r days Davy Glinds had been a ship carpenter, and
was skilled in the use of the broadaxe and the adze. He fashioned a
good-looking tub, five feet long by two and a half wide, smooth hewn
within and without. When painted white the tub presented a very
creditable appearance.

The old Squire was so pleased with it that he had Glinds make another;
and then, discovering how cheaply pine bathtubs could be made, he hit
upon a new notion. The more he studied on a thing like that, the more
the subject unfolded in his dear old head. Why, the old Squire asked
himself, need the Saturday-night bath occupy a whole evening because the
eight or ten members of the family had to take turns in one tub, when we
could just as well have more tubs?

Before grandmother Ruth fairly realized what he was about, the old
gentleman had five of these pine tubs ranged there in the new lean-to.
He had the carpenters inclose each tub within a sealed partition of
spruce boards. There was thus formed a little hall five feet wide in the
center of the new bathroom, from which small doors opened to each tub.

"What do you mean, Joseph, by so many tubs?" grandmother cried in
astonishment, when she discovered what he was doing.

"Well, Ruth," he said