+
+"Number four: A small fault hidden is more dangerous than a large one
+in sight."
+
+"Very true; and if modern builders had kept to the poet's standard,
+and, like those in the elder days of art,
+
+     'wrought with greatest care,
+     Each minute and hidden part,'
+
+we should not be trembling before a black and ragged chasm in the wall,
+afraid to go to bed lest the fire should break out anew and burn us in
+our sleep."
+
+"There's not the least danger. We are as safe as a barrel of gunpowder
+in a mill pond. There is nothing to set us on fire. That bit of dry
+wood was the key to the whole situation. We have captured that and can
+make our own terms. Still, if you feel nervous we will sit up and 'talk
+house' till the fire goes out."
+
+Jill acceded to this proposal and began to discourse, taking moral
+number four for a text.
+
+"I wish it were possible," said she, "to build a house with everything
+in plain sight, the chimneys, the hot-air pipes from the furnace, if
+there are any, the steam pipes, the ventilators, the gas pipes, the
+water pipes, the speaking tubes, the cranks and wires for the
+bells--whatever really belongs to the building. They might all be
+decorated if that would make them more interesting, but even if they
+were quite unadorned they ought not to be ugly. If we could see them we
+shouldn't feel that we are surrounded by hidden mysteries liable at any
+time to explode or break loose upon us unawares. Those things that get
+out of order easily ought surely to be accessible. I don't believe
+there would have been half the trouble with plumbing, either in the way
+of danger to health or from dishonest and ignorant work, if it had not
+been the custom to keep it as much as possible out of sight. There is a
+great satisfaction, too, in knowing that everything is genuine."
+
+"We might build a log house. The logs are solid, and the chimney, if
+there happens to be one, won't pretend to be of the same material as
+the walls of the building."
+
+"I like better the notion of letting the material of which brick walls
+and partitions are composed form the actual finish inside as well as
+outside. The floors, too, should be bare, and the beams that support
+them ought to be visible, and in case of a wooden house, the posts,
+braces and other timbers should be left in sight when the building is
+finished. It is a sad pity that modern modes of building, like modern
+manners and fashions, conceal actual construction and character, making
+a mask that may hide great excellence or absolute worthlessness."
+
+"Won't all these pipes, wooden beams, bell ropes and things be
+fearfully dusty and cumber the housekeeper with too much serving? I
+supposed you would vote for smooth, flat, hard wood and painted walls,
+they are so much easier to keep clean."
+
+"Perhaps I shall; but we must remember the gnat and the camel and try
+to be consistent. A single portiere, especially if it be of the
+rag-carpet style, has a greater dust-collecting capacity than a whole
+houseful of wooden floors, ceilings and wainscots, even when they are
+moulded and ornamentally wrought. Surely they will not be troublesome
+if they are plain and simple, and only think how much more interesting
+than flat square walls and ceilings, which we feel compelled to cover
+with some sort of decoration to make them endurable. I suppose
+architects have outgrown the sheet-iron and stucco style of building,
+and do not generally approve of 'graining' honest pine in imitation of
+coarse-grained chestnut. But these are not the only concealments and
+disguises that ought to be reformed. If we cannot make our house a
+model in any other respect, I hope it will be free from hypocrisy and
+silly affectations."
+
+"By all means; but you mustn't forget that reformers risk martyrdom.
+However, you can't be too honest for me; I am ready to sign any pledge
+you offer, even though it prohibit paint, putty and all other cloaks
+for poverty, ignorance and dishonesty."
+
+"There's a time and place for paint and putty, lath, plaster and paper,
+but we ought not to be helplessly dependent upon them."
+
+"Have you any idea how the house will look outside," asked Jack, giving
+the fire a poke, "or is that to be left to take care of itself?"
+
+"No, indeed! not left to take care of itself. In that part of the
+undertaking we are bound to believe that the architect is wiser than
+we, and must accept in all humility what he decrees. Still I think the
+law of domestic architecture at least should be 'from within out.' For
+the sake of the external appearance it ought not to be necessary to
+make the rooms higher or lower than we want them for use, neither
+larger nor more irregular in shape. It ought not to be necessary to
+build crooked chimneys for the sake of a dignified standing on the
+roof, or to make a pretense of a window where none is needed. The
+windows are for you and me to look out from and to let in the sunlight,
+not for the benefit of outside observers, and should be treated
+accordingly. We will not have big posts--mullions, do you call
+them?--in the middle of them, as there are in these. When I try to look
+down the street to see if you are coming home I can scarcely see
+obliquely to the corner of the lot, and we don't get half as much
+sunshine as we should if the windows were all in one."
+
+[Illustration: WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT.]
+
+"Why not, if there's the same amount of glass?"
+
+"Because the sun can't shine around a corner; and Jack, why did you set
+them so near the floor? There's no chance for a seat under them, and
+they do not give as much light or ventilation as they would if they ran
+nearly up to the ceiling."
+
+"What is the use of making them long at the top? They are always half
+covered up with lambrequins or some fanciful contrivance."
+
+"Indeed, they will not be; our windows will be arranged to be wholly
+uncovered whenever we need the light. Too many windows are not so
+unmanageable as too many doors, and I should like one room with a whole
+broadside of glass; but for most rooms the fewer windows the better,
+provided they are broad and high. I despise a room in which you can't
+sit down without being in front of a window or walk around without
+running against a door, that has no large wall spaces for pictures and
+no room for a piano, a book-case, a cabinet or a large lounge. A small
+room, that has doors or windows on all sides does not seem like a room
+intended for permanent occupation, but rather as a sort of outer court
+or vestibule belonging to something farther on."
+
+"I suppose the architect will claim the porches, balconies, and things
+of that sort, as belonging to the exterior, and design them as he
+pleases; but I think we have a right to insist that they shall add to
+our comfort. They must be large enough to be used, they must be put
+where we can use them conveniently, and they must not interfere with
+the interior arrangements; beyond that we shall accept what the
+architect sets before us."
+
+"'Asking no questions for conscience sake.' How about the roof--is that
+also a matter of evolution?"
+
+"No; because the inside of the roof is of but little consequence. It
+must keep out the rain and wind, snow and ice; it must be strong and
+economically built and have a reasonable amount of light. The rest we
+shall leave to the architect. As Uncle Harry observes, 'the material
+part of the house rests upon the foundation stones; its spiritual
+character is displayed chiefly in the roof, which may change to an
+unlimited extent the expression of the building it covers.'"
+
+[Illustration: JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY.]
+
+"That's so. Let me make the roofs for a people and I care not who
+builds the houses. The roof on the house is like the hat on the man, as
+I can show you," said Jack, taking a piece of charcoal from the stove
+and drawing on the back of the fireboard some astonishing illustrations
+of his theory.
+
+"Here is the president of a big corporation who must be dignified
+whether he has a soul or not. He represents the 'renaissance.' No
+nonsense about him, no sentiment, no sympathy, no anything but--himself
+and his own magnificence."
+
+"This fellow is a brakeman--prompt, efficient, laconic. Same head, you
+see, but different hat. He stands for the hipped roof which has one
+duty to do and does it."
+
+[Illustration: THE HAT MAKES THE MAN.]
+
+"Give the dignified president a smashing blow on the head and you see
+what he may become after an unsuccessful defalcation--an unfortunate
+tramp, who has 'seen better days.' He is a capital illustration of the
+roofs called 'French,' that were so imposing a few years ago, and are
+about as agreeable in the way of landscape decoration as the tramp
+himself, but not half so picturesque.
+
+"Pull the string again and we have a benevolent 'broad-brim,' stiff,
+symmetrical and proper to the last degree, like an Italian villa; and,
+once more changing the straight lines to crooked ones, the conventional
+formalist becomes the unconventional, free-and-easy South-westerner,
+who may stand for Swiss or any other go-as-you-please style."
+
+"It is midnight and the fire is out; let's adjourn."
+
+[Illustration.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE--BLINDS AND BESSIE.
+
+
+The next demonstration from the architect was a pencil drawing of the
+floor plans, submitted for inspection and criticism. Concerning these
+he wrote to Jill's entire satisfaction. "From many of my clients I
+should expect the first question would be, 'Will a house built in this
+shape look well outside?' It is not necessary to remind you that at
+this stage of the proceedings such an inquiry is wholly irrelevant. The
+interior arrangements should be made without a thought of the exterior
+effect, precisely as if the house were to wear the ring of Gyges and be
+forever invisible to outsiders. There are several points, however, on
+which I await further instructions----"
+
+"What's the use of having an architect," Jack inquired, "if you've got
+to keep instructing him all the time?"
+
+----"provided you wish to give instructions," Jill continued reading.
+"There is often a misunderstanding between architect and client, and I
+wish to avoid it in the present case by saying at the outset that while
+there are many things which, in my opinion, should be referred to you,
+I am ready to decide them for you if you wish me to do so; but even in
+such cases I prefer to set before you the arguments pro and con, after
+which, if you still desire it, I shall accept the arbitration. This is
+not a rule that works both ways or applies universally, for while
+referring to you matters relating to use and expenditure, and at the
+same time standing ready to decide them for you, I cannot promise to
+accept your advice in matters of construction and design. I trust I
+have not yet reached the fossiliferous state of mind that prevents my
+listening with sincere respect to candid suggestions, even from those
+who are not fairly competent to give advice; but on these points you
+must not expect me to follow your taste and judgment in opposition to
+my own, even if you do pay the bills. When your physician prescribes
+arsenic and you inform him that you shall give it to your poodle and
+take strychnine instead, he will doubtless infer that his services are
+no longer desired; he will know that while he might be able to kill
+you, he could not hope to cure you. Patients have rights that
+physicians are bound to respect, but the right to commit suicide and
+ruin the physician's reputation is not among them. The relations of
+client and architect are similar.
+
+"This is one of the questions which I refer to you, but will answer for
+you if you send it back: How shall the eyes of the house be closed?
+Shall the eyelids be outside blinds, inside folding shutters, 'Queen
+Anne' rolling blinds, sliding blinds or Venetian shades? There are good
+reasons for and against each kind; either, if adopted, compels some
+compromise. Whichever road you take you will wish you had taken the
+other.
+
+[Illustration: THE CONTRIBUTION OF BESSIE'S FATHER.]
+
+"For instance, in hot weather outside blinds that shield the glass
+from the direct rays of the sun keep the rooms cooler than any form of
+inside shutters; they allow a gradation of light and a free circulation
+of air. You can even leave the window open during a summer shower
+without danger of being drenched. Last but not least they are
+inexpensive. The wrong side of the outside blinds appears when you wish
+to make wide windows, or mullioned windows, or windows that cannot
+command at each side an unobstructed wall space equal to at least half
+their own width for the blinds to rest against when open. Under such
+circumstances, which are by no means rare, outside blinds are
+stubbornly unmanageable.
+
+"Inside blinds that fold back and swing away from the windows must have
+wide recessed jambs to hold them when they are not in use. If the
+windows are broad these 'pockets' will require a thick wall and thus
+increase the actual size of the house. A little space may be saved by
+allowing them to stand out obliquely when open, or turn around upon the
+inside face of the wall, but either mode increases the cost of
+finishing the rooms. If these blinds are made of open slats, many
+housekeepers despise them as being no better than small cabinets
+maliciously contrived to accumulate dust; if of solid panels, they make
+a room perfectly dark, or when opened ever so slightly admit unbroken
+rays of sunlight. On the other hand, inside blinds are accessible; they
+can be opened and closed without leaning half one's length out of the
+window; they do not hide the glory of plate glass; they graciously
+permit windows to stand where they please and to be as large as they
+please; and they never quarrel with piazza roofs, awnings, hoods or
+other outside accessories.
+
+"Shutters that coil up into a box over the window or down into a box
+below it have the modest excellence of being always out of the way when
+they are not wanted, of staying where they are put when partially open,
+of occupying but little space and never standing in the way of the
+window curtains. They are, in fact, wooden shades similar to the
+old-fashioned green slat curtains, that were rolled up by drawing a
+cord, but are far more substantial. The single slats of which they are
+composed do not revolve, and consequently it is not easy to 'peep
+through the blind just to hear the band play.'
+
+"Venetian shades, with their multiplicity of bright-colored straps,
+cords, hooks and trimmings, are picturesque and graceful. They are
+somewhat subject to dust and repairs, and when the window is open are
+not proof against tornadoes and thunder showers.
+
+"Inside blinds are sometimes contrived to slide sideways, like barn
+doors, into cavities formed to receive them. If built with extreme care
+and handled with the utmost tenderness they are a degree less obtrusive
+than when wholly dependent on hinges. Likewise, outside blinds may be
+contrived to swing horizontally as well as vertically, standing out
+from the top of the window like a small shed roof. They are not quite
+wide enough to serve as awnings, and are liable to catch more wind than
+they can hold."
+
+"It strikes me that the whole thing is a 'blind.' What is he driving
+at?"
+
+"The conclusion of the matter seems to be given in this sentence: 'You
+will perceive, therefore, that a decision in regard to blinds should be
+made even before the house is staked out, since the size of the
+foundation itself may be affected by it, as well as the minor
+details.'"
+
+"I'm ready for the question; are you?"
+
+"Yes. In the bay windows and for the long windows that give access to
+the balconies and piazzas we will have blinds that roll up out of the
+way. A few of the windows on the sunny side will have for summer use
+outside blinds, a few more will have cloth awnings. The most of the
+windows will have no blinds at all, only such shades and curtains as we
+choose to furnish. I don't think the eyes of a house ought to be closed
+much of the time. It is certainty absurd to hang blinds at all the
+windows when we only need them at a few."
+
+"Oh, but won't the neighbors rage and imagine vain things when they see
+a house with here and there a blind and here and there an awning?"
+
+"The wise ones will approve; the foolish ones will demonstrate their
+folly by criticising what they don't understand."
+
+"Very well, that point is settled. Unless the next is sharp and short
+you must decide it without my help. It is high time I was at the
+office."
+
+"We will defer them all. It is time for me to be at my household
+duties. You know Cousin Bessie comes this afternoon, and I've noticed
+that extremely intellectual people are sometimes extremely fond of a
+good dinner."
+
+"If Bessie is coming I must anoint my beard with oil of sunflowers and
+trot out my old gold slippers. Shall I send up some pale lilies for
+dessert? And that reminds me--Jim came home last night and I asked the
+old fellow to come up to dinner. How do you suppose Bess found it out?"
+
+"Don't be spiteful, Jack. She didn't find it out at all. I invited her
+a week ago. Now go to the office, please, while I put the house in
+order."
+
+During this important process Jill entertained herself by philosophical
+reflection upon the style of living that requires a house to be
+constantly "put in order." She recalled certain of Uncle Harry's
+observations to the effect that in a truly civilized state housekeeping
+would be so conducted and houses would be so contrived that instead of
+causing care and labor proverbially endless, housekeepers would no more
+be burdened by their domestic duties than are the fowls of the air.
+Jill had too much of the rare good sense, incorrectly called "common,"
+to attempt to reduce Uncle Harry's theories to practice all at once.
+She knew that though we may not reach the summit of our ambition, it is
+well to advance toward it even by a single step, or failing in that, to
+help prepare a way for some one else. She understood the wisdom of
+striving to increase the fraction of life by dividing the denominator,
+and at the same time cherished the broader hope that her life and her
+home might be filled with whatever is of most enduring worth.
+
+Moralizing thus, but always with an architectural or house-building
+background, she continued her work, noticing the sharp grooves and
+projecting mouldings that caught the dust, the high, ugly thresholds,
+the doors that swung the wrong way, compelling half a dozen extra steps
+in passing through them; shelves that were too high or too narrow;
+drawers that refused to "draw" or dropped helplessly on the floor as
+soon as they were drawn out far enough to display the spoons and
+spices they contained; window stools that came down behind tables and
+shelves, forming a sort of receptacle for lost articles belonging to
+the kitchen or pantry--all of which she resolved should not be
+repeated. When Bessie arrived the house was in that most perfect order
+which gives no sign of unusual preparation.
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF THE CONTRIBUTION.]
+
+"This is too perfectly lovely for anything," exclaimed Bessie. "I just
+_dote_ on domestic duties. You can't help being overpoweringly happy,
+Jill, with such a home and _such_ a husband. Then only to think of the
+new house drives me completely frantic. What _will_ it be like? Are the
+plans made? Oh! I do hope not, for I have a _million_ of things to tell
+you about that are totally _unspeakable_."
+
+"Then you are just in time. We had a long letter from the architect
+this morning asking for instructions on various matters."
+
+"How perfectly fascinating! Let's sit down this minute and begin upon
+them."
+
+But Jill preferred waiting till Jack came home, bringing with him his
+younger brother, just home for summer vacation.
+
+"It isn't necessary to announce dinner," said she. "The preliminary
+odors have already advertised it through the entire house."
+
+"I thought these observations were to be strictly confidential,"
+observed Jack.
+
+"That wasn't 'finding fault.' It was a mere casual remark. Some people
+may think it pleasanter to be summoned by the odor of broiling fish
+than by the noise of a dinner-bell."
+
+"Indeed I do," said Bessie, taking Jack's proffered arm. "Odors are too
+delicious for anything. They are so refined and spiritual I'm sure I
+could live on them. I would far prefer the fragrance of a dish of
+strawberries to the fruit itself."
+
+"We shall get along capitally then. You can smell of the berries and
+I'll eat them afterwards. You see now, Jill, the advantage of having a
+house built like this. Cousin Bessie proposes that we live on the
+fragrance of the food. It won't be necessary even to come to the
+dining-room. We can all stay in the parlor or in our chambers and
+absorb sustenance from the circumambient air, as the sprightly goldfish
+gathers honey from the inside of a glass ball."
+
+"Please don't make fun of me, Cousin Jack, for I do truly _revel_ in
+fragrance, and I'm sure your house is _beautifully_ planned. Don't you
+think so, Mr. James?"
+
+"I realty don't know much about such things. I never did like to know
+what I was going to have for dinner long beforehand--it makes me so
+awfully hungry."
+
+"Precisely so, Jim; it gives you am appetite. I had the house planned
+in this way for that very purpose."
+
+"Now that you have introduced the subject," said Jill, "I will tell you
+how _I_ should have planned it. There should have been a 'cut-off'
+somewhere--a little lobby between the kitchen and the rest of the
+house, with a ventilating flue so large that neither smoke nor steam
+nor perfumed air could pass it without being caught up and carried to
+the sky. Of course these odors ought not to get away from the
+ventilator above the range, but the best contrivances are not proof
+against the carelessness of the cook when she is in a hurry--as she
+always is just before dinner."
+
+When they returned to the sitting-room Bessie brought down a set of
+plans her father had sent for Jack and Jill to examine, thinking they
+would suit their lot and taste. They did suit the lot fairly, but
+Jill's mind was too fully made up to accept any change from her own
+plan. The exterior she approved cordially, but to Bessie's despair
+would not promise to imitate it, preferring to leave the outside to her
+architect without reserve.
+
+While they were spoiling their eyes in the twilight Jack pressed the
+electric "button" that lighted the gas instantaneously all over the
+house, causing Bessie to cry out in protest against such a sudden
+transition. "It is so violent, so unlike the slow, sweet processes of
+nature. I never shall learn to like gas, and the electric light is
+absolutely _horrid_. Don't you love tapers, Mr. James?"
