on we
looked forward to the garden and the joy of the warm starry nights. We
had some wonderful winter pictures, too, from that same roof. It was
worth going up there to see the house tops after a heavy snow storm.

If I had wanted to move I could have done only one of two things;
either gone back into the suburbs or taken a more expensive flat up
town. I certainly had had enough of the former and as for the latter I
could see no comparison. If anything this flat business was worse than
the suburbs. I would be surrounded by an ordinary group of people who
had all the airs of the latter with none of their good points. I'd be
hedged in by conventions with which I was now even in less sympathy
than before. I wouldn't have exchanged my present freedom of movement
and independence of action for even the best suite in the most
expensive apartment house in the city. Not for a hundred dollars a
week. Advantages? What were they? Would a higher grade of wall paper,
a more expensive set of furniture and steam heat compensate me for
the loss of the solid comfort I found here by the side of my little
iron stove? Was an electric elevator a fair swap for my roof? Were the
gilt, the tinsel and the soft carpets worth the privilege I enjoyed
here of dressing as I pleased, eating what I pleased, doing what I
pleased? Was their apartment-house friendship, however polished, worth
the simple genuine fellowship I enjoyed among my present neighbors?
What could such a life offer me for my soul's or my body's good that I
didn't have here? I couldn't see how in a single respect I could
better my present condition except with the complete independence that
might come with a fortune and a country estate. Any middle ground,
assuming that I could afford it, meant nothing but the undertaking
again of all the old burdens I had just shaken off.

Ruth, the boy and myself now knew genuinely more people than we had
ever before known in our lives. And most of them were worth knowing
and the others worth some endeavor to _make_ worth knowing. We were
all pulling together down here--some harder than others, to be sure,
but all with a distinct ambition that was dependent for success upon
nothing but our own efforts.

I was in touch with more opportunities than I had ever dreamed
existed. All three of us were enjoying more advantages than we had
ever dreamed would be ours. My Italian was improving from day to day.
I could handle mortar easily and naturally a