moonless night his mansion was burned to
the ground. Nothing was left of the house but the foundations, and on
these the owner felt no desire to build again. He departed from the
Lethbury neighborhood and never came back.

When Mr. Petter became impressed with the belief that it would be a good
thing for him to be an innkeeper, he also became impressed with the
belief that the situation which the rich man had chosen for his
country-home would be an admirable one for his purposes. He accordingly
bought the property at a very reasonable price, and on the stone
foundations of the house which had been burned he built his inn.

This edifice was constructed very much as he had endeavored to construct
himself. His plans for one part of it were made up from the
descriptions in one of his books, and those of another part from the
descriptions or pictures in some other book. Portions of the structure
were colonial, others were old English, and others again suggested the
Swiss chalet or a chateau in Normandy. There was a tall tower and there
were some little towers. There were peaks here and there, and different
kinds of slopes to the various roofs, some of which were thatched, some
shingled in fanciful ways, and some covered with long strips or slabs.
There were a good many doors and a good many windows, and these were of
different forms, sizes, and periods, some of them jutting boldly
outward, and some appearing anxious to shrink out of sight.

It took a great deal of thought and a good deal of labor to build this
house; which was also true of Mr. Petter's character. But the
first-named work was the more difficult of the two, for in building up
himself he consulted with no one, while in planning his inn he met with
all sorts of opposition from the village workmen and builders.

But at the cost of all the time that was needed and all the money he
could spare, he had his house built as he wanted it; and when it was
finished it seemed to exhibit a trace of nearly everything a house
should possess excepting chronology and paint. Mr. Petter had selected
with a great deal of care the various woods of which his house was
built, and he decidedly objected to conceal their hues and texture by
monotonous paint. The descriptions that he had read of houses seldom
mentioned paint.

The interior was not in the least monotonous. The floors of the rooms,
even in the same story, were seldom upon the same level; sometimes one
entered a room