+
+"Tapirs? I don't think I'm a judge; I never had one. I should rather
+have a tame zebra."
+
+"Oh, I mean tapers for light!"
+
+"Excuse me--certainly: yes, that is, I think I do. We don't use them
+very often. Do you mean tallow or wax?"
+
+"Wax, of course! They have such elegant decorations on them. I had a
+most exquisite sconce Christmas, with two of the loveliest tapers
+completely covered with Moorish arabesques in crimson and old gold."
+
+"What becomes of the decorations when the tapers burn up?"
+
+"Well, we don't burn them much. Indeed, I don't think we ought to use
+artificial light at all. The mysterious light of the moon and stars is
+so much more enchanting. Don't you love to muse and dream in the fading
+twilight?"
+
+"No, not very well. The trouble is if I get to sleep before I go to bed
+I don't sleep as well afterward."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean actual dreams, but vague, dreamy musings, esthetic
+aspirations and longings. Do you never long for abstract beauty?"
+
+"Well, no, not long. If I can't get what I want pretty quick I
+generally go for something else."
+
+This irrelevant conversation was vastly entertaining to Jack, who,
+knowing how unlike were the dispositions of his brother and his wife's
+cousin, had contrived their meeting with special reference to his own
+amusement. When the clock told the hour for retiring he brought Bessie
+a tin candlestick, in which a tallow candle smoked and spluttered in a
+feeble way, but filled the soul of the young lady with admiration, it
+was so "full of feeling."
+
+"Life is so much richer when our environment is illuminated and
+glorified--"
+
+"By tapers," said Jack as he bade her an affectionate good-night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MORE QUESTIONS OF FIRE AND WATER.
+
+
+"We must devote this evening exclusively to the new house," said Jill,
+as Jack started for his office. "The architect is waiting for
+instructions, and every day we lose now will give us another day of
+vexation and impatience when we are waiting for the house to be
+finished."
+
+"That's true, and it's a chronological fact that house-builders often
+forget. Very well, I'll come home early. Will Bessie be here?"
+
+"Certainly. She has come for a long visit."
+
+"Then I shall bring up Jim again. One-half Bess says he can't
+understand, and he doesn't approve of the other half; but we couldn't
+keep him away if we tried. So we'll invite him to come. It's great fun
+to hear Bessie's comments and witness Jim's helplessness."
+
+"If you are going to devote yourself to Jim and Bessie," said Jill
+severely, "I may as well answer these questions without consulting you
+at all."
+
+"Oh, pray don't do that. Give me a chance to express my opinions. Some
+of them are strikingly bold and original. Besides, you will need me to
+conduct the meeting."
+
+It happened, accidentally of course, that Bessie's evening dress was of
+a color that looked well by gaslight, and no objection was made to the
+unnatural illumination.
+
+Jill took up the architect's letter, where she had left it, at the
+conclusion of the blind question. "Another point that was mentioned
+when I was at your father's house must be decided soon: Shall there be
+gutters to catch the water from the roof, with pipes of some sort to
+convey it to the ground, or shall it be left to take care of itself? If
+there are none, the ground around the house should pitch sharply away
+from the walls and a slight depression should be formed, into which the
+water would fall. This shallow ditch should be perhaps two feet wide,
+as the drops will not always come down in straight lines. It may be
+paved with small stones or bricks, between which the grass will grow,
+or it maybe more carefully lined with asphalt paving. If it is desired
+to conduct the water to a certain point, this drain can descend
+slightly toward it, and, if the lawn will not be injured by an
+occasional inundation, even the shallow ditch may be omitted, making
+merely a one-sided slope, hardened to prevent the water from wearing a
+ragged, unsightly channel around the house. The advantages of disposing
+of the water in this way, dispensing with the gutters, are its economy
+and its permanence. Whatever the material may be of which they are
+made, gutters attached to the eaves or roof cause more or less trouble
+and expense from the time they are put in place till the house is given
+up to the owls and the bats. They are liable to be corroded by rust, to
+be clogged with leaves and dust, to be choked with ice, or to become
+loosened from their fastenings. If used at all, they should be frankly
+acknowledged. This is not, however, a point on which I am in need of
+instructions, but would remind you that one of the interesting
+illustrations of the happy skill of the old masters in making a virtue
+of necessity is found in the effective treatment of the waterspouts and
+conductors. They made them bold, quaint and picturesque in appearance,
+far removed from the tin contrivances that we hang in frail awkwardness
+to our roofs."
+
+[Illustration: A GARGOYLE]
+
+"How perfectly delightful!" exclaimed Bessie. "Those horribly grotesque
+old gargoyles are just glorious. Don't you delight in the antique, Mr.
+James, when it isn't too horrible?"
+
+"Yes, they are awfully jolly. We had a great time with them last
+'Fourth.' I got myself up as a pirate king--black flag, skull and
+cross-bones, you know. It was awfully jolly."
+
+"I never saw any of that kind, but you _will_ have some gargoyles,
+won't you, Jill?"
+
+"Possibly, for the architect says' whether you have gutters entirely
+around the house or not; it will doubtless be necessary to catch the
+water that would fall upon the steps or balconies in short
+eave-troughs, and as they are certain to be conspicuous they should be
+respectfully treated. As they add to the comfort of the house they
+should also add to its beauty.' Now what shall be said on this subject?
+His opinion appears to be that if we do not need to save the water for
+use, and if it will do no harm upon the ground around the house, it
+will be best to omit them except where protection is needed for
+something below. He sends some sketches and says 'they represent a few
+of the methods by which the water may be caught and carried to the
+ground. Number two and number three will prevent the sliding of the
+snow from the roof, which is sometimes desirable, but not always.
+Gutters made in this form should be so near the eaves that in case of
+accidental injury the water could not find its way inside the main
+walls. Number five has the advantage of leaving the house uninjured
+whatever happens to the gutter itself. It may leak through its entire
+length or run over on both sides without doing other harm than wasting
+the water.' I don't see," said Jill, laying down the letter, "how we
+can give instructions without dictating in matters of 'construction and
+design,' concerning which the architect distinctly objects to advice."
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF GUTTERS.]
+
+"Tell him we don't care what becomes of the water and the lawn will
+take care of itself. Then 'instruct' him to exercise his own
+discretion. That's what he is for. What next?"
+
+"He would like to know our wishes in regard to fireplaces."
+
+"I thought the heating question had been decided once according to
+Uncle Harry's doctrines."
+
+"Not fully. We shall have both steam and open fires; the architect
+understands that, but he doesn't know how many fireplaces nor what
+kind. We can tell him how many easily enough: one in each room of the
+first story except the kitchen, but including the hall, and one in each
+of the bed-rooms."
+
+[Illustration: "A SIMPLE RECESS."]
+
+"Including the guest chambers?"
+
+"By all means. There is nothing that makes one feel so thoroughly
+welcome, so delightfully at home as a room with an open fire. Mahogany
+four-posters, velvet carpets and sumptuous fare are trivial compliments
+in comparison. Concerning the style and cost he says: 'Of designs there
+is an endless variety, and there is a wide range in cost, from the
+simple recess in the side of a plain brick chimney'--"
+
+"One of the kind that Aunt Melville builds for a dollar and a quarter."
+
+"'--to the elaborate affairs that cost as much as a comfortable
+cottage. It would be idle for me to attempt to give you a full
+description of them all--my letter would appear like a manufacturer's
+catalogue. Indeed, you can find whole books on the subject, large books
+too, which it will be interesting and profitable for you to study; but
+first it is necessary to lay out the chimneys to accommodate the sizes
+and styles to be chosen. You will easily understand that a grate for
+burning coal alone, especially hard coal, may be much smaller than a
+fireplace to hold hickory logs that it takes two men to carry; but the
+heat of anthracite coal would soon destroy the lining of a fireplace
+adapted to an ordinary fire of wood. It cannot be necessary to remind
+you that the best open fireplaces, whether for wood or coal, are those
+which, instead of sending three-fourths of the heat up the chimney
+flue, give it out from all sides, to be saved either directly or by
+being conveyed to an adjoining or upper room. It is also possible to
+make a fireplace that will accommodate either wood or coal, but like
+all compromises this is attended with certain disadvantages. If large
+enough for wood it is too large for hard coal. The smoke flue for a
+coal fire may also be smaller, the hotter fire causing the stronger
+draught. Coal ashes, too, ought to be dropped through the hearth into
+ash pits below, even from the fires of the upper rooms. To "take up the
+ashes" of a wood fire is not so troublesome. These are some of the
+reasons why it is necessary to determine the kind and number of your
+fireplaces before the plans of the chimneys are drawn.'"
+
+[Illustration: IN THE MIDDLE RANK.]
+
+"Why not make an appropriation of fifty dollars apiece for each grate,
+mantel and hearth, and have him do the best he can with it?"
+
+"We can fix that as an average price, but shall want some better than
+others, and must mark in each room whether we wish to provide for wood,
+for coal, or for both. That is, whether we want 'set' grates or open
+fireplaces with andirons or something of that kind."
+
+"Oh, do have andirons. _Please_ have andirons," said Bessie. "You know
+you can go out into the country and buy them for old brass of the
+farmers who haven't the remotest idea of their value. They keep them up
+in those dear old musty garrets covered with dust and spider webs."
+
+"Certainly, we will have a few andirons and several spinning-wheels and
+moony clocks and solid old carved oak chests that for generations have
+been full of moths and food for worms. I never happened to come across
+one of those old bonanza garrets, but I suppose there are plenty of
+them lying around and just running over with these antique treasures.
+Jim, can't I hire you to go out among the unesthetic heathens and buy
+up a few loads of heirlooms and other relics of former greatness? We
+shall want some old associations in the new house, and if we haven't
+any of our own we must buy some."
+
+"I don't think I know much about such things. Why don't you go to a
+furniture store and get what you want first-hand? Second-hand furniture
+always looks shabby and out of date. However, if Miss Bessie could go
+with me to pick out things, I wouldn't mind taking a drive into the
+country to see what we could find."
+
+[Illustration: THE WORTH OF A COSY COTTAGE.]
+
+"Now, really, wouldn't you mind it? How enchanting! It will be
+delightful to be associated with the new house. I know we shall find
+some _lovely_ things."
+
+"All right. You shall have Bob and the express wagon to-morrow. What
+next, Jill?"
+
+"'I should be glad to know your feeling in regard to height of rooms,
+but shall not promise fully to agree with you. My purpose is to make
+the principal rooms of the first story ten and a-half or eleven feet
+high.'"
+
+"Oh, how dreadful! I don't know how high eleven feet is, but I'm sure
+they ought not to be more than seven feet."
+
+"I thought you were going to say not less than fourteen," said Jim.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed! Low rooms are so deliciously quaint and cosy."
+
+"But I should be all the time expecting to hit my head."
+
+"You wouldn't think of that for a moment if you could only feel the
+influence of Kitty Kane's library. It is a copy of an old English
+bar-room, or something of that sort, I don't exactly remember what, but
+it is in the Queen Anne style, and it's too lovely for anything. Please
+have low rooms, Jill."
+
+Jill continued reading: "For rooms of ordinary sizes and devoted to
+ordinary domestic purposes, that is high enough for use, for comfort
+and for any reasonable amount of decoration, either upon the walls
+themselves or in the shape of pictures or other ornaments. You will
+certainly think it enough when you are climbing the stairs to the rooms
+of the second story. It may be practicable to reduce the height of some
+of the smaller apartments, but it is usually much more convenient to
+keep the ceilings of the main rooms of uniform height, even if this
+does upset the 'correct proportion' which critics attempt in vain to
+establish. To make ceilings very low seems an affectation of humility
+or of antiquity not justified by common sense. In the polar regions,
+where the sun never reaches an altitude above twenty-three degrees, low
+rooms and short windows would be entirely satisfactory. In the torrid
+zone, where it is not safe to build more than one story for fear of
+earthquakes and tornadoes, where chambers would be useless, and where
+the grand question is not how to keep warm but how to keep cool, the
+higher the better. For houses in the temperate zones the medium height
+is the safest, the best--and the most _artistic_. If any one dares to
+say it is not, ask him to tell you the reason why."
+
+"How perfectly _exasperating_," said Bessie in a tragic aside to Jim.
+"No one ought to try to give reasons in art, in religion or in
+politics. Intuitions are so much more satisfactory. Don't you _always_
+rely on your intuitions, Mr. James?"
+
+"Perhaps I should if I had them, but somehow I--I never seem to have
+any."
+
+"The meeting appears to be divided," said Jack. "Bessie says seven, Jim
+says fourteen. Suppose we split the difference and call it ten and a
+half."
+
+"That is, we advise the architect to do as he pleases, then he will be
+sure to follow our advice."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHAT SHALL WE STAND UPON?
+
+
+"Splitting the difference" is a convenient compromise, but it is not
+always creditable to both parties, and Jill thought it would not be
+safe with such advisers to assume that Wisdom's house is always built
+between two extremes. She felt, too, that the architect's discussion of
+details must be tiresome to her guests, and therefore resolved to take
+up but one more of his queries, spending the remainder of the evening
+in looking over plans and letters, of which she had an ample store
+still unexplored, or in listening to Bessie's ardent description of the
+treasures she hoped to find in the lofty recesses of the old garrets.
+
+"I fear the next topic will not be deeply interesting, but it is the
+last one to-night, and Jack _must_ give me his undivided attention if
+he wishes to know what we are to stand upon in the new house."
+
+"Is it about floors?" Bessie asked. "Do please have waxed floors. I
+dote on waxed floors, don't you, Mr. James?"
+
+"Not especially; but I'm pretty apt to slip on them. _Is_ it about
+floors, Jill?"
+
+"Yes, but chiefly about the best way to build them--their
+construction."
+
+[Illustration: A PROMISE OF SOCIAL SUCCESS.]
+
+"I thought the architect was to settle questions of construction to
+suit himself."
+
+"He is, and this topic he writes 'concerns construction, cost, use and
+design, and is, therefore, one on which we may properly take counsel
+together.'"
+
+"How condescending!"
+
+[Illustration: A REASONABLE HOPE.]
+
+"I suppose you would object to iron girders with brick arches between
+them on account of their cost, but I hope to see rolled iron beams for
+brick dwelling-houses so cheaply made that they will be commonly used
+instead of wood. Such iron ribs, with the brick arches or other masonry
+between them, might well form the finish of the ceilings, and if we
+were accustomed to see them, our frail lath and plaster would seem
+stale, flat and combustible in comparison. The usual mode of making
+floors of thin joists set edgewise, from one to two feet apart, with
+one or two thicknesses of inch boards on the top to walk upon, and
+lathing underneath to hold the plastering, is perhaps the most
+economical use of materials. A more satisfactory construction would be
+to use larger beams two or three times as far apart, laying thicker
+planks upon them and dispensing with plastering altogether, or perhaps
+applying it between the timbers directly to the under-side of the
+planks, leaving the beams themselves in sight. If the floor is double
+the planks or boards lying directly upon the joists may be of common,
+coarse stock, hemlock or spruce, upon which must be laid another
+thickness of finished boards. It is for you to say whether the finished
+upper floor shall be of common, cheap stock, to be always covered by
+carpets, or of some harder wood carefully polished and not concealed at
+all, except by occasional rugs.'"
+
+"Oh, I do _hope_ she will have rugs!" Bessie's remarks were semi-asides
+addressed chiefly to Jim. "There's nothing so lovely as these oriental
+rugs. Kitty Kane had an _exquisite_ one among her wedding presents, and
+when her house was built the parlor was made to fit the rug. It makes
+it rather long and narrow, but the rug is _too_ lovely."
+
+"'It is also for you to say whether the finished floor, if you have no
+carpets, shall consist simply of plain narrow boards or be more
+expensively laid in parquetry designs. In the latter case I shall claim
+the privilege of choosing the pattern.'"
+
+"Why should he trouble himself about the pattern of the wood floors any
+more than he would about the style of the carpets?"
+
+"He would probably say, because the floors are a part of the house for
+which he is making the plans and will last as long as the house itself,
+while the carpets are subject to changing fashions and will soon return
+to their original dust. But he may attempt to dictate in regard to
+carpets if we give him a chance."
+
+[Illustration: FLOORS AS THEY ARE.]
+
+[Illustration: FLOORS AS THEY MIGHT BE.]
+
+"Undoubtedly--to the extent of pitching them out of the window."
+
+"In laying double floors one simple matter must not be neglected. The
+under, or lining boards, which are usually wide and imperfectly
+seasoned, should be laid _diagonally_ upon the joists; otherwise in
+their shrinking and swelling they will move the narrow finished boards
+resting upon them and cause ugly cracks to appear, even though the
+upper floor is most carefully laid and thoroughly seasoned. The liberal
+use of nails is another obvious but often neglected duty of
+floor-makers, who seem, at times to act upon the supposition that as a
+floor has nothing to do but lie still and be trodden upon, it only
+needs to be laid in place and let alone. This may be true of stone
+flagging; it is far from being true of inch boards, that have an
+incurable tendency to warp, twist, spring and shake. Lining floors,
+especially, whatever their thickness, should be nailed--spiked is a
+more forcible term--to every possible bearing and with generous
+frequency; to be specific, say every three inches. The finished hoards
+must also be secured by nails driven squarely through them. If you
+object to the appearance of nail heads the boards may be secured by
+nails driven through the edges in such way that they will be out of
+sight when the floor is finished; but this should never be done except
+by skillful and conscientious workmen. There is no excuse for this
+"blind" nailing in floors that are to be covered by carpets, and it is
+seldom desirable under any circumstances. All thorough nailing adds
+greatly to the strength, and will alone prevent the creaking of the
+boards, so annoying in a sick room and so discouraging to burglars.'"
+
+"Whatever else we do we must make it all right for the burglars. Tell
+him we will have floors that can be used either way, with rugs or
+without, with matting, with carpets, or with nothing at all but their
+own unadorned loveliness. Those in the chambers, where there is not
+much wear and tear, may be of common clear pine, and we can paint or
+stain a border around the edges. The others ought to be of harder wood,
+and, as they will last as long as we shall need floors, we can afford
+to have them cost rather more than a good carpet, perhaps thirty or
+forty cents a square foot."
+
+"I don't see the necessity for that," said Jill, who had a frugal
+mind--at times. "I know they will outlast a great many carpets, but it
+is considerable work to keep a bare floor in order--or rather to put it
+in order--which must be taken into account; and, as for saving the
+expense of carpets, we shall be likely to spend twice as much for rugs
+as the carpets would cost. However, extravagance in rugs is not the
+fault of the hard-wood floors and ought not to be charged against them.
+We might have a few parquetry floors, but for most of the rooms plain
+narrow strips, with a pretty border, will be good enough. What do you
+think about it, Jim?"
+
+While Jim was preparing to say that he didn't think he knew much about
+such things, there came a crash on the floor above, followed by loud
+and incoherent observations by the chambermaid. The chandelier began to
+shake, as that substantial domestic fairy flew through the passage that
+led to the back stairs, at the head of which she was distinctly heard
+to exhort the cook in good set terms to "hurry up with the mop, for the
+water-jug was upset and the mistress would be raving if the water came
+through the ceiling."
