on then, if they won't co-operate? As for our
national character, to be following out that in architecture will be
sheer affectation, and the requirements of modern civilization will
drive you perfectly mad. I see you will none of you ever be anything,
though of course you won't believe me. But do as you please, I shall not
be like you. I shall reason over what you execute; there is something
ridiculous in everything; I shall find it out, show you yeur
faults--that will be Something!"

And he kept his word; and folk said of this fifth brother, "There is
something in him, certainly; he has plenty of brains! but he does
nothing." But he was content, he was Something.

But what became of the five brothers? We will hear the whole.

The eldest brother, the brickmaker, found that every brick he turned out
whole yielded him a tiny copper coin--only copper--but a great many of
these small coins, added together, could be converted into a bright
silver dollar, and through the power of this, wheresoever he knocked,
whether at baker's, butcher's, or tailor's, the door flew open, and he
received what he wanted. Such was the virtue of his bricks; some, of
course, got broken before they were finished, but a use was found even
for these. For up by the trench would poor Mother Margaret fain build
herself a little house, if she might; she took all the broken bricks,
ay, and she got a few whole ones besides, for a good heart had the
eldest brother, though only a brickmaker. The poor thing built her house
with her own hands; it was very narrow, its one window was all on one
side, the door was too low, and the thatch on the roof might have been
laid on better, but it gave her shelter and a home, and could be seen
far over the sea, which sometimes burst over the trench in its might,
and sprinkled a salt shower over the little house, which kept its place
there years after he who made the bricks was dead and gone.

As for the second brother, he learned to build after another fashion, as
he had resolved. When he was out of his apprenticeship, he buckled on
his knapsack and started, singing as he went, on his travels. He came
home again, and became a master in his native town; he built, house
after house, a whole street of houses; there they stood, looked well,
and were a credit to the town; and these houses soon built him a little
house for himself. How? Ask the houses, and they will give you no
answer; but the people will answer you and sa