+
+The quartette below listened with conflicting emotions. Jill was
+indignant, Bessie horrified--apparently, Jim greatly amused, and Jack
+sublimely indifferent. "If there's anything I _despise_," said Jill,
+"it is a house that makes a human being seem like an elephant, and
+where I can't say my prayers or move a chair in my own room without
+rousing the entire household."
+
+"There's one good thing about it," said Jim pleasantly. "You can't help
+knowing what is going on in your own house."
+
+"Spoken like a man and a brother, James. You always go to the root of a
+matter. I like to keep posted. No skeletons and gunpowder plots for me.
+I had this house made so on purpose." Whereat they all laughed and
+again took up the floor question, while the sound of hurrying feet and
+the rattling of domestic implements went on overhead, and the
+chandelier trembled with the jarring floors.
+
+"I suppose forty dollars' worth of timber originally added to these
+floors would have made them so firm that we might drive a caravan
+across them without shaking the building. We will, at least, have solid
+floors in the new house; but the architect informs us that 'effectual
+deafening of the floors and partitions necessarily adds considerably to
+their cost, since the walls and ceilings must be virtually double or
+filled with some light porous material. The construction I have
+described for making the house fireproof, or nearly so, would also make
+it comparatively sound-proof. It would prevent the passage of any
+reasonable in-door noises, though it might not withstand the stamping
+of heavy steel-shod feet. Indeed, the question of bare, hard-wood
+floors is, in one of its aspects, rather a question of boots. It is
+most unreasonable to say the floors are noisy and slippery when the
+fault lies rather in the hard, stiff, awkward receptacles in which our
+feet are imprisoned. If we are ever clad from head to foot in the robes
+of a perfect civilization, we shall doubtless find smooth bare floors
+for general use more satisfactory than any kind of rugs, mats or
+carpets.'
+
+"And now," said Jill, "we will leave the rest of this interminable
+letter for a more convenient season and see what our indefatigable aunt
+has sent as the latest and best thing in domestic architecture. If you
+will take the plans and follow the description, I will read the letter
+straight through, though it will doubtless contain more or less advice
+not strictly pertinent to house-building. Here it is:
+
+    "MY DEAR JILL: On further reflection I have concluded that the
+    little cottage plans which I sent last will not answer. I doubt
+    whether you and Jack have sufficient independence and
+    originality to make a success of living; even temporarily, in a
+    small, unpretending cottage. It requires unusual strength of
+    character'--
+
+"Listen, Jack.
+
+    --to establish and maintain a high social standing with no
+    adventitious aids. You cannot at present afford a large
+    establishment, but you must have one that is striking and
+    elegant. I was first attracted to this house by its external
+    appearance--not especially the form, but the material, as we
+    often see a lady of inferior _physique_ whose rich and tasteful
+    attire makes her the observed of all observers."
+
+[Illustration: BRICKS AND BOULDERS ON GRANITE UNDERPINNING.]
+
+"Aunt Melville is inclined to be dumpy, and is immensely proud of her
+taste in dress.
+
+    "'The walls near the ground--the underpinning, I suppose--is of
+    solid granite blocks, irregular in size, rough and rugged in
+    appearance. Indeed, the impression is of exceeding solidity and
+    strength, perhaps because the walls slope backward as they
+    rise. The first story is also of stones, but such peculiar
+    stones as I never expected to see in a dwelling house,
+    precisely like those used in the country for fences.'"
+
+"How exquisite!" exclaimed Bessie, clapping her hands in ecstacy.
+
+    "'Some of them seemed to be covered with the gray lichens that
+    are found growing on rocks,--'
+
+"How delicious!"
+
+    "'--but I very much fear these will be destroyed by the action
+    of the lime in the mortar. The stones vary in color, and at a
+    little distance the effect is like a rich mosaic. The corners
+    of the house and the sides of the windows are made of
+    peculiarly dark, rough-looking bricks that harmonize well with
+    the general tone of the stone walls. The second story is of
+    wood, covered with shingles that have not been painted, but
+    simply oiled, and they have turned a dark reddish-brown. I
+    found on inquiry that they are California red wood. The roof is
+    of red tiles, and the chromatic effect of the entire building
+    is very charming and aristocratic.'"
+
+"That would suit _us_ perfectly," said Jack, "but I think our
+aristocratic aunt is more tiresome than the architect. Jim is asleep
+and Bessie is on the verge of slumber." But just at that moment Bessie
+gave a piercing scream and bounded from the sofa in uncontrollable
+affright, while an army of reckless June bugs came dashing in through
+the open, unscreened windows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+FROM MATHEMATICS TO ANCIENT BRIC-A-BRAC.
+
+
+Taking advantage of the incursion of the June bugs, Jim withdrew in
+good order, and Bessie shortly after retired with her tin candlestick.
+
+"Do you seriously intend to allow that pair of incompatibles to go off
+to-morrow looking for old furniture and antiquated household
+implements?" asked Jill.
+
+"Most certainly I do. It will he the greatest fun in the world. I only
+wish we could go as invisible spectators; but, on the whole, we shall
+best enjoy imagining what they will say or do if left to their own
+devices, knowing, as we should, that our presence would prevent some of
+their wildest absurdities. I'm awfully sorry they are not going to
+build and furnish a house somewhere in this vicinity, according to
+their combined notions."
+
+"And I am extremely sorry you cannot take your thoughts from Bessie
+long enough at least to hear the conclusion of Aunt Melville's letter."
+
+"My dear, like John Gilpin, 'of womankind I do admire but one.' I shall
+listen with undivided attention to whatever you lay before my ears.
+Pray go on."
+
+    "'I was fortunate enough to get a drawing of the interior of
+    the reception hall, which, while it is simple and inexpensive,
+    is also dignified and impressive. Houses often resemble
+    people, and you will easily recall among your friends certain
+    ones who, without being either wealthy or brilliant, are still
+    very impressive. The other rooms which we visited are ample for
+    your needs, as you will find it far more advantageous to
+    entertain but few people at a time, and those of the best
+    society, than to have larger and more indiscriminate
+    gatherings. The amount of room in the house is surprising; but
+    that, of course, is because it is so nearly square.'"
+
+"That is feminine logic. A man would have said that the size of a house
+determines the amount of room it contains."
+
+"Undoubtedly he would; but it does not," said Jill, decidedly. "I can
+show you houses that look large and _are_ large, that make great
+pretensions in point of style, that cost a great deal of money, and yet
+have no room in them. They have no place for the beds to stand, no room
+for the doors to swing, no room for a piano, no room for a generous
+sofa, no room for the book-cases, no room for easy stairs, no room for
+fireplaces, no room for convenient attendance at the dining-table, no
+room for wholesome cooking, no room for sick people, no room for fresh
+air, no room for sunlight, no room for an unexpected guest. They have
+plenty of rooms, apartments, cells--but no real, generous, comfortable
+house room."
+
+"I suppose Aunt Melville refers to the mathematical fact that a house
+forty feet square contains more cubic feet than the same length of
+walls would hold in a more elongated or irregular shape."
+
+"By the same rule an octagon or circle would be better still, which is
+absurd. No; her feminine logic is no worse than yours, and no better.
+The amount of room a house contains depends neither upon its size
+nor its shape. Her analogy, too, is at fault when she implies that the
+outside of a house bears the same relation to the interior that
+clothing bears to the person who wears it. The art of the tailor and
+dressmaker has at present no other test of merit than fashion and
+costliness, elements to which real art, architectural or otherwise, is
+always and absolutely indifferent. The external aspect of the house
+should be the natural spontaneous outgrowth of its legitimate use and
+proper construction, as face, form and carriage express the character
+of each individual."
+
+[Illustration: NOT BRILLIANT BUT IMPRESSIVE.]
+
+[Illustration: WOODEN RICHNESS.]
+
+Jill spoke with unwonted seriousness and a wisdom beyond her years.
+Even Jack was impressed for the moment, and expressed a wish to tear
+down some of the ornamental appendages from his own house. "The
+piazzas are well enough--that is, they would be if they were twice as
+wide--but the observatory is good for nothing, because nobody can get
+into it to observe, unless he crawls along the ridge-pole, and I never
+did know what all that mess of wooden stuff under the eaves and about
+the windows was for. I suppose it was intended to give the house a
+richer look."
+
+[Illustration: NO WASTE OF WOOD.]
+
+"Yes, it enriches it just as countless rows of puffs, ruffles and
+flounces, made of coarse cotton cloth with a sewing machine and piled
+on without regard to grace or comfort, would 'enrich' a lady's dress."
+
+"I thought you objected to the dress anology?"
+
+"I do, positively, but it appears to have been the theory accepted by
+modern architects almost universally. I don't see. Jack, that your
+house is any worse than others in this respect, and I have no doubt it
+will 'sell' all the better for the superfluous lumber attached to the
+outside walls."
+
+"Thank you, my dear! That is the first good word you have spoken for
+it. Well, there is one comfort; I am convinced that you didn't commit
+the reprehensible folly of marrying me for my house."
+
+"No, indeed, Jack. It was pure devotion; a desperate case of elective
+affinity."
+
+"And yet we are happily married! _We_ shall never do for the hero and
+heroine of a modern romance. There isn't a magazine editor or a book
+publisher that would look at us for a moment."
+
+"Let us be thankful--and finish our letter.
+
+    "'I am anxious, as you know, my dear niece, that you should,
+    begin life in a manner creditable to the family, and I trust
+    you will allow no romantic or utilitarian notions to prevent
+    your conforming to the requirements of good society. This
+    house, in all such respects, will be perfectly satisfactory. I
+    have bought the plans for you from the owner, and I hope you
+    will accept them with my best wishes.'
+
+"And that is all, this time. Aunt Melville's notion of a house seems to
+be a place for entertaining the 'best society.' Her zeal is certainly
+getting the better of her conscience and judgment. She cannot honestly
+buy the plans from the owner of the house, because he never owned them;
+they belong to the architect, and she ought to know better than to
+advise the use of material that would have to be brought at great
+expense from a long distance. If cobble-stones and boulders were
+indigenous in this region, and old stone fences could be had for the
+asking, I should like to use them, but they are not. It is also evident
+that she did not penetrate far into the interior of the house or she
+would have discovered an unpardonable defect--the absence of 'back'
+stairs. I do not think it very serious in such a plan, where the one
+flight is near the centre of the house and is not very conspicuous,
+but Aunt Melville would lie awake nights if she knew there were no back
+stairs for the servants."
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR OF THE PROMISE.]
+
+The next morning Jim appeared with the express wagon, and Bessie
+climbed upon the high seat beside him under the big brown umbrella, her
+Gainsborough hat encircled with a garland of white daisies, huge
+bunches of the same blossoms being attached somewhat indiscriminately
+to her dress by way of imparting a rural air, and together they drove
+off in search of old and forgotten household gods. Jill had suggested
+sending them out to investigate, reporting what they found, and
+purchasing afterward if thought best, but Jack urged that it would be
+wiser to secure their treasures at once, lest the thrifty farmers,
+finding their old heir-looms in demand, should mark up the prices while
+they were deliberating--a view with which Bessie fully concurred.
+
+[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR OF THE PROMISE.]
+
+Beguiling the way with the duet that is always so delightful to the
+performers, whatever the audience may think of it, they followed the
+pleasant country roads for many miles without finding a castle that
+seemed to promise desirable plunder. A worn-out horseshoe lying in the
+road was their first prize. It presaged good luck, and was to be gilded
+and hung above the library door. At length they came to a typical old
+farm-house, gray and weather-beaten, but still dignified and well cared
+for. The big barns stood modestly back from the highway, and the yard
+about the front door, enclosed by a once white picket fence, was filled
+with the fragrance of cinnamon roses and syringas. As they drove up at
+the side of the house across the open lawn, the close cropping of which
+showed that the cows were wont to take their final bite upon it as they
+came to the yard at night, they encountered an elderly man carrying a
+large jug in one hand and apparently just starting for the fields with
+some refreshing drink for the workmen.
+
+"Good morning, sir," said Jim, touching his hat. Bessie smiled and
+asked, "Are you the farmer?"
+
+"Wal, yes ma'am; I suppose I am. Leastways I own the farm and get my
+living off from it as well as I can--same as my fathers did afore me."
+
+"How lovely! Have you got any old--I mean, can you give us a drink of
+water? We--we happen to be passing and we're very thirsty."
+
+"Just as well as not. The well is right behind the house. You can jump
+down and help yourselves."
+
+"You don't mean jump down the well," said Jim, laughing.
+
+"Not exactly. Will your horse stand?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+When Bessie saw the old well-sweep, which for some unaccountable reason
+had not been swept away by a modern pump, she exclaimed in a stage
+whisper: "Wouldn't it be glorious if we could carry it home?"
+
+Jim found the cool water most refreshing and thought he would rather
+carry home the well.
+
+"What an enormous wood pile," Bessie continued aloud, in a desperate
+endeavor to lead up to andirons by an unsuspicious route. "Do you burn
+wood?"
+
+"Not so much as we used to. The women folks think they must have it to
+cook with, but we use coal a good deal in the winter."
+
+"Don't you have fireplaces?" was the next innocent question.
+
+"Plenty of 'em in the house, but they're mostly bricked up. It takes
+too big a wood pile to keep 'em going."
+
+"So you use stoves instead; I suppose it is less trouble. Oh, and that
+reminds me, have you any old andirons, anywhere around?"
+
+"Shouldn't be surprised if there was. Yes, there's one now, hangin' on
+the gate right behind you."
+
+Bessie, as she afterwards declared, was almost ready to faint at this
+announcement, but on turning to look she saw indeed, hanging by a chain
+to keep the gate closed, a dumpy, rusty, cast-iron andiron.
+
+"Should you be willing to sell it for old brass? Isn't there a mate to
+it somewhere? They generally go in pairs, don't they?"
+
+"No, I shouldn't want to sell it for old brass, because you see it's
+iron. Most likely there was a pair of 'em once, but there's no tellin'
+where t'other one is now. Maybe in the suller and maybe in the garret."
+
+"Please could we go up in the garret and look for it? We will be very
+careful."
+
+The worthy man, considerably puzzled to know what sort of angels he was
+entertaining unawares, obtained permission from the "women folks," sent
+a boy off with the jug of drink and showed his callers to the topmost
+floor of the house.
+
+"Oh, oh! If there isn't a real spinning-wheel. This passes my wildest
+anticipations," murmured Bessie to Jim; then, restraining her
+enthusiasm for fear of spoiling a bargain, she inquired aloud: "Do any
+of your family spin?"
+
+"No, no; not now-a-days. My old mother vised to get the wheel out now
+and then, when I was a youngster, but it's broke now and part of it is
+lost."
+
+"Would you sell it?"
+
+"If it isn't all here--" Jim began, but Bessie checked him and eagerly
+accepted the old wheel, which had lost its head and two or three
+spokes, for the moderate sum of one dollar.
+
+Rummaging among old barrels, Jim found the missing half of the pair of
+andirons. One broken leg seemed to add to its value in Bessie's eyes
+and she quickly closed a bargain for them at fifteen cents, which their
+owner, after "hefting" them, "guessed" would be about their value for
+old iron. One old chair, minus a back and extremely shaky as to its
+legs, and another that had lost a rocker and never had any arms, were
+secured for a nominal price, and Bessie's attention was then attracted
+to a tall wooden vessel hooped like a barrel, but more slender, "big at
+the bottom and small at the top," which proved to be an old churn. Jim
+objected to this until his companion explained how it could be
+transformed by a judicious application of old gold and crimson into a
+most artistic umbrella stand, while the "dasher" would make a striking
+ornament for the hall chimney-piece. As they were about to depart with
+their treasures, the honest farmer invited them to look at a ponderous
+machine five or six feet high and nearly as broad--a horrid monster,
+misshapen and huge, that stood in the back chamber over the wood-shed.
+It was a cheese-press. "How magnificent!" whispered Bessie, and then,
+turning to their host, inquired--"Do you use it every day?"
+
+"Oh, law, no! Hain't used it this twenty years. Make all the cheese at
+the factory. It's kind of a queer old thing and I thought maybe you
+would like to see it. 'Tain't likely you will ever see another just
+like it."
+
+"_Would_ you be willing to sell it?"
+
+"Of course, I'd be willing enough, only it don't seem just right to
+sell a thing that ain't good for anything but firewood. However, if you
+really want it you may have it for a dollar and a-half, and I'll have
+the hired men load it up for you."
+
+"Now, really, Miss Bessie," said Jim, when the farmer had gone to call
+the men, "don't you think it's rather a clumsy affair? We can hardly
+get it into the express wagon, and I don't see where they can put it if
+we carry it home."
+
+"Clumsy! no, indeed, it's _massive_, it's _grand_! There will be plenty
+of room in the new house. They will have one entire room for
+bric-a-brac."
+
+"But what can they _do_ with it? They won't make cheese."
+
+"Can't you see what a _delicious_ cabinet it will make? These posts and
+things can all be carved and decorated, and it will be perfectly
+_unique_. There isn't such a cabinet in the whole city of New York. Oh,
+I think our trip has been an _immense_ success already. I shall always
+believe in horseshoes after this; but _isn't_ it a pity we can't carry
+home the well-sweep?"
+
+The huge machine had to be taken from the shed chamber in sections, but
+was properly put together again in the wagon by the hired men, and made
+the turnout look like a small traveling juggernaut. Just before
+starting: Bessie espied, leaning against the fence, a hen-coop from
+which the feathered family had departed, and explaining to Jim that if
+the sides were painted red and the bars gilded it would be a charming
+ornament for the front porch, persuaded him to add that to their
+already imposing load. Then they departed, leaving the farmer and his
+men in doubt whether to advertise a pair of escaped lunatics or accept
+their visitors as "highly cultured" members of modern society.
+
+When they reached home Jack had just come in from the office. He looked
+out of the window as they drove up, felt his strength suddenly give
+way, and rolled on the floor in convulsions.
+
+"Less than five dollars for the whole lot, did you say, Jim? I wouldn't
+have missed _seeing_ that load for fifty."
+
+The next day was Sunday. Monday afternoon Bessie went home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ECONOMY, CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH.
+
+
+"Dirt is matter out of place," quoted Uncle Harry, in one of his
+erratic epistles which Jack and Jill always read with interest if not
+profit. "When you find anything that seems unclean or offensive in any
+part of your house, remember this: the fault is not in the thing
+itself, but in your ignorant or thoughtless management. There isn't a
+material thing in the universe, whatever its name or characteristic
+qualities maybe; not a flaunting weed nor an unseen miasmatic vapor,
+which is not created for some good and wise purpose. It is for us to
+learn those purposes. The grand secret of safe and comfortable living
+lies in keeping yourself and everything about you in the right place. I
+hear much of the dangers and annoyances that arise from modern
+plumbing. I am not surprised by them; on the contrary, I wonder they
+are not more numerous and fatal, since nothing is more inconsistent
+with the first principles of comfort and health than our relations to
+these 'modern conveniences.' Instead of disposing of what are
+incorrectly called waste materials according to nature's modes, we
+persist in defying her examples and her laws, even after we fully
+understand them, and, in the vain hope of adding to our own case,
+bring upon ourselves untold calamities. 'Earth to earth' is a mandate
+that cannot be disregarded with impunity. The infinite laboratories of
+nature welcome to their crucibles all the strange and awful elements
+which we fail to comprehend and against which we wage a futile warfare.
+If all these miscalled 'wastes' that we find so hurtful and offensive
+when out of place in and around our homes could be consigned to the
+bosom of mother earth the moment they seem to us worthless, they would
+be at once changed to life-giving forces, out of which forms of
+freshness and beauty would arise to fill us with delight. They are
+willing to serve us whenever we give them an opportunity. The one
+direct and infallible mode of doing that is to put them in the ground
+before they have a chance to work us injury. If we bury them, or,
+rather, plant them, they will bring forth, some thirty, some sixty,
+some an hundredfold.
+
+[Illustration: NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES.]
+
+"It is my impression that sewers were originally invented by the Evil
+one. He couldn't drag men down to his dominions fast enough, so he
+moved a portion of his estate to this planet, and lest its true
+character should be discovered, buried it under paved streets and
+flowery parks. We might easily and quietly put these crude materials
+into convenient receptacles, to be carried where they will bless the
+world by making two ears of corn grow where one grew before. This we
+could do, each one for ourselves, or more advantageously by cooperating
+with one another. We are too wasteful, too indolent, too ignorant.
+Tempted by the invisible sewers we imprison these misplaced and
+inharmonious elements for a time in lead or iron pipes, while they grow
+more hostile, occasionally escaping by violence or stealth into our
+chambers, and then with many nice contrivances and much perishable
+machinery we try to wash them away with a bucket of water. Not to carry
+them where they will do any good, not to put them out of existence, but
+simply to hide them: to send them out of our immediate sight, and very
+likely into some greater mischief. The system is radically wrong, and
+while many of its existing evils may be averted, they cannot all be
+removed till we make our attacks from a different base. Improving
+sewers, like strengthening prison walls, is a good thing if the
+institutions remain; to prevent the need of maintaining them would be
+better still. Three-fourths of the solid wastes that proceed from
+human dwellings--scraps of food, waste paper, worthless vegetables,
+worn-out utensils, bones, weeds, old boots and shoes, whatever
+unmanageable and unnamable rubbish appears--ought to be at once
+consumed by fire, for which purpose a small cremating furnace should be
+found in every house. A similar trial by fire would reduce a large part
+of the liquids and semi-liquids to solid form to be also consumed, and
+the rest, absorbed by dry earth or ashes, could easily be transported
+to the barren fields that await the intelligence and power of man to
+transform them into blooming gardens.
+
+"Of the usual modes of bringing water to our houses to wash away these
+things I know but little, because there is but little to be known.
+Complications and mysteries are not to my taste. I find no satisfaction
+in overthrowing a man of straw, and am comparatively indifferent to the
+rival claims of patentees and manufacturers, except as they promise
+good material, faithful workmanship and moderate prices.
+
+"The one thing needful, if we adopt the hydraulic method of carrying
+away these waste substances, is a smooth cast-iron pipe running from
+the ground outside the house in through the lower part and up and out
+through the roof. It should be open at both ends, and so free from
+obstruction that a cat, a chimney-swallow or a summer breeze could pass
+through it without difficulty. I would, however, put screens over the
+open ends to keep out the cats and the swallows. The purifying breezes
+should blow through in summer and winter without let or hindrance, and
+to promote their circulation I would, if possible, place the pipe
+beside a warm chimney. Yet if the air it contains should sometimes move
+downward it will do no special harm; anything is better than
+stagnation. Into this open pipe, which should be not only water-tight
+but air-tight through its entire length, all waste-pipes from the house
+should empty as turbid mountain torrents pour into the larger stream
+that flows through the valley. (Fig. 1.) Now, unless the upward draught
+through this large pipe is constant and strong, you will see at once
+that the air contained in it (which we must treat as though it were
+always poisonous) would be liable to come up through these branches
+into the rooms, where they stand with open mouths ready to swallow
+whatever is poured into them. It is necessary, therefore, to build
+dams across them that will allow water to go down but prevent air from
+going up. These dams are called 'traps.' They are intended to catch
+only hurtful elements that might seek to intrude. It often happens that
+those who set them get caught, for they are not infallible. Whatever
+the form or patent assumed by these water-dams, they amount to a bend
+in the pipe rilled with water. (Fig. 2.) Sometimes a ball or other form
+of valve is used, but the water is the mainstay.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
+
+"Theoretically, this is the whole machinery of safe, 'sanitary'
+plumbing: A large open pipe kept as clean and free as possible, into
+which the smaller drains empty, these smaller drains or waste-pipes
+having their mouths always full, and being able, so to speak, to
+swallow in but one direction. Everything can go down; nothing can come
+up. That all these pipes shall be of sound material, not liable to
+corrosion; that the different pieces of which they are composed shall
+be tightly joined; that they shall be so firmly supported that they
+will not bend or break by their own weight, or through the changes of
+temperature to which they are subject, and that they shall be, if not
+always in plain sight, at most only hidden by some covering easily
+removed, are points which the commonest kind of common sense would not
+fail to observe.
+
+"Practically, there are weak spots in the system, even if plumbers were
+always as honest as George Washington---before he became a man, and as
+wise as Solomon--before he became discouraged. A water barricade,
+unless it is as wide as the English Channel, is not a safeguard against
+dangerous invasion. A slight pressure of air, as every boy blowing soap
+bubbles can show you, will force a way through a basin full, and the
+same thing would happen if there should chance to be a backward current
+of air through these pipes, with this difference, that while the soap
+bubbles are harmless beauties, these may be filled with the germs of
+direful diseases. Still another danger to which this light water-seal
+is exposed is that a downward rush of water may cause a vacuum in the
+small pipes, somewhat as the exhaust steam operates the air-brakes, and
+empty the trap, leaving merely an open crooked pipe. Both these weak
+points may be strengthened by a breathing hole in the highest part of
+the small pipe below the trap. This must, of course, have a ventilating
+pipe of its own, which, to be always effectual, should be as large as
+the waste-pipe itself. (Fig. 3.)
+
+[Illustration: Fig 3.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig 4]
+
+"Now, if the water that fills these traps and stops the open mouths of
+the drains were always clean, there would be no further trouble from
+this source. Unfortunately it is not; and although constant
+watchfulness might keep it so, the safety that only comes from eternal
+vigilance is an uncomfortable sort of safety--if we have too much of
+it life becomes a burden. This particular ill might be remedied by some
+contrivance whereby the upper ends of the waste-pipes should be
+effectually corked--not simply covered, but _corked_ as tightly as a
+bottle of beer--at all times except when in actual use. This would
+doubtless be more troublesome, but indolence is at the bottom of most
+of our woes: our labor-saving contrivances bring upon us our worst
+calamities. Even this thorough closing of the outlet of washbasins and
+bath-tubs, as they are usually made, would be of little avail, for they
+are furnished with an 'overflow' (Fig. 4), through which exhalations
+from the trap would rise, however tightly the outlet might be sealed.
+It is also customary and doubtless wise, considering our habit of doing
+things so imperfectly the first time that we have no confidence in
+their stability, to place large basins of sheet-lead under all plumbing
+articles, lest from some cause they should 'spring a leak' and damage
+the floors or ceilings below them. One strong safeguard being better
+than two weak ones, I would dispense with the 'overflow' and arrange so
+that when anything ran over accidentally the lead basin or 'safe'
+should catch the water and carry it through an ample waste-pipe of its
+own to some inoffensive outlet. This would perhaps involve setting the
+plumbing articles in the most simple and open fashion--which ought
+always to be done. 'Cabinets,' cupboards, casings and wood finish, no
+matter how full of conveniences, or how elegantly made, are worse than
+useless in connection with plumbing fixtures, which, for all reasons,
+should stand forth in absolute nakedness. They must be so strongly and
+simply made that no concealment will be necessary.
+
+"One more danger closes the list, so far as the system is concerned.
+Even if the water in the traps is clean and inoffensive it will
+evaporate quickly in warm weather, and then the prison door is open
+again. This adds another vigil which we can never lay aside if we must
+have plumbing and water traps. The burden may be somewhat
+lightened--since we are prone to forgetfulness as stones to fall
+downward--by using traps made of glass and leaving them in plain sight.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
+
+"I conclusion, I wish to remind you that the lower end of the main
+drain must be protected from the iniquity of the sewer or cesspool to
+which it runs by another trap, or dam, just below the open pipe that
+admits fresh air from outside the house (Fig. 5), and also, as I have
+before remarked, that the system is wrong. The rising tide of
+civilization will some time wash it all away."
+
+"Uncle Harry's notion of reform," said Jack, after the long letter had
+been read, "seems to be to blow the universe to pieces and then put it
+together again on a new and improved plan. It strikes me we had better
+fight it out on this line and try to straighten the evils we know
+something about rather than invent new ones. If we had begun on that
+track and tried to utilize the waste materials on strictly economical
+principles, perhaps by this time our methods and machinery would have
+been so far perfected that the real or imaginary evils of modern
+plumbing would not have existed. It seems a pity to throw away all we
+have accomplished and begin again."
+
+"That is a part of the price paid for progress," said Jill. "Stage
+coaches are useless when steam appears, and locomotives must go to the
+junk shop when electricity is ready to be harnessed. But I'm afraid we
+cannot afford to be pioneers, and I'm sure the neighbors are not ready
+to co-operate. We must still 'go by water,' and the important question
+is where to send the lower end of the main drain. There is no sewer in
+the street, and a cesspool is an atrocity worthy of the darkest ages.
+The only safe thing appears to be the sub-surface irrigation plan, for
+which, fortunately, there is plenty of room on our lot. This comes very
+near to Uncle Harry's notion of 'earth to earth' in the quickest time
+possible. If we do it and accept the architect's suggestion in the plan
+of the house we shall be reasonably safe from that most mysterious of
+all modern foes--sewer-gas."
+
+"I've forgotten the architect's suggestions; in fact, I don't believe
+my head is quite equal to housebuilding with all the latest notions.
+When _my_ house was built I just told the carpenter to get up something
+stylish and good, about like Judge Gainsboro's. He showed me the plans,
+I signed the contract, and that was the whole of it. I supposed a house
+was a house. Now, before the new house is begun, I'm like Dick
+Whittington in the days of his poverty--I've no peace by day or night."
+
+"Poor fellow!"
+
+"I shudder to think what it will he when the house is fairly under way.
+I can see five hundred different things at once, but when each one has
+five hundred sides and we get up into the hundred thousands, I begin to
+feel dizzy. Uncle Harry has settled the plumbing question to his own
+satisfaction, so far as first principles are concerned; but who will
+tell us what kind of pipes and trimmings and bowls and basins and traps
+and plugs and stops and pedals and pulls and cranks and pistons and
+plungers and hooks and staples and couplings and brakes and chains and
+pans and basins and tanks and floats and buoys and strainers and safes
+and bibbs and tuckers we are to adopt? If I should consume midnight oil
+during a full four years' course at a college for plumbers I should
+still find myself just upon the threshold of the temple of knowledge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+SAFE FLUES AND MORE LIGHT.
+
+
+By a tender but vigorous application of the remedies usual in such
+cases, Jack was speedily restored to his wonted equanimity, and Jill,
+laying Uncle Harry aside, took up the architect's suggestions
+concerning the plumbing, which referred rather to its relations to the
+plan of the house than to the details of the work itself.
+
+"A bath-room, with all the plumbing articles it usually contains, must
+possess at least three special characteristics. It must be easily
+warmed in cold weather, otherwise the annual bill for repairs will be
+greater than the cost of coal for the whole house; its walls, floors
+and ceilings must be impervious to sound. The music of murmuring brooks
+is delightful to our ears, so is the patter of the soft rain on the
+roof; but the splashing of water in a, bath-tub and the gurgling of
+unseen water-pipes are not pleasant accompaniments to a dinner-table
+conversation. Thirdly, it must be perfectly ventilated--not the
+drainpipes merely,--but the room itself in summer and in winter. Two of
+the above conditions can best be secured by arranging to have this
+important room placed in a detached or semi-detached wing; and here
+begin the compromises between convenience, cost and safety. It is
+convenient to have a bath-room attached to every chamber, and there is
+no doubt that this may be done with entire safety, provided you do not
+regard the cost. In your plan I have adopted the middle course. There
+is one bath-room for all the chambers of the second floor, not too
+remote but somewhat retired, and having no communication with any other
+room. It is ventilated by a large open flue carried up directly through
+the roof; it has also an outside window and inlets for fresh air near
+the floor. All the walls and partitions around it will be double and
+filled with mineral wool, and the floors will be deafened. The 'house
+side' of the water-closet traps will have three-inch iron pipes running
+to the ventilating flue beside the kitchen-chimney, a flue that will
+always be warm, and therefore certain to give a strong upward draught
+at all times, which cannot be said of any other flue in the house, not
+even of the main drain, or soil-pipe, which passes up through the roof.
+It would be easy to keep other flues warmed in cold weather by
+steam-pipes, but in summer you will have no steam for heating purposes.
+A 'circulation-pipe' might be attached to a boiler on the kitchen range
+for this purpose, but in the present case such a contrivance would cost
+more than the iron pipe carried from the bath-room to the flue that is
+warmed by the kitchen fire. A good way to build this ventilating flue
+is to inclose the smoke-pipe from the range, which may be of iron or
+glazed earthen pipe, in a larger brick flue or chamber (Fig. 1),
+keeping it in place by bars of iron laid into the masonry. The rising
+current of warm air around the heated smoke-pipe will be as constant
+and reliable as the trade winds. It will be well, indeed, if all your
+chimneys are made in a similar manner; that is, by enclosing
+hard-burned glazed pipe in a thin wall of bricks. Such chimneys will
+not only draw better than those made in the usual way, but there will
+be less danger from 'defective flues.' A four-inch wall of bricks
+between us and destruction by fire is a frail barrier, especially if
+the work is carelessly done or the mortar has crumbled from the joints.
+To build the chimneys with double or eight-inch walls makes them very
+large, more expensive, and still not as good as when they contain the
+smooth round flues. To leave an air-chamber beside or between them for
+ventilating (Fig. 2), is better than to open directly into the
+smoke-flue, because it will not impair the draught for the fire, and
+there will be no danger of a sooty odor in the room when the
+circulation happens to be downward, as it will be occasionally. The
+outside chimney, if there is one, should have an extra air-chamber
+between the very outer wall and the back of the fireplace to save heat
+(Fig. 3), a precaution that removes to a great extent the common
+objection to such chimneys. Whatever else you do, let these 'windpipes
+of good hospitalitie' have all the room they need. I shall not
+willingly carry them off by any devious way to be hidden in an obscure
+corner or dark closet, nor yet to give them a more respectable and
+well-balanced position on the roof. Like the wild forest trees they
+shall grow straight up toward heaven from the spot where they are first
+planted. If we happen to want a window where the chimney stands in an
+outer wall we will make one between the flues, as one might build a hut
+in the huge branches of a mighty oak. It isn't the best place for the
+window or the hut, but circumstances may justify it; as, for instance,
+when we must have the outlook in a certain direction, but cannot spare
+the wall-space for a window beside the chimney. The jambs beside a
+window so situated will be very wide, and you may, if you please,
+extend the view of the landscape indefinitely by setting two mirrors
+_vis-a-vis_ in the opening at either side. This will also send the
+sunshine into the room after the sun has passed by the other windows
+on the same side of the house. It is rather a pretty fancy, too, when
+the outside view does not require a clear window, to set a picture in
+colored glass above the mantel, and the same thins: may be arranged in
+the sideboard, if it happens to stand against the outer wall. These are
+_fancies_, however, which lose their beauty and fitness unless they
+seem to have been spontaneously produced. There should be no apparent
+striving for effect."
+
+[Illustration: SAFE AND SAVING FLUES.]
+
+[Illustration: SAFE AND SAVING FLUES.]
+
+[Illustration: A PICTURE IN GLASS OVER THE FIREPLACE.]
+
+"I like the idea of setting mirrors in the deep window-jambs, whether
+they are in the chimney or out of it," said Jill. "If I was obliged to
+live in a room where the sun never shone of its own accord, I would set
+a trap for it baited with large mirrors fixed on some sort of a
+windlass in a way to send the sunshine straight into my windows."
+
+"Capital! You could do that easily, and if you wanted a green-house on
+the north side it would only be necessary to set up a few
+looking-glasses to pour a blazing sun upon it all day long. You might
+need a little clockwork to keep them adjusted at the right angles, but
+Yankee invention ought to be equal to that. I have no doubt we shall
+see patent sunshine-distributors in the market very shortly if your
+idea gets abroad; in fact, I shouldn't be surprised to hear that a
+company proposed to set up mammoth reflectors to keep the sun from
+setting at all until he drops into the Pacific Ocean."
+
+[Illustration: GLASS OF MANY COLORS, SHAPES AND SIZES.]
+
+"Well, you may laugh at my invention; I shall surely try it when I am
+obliged to live in a house that does not get sunlight in the regular
+way. As for the stained glass picture over the chimney-piece, I should
+like it for the bright color and because the lamps would make it so
+charming from the street outside. I shall also want colored glass in
+the upper part of the bay windows. The architect says we can have it
+and still keep the lower panes clear and large. He sends some sketches
+by way of suggestion, and thinks we may use it in the lower part of
+some of the windows to conceal a window-seat or other furniture. I
+should prefer screens of some other kind in such places, keeping the
+stained glass up where it would show against the sky. He says this
+colored glass is not necessarily expensive; that it may be set in
+common wood-sash or in lead-sash, as we please, and that it will not
+affect the usual opening and closing of the windows. He advises
+plate-glass for the larger lights, if we can afford it, not because it
+gives the house a more elegant appearance, though that is not a wholly
+unworthy motive, but because a beautiful landscape is so much more
+beautiful when it can be plainly seen. The instinct that prompts us to
+throw the window wide open in order to get a more satisfactory view is
+an unanswerable argument in favor of large, clear lights of glass for
+windows intended for outlooks."
+
+"And here is an illustration right before us," said Jack. "I am
+impelled by a powerful impulse to open the window and see if I can
+recognize the lady driving up the street. It wouldn't be good manners,
+but I wish the window was plate-glass."
+
+To Jack's astonishment, however, Jill threw open the window and waved
+her handkerchief in cordial salutation as Aunt Jerusha drove slowly up
+to the house. "Doing her own work" for half a century had not rendered
+her incapable of taking and enjoying a carriage ride of fifteen miles
+alone to visit her niece.
+
+Like all wise people who are able to give advice, Aunt Jerusha offered
+none until it was asked, and then gave only in small doses. She had
+never seen the house that Jack built, but had heard much of it from the
+friends and relatives who had never underrated Jill's obstinacy in
+refusing to accept it as a permanent home.
+
+"I almost wonder at you, Jill, for being so set against it. I'm sure
+it's a fine house and cost a good deal of money. There must be some
+drawback that doesn't show. I hope It isn't haunted."
+
+"That's it, Aunt Jerusha; it's haunted. Several uncomfortable demons
+have taken possession of it and Jill isn't able to exorcise them. It
+was a great grief to me at first, and I made a bargain with Jill to
+keep still about them, but it is an open secret now and she may tell
+you everything."
+
+[Illustration: SHELVES IN THE MIDDLE, CUPBOARDS ABOVE AND BELOW.]
+
+"Very well. I can easily explain the mystery. The mischief began with
+the evil spirits of Ignorance and Incompetence. The carpenter who
+planned the house knew nothing about our tastes or needs, and the
+builder was unable to make a comfortable flight of stairs, safe
+chimneys, smooth floors or tight windows. After these two came another
+pair, worse than the first--Ostentation and Avarice. They tried to make
+a grand display and at the same time a large profit on the job. How
+can I exorcise such demons as these except by tearing down the house?"
+
+"Couldn't you sell it, dear? What seem demons to you might appear like
+angels of light to some one else," said Aunt Jerusha.
+
+"You are an angel of light to me, Aunt Jerusha," said Jack. "But I
+might have known you would stand up for my house."
+
+"Aunt Jerusha, there isn't a closet in the whole establishment," said
+Jill, solemnly, knowing that defect to be an architectural sin which
+even her aunt's broad charity would fail to cover.
+
+"Oh, Jill! where have you laid your conscience? I can't stay to hear my
+house abused. Please show Aunt Jerusha the pantry and the china-closet
+and I will flee to the office."
+
+"Why, yes, to be sure you have a very nice buttery and china-cupboard."
+
+"I meant good, generous closets for the chambers. Of course there's a
+pantry, but I don't think the arrangement of shelves, drawers and
+cupboards is very convenient."
+
+"It seems very liberal."
+
+"Yes, but would you advise me to have the pantry in the new house like
+it?"
+
+"Well, no, dear; since you asked me, I wouldn't. It is possible to have
+too many conveniences even in a pantry. It is a good plan to have a few
+cupboards to keep some things from the dust and others from the light,
+but most of our raw materials now-a-days come in tight boxes or cans,
+and I find them more handy standing on the shelves than shut up in
+drawers. I don't suppose it would be so in your case, dear, but a
+drawer sometimes hides very slovenly habits. It is so easy to drop an
+untidy thing into a drawer and shove it out of sight. These large
+wooden boxes, all built in with their covers and handles, look nice and
+handy, but it's hard to clean them out. I would rather have good wide
+shelves and light movable tin boxes like those used in the groceries.
+You could buy them, I suppose, but I had mine made at the tin-shop to
+fit the shelves. I can take them out and wash them any time, and they
+never get musty, as wooden boxes will, even with the best of care. But
+you mustn't be biased by my old-fashioned notions."
+
+"I think they are very good notions if they are old-fashioned. If we
+have cupboards inside the pantry, drawers inside the cupboards, and
+boxes and cases inside the drawers, finding the spices is like opening
+a nest of. Chinese puzzles. A mechanic would never hide the tools in
+his workshop in that way."
+
+"How do you reach the upper shelves?"
+
+"I never reach them, and all that room is wasted. It is worse than
+wasted. It is a reservoir for dust and cobwebs."
+
+"Wouldn't it be well, dear, if all the upper part was made into
+cupboards for things seldom used?"
+
+"Indeed it would. I think I will have the new pantry made something
+like this: low cupboards next to the floor, for things that; need to be
+shut up and yet must be handy; on the top of these, which will be not
+quite three feet high, a very wide shelf; over this several open
+shelves, as high as I can easily reach; and above the shelves, filling
+the space to the ceiling, short cupboards entirely around the room for
+cracked dishes that are too good to throw away, but are never used: for
+ice-cream freezers in the winter, and a great many more things that
+belong to the same category--a sort of hospital for disabled or retired
+culinary utensils. Now we will look at the china closet, but we shall
+need the gas in order to see it in all its glory, and you can tell Jack
+it is lovely with a clear conscience."
+
+"I never speak without a clear conscience," said Aunt Jerusha mildly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A DANGEROUS RIVAL.
+
+
+"Dear me," said Aunt Jerusha, as Jill, after displaying the kitchen
+pantry, showed her the windowless china closet, elegant with varnished
+walnut, plate-glass and silver-plated plumbing, "dear me, this is as
+fine as a parlor. It seems a real pity to keep it all out of sight."
+
+"The pity is that it was made so fine. I should not object to polished
+walnut in a light room, although cherry, birch or some other
+fine-grained, hard, light-colored wood is preferable; but all this
+ornamental work, these mouldings, cornices and carved handles are worse
+than useless--they are ugly and troublesome. If I can have my own
+way--I'm glad Jack isn't here to make comments--I shall have every part
+of the new pantries as plain and smooth as a marble slab, with not a
+groove or a moulding to hold dust, and never a crack nor a crevice in
+which the tiniest spider can hide. The shelves will be thin, light and
+strong; some wide and some narrow; a wineglass doesn't need as much
+room as a soup tureen; the cupboard doors shall be as plain as doors
+can be made, and shall _not_ be hung like these, to swing out against
+each other at the constant risk of breaking the glass and of pushing
+something from the narrow shelf in front of them. They ought to slide,
+one before another, and the front shelf should be wide enough to hold
+_lots_ of things when they are handed down from the upper part of the
+cupboards."
+
+"I'm sure the little sink must be handy," said Aunt Jerusha, amiably
+looking for merits where Jill saw only defects.
+
+"It might be if there was room enough at each side for drainers and for
+dishes to stand before and after washing. I don't wonder that Jack's
+china is 'nicked' till the edges look like saw teeth; glass and fine
+crockery can't be piled up into pyramids even by the most experienced
+builders without serious damage to the edges. There ought to be four
+times as much space at each side."
+
+"I suppose there wasn't quite room enough."
+
+"There was _always_ room enough. There's enough now outside, and would
+have been inside, if the house had been well planned," said Jill rather
+sharply.
+
+"These are proper, nice, large drawers."
+
+"They are too nice and too large. Even when they are but half full I
+have to tumble their contents all over to find any particular thing,
+unless it lies on top. Some drawers ought to be large and some small,
+but I don't believe there ever was a man," said Jill vehemently, "who
+knew enough to arrange the small comforts and conveniences for
+housekeeping. Every day I am exasperated by something which Jack never
+so much as noticed. When I explain it he laughs and says it is
+fortunate we have so good an opportunity for learning what to avoid,
+and all the time I am certain he thinks there will be a great many more
+faults in the new house. If there are I shall be sorry it is
+fire-proof."
+
+[Illustration: "THE OAKS."]
+
+"Why, Jill, my dear, don't be rash! That doesn't sound like you. You
+mustn't set your heart on having things exactly to suit you in this
+world. I've lived a great many years, and a good many times I find it
+easier to bring my mind to things as they are than it is to make
+everything come just to my mind. I've seen plenty of women wear
+themselves out for want of things to do with, and I've seen other women
+break down from having too many; trying to keep up with all the modern
+fashions and conveniences, and to manage their houses with the same
+kind of regularity--'system' they call it--that men use in carrying on
+a manufacturing business."
+
+"Well, why shouldn't they, Aunt 'Rusha?"
+
+"I'll tell you why, my dear. A business man has a certain, single,
+definite thing to do or to make. Every day's work is very much like
+that of the day before. He may try to improve gradually, but, in the
+main, it is the same thing over and over again. Our home life ought not
+to be like that. A man ought not to be merely an engine or a cash-book;
+a woman ought to be something more than a dummy or a fashion-plate; our
+children should not be like so many spools of thread or suits of
+clothes, turned in the same lathe, spun to the same yarn, and cut
+according to the same pattern and rule. I'm sure I could never have
+done my work and brought up six children without some sort of a
+system, or if your uncle had been a bad provider. But I never could
+have got on as well as I have if I had given all my mind to keeping
+things in order and learning how to use new-fashioned labor-saving
+contrivances. There's nothing more honorable for womankind," said Aunt
+Jerusha, as she rolled up her knitting and prepared to set out on her
+homeward ride, "than housework, but it ain't the chief end of woman,
+and unless your house is something more than a workshop or a showcase,
+it will always be a good deal less than a home."
+
+Jill hardly needed this parting admonition, but listened to it and to
+much more good advice with the respect due to one who, for nearly half
+a century, had looked well to the ways of her household, whose helping
+hands were always outstretched to the poor and needy, whose children
+rose up and called her blessed, and whose husband had never ceased to
+praise her. After her departure her niece indulged in a short season of
+solemn reflection, striving faithfully to attain to that wisdom which
+always knows when to protest against existing circumstances and when to
+accept them with equanimity. Ultimately she reached the conclusion
+that, while the house that Jack built might indeed be a thoroughly
+comfortable home to one who had a contented mind, it was really her
+duty in her probationary housekeeping to be as critical as possible.
+
+Among other things the doors came in for a share of her usually amiable
+denunciation. She declared they were huge and heavy enough in
+appearance for prison cells, yet so loosely put together that their
+prolonged existence seemed to be a question of glue. They were swollen
+in the damp, warm weather till they refused to _be_ shut, and would
+doubtless shrink so much under the influence of furnace heat in the
+winter that they would refuse to _stay_ shut. The closet doors swung
+against the windows, excluding instead of admitting the light. The
+doors of the chambers opened squarely upon the beds, and there seemed
+to have been no thought of convenient wall spaces for pictures and
+furniture.
+
+[Illustration: OUTSIDE BARRIERS.]
+
+The architect's theory of doors, as expounded in one of his letters,
+was simple enough: "Outside doors are barricades; they should be solid
+and strong in fact and in appearance. Inner doors, from room to room,
+require no special strength; they should turn whichever way gives the
+freest passage and throws them most out of the way when they are open.
+Seclusion for the inmates is the chief service of chamber doors, and
+they should be placed and hung so as _not_ to give a direct glimpse
+across the bed or into the room the moment they are set even slightly
+ajar. Closet doors are screens simply, and ought to hide the interior
+of the closet when they are partially open, as well as when they are
+closed. They may be as light as it is possible to make them. In many
+houses one-half the doors might wisely be sent to the auction-room and
+the proceeds invested in portieres, which are often far more suitable
+and convenient than solid doors, especially for chamber closets, for
+dressing-rooms, or other apartments communicating in suites, and not
+infrequently a heavy curtain is an ample barrier between the principal
+rooms. It may be well to supplement them, with light sliding doors, to
+be used in an emergency, but which being rarely seen, may be
+exceedingly simple and inexpensive, having no resemblance to the rest
+of the finish in the room. For that matter such conformity is not
+required of any of the doors, though it is reckoned by builders as one
+of the cardinal points in hard-wood finish that veneered doors must
+'match' the finish of the rooms in which they show. This is absurd.
+Doors are under no such obligations. They may be of any sort of wood,
+metal or fabric. They may be veneered, carved, gilded, ebonized,
+painted, stained or 'decorated.' To finish and furnish a room entirely
+with one kind of wood, making the wainscot, architraves, cornices,
+doors and mantels, the chairs, tables, piano, bookcase, or sideboard,
+all of mahogany, oak, or whatever may be chosen--the floors, too,
+perhaps, and the picture frames--is strictly orthodox and eminently
+respectable; but like the invariable use of 'low tones' in decorating
+walls and ceilings, it betrays a sort of helplessness and lack of
+courage. Discords in sound, color and form are, indeed, always hateful,
+and they are sure to be produced when ignorance or accident strikes the
+keys. Yet, on the other hand, neutrality and monotone are desperately
+tedious, and it is better to strive and fail than to be hopelessly
+commonplace."
+
+[Illustration: INSIDE BARRIERS.]
+
+[Illustration: COMMON UGLINESS.]
+
+[Illustration: SIMPLE GRACE.]
+
+This advice concerned not the doors alone, but referred to other
+queries that had been raised as to the interior finish generally.
+
+One evening Jack came home and found Jill "in the dumps," or as near as
+she ever came to that unhappy state of mind, the consequence, as it
+appeared, of Aunt Melville's zeal in her behalf.
+
+"Why should these plans worry you?" said Jack. "I thought common sense
+was your armor and decision your shield against Aunt Melville's erratic
+arrows of advice."
+
+"My armor is intact, but, for a moment, I have lowered my shield and it
+has cost me an effort to raise it again, I supposed my mind was fixed
+beyond the possibility of change, but this is a wonderfully taking
+plan. At first I felt that if our lot had not been bought and the
+foundation actually begun we would certainly begin anew and have a
+house something like these plans. Then it occurred to me that in
+building a house that is to be our home as long as we live, perhaps,
+it would be the height of absurdity to tie ourselves down to one little
+spot on the broad face of this great, beautiful world and live in a
+house that will never be satisfactory, just because we happen to have
+this bit of land in our possession and have spent upon it a few hundred
+dollars."
+
+"Sensible, as usual. What next?"
+
+"Well, this last and best discovery of Aunt Melville's was undoubtedly
+made like our own plan to fit a particular site, and it seems beginning
+at the wrong end to arrange the house first and then try to find a lot
+to suit it."
+
+"I don't see it in that light," said Jack. "I know the architect has
+been preaching the importance of adapting the plan to the lot, but if
+two thousand dollars are going into the land and eight thousand into
+the house, I should say the house is entitled to the first choice."
+
+"Certainly, if it was a city lot, with no character of its own, a mere
+rectangular piece of land shut in upon three sides and open at one. But
+ours has certain strong points not to be found in any other unoccupied
+lot in town. Besides, there are other reasons why it would not answer
+for us; but _if_ our lot was right for it, and _if_ we wanted so large
+a house, _how_ I should enjoy building it!"
+
+"I don't see anything so very remarkable about the plan," said Jack,
+taking up the drawings.
+
+"My dear, short-sighted husband," said Jill with the utmost
+impressiveness of tone and manner, "it is a _one-story house_. 'There
+shall be no more stairs' sounds almost as delightful as the scriptural
+promise of no more sea. And look at the plan itself: The great square
+vestibule, or reception-room, with the office at one side--wouldn't
+you enjoy that, Jack?--then a few steps higher the big keeping-room,
+with a huge fireplace confronting you, and room enough for--anything.
+For games, for dancing, for a billiard table, for a grand piano, for a
+hammock--or--"
+
+"Say a sewing machine, a spinning-wheel or something useful."
+
+"Anything you like, a studio or a picture gallery, for it is twice as
+high as the other rooms, and lighted from the roof. At the right of
+this, and with such a great wide door between them that they seem like
+two parts of the same room, is the sitting-room, with another great
+fireplace in the corner, bay window and a conservatory fronting the
+wide entrance to the dining-room, at the farther end of which there is
+still another grand fireplace, with a stained-glass window above it.
+These three rooms--four, if we count the conservatory--are just as near
+perfection as possible. Then see the long line of chambers, closets and
+dressing-rooms running around the south and east sides, every one with
+a southern window, and all communicating with the corridor that leads
+from the keeping-room, yet sufficiently united to form a complete
+family suite. The first floor--I mean the _one_ floor--is five or six
+feet from the ground, so there can be no dampness in the rooms--and
+just think what a cellar! Altogether too much for us."
+
+"Indeed, there isn't. I'd have a bowling alley, a skating rink, a
+machine shop, a tennis court, and--a rifle range. Yes, it _is_ a taking
+plan, but there are two things that I don't understand. How can you
+cover such a big box, and where is the cooking to be done?"
+
+[Illustration: FIRST FLOOR PLAN OF "THE OAKS."]
+
+"The old rule of two negatives applies. Even a one-story house must
+have a roof, and the breadth of this makes a roof large enough to hold
+not only the kitchen but the servants' room on the same upper level."
+
+"A kitchen up stairs!" exclaimed Jack, for once startled into
+solemnity.
+
+"Aunt Melville considers this the crowning glory of the plan. Owing to
+this elevation of the cooking range there is no back door, no back
+yard, no chance for an uncouth or an unsightly precinct at either side
+of the house."
+
+"That would be something worth living for. I think, Jill, we had better
+examine these plans a little farther."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A NEW WAY OF GETTING UP STAIRS AND A NEW MISSIONARY FIELD.
+
+
+"The question of getting up stairs," said Jack, as they continued the
+study of the one-story plan, "is at least an interesting one. It seems
+to be accepted as a foregone conclusion that modern dwelling houses,
+even in the country, where the cost of the land actually covered by the
+house is of no consequence, must be two stories at least above the
+basement; but I doubt whether this principle in the evolution of
+domestic habitations is well established. Between the aboriginal
+wigwam, whose first and only floor is the bare earth itself, and the
+'high-basement-four-story-and-French-roof' style, there is somewhere
+the happy medium which our blessed posterity--blessed in having had
+such wise ancestors--will universally adopt as the fittest survivor of
+our uncounted fashions. I fancy it will be much nearer to this
+one-story house, with the high basement and big attic, than to the
+seven-story mansard with sub-cellar for fuel and furnace. Still the
+tendency during the last fifty years has been upward. Our grandfathers
+preferred to sleep on the ground floor; _we_ should expect to be
+carried off by burglars or malaria if we ventured to close our eyes
+within ten feet of the ground. Our city cousins like to be two or
+three times as high. Under these circumstances building a one-story
+house would be likely to prove a flying-not in the face of Providence,
+but, what is reckoned more dangerous and discreditable--flying in the
+face of custom. Humility isn't popular in the matter of
+house-building."
+
+"I am not afraid of custom, and have no objection to a reasonable
+humility," said Jill, "but I never once thought of burglars. If a house
+has but one floor I think it should be so for from the ground as to be
+practically a 'second' floor. The main point is to have all the family
+rooms on one level."
+
+"That is, a 'flat.'"
+
+"Yes, one flat; not a pile of flats one above another, as they are
+built in cities, but one large flat raised high enough to be entirely
+removed from the moisture of the ground, to give a pleasant sense of
+security from outside intrusion and to afford convenient outlooks from
+the windows. One or two guest rooms, that are not often used, might be
+on a second floor, under the roof, if there was space enough."
+
+"But this plan has the servants' chambers, the kitchen and the store
+closets all in the roof. Isn't that rather overdoing the matter?"
+
+"Better in the attic than in the basement. It is light, dry and 'airy.'
+There is no danger that the odors of cooking will come down, and as for
+the extra trouble, a well-arranged elevator will take supplies from the
+basement up twenty feet to the level of the kitchen, store-rooms and
+pantries as easily as they could be taken the usual distances
+horizontally. In brief, a kitchen above the dining-room is at worst no
+more 'inconvenient' than below it. Of course, there must be stairs even
+in a one-story house, but they would not be in constant use. Instead of
+living edgewise, so to speak, we should be spread out flatwise. We
+could climb when we chose, but should not of necessity be forever
+climbing. Yes, I like this plan exceedingly, not alone for its one
+principal floor, but I have always had a fancy for the 'rotunda'
+arrangement--one large central apartment for any and all purposes, out
+of which the rooms for more special and private uses should open.
+Indeed, I don't see how a very large house can be built in any other
+way without leaving a considerable part of the interior as useless for
+domestic as Central Africa is for political purposes. With _this_
+arrangement the central keeping-room, lighted from above, may be as
+large as a circus tent, and all the surrounding cells will be amply
+supplied with light and air from the outside walls.
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARD SUNSET.]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR THE TURNING-POINT.]
+
+"According to Aunt Melville's enthusiastic account, the construction of
+the house is but little less than marvelous. 'The high walls of the
+basement are built of those native, weather-stained and lichen-covered
+boulders, the walls above being of a material hitherto unknown to
+builders. You will scarcely believe it when I tell you they are nothing
+else than the waste rubbish from brickyards, the rejected accumulations
+of years--not by any means the unburned, but the overburned, the hard,
+flinty, molten, misshapen and highly-colored masses of burned clay
+which indeed refused to be consumed, but have been twisted into
+shapeless blocks by the fervent heat. Of course, with such
+unconventional materials for the main walls it would be a silly
+affectation to embellish the exterior of the house with elaborate
+mouldings or ornamental wood-work, and the visible details are
+therefore plain to the verge of poverty. But as men of great genius can
+disregard the trifling formalities of society, so there are no
+architectural rules which this house is obliged to respect.'"
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF BALUSTERS.]
+
+"That suits me perfectly," said Jack; "but I am amazed at Aunt
+Melville. Never before did she make such a concession even to great
+genius. Never before have I felt inclined to agree with her; but the
+conviction has grown upon me of late that the new house is in danger of
+being too much like other houses. If a fellow is really going in for
+reform, I like to have him go the whole figure. What do you say to
+beginning anew and building such a house as no mortal ever built
+before--something to make everybody wonder what manner of people they
+are who live in such a habitation--something to convince our neighbors
+that we are no weak-minded time-servers, but are able to be an
+architectural as well as domestic law unto ourselves--something to make
+them stop and stare--a sort of local Greenwich from which the community
+will reckon their longitude--'so many miles from the house that Jill
+built'?"
+
+"My dear, did it ever occur to you that you cannot be too thankful for
+a wife who is not blown about by every wind of new doctrine? I _do_
+like the plan of 'The Oaks' exceedingly, not only for itself, but for
+the spirit of it, for its breadth and freedom. It seems to me a
+charming illustration of the true gospel of home architecture. There is
+no thoughtless imitation of something else that suits another place and
+another family. Neither does it appear that the owner tried to make a
+vain display for the sake of 'astonishing the natives.' He knew what he
+wanted, and built the house to suit his wants, using the simplest, the
+cheapest and the most durable materials at hand in the most direct and
+unaffected manner. Did you notice in the sketch of the keeping-room
+fireplace the little gallery passing across the end of the room above
+the entrance to the sitting-room? Probably you thought that was built
+for purely ornamental purposes, but it isn't. It is simply the walk
+from the kitchen to another part of the attic, which can be most
+conveniently reached by this interior bridge. Of course it adds to the
+interest and beauty of the room, but it was not made for that purpose,
+and, as I understand the matter, it is all the more beautiful because
+it was first made to be useful. There is another thing in this
+house--the elevator--which, queerly enough, we do not often find in
+houses of more aspiring habit, where it would he of even greater value.
+It is amazing to me that housekeepers will go on tugging trunks,
+coal-hods and heavy merchandise of all kinds up stairways, day after
+day and year after year, when a simple mechanical contrivance, moved by
+water, or weights and pulleys, would save us from all these heavy
+burdens. Think of the bruised knuckles, the trembling limbs that
+stagger along with the upper end of a Saratoga 'cottage,' the broken
+plastering at the sides, the paper patched with bright new pieces that
+look 'almost worse' than the uncovered rents, and the ugly marks of
+perspiring fingers."
+
+[Illustration: THE BIG FIREPLACE IN THE KEEPING ROOM.]
+
+[Illustration: ONE WAY TO BEGIN.]
+
+"All of which I have seen and a part of which I have been," said Jack.
+"I intended to have a lift in this house, but somehow it was left out."
+
+"Our architect." Jill continued, "must be instructed to arrange not
+only an easy staircase, but there must be a paneled wainscot at the
+side. We will dispense with elegance in any other quarter, if need be,
+in order to have the stairs ample, strong and well protected. I am not
+over-anxious to have them ornate, although handsome stairs are very
+charming if well placed; like many other beautiful things, they become
+incurably ugly when too obtrusive. The architect has sent several
+designs of balustrades from which we are to choose, and gives this
+advice about the dimensions: 'As you have plenty of room, the staircase
+should be four or four and a-half feet wide, so that two people can
+easily walk over it abreast, I have arranged to make the steps twelve
+inches wide, besides the projection that forms the finish--the
+"nosing"--and six inches high; that is, six inches "rise" and twelve
+inches "run." Some climbers think this too flat, and perhaps it is in
+certain situations; but for homes, for easy, leisurely ascent by
+children and old folks. I think it better than a steeper pitch. All
+large dwelling-houses, and some small ones, ought to be supplied with
+"passenger elevators," at least from the first to the second story.
+Those who take the rooms still higher are usually able to make the
+ascent in the common way. Such an elevator can undoubtedly be made that
+will be safe and economical, especially where there is an ample water
+supply.'"
+
+[Illustration: A BROADSIDE OF AN EASY ASCENT.]
+
+"The safety is the most troublesome part of the problem," said Jack;
+"and I can think of no way to overcome the danger of walking off the
+precipice, when the platform happens to be at the bottom, but by having
+the car run up an inclined plane. There would be no more danger of
+falling down this than down a common stairway, and the car might be
+fixed so it couldn't move up or down faster than a walk or a slow
+trot."
+
+"Would you like to experiment in the new house? You may do so--at your
+own expense--if you will promise not to spoil the plan. Among the
+designs for the stairs there is one that will be of no service to
+us--the screen at the foot of the stairs; our 'reception' hall will be
+separated from the staircase hall by the chimney and the curtains at
+the sides."
+
+"I have an idea," exclaimed Jack, "a truly philanthropic one. You know
+we are accumulating a large stock of plans, to say nothing of general
+information on architectural subjects, which we cannot possibly use
+ourselves, but which ought not to be wasted. Now you know Bessie is
+pining for a mission.".
+
+"Bessie has gone home."
+
+"I know, but she will come back if we send for her and tell her that
+she and Jim are to be sent out in the express wagon on a benevolent
+expedition to the heathens--the uncultured domestic heathens. We can
+have some of the architect's letters printed in tract form for them to
+distribute, and they can take along these superfluous plans to be
+applied where they will be most effective. Take, for instance, this
+hall screen, or whatever it may be, with the square staircase behind
+it. This would be just the thing for one of those old-fashioned square
+houses with the hall running through the middle and the long staircase
+splitting the hall in two lengthwise. If Bessie could persuade the
+owner of a single one of these old houses to take out the straight and
+narrow stairs, move them back, and, by introducing this semblance of a
+separation, make a reception hall of the front part, she would feel
+that she had not lived in vain. If she could at the same time cause
+cashmere shawls and rag carpets to be hung as portieres in place of
+doors to the front rooms she would be ready for translation."
+
+Jill laughed. "I'm not sure," said she, "but this is a good field for
+people of missionary proclivities. Some of these old-fashioned houses
+have far more real, artistic excellence than those of the later,
+transition periods, and need but slight alterations to be most
+satisfactory types of architectural beauty as well as models of comfort
+and convenience. Broad, easy stairs, wide doorways and generous
+windows, with ample porches and piazzas outside, would transform them
+and make them not merely as good as new, but vastly better. Reopening
+fireplaces that have been ignominiously bricked up would be another
+promising field."
+
+"Oh! I tell you my idea is a capital one. I'll send for Bess this very
+day. They shall have Bob and the express wagon a week if they want it.
+They shall dispense an esthetic gospel and accumulate ancient
+bric-a-brac to their hearts' content. Bessie will be in ecstacies, and
+Jim will be in a helpless state of amazement and admiration."
+
+[Illustration: A DIVIDING SCREEN AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS.]
+
+"How perfectly absurd, Jack! I wouldn't allow those children to go off
+on such an excursion for all the old houses in America. One would
+think you were determined to have an esthetic sister-in-law at all
+hazards."
+
+"Never thought of such a thing! But now that you suggest it--"
+
+"I haven't suggested it," said Jill indignantly.
+
+"Well, you put it into my head at all events, and really now it
+wouldn't be such a bad idea. Jim is behind the times, artistically
+speaking, and needs to be waked up; and as for Bess, she would very
+soon learn to be careful how she expressed a longing for the
+unattainable, for Jim is a practical fellow, and whatever she wanted he
+would go for in a twinkling. Honestly, Jill, it strikes me as a
+first-class notion, and I'm glad you suggested it."
+
+"I _didn't_ suggest it, and I think it would be a _dreadful_ thing--I
+mean to send them off on another excursion. I am not sure, however, but
+we might found an A.B.C.A.M. with the materials and implements in our
+possession."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE RIGHT SIDE OF PAINT; A PROTEST AND A PROMISE.
+
+
+Jack's benevolent ambition to distribute their superfluous plans among
+those in need of such aids was strengthened by the receipt of another
+roll of drawings, showing designs for the interior work, wainscots,
+cornices, architraves, paneled ceilings and such wood finishings as are
+commonly found in houses that are built in conventional fashion, with
+lathed and plastered walls, trimmed at all corners and openings with
+wood more or less elaborately wrought. Of course, it was a large
+condescension in the architect to offer such a variety, and contrary to
+his avowed determination to decide without appeal all questions of
+construction and design, but he appreciated his clients and knew when
+to break his own rules and when to insist upon their observance. If
+Jill, had required an assortment he would doubtless have suggested that
+certain "practical" builders could furnish a full line of ready-made
+"artistic" patterns for little more than the cost of the paper on which
+they were printed; from these he would have advised her to select her
+own designs, as she might have chosen from a medicine chest
+sweet-smelling drops or sugar-coated pills of varying hue and
+form--the result would doubtless he as satisfactory in one case as in
+the other. Since she had not demanded it as an inalienable right he
+gave her an opportunity to criticise and select, which she accepted by
+no means unwillingly. As a rule, the designs were, in her opinion, too
+elaborate and obtrusive. There were too many mouldings, there was too
+much carving, and too evident a purpose to provide a finish that should
+challenge attention by its extent or elegance. It would require too
+much labor to keep it in order, and--it would cost too much. If she
+could not have work that was truly artistic, and therefore enduringly
+beautiful, whatever changes of fashion might occur, it was her wish to
+keep all the essential part of the building and finish modestly in the
+background, not attempting to make it ornamental, but relying upon the
+furniture for whatever conspicuous ornament or decoration might be
+desired. Nothing annoyed her more than an elegantly-finished house
+scantily provided with shabby, incongruous and misapplied furniture.
+The amiable concession of the architect came near causing a fatal
+quarrel, as amiable concessions are apt to do, for he found it almost
+impossible to satisfy Jill's taste in the direction of simplicity; he
+seemed to feel that he was neglecting his duty if he gave her plain,
+narrow bands of wood absolutely devoid of all design beyond a
+designation of their width and thickness. Any carpenter's boy could
+make such plans. "It would be worse," he wrote, "than prescribing bread
+pills and 'herb drink' for a sick man." To which Jill replied in
+substance that the needs of the patient are more important than
+professional rules.
+
+[Illustration: BITS OF CORNICES.]
+
+Over the first great question, regarding the visible wood work of the
+interior, Jack and Jill had held many protracted discussions: should
+any of it be painted, or should all the wood be left to show its
+natural graining and color? To the argument that unpainted wood is not
+only "natural" but strictly genuine and more interesting than paint,
+Jack replied that "natural" things are not always beautiful; that
+paint, which makes no pretense of being anything but paint, is as
+genuine as shellac or varnish, and that if the object is to be
+interesting, the bark, the knots, the worm-holes, and, if possible, the
+worms themselves should be displayed. "Besides," said he, "if we decide
+on hard wood, who shall choose the kinds? There's beech, birch and
+maple; cherry, whitewood and ebony; ash and brown ash and white ash and
+black ash; ditto oak, drawn and quartered; there's rosewood, redwood,
+gopherwood and wormwood; mahogany, laurel, holly and mistletoe; cedar
+of Lebanon and pine of Georgia, not to mention chestnut, walnut,
+butternut, cocoanut and peanut, all of which are popular and available
+woods for finishing modern dwellings. If we choose from this list,
+which may be indefinitely extended, the few kinds for which we can find
+room in our house, we shall be tormented with regret as long as we both
+do live because we didn't choose something else. Now if we paint,
+behold how simple a thing it is! We buy a lot of white pine boards, put
+them up where they belong and paint them in whatever unnamable hues the
+prevailing fashion may chance to dictate. Our boards need not even be
+of the best quality; an occasional piece of sound sap, a few hard
+knots, or now and then a 'snoodledog'--as they say in Nantucket--would
+do no harm. A prudent application of shellac and putty before painting
+will make everything right. Then if the fashions change, or if we
+should be refined beyond our present tastes and wish to go up higher,
+all we should need to lift the house to the same elevated plane
+is--another coat of paint. On the other hand, if we had a room finished
+in old English oak, growing blacker and blacker every year; in mahogany
+or in cheap and mournful black walnut, what could we do if the
+imperious mistress of the world should decree light colors? With rare,
+pale, faded tints on the walls our strong, bold, heavy hard-wood finish
+would be painful in the extreme. We couldn't change the wood and we
+couldn't change the fashion."
+
+"If you were not my own husband, Jack, I should say you were dreadfully
+obtuse. Concerning _fashions_ in house-building and furnishing I feel
+very much as Martin Luther felt about certain, formal religious dogmas.
+If we are asked to respect them as a matter of amiable compliance, if
+we find them convenient, agreeable and at the same time harmless, then
+let us quietly accept them; but, if we are commanded to obey them as
+vital, if they are set before us as solemn obligations to be reverenced
+as we reverence the everlasting truth, then, for Heaven's sake, let us
+tear them in pieces and trample them under our feet, lest we lose our
+power to distinguish the substance from the shadow. The moment any
+particular style of building, finishing or furnishing becomes a
+recognized fashion, that moment I feel inclined to turn against it with
+all my might."
+
+"If you were not my own idolized wife, I should say that was 'pure
+cussedness.'"
+
+[Illustration: MOULDINGS FAIR TO SEE, BUT HARD TO KEEP CLEAN.]
+
+"On the contrary, it is high moral principle; that is, moral principle
+applied to art. It is a simple, outright impossibility for human
+beings to have any true perception of art while a shadow of a thought
+of fashion remains. It is, indeed, possible that fashion may, for a
+moment, follow the straight and narrow road that leads to artistic
+excellence, as the fitful breath of a cyclone may, at a certain point
+in its giddy whirl, run parallel with the ceaseless sweep of the mighty
+trade-winds, but whoever tries to keep constantly in its track is sure
+to be hopelessly astray."
+
+"My dear, indignant, despiser of fashion, you know you wouldn't wear a
+two-year-old bonnet to church, on a pleasant Sunday morning, for the
+price of a pew in the broad aisle."
+
+"Certainly not; that would be both mercenary and irreverent; moreover,
+my bonnet has nothing to do with artistic rules. It is not a work of
+art or of science, of nature or of grace. It is a conventional signal
+by which I announce a friendly disposition toward the follies of my
+fellow-creatures--a sort of flag of truce, a badge of my conformity in
+little things. I wear it voluntarily and could lay it aside if I
+chose."
+
+"Undoubtedly, _if_ you chose. Now, let us resume the original
+discussion. I had given one powerful argument in favor of paint when I
+was rashly interrupted: here is another--it is much cheaper."
+
+"That would depend," said Jill. "Ash, butternut, cherry and various
+other woods cost little, if any more, than the best pine, and the pine
+itself is very pretty for chambers."
+
+"Ah, but you forget the labor question. It is one thing to join two
+pieces of wood so closely as to leave no visible crack between them,
+and quite another to bring them into the same neighborhood, fill the
+chasm with putty and hide the whole under a coat of paint. The
+difference between these two kinds of joints is the difference between
+one stroke and two, between one day's work and five days, between one
+thousand dollars and five thousand. My third argument you will surely
+appreciate. Paint is more artistic." Here Jack paused to give his
+words effect; then proceeded like one walking on stilts. "Pure tones
+symphoniously gradated from contralto shadows to the tender brightness
+of the upper registers and harmoniously blended with the prevailing
+quality--"
+
+[Illustration: FRAGMENTS OF ARCHITRAVES.]
+
+"Oh, Jack! _Don't_ go any farther, you are already beyond your depth.
+When you attempt to quote Bessie's sentiments you should have her
+letter before you. Perhaps I have a dim perception of the principle
+that underlies your thirdly. If so, this room is a pertinent
+illustration of it. Instead of all this white paint, if the wood work
+had been colored to match the predominant tint in the background of the
+paper, or a trifle darker, this being also the general 'tone' of the
+carpet, it is easy to see how the coloring of the room would have been
+simple and pleasing, instead of glaring and ugly. Yes, your plea for
+paint is not without value. I think, however, it would be entirely
+possible to stain the unpainted wood to produce any desired symphony,
+fugue or discord. It might be unnatural, especially if we wished to
+look blue, but it would not conceal the marking and shading of the
+grain of the wood which is so much prettier than any moulding or
+carving, and vastly easier to keep in order. Your economical arguments
+are always worth considering. I think the happy compromise for us will
+be to use hard wood in the first story and painted pine in the
+chambers, with various combinations and exceptions. The bath-rooms,
+halls and dressing-rooms of the second story should of course be
+without paint, and we may relieve the solid monotony of the hardwood
+finish with occasional fillets or bands of color, painted panels or
+any other irregularities we choose to invent. But this is invading the
+mighty and troublous realm of 'interior decoration,' from which I had
+resolved to keep at a respectful distance until the house is at least
+definitely planned in all its details."
+
+[Illustration: A CHOICE OF WAINSCOTS.]
+
+A wise decision, for although what we call in a general way "interior
+decoration" is closely allied to essential construction--not
+infrequently seems to be a part of it--there is still a sharp though
+often unseen line between them that cannot be crossed with impunity.
+Artistic construction is at best only second cousin to decoration, and
+while we may in building arrange to accommodate a certain style of
+furniture or ornament, as Bessie's friend built her parlor to suit the
+rug, the result of such contriving is apt to be discouraging if not
+disastrous.
+
+"Two things we must surely have," said Jill, "which the architect has
+not sent; one, an old fashion, the other, a new one. We must have
+'chair rails,' in every room down stairs that has not a solid wainscot,
+if I have to make the plans and put them up myself. We must also have
+another band of wood higher up entirely around every room in both
+stories, to which the pictures can be hung."
+
+"Perhaps the architect will object to this as interfering with his
+plans."
+
+"He cannot, for they belong to our side of the house; they are matters
+of use, not of design. He may put them where he pleases, within
+reasonable limits, and make them of any pattern, with due regard to
+cost. He may treat one as part of the dado, the other as a member of
+the cornice, if he chooses, but we _must_ have them--they are
+indispensable."
+
+"They are also dangerous, because they are fashionable."
+
+"Yes, an illustration of the temporary agreement of fashion and common
+sense. But things of real worth do not go out of fashion; fashion goes
+out of them; henceforth they live by their own merit and no one
+questions their right to be."
+
+"Have you written to Bessie?"
+
+"Written to Bessie? What for?"
+
+"Why, to come and get ready to start on her mission."
+
+"No, indeed; I supposed you had forgotten that absurd notion."
+
+"Not at all absurd. I mentioned it to Jim, and he was delighted.
+Offered to go up and escort her down. He said they could go out in a
+different direction every day and do a great deal of good in the course
+of a week."
+
+"Jack, I am ashamed of you! Don't mention the subject to me again."
+
+"What shall I say to Jim?"
+
+[Illustration: WOOD PANELS FOR WALLS AND CEILINGS, WITH IRREGULARITIES
+IN LEATHER, PAINT AND PAPER.]
+
+"You needn't say anything to Jim. Tell him I am going to invite Bessie
+to visit us in the new house, and if he is in this part of the world I
+will send for him at the same time."
+
+"And that will be a full year, for the house is hardly begun."
+
+"Yes, a full year."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE HOUSE FINISHED AND THE HOME BEGUN.
+
+
+It was indeed a full year for Jill before Bessie received the promised
+invitation. Not merely full as to its complement of days, but full of
+new cares, interests and activities. It is needless to say it was also
+a happy year. Building a house for a home is a healthful experience, a
+liberal education to one who can give personal attention to it; who has
+some knowledge of plans with enough imagination to have a fair
+conception of what they will be when executed; who is content to
+receive a reasonable return for a given outlay, not anxious to get the
+best end of every bargain, nor over-fearful of being cheated; who cares
+more for home comfort than for a fine display, and whose soul is never
+vexed by the comments of Mrs. Grundy, nor tormented by the decrees of
+fashion.
+
+The question was raised, whether the house should be built by contract
+or by "day's work." The worldly-wise friends advised the former.
+Otherwise they affirmed the cost of the house would exceed the
+appropriation by fifty, if not a hundred, per cent., since it would be
+for the interest of both architect and builders to make the house as
+costly and the job as long as possible. And, while it was doubtless
+true that "day work" is likely to be better than "job work," still, if
+the plans and specifications were clearly drawn and the contract made
+as strong as the pains and penalties of the law could make it, the
+contractor might be compelled to keep his agreement and furnish
+"first-class" work.
+
+Jill's father settled this point at once. "It is true," said he, "that
+the plans and specifications should be clearly drawn, that you may see
+the end from the beginning, and it will be well to carefully estimate
+the cost, lest, having begun to build, you should be unable to finish.
+But I am neither willing to hold any man to an agreement, however
+legal it may be, that requires him to give me more than I have paid
+for, nor, on the other hand, do I wish to pay him more than a fair
+value for his work and material. You cannot avoid doing one of these
+two things in contracting such work as your house, for it is
+impossible to estimate its cost with perfect accuracy, and no
+specifications, however binding, can draw a well-defined line between
+'first' and 'second'-class work. A general contract may be the least
+of a choice of evils in some cases; it is not so in yours. If you know
+just what you want, the right mode of securing it is to hire honest,
+competent workmen and pay them righteous wages. If, before the work is
+completed, you find the cost has been underestimated, stop when your
+money is spent. It may be mortifying and inconvenient to live in an
+unfinished house; it is far more so to be burdened with debt or an
+uneasy conscience. There is another thing to be remembered: We hear
+loud lamentations over the dearth of skillful, trusty laborers. There
+is no way of promoting intelligent, productive industry--which is
+the basis of all prosperity--but by employing artisans in such a way
+that the personal skill and fidelity of each one shall have their
+legitimate reward. The contract system, as usually practiced, acts in
+precisely an opposite direction. Your house must be built 'by the day'
+Jill, or I shall recall my gift." _That_ question was settled. The
+good and wise man had previously decided as peremptorily an early
+query relating to the plans. When it was known that a new house was to
+be built, several architects, with more conceit than self-respect,
+proposed to offer plans "in open competition"--not to be paid for
+unless accepted--concerning which Jill had asked her father's advice.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+"What should you think of a physician," said he, "who, on hearing that
+you were ill, should hasten to present himself with a prescription and
+a bottle of medicine, begging you to read the one, test the other, and,
+if they made a favorable impression, give him the job of curing you?
+There are such who call themselves physicians; other people call them
+quacks, and there is one place for their gratuitous offerings--the
+fire. I shall burn any plans that are presented in this way. Choose
+your architect at the outset, and give him all possible aid in carrying
+out your wishes, but do not employ one of those who must charge a
+double price for their actual work in order to work for nothing half
+the time. In any other business such a practice would be condemned at
+once."
+
+"Isn't it the same thing as offering samples of goods?"
+
+"No, it is offering the goods themselves--the top of the barrel at
+that."
+
+Of course this did not apply to the contributions that were prompted by
+personal friendship, of which Jill, as we have seen, received her full
+share, none of them, excepting the one-story plan, proving in the least
+tempting.
+
+As the race of competent, industrious mechanics is not yet extinct,
+whatever the croakers may say such were found to build the house, which
+was well closed in before winter. The walls and roof were completed and
+the plastering dried while the windows could be left open without
+danger of freezing, a most important thing, because although mortar may
+be kept from freezing by artificial heat, the moisture it contains,
+unless expelled from the house, will greatly retard the "seasoning" of
+the frame and the walls of the building. After it has all been blown
+out of the windows, if the house is kept warm and dry the fine
+wood-finishing will "keep its place" best if put up in winter rather
+than in summer. For the most carefully seasoned and kiln-dried lumber
+will absorb moisture so rapidly in the hot, steaming days of June and
+in the damp dog-day weather that no joiner's skill can prevent cracks
+from appearing when the dry furnace heat has drawn the moisture from
+its pores.
+
+One year is a reasonable length of time for building a common
+dwelling-house. Twelve months from the day the workmen appeared to dig
+the foundation trenches the last pile of builder's rubbish was taken
+away and the new, clean, bright, naked, empty house stood ready for the
+first load of furniture. If the social and domestic tastes of Jack and
+Jill have been even slightly indicated, it is unnecessary to say that
+this first load did not consist of the brightest and best products of
+the most fashionable manufacturers. Aunt Melville had sent a few
+ornaments and two or three elegant trifles in the way of furniture, a
+chair or two in which no one could sit without danger of mutual broken
+limbs, and a table that, like many another frail beauty, might enjoy
+being supported but could never bear any heavier burden than a
+card-basket, and was liable to be upset by the vigorous use of
+dust-brush or broom. "They will help to furnish your rooms," said the
+generous aunt, "and will give a certain style that cannot be attained
+with furniture that is simply useful."
+
+[Illustration: THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+The ornaments that were ornamental and nothing more Jill accepted
+gratefully. The furniture that must be protected to preserve its
+beauty, and generally avoided lest it should be broken, she returned,
+begging her aunt to give it to some one having a larger house.
+
+On one of those perfect days that are so rare, even in June, Bessie
+appeared in all the glory of the lilies. To Jill's surprise, her first
+remark after the customary effusive greeting was, "How _lovely_ it is
+to have a home of your own. I shouldn't care if it was made of slabs
+and shaped like a wigwam. Of course, _this_ house is exquisite. I knew
+it would be, but it is ten times as large as I should want. It will be
+_so_ much work to take care of it."
+
+"I don't expect to take care of it alone."
+
+"I know you don't, but I should want to take care of my own house, if I
+had one, every bit of it. Oh, you needn't look so amazed. I know what I
+am saying. I have learned to cook, and dust, and sweep, and kindle
+fires, and polish, silver, and--and black stoves!"
+
+No wonder Jill was dumb while Bessie went on at a breathless rate.
+
+"And do you know, Jill dear, I wouldn't take this house if you would
+give it to me. There! I would a thousand times rather have a little bit
+of a cottage, just large enough for--for two people, and everything in
+it just as cosy and simple as it could be. Then we--then I could learn
+to paint and decorate--I've learned a little already--and embroider and
+such things, and slowly, very slowly, you know, I would fill the house
+with pretty things that would belong to it and be a part of it, and a
+part of me, too, because I made them."
+
+"Wouldn't it be much cheaper and better to hire some skillful artist to
+do these things?" said Jill, taking refuge in matter-of-fact.
+
+[Illustration: THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT.]
+
+"If I hired any one of course it would be an artist, but our homes are
+not dear to us because they are beautiful, it is because they are
+_ours_, because we have worked for them and in them until they are a
+part of ourselves. I love artistic things as well as I ever did, but
+there are some things that are ten thousand times lovelier."
+
+Before Jill had recovered from her astonishment at Bessie's transformed
+sentiments or imagined their cause, who should drive up but Aunt
+Jerusha. She and Bessie had never met before, but the mysterious laws
+of affinity, that pay no regard to outward circumstances or
+expectations, brought them at once into the warmest sympathy. Jill had
+provided extremely pretty china for her table, and for Bessie's sake
+had brought out certain rare pieces not intended for every-day use. It
+was contrary to her rule to make any difference between "every-day" and
+"company days." "Nothing is too good for Jack," was the basis of her
+argument. The one exception was china. But Bessie was absolutely
+indifferent to the frail and costly pottery. She was intent on learning
+domestic wisdom from Aunt Jerusha, and insisted upon writing in her
+note-book the recipes for everything she ate and recording the rules
+for carrying on whatever household matters chanced to be mentioned,
+from waxing floors to canning tomatoes. Jack strove to enliven the
+conversation by throwing in elaborate remarks upon the true sphere of
+women, the uncertainty of matrimonial ventures and the deceitfulness of
+mankind in general. Jill meanwhile preserved her equanimity upon all
+points relating to her house. She admitted the force of Aunt
+Jerusha's suggestion that a portion of the long serving-table in the
+kitchen should be movable and a door made from kitchen to china-closet,
+to be kept locked, as a rule, but available in an emergency, when one
+or both servants were sick or discharged; she appreciated her advice to
+form the habit of washing the silver and fine glasses with her own
+hands before leaving the table; she was able to repeat her favorite
+recipes correctly; she carved gracefully, as a lady ought, and gave due
+attention to her guests. Beyond these duties she was in a state of
+bewilderment. What had happened to Bessie, and what new mischief Jack
+was incubating were puzzles she could neither solve nor dismiss.
+
+[Illustration: THE EAST END OF JILL'S DINING-ROOM.]
+
+By one of those coincidences, not half as rare as they seem, at four
+o'clock the same day Aunt and Uncle Melville appeared upon the scene.
+They were spending a short time at a summer hotel in the vicinity, and
+Jill persuaded them to stay for tea, sending their carriage back for
+Cousin George and his wife, who were at the same place. She also
+invited her father and mother to improve the opportunity to make a
+small family gathering. "I suppose you know Jim is coming over this
+evening," said Jack. "Don't you think he had better bring Uncle Harry
+along?"
+
+"I _didn't_ know Jim was coming, but he is always welcome, and Uncle
+Harry too. Your father and mother, of course, if they are able to come
+out this evening."
+
+"Oh, _they_ are coming, anyway," Jack began and stopped suddenly. "That
+is, I mean, certainly they will be delighted, if you send for them."
+
+Jill was more puzzled than ever, but they all came.
+
+"Now, you will please consider yourselves a 'board of visitors,'" said
+she, as they sat at the table after tea, "authorized to inspect this
+institution and report your impressions."
+
+"Remembering that Jill is the warden and I am the prisoner," said Jack.
+
+"But you must conduct us to the cells," said her father, rising, "and
+tell us what to admire."
+
+Jill accordingly began at the beginning. She showed them the light
+vestibule, with a closet at one side for umbrellas and overshoes, and a
+seat at the other; the central hall that would be used as a common
+reception-room, and on such occasions as the present, would become a
+part of one large apartment--the entire first floor of the main house;
+the staircase with the stained-glass windows climbing the side; the
+toilet-room from the garden entrance and the elevator reaching from the
+basement to the attic. She showed them the family suite of rooms; her
+own in the southeast corner, with the dressing-room and adjoining
+chamber toward the west, and Jack's room over the front hall, with the
+large guest-room above the dining-room. She urged them to count the
+closets and notice their ample size; referred with pride to the
+servants' rooms, and explained how there was space in the roof for two
+chambers and a billiard-room, if they should ever want them. With true
+housekeeper's pride she declared the beauties and wonders of the
+kitchen arrangements, a theme that had been often rehearsed, and from
+the kitchen they descended to the basement, which contained the
+well-lighted laundry, the servants' bath-room and store-rooms without
+name or number; some warm and sunny, others cool and dark, but all dry
+and well ventilated.
+
+Then they returned to the drawing-room to make their reports.
+
+"It's too large," said Bessie.
+
+"It isn't small enough," said Jim.
+
+"The third floor is not the proper place for a billiard-table,"
+remarked Uncle Melville, sententiously. "It is too remote for such a
+social pastime; too difficult of access; too--too--er--"
+
+"The house looks smaller than it is," said Aunt Melville, "which I
+consider a serious defect. It ought to look larger; it should have a
+tower, and the front door should be toward the street."
+
+"Your chambers are excellent," said Uncle Harry. "The personality of
+human beings should be respected. The chief object of home is to give
+to each individual a chance for unfettered development. Every soul is a
+genius at times and feels the necessity of isolation. Especially do we
+need to be alone in sleep, and to this end every person in a house is
+entitled to a separate apartment. I commend the family suite."
+
+"A nobby house," said Cousin George.
+
+"I like our own better," said his wife, _sotto voce_, which was a
+worthy sentiment and should have been openly expressed. Fondness for
+our own is the chief of domestic virtues.
+
+"Is it paid for?" inquired Jack's father. To which Jack replied:
+
+"It is: and the house that I built is sold to the most stylish people
+you ever saw. They paid me more than this cost, but I wouldn't swap
+with them for a thousand dollars to boot."
+
+"No; neither would they change with us for two thousand."
+
+Just as the clock struck nine the door-bell rang and the rector and his
+wife were announced. Before Jill could realize what was taking place
+she found herself an amazed and helpless spectator in her own house,
+for Jim and Bessie stood side by side under the curtains leading to the
+library, and the rector was reading the solemn marriage service. By way
+of calming her excitement Jack found a chance to whisper to Jill,
+
+"They have been engaged six months."
+
+"You unnatural husband! Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"Didn't know it myself till this afternoon."
+
+There was no time for further explanations, for the good rector was
+saying: "I am sure you will agree with me that building and cherishing
+a consecrated home is the noblest work we can do on earth. From such
+homes spring all public and private excellence, all patriotic virtues,
+all noble charities and philanthropies, all worthy service of God and
+man. Whether high or low, rich or poor, in all times and in all places,
+domestic life, in its purity and strength, is the safeguard of
+individuals and the bulwark of nations. And when, in after years,
+other solemn sacraments shall be performed beneath this roof, may it
+still be found a sacred temple of peace and love!"
+
+Bessie and Jim kept house in two chambers until a cottage of four
+rooms, with an attic and wood-shed, was finished, which happened before
+cold weather. Her wedding present from Jack was an express wagon full
+of obsolete household utensils. She had learned to make the fire in the
+kitchen, and nothing was more acceptable than such a load of dry
+kindling wood.
+
+The house that Jill built cost ten thousand dollars. Jim's cost less
+than one thousand. Bessie declares that the smaller the house the
+greater the happiness it contains. She may be right, but Jill denies
+it, and it is never safe to draw general conclusions from special
+cases.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+TEN YEARS AFTER.
+
+
+Jack, Jr., and his sister Bessie, were building block houses on the
+piazza. Jack was pretending to read the evening paper, in reality
+watching the builders; and Jill was making no pretense of doing
+anything else.
+
+"Really Jack, I think Bessie shows more skill in building than her
+brother. Her houses look like realities, and they have more grace and
+dignity than his."
+
+"Of course. Haven't I always said that women would make the best
+architects if they had a fair chance? Didn't you make the plans of this
+house? Hasn't it been all our fancy painted and a great deal more?
+There isn't a stick nor a stone, a brick nor a shingle that I would
+have changed if we were to build it again."
+
+"And haven't I always said that men were more conservative than women?
+_I_ would be glad to change everything there is in the house to build
+it all over again, and build it differently."
+
+"Oh the inconstancy of women! Even the moon is more constant, for her
+changes are only superficial and temporary."
+
+"When I say; 'I have changed my mind,' it is only another way of
+saying, 'I am wiser to-day than I was yesterday.'"
+
+"I understand; what a Jacob's ladder of wisdom you must be! All right;
+change your mind every day, grow wiser and wiser; I will try to keep
+the hem of your garments in sight."
+
+"Have you selected a lot?"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For a new house."
+
+"Bless you, my dear husband, I wouldn't build another house, still less
+live in it, for all the wealth of the treasury vaults. Isn't this our
+own? Hasn't it always been perfectly suited to our wants? What upon
+earth are you thinking of?"
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular. I never think if I can help it. I have
+heard that a man ought always to build two houses, one to learn how,
+the second to correct the mistakes of the first. I thought perhaps it
+was the same way with women."
+
+"This house was exactly right when it was built, it could not have been
+improved, but that was ten years ago, and a great many things have
+happened in the last ten years; but, then, a great many more will
+happen in the next ten, and ten years hence there will be just as many
+things to change in the houses that are built this year as there are
+now in those that are of the same age as ours."
+
+"But how would you change this house if it could be done by a magic
+wand or by the exercise of faith, and without raising a speck of dust
+or upsetting the housekeeping affairs for a single minute?"
+
+"I would make it larger for one thing. Our rooms are too small. The
+number of rooms a house contains should depend on the number of people
+there are to live in it, including all the children, the guests and the
+servants, with a certain allowance for contingencies."
+
+"Depending on the hospitality of the family."
+
+"Yes; and whatever the number of rooms, they should be large enough,
+not merely to hold the occupants when the doors are shut, but for
+comfortable living and moving about. There is nothing in which all men
+and women are more conservative than in the planning of their houses;
+there seems to be something hereditary about it, as difficult to change
+as a tendency to bald heads and awkward locomotion. Americans are
+special sufferers in this respect. The primitive Anglo-American home
+was only a step removed from the wigwams of the aboriginal savages, in
+size, shape and general accommodations. Even our English ancestors,
+from whom we derived some of our domestic notions, were not accustomed
+to anything magnificent in the way of dwellings. The climate was
+against them, and they were not sufficiently luxurious in their tastes.
+Their houses were primarily places for shelter and refuge. In summer
+they lived out of doors, and in winter they crept into close quarters
+and waited for warm weather. With plenty of land and building materials
+to be had for the taking, our colonial grandfathers should have had the
+most generous homes in the world."
+
+"Yes; and to judge by some of the old colonial mansions which have
+escaped the 'making-over' vandals we have been going backwards in that
+respect during the last fifty or a hundred years."
+
+"Yes; and we ought to have been going the other way, for the size of
+rooms should increase as the cost of furniture diminishes. Take for
+instance, a parlor or sitting room fifteen feet square, which is, I
+believe, about the orthodox size for a modern house. Give such a room a
+dozen straight-backed and straight-legged chairs ranged along the
+sides, a table in the center of the room with a green cover and four
+books on it, two or three unhappy-looking family portraits on the
+walls, a pair of brass candlesticks on the high, wooden mantel, a pair
+of bellows, a shovel and tongs, with, perhaps, in the way of luxury, a
+haircloth sofa. Now compare the room furnished in that way, which was
+by no means uncommon in the days of our grandfathers with a room of the
+same size, in which are stored half a dozen chairs, no two alike, and
+some of them as large as small lounges, a center table piled with books
+and magazines and photographs, till like a heap of jack straws, it is
+impossible to remove one without disturbing the whole pile; a lounge
+with a back, a divan or something without a back, an upright piano, two
+or three bookcases, several small stools and piles of Turkish cushions
+to catch the unwary, huge Japanese vases beside the fireplace, a
+leopard skin with a solid head in front of the table, and a sprinkling
+of Persian rugs spilt over the floor; a cabinet of bric-a-brac in the
+northeast corner, a 'whatnot' with a big jardiniere bearing a
+three-foot palm on the top story in the northwest, a carved bracket
+with a sheaf of Florida grasses in the southeast, and a tall wooden
+clock that won't go in the southwest; a brass tea kettle hanging from a
+wrought iron frame beside a fragile stand that carries a half dozen of
+still more fragile 'hand-painted' teacups and saucers; lambrequins and
+heavy curtains at all the windows and most of the doors, a big
+combination gas and electric chandelier suspended from the center of
+the ceiling, bedangled with jumping jacks, Christmas cards, straw
+ornaments and other artistic 'curious'; one or two small tables
+scattered 'promiscous like' about the room; a music stand and a banjo;
+with photographs, chromos, oil paintings, water colors and etchings,
+from one to three feet square, in gilt, enameled and wooden frames of
+all styles and degrees of fitness on the walls of the room,--take a
+room furnished in this way or a great deal more so, and compare it
+with another of the same actual dimensions furnished in the
+old-fashioned way and see which is the larger. The modern furnishing
+may be 'cozy,' oppressively cozy when there are half a dozen people
+trying to move gracefully around and between it without upsetting or
+destroying anything, but what sort of hospitality can we offer our
+guests if they must be always afraid of breaking something valuable if
+they stir?"
+
+"Why not have a bonfire and liquidate some of this superfluous stock?"
+
+"It is not superfluous; all these things, if they are good add to the
+enjoyment of living, if we have room for them and are able to take good
+care of them without neglecting weightier matters. Our own rooms are
+not large enough. However, if we cannot enlarge them we can build new
+ones for special purposes. For one, we must have a children's workroom.
+If Jack is going to be an artist, and you know he shows decided talent,
+and Bessie an architect, there's no doubt of her having real genius in
+that direction, they should have one room immediately, and two by and
+by, for their own exclusive use. A room where they could keep all their
+books, and tools and toys, and where they could work in their own
+spontaneous, untrammeled way."
+
+"You mean a nursery."
+
+"No, I do _not_ mean a nursery, but a workshop, study, gymnasium, call
+it anything you please. The floor should be smooth and hard, and the
+walls should be wainscoted with smooth, hard wood. There should be
+blackboards and shelves at the sides, and the children should be
+allowed to drive nails wherever they please. I am not sure but I would
+have a sink and a water faucet."
+
+"Not unless the room is in the cellar or has a floor tight enough for a
+swimming tank. Well, what next?"
+
+"We must have a hospital."
+
+"For inebriates or the insane?"
+
+"A room similar to the private wards in a hospital. You know our own
+and the children's sleeping rooms are very simply furnished, but a sick
+room should be still more severe. The children have both had the
+measles, thank goodness, and I hope they never will have smallpox,
+scarlet fever, or diphtheria, but if they should it would be necessary
+to send them away from home or run the risk of their exposing one
+another."
+
+"You might as well include every other ill that flesh is heir to. If we
+have got to fight germs day and night in order to live, the cleaner and
+more open we can keep the battle ground the better. It strikes me that
+it might be a good thing to have the whole house sort of clean and
+wholesome."
+
+"Of course. But none of us would like to have the living rooms as
+absolutely bare of all superfluous furnishing as a hospital ward. We
+should not be willing to give up our rugs, take down the curtains,
+throw away the cushions and sit in hard wooden chairs."
+
+"No, and I wouldn't like to burn my books, although there is nothing
+quite so 'germy' as my musty old books that were made in Italy in
+plague times and smell like the 16th century every time they are
+opened. So I suppose we must have a hospital for the children to be
+sick in, a workshop for them to work in, and what would you say to a
+small chapel and penitentiary, with a dungeon or two? While we are
+about it, let's have a market and cold storage annex."
+
+"Precisely what I was going to suggest. It would be the easiest thing
+in the world to attach a small room to the cellar or the kitchen, where
+a low temperature can be kept at all times, either by ice or by the
+artificial refrigeration that will soon be distributed and sold in the
+same way that gas, water, steam, electric light and power are now
+furnished in many cities."
+
+"I never thought of it before, but why shouldn't milk and beer and
+other medicinal drinks be distributed in the same way as water and
+gas?"
+
+"Please don't interrupt me. These are really serious considerations.
+Why, Jack, we haven't begun to guess at the wonderful changes that are
+to be made in all our housekeeping affairs, as well as in everything
+else by electricity. In a few years we shall find our present cooking
+arrangements as much out of date as the old turnspit and tin ovens and
+the great wood fires on the hearth. And light! Our houses will be as
+light as day all the time, unless we choose darkness in order to sleep
+more comfortably."
+
+"Or because our deeds be evil, or for the better accommodation of
+burglars. No self-respecting burglar would think of 'burgling' without
+a dark lantern."
+
+"And heat; do you remember how something more than twenty-five years
+ago a French scientist proposed to supply all the heat needed for human
+comfort in cold climates directly from the sun's rays?"
+
+"I can't say that I do remember that particular philosopher, but I have
+a notion that the sun was considered a fair sort of furnace a good many
+years before the first Frenchman was born."
+
+"Yes, yes; but he was going to gather the sun's heat into such shape
+that it would warm our houses in winter, do all the cooking, take the
+place of all the steam boilers and furnaces. I never heard that his
+theories were reduced to practice, but we have found another source of
+light and heat that is already under our control. There is no more
+doubt that all the warmth, illumination and mechanical power that we
+can use are within our reach, when we have learned how to take
+possession of them, than there is of gravitation. It is all waiting at
+the door, we have only to clap our hands and the potent spirit is ready
+to do our bidding."
+
+"Without money and without price?"
+
+"No, not quite that, there are too many incorporated monopolies in the
+way. But it is coming nearer and nearer, and with the unlimited power
+of wind and waves and waterfalls, all these things will soon be as
+cheap as anything really worth having ought to be."
+
+"Say, Jill, do you suppose we shall live to see all our necessities
+supplied, gratis, and have nothing to work for except the luxuries?"
+
+"We have lived long enough to find that for most people in our day and
+generation, even for those who think they have to work very hard 'just
+to get a living,' their most serious toil is to provide, what might be
+called, not the 'bare' necessities of life, but the well-dressed
+necessities. But it is time for those children to be in bed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A DOUBLE CONCLUSION.
+
+
+"Now Jill," this was half an hour later, the children were asleep and
+the gas was lighted, "let us by way of amusement draw plans of a castle
+in Spain. Let us forget all the houses that ever were built and fancy
+ourselves, not Adam and Eve, with the responsibility of setting the
+housekeeping pace for the rest of the human family nor Robinson Crusoe,
+whose domestic arrangements were somewhat handicapped, but a wise pair
+of semi-Bourbons, at the end of the 19th century, who forget nothing
+old but are willing to learn and adopt anything new, provided it is
+good."
+
+"All right; go ahead."
+
+"In the first place our castle will not be destructible by fire or
+water. All the walls will be of masonry and the floor beams will be of
+steel. There will be nothing to invite moth or rust."
+
+"Nor burglars; not so much as a silver spoon or a candlestick."
+
+"I have always been sorry that the roof of this house was not
+fireproof, but I suppose it would have cost too much, though the
+architect said it might have been made like the floors if we would
+consent to have it flat."
+
+"Moral: if you want a roof of the mountainous variety you must either
+pay for it or run the risk of being burned out on top. But what do
+castles in Spain care for the cost? We can have fireproof roofs in
+miniature copy of Alpine peaks or we can use them for billiard tables
+and croquet grounds."
+
+"Really," Jill continued, "there is no good reason for steep roofs.
+Snow is more troublesome on the ground around the house than on top of
+it, if it will stay there, and a very slight slope will carry off the
+rain. I fancy steep roofs must have been invented when builders used
+such clumsy materials for covering that they were obliged to lay them
+on a steep pitch in order to keep out the water. Shingles of course
+last longer the steeper the roof."
+
+"If that's the case they ought to last forever on the second story
+walls of our house, where they are straight up and down. When you come
+to think of it, high roofs must be built now-a-days mainly for show,
+incidentally they cover the house. First beautiful, then useful. How
+large will it be?"
+
+"What, the roof?"
+
+"No, the whole thing; how many rooms will it have?"
+
+"That will depend on the size of the family. Not less than ten nor more
+than forty. Ten rooms will answer for two people, and more than forty
+complicates the housekeeping."
+
+"Do you count closets?"
+
+"Oh, no. Closets and dressing rooms, storerooms, bath rooms, cupboards
+and things of that sort, are mere adjuncts. They are to the real rooms
+what the pockets are to a suit of clothes."
+
+"Excellent. I'm glad we haven't got to count the closet or the expense.
+Probably ten rooms are not too many for two young people, but a pair of
+childless octogenarians ought to get along with eight or nine; the
+other way you are all right, only I would say four hundred. While we
+are about it, let's have a comfortable, good sized, 'roomy' house. But
+how do you propose to put even forty rooms with their various pockets
+under one roof and give them all plenty of sunlight and fresh air? Will
+you pile them up one above another or set them in a row on the ground?
+In either case it would need a trolly car and a telephone to connect
+the two ends of the line."
+
+"It mustn't be more than two stories high, and I'm not sure but one
+would be better."
+
+"That means twenty rooms on each floor. The rooms will average twenty
+feet long, and that will make the entire length of our castle four or
+five hundred feet. Won't it look like an institution or a row of
+tenements if it is strung out in a line?"
+
+"It will not be."
+
+"Cut up into wings and things?"
+
+"No, it will be in the form of a hollow square. There may be a wing or
+two on one side or another, and wherever a projecting bay or oriel will
+add to the comfort or charm of the interior we shall have one, but its
+general form will be a great square with an open court in the center."
+
+"Oh, I see. An imitation Pompeian, or Florentine palace."
+
+"No, nothing of the kind. Not an imitation of anything. It will be a
+simple, straightforward, common-sense, American home, with room for a
+good-sized family, several rooms for extra occasions, and some that
+will not be finished at all but held in reserve for future
+contingencies. It sometimes costs no more to enclose a certain space in
+building than to leave it outside, and there is the same satisfaction
+in knowing we have space to spare inside the house that there is in
+owning the land that joins us even when we don't expect to sell or use
+it."
+
+"What shall we do with the big hole in the center? It will be too small
+for golf or tennis, and too big for a conservatory. We might keep
+hens."
+
+"It will not be too large for a garden, with fountains for hot weather
+and flowers for cold. It will be its own excuse for being, for it will
+give light and air to all the rooms, and if it has a glass roof the
+problem of comfortable living in cold weather will be solved. There
+will always be the temperate zone at one side of the house,--that is
+inside the court,--however high the drifts may be piled outside. Of
+course the entire building will be warmed in winter and cooled in
+summer by spicy breezes driven by electric fans, and we shall only have
+to decide what temperature we prefer on different days of the week, set
+the gauge, and there will be no more watching of the thermometer, the
+registers, the weather reports or the wood pile."
+
+"But I thought it was wrong to live in a river of warm air. Uncle John
+compares that to taking a perpetual warm bath."
+
+"It is wrong; but, my dear Jack, life is a succession of compromises,
+especially domestic life, and considering the practical difficulties in
+the way of open hickory fires in all the forty or more rooms, we must
+be content with the artificially warmed air for every day use and
+consider radiated heat from wood fires, coal grates, or sunshine, as
+luxuries."
+
+"Certainly; it would be a pity to make all luxuries impossible just
+because we happen to own a castle in Spain. Aren't you afraid our court
+will be dreadfully hot in summer, shut in by four brick walls?"
+
+"By no means; it will be particularly cool. If we like we can have a
+great awning to draw over it in the hottest weather, and wide halls
+will allow a perfect circulation of air throughout the whole structure.
+In addition to this, on the highest part of the roof there will be a
+space fitted for an outdoor sitting room, sheltered when necessary by
+awnings and screens, but most delightful on hot summer evenings."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see. A sort of copy of the old Egyptian houses."
+
+"No, not a sort of a copy of anything, but a simple application of
+common sense. In the evening when there is a breeze from any direction,
+the highest part of the house will be the coolest."
+
+"I thought it was to be a two-story house. How can one part be higher
+than the rest?"
+
+"I didn't say it was to be all of the same height. Some rooms will be
+much higher than others because they will be larger. If a room is to be
+of agreeable proportions, the height must be determined by the size. It
+may be best to make the north side three stories high and the south
+only one; that would give more sunlight on the north wall of the court
+and make the average two stories."
+
+"Nothing like keeping up the average. But aren't forty rooms with all
+the closets and storerooms, and stairways and halls, and bays and
+oriels and dungeons going to make a large house for one family? Can't
+we work the same idea on a smaller scale?"
+
+"Of course, but that is not too large for a comfortable home for a
+family of moderate size. Count your fingers and try it. To begin at
+that end of the establishment, we want a scullery, a kitchen, and a
+servants' dining room; we want a breakfast room, and a large dining
+room for the family, and the dining room, by the way, should be one of
+the largest rooms in the house, say twenty-one or two feet by thirty
+six or forty; we want a parlor, a drawing room, a library, a
+billiard room and a picture gallery; a music room and ball room, these
+being, of course, in one, but as large as two ordinary rooms; then we
+want a nursery, a workroom for the children, a sick room and a sewing
+room, an office and a smoking room, and one or two extra sitting or
+reception rooms. Each member of the family should have a private
+sitting room and bedroom, with dressing room and bath for each suite.
+That, you see, would just about suit a family of ten people without
+counting the servants."
+
+[Illustration: A CASTLE IN SPAIN.]
+
+"Have you made any calculation Jill, dear, as to how many people there
+are at present in the United States who could manage to scrape along
+with thirty-nine rooms instead of forty?"
+
+"Why should I? This is a castle in Spain. We have plenty of money,
+plenty of room, plenty of time. Our only anxiety is lest there should
+be a lack of brains to make good use of our room and time and money."
+
+"And what shall we build it of, jasper, sapphire and chalcedony?"
+
+"No, burned clay and granite, steel, copper and glass. It shall be
+defiant of fire and flood; it shall neither burn up nor rot down."
+
+"One thing more, Jill, when we come to make our wills to which one of
+the children shall we bequeath the castle?"
+
+Before Jill could answer the door was hurriedly opened and Bessie
+appeared upon the threshold.
+
+"I've just run away from Jim," she began rapidly. "We haven't had a
+family quarrel exactly, but we've argued it over and over, and we come
+out just as far apart as ever. Finally I told him I would leave it to
+you."
+
+"I haven't any idea what it is all about, but did Jim agree to that?"
+
+"I didn't give him a chance to differ. He always agrees to everything
+Jill says about building houses But don't interrupt me. The baby may
+wake up at any minute and then Jim will be helpless. The truth is he is
+dissatisfied with our home."
+
+"Jim, dissatisfied; impossible!"
+
+"Yes, he thinks it's too small."
+
+"He wants more servants, I suppose; several additional children, a lot
+more poor relations, and all the various items that go to make up a
+well-ordered household."
+
+"No, no; it is the house that is too small."
+
+"Excuse me, you said the home. The house is a very different affair."
+
+"You remember," Bessie continued, "that when it was built ten years ago
+Jim thought it was not large enough. Now he is determined to sell it
+and build a new one. There are five good rooms besides the closets, and
+as there is nobody but Jim and me and the four children and one
+servant, we have all the room we need. We have always been perfectly
+comfortable, and I can't bear the thought of selling our home."
+
+Here Bessie began to show symptoms of dissolution, but swallowing her
+emotion she continued, "If we could build on a room or two as we need
+them I wouldn't mind it. But if you advise us to sell this house for
+the sake of having another, I'll"--
+
+"We shan't advise any such thing," said Jack, "but it's perfectly
+natural for Jim to think you ought to have a larger, more modern
+house."
+
+"But I don't want a more modern house," Bessie protested, "if there is
+any created thing that I despise it is a 'modern' house, made up of bay
+windows and crooked turrets, and shingled balconies, and peaked roofs,
+and grotesque little fandangoes of wood and copper and terra cotta,
+that have no more dignity or repose, or beauty or homelike appearance,
+than a crazy quilt or a Chinese puzzle. They are simply outrageous,
+abominable. I would sooner have the children brought up in a reform
+school or a house of correction."
+
+"How would you like a colonial house?"
+
+Bessie's indignation had spent itself, and she resumed her ordinary,
+but sometimes misleading manner.
+
+"Isn't it a pity we were not all born a hundred years ago, then we
+might have had colonial houses. But why should I want to live in an
+uncomfortable old curiosity shop when I like my house just as it is?
+Our trouble is that Jim wants the house twice as large as it is now and
+I want only one more room."
+
+"Bessie," said Jack, in his most fatherly manner, "I am surprised that
+two sensible people like you and Jim should fall into such a
+distressing controversy over nothing, absolutely nothing. You are
+already in perfect accord. Jim says the house is only half large
+enough. You say you want one more room. The house is now just
+thirty-three feet long and thirty-three feet wide; add a new room
+thirty-three feet square; you will have the one extra room, and Jim
+will have the house doubled in size. Isn't that right?"
+
+"Yes," said Jill; "It is exactly what I should have suggested if you
+had given me a chance. Do you remember the charming room in the old
+Florentine palace, where we spent the winter, and how we enjoyed it,
+and finally measured it for the benefit of some other Americans who
+intended to build a new house as soon as they got home? That was just
+thirty-three feet square and eighteen feet high. There was a grand
+piano in one corner, in another a group of chairs with bookcases, in
+another sofas and chairs and tables scattered about, so that in effect
+it was equal to several small rooms. Indeed one of our party described
+it in a home letter as a magnificent apartment one hundred feet each
+way. It would accommodate several callers, with their different groups
+of friends, and it was of course a capital place for music and dancing.
+In your new room you will have one corner for the children and another
+for yourselves. The Dorcas society can meet at one side while your
+little Jack and his friends are playing games at the other. It won't be
+many years before Bessie will claim a large section, including one of
+the bay windows, for her own use."
+
+"I think I hear the baby crying. Thank you, I'll talk it over with Jim.
+Good night."
+
+"Do you think they will do it?" Jack inquired.
+
+"Of course they will; it is by far the most sensible thing. As a family
+they are always together and always will be, and one large room will
+suit them better than several small ones. Perhaps it will be the best
+thing for us, until we can build our castle in Spain. It certainly will
+not cost as much as making over and enlarging the rooms we have."
+
+"That is true, and it is my impression that the wisest way to enlarge
+an old house is to nail up the windows, seal up the doors and go ahead
+with the additions without taking out the nails or breaking the seals
+till it is all done; that would save time, money and patience."
+
+"Yes, and more than that," said Jill, "it would preserve the charm of
+the old house which grows stronger every year until the loss of the
+familiar rooms and their hallowed associations seems like parting with
+a dear old friend."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The House that Jill Built, by E. C. Gardner
+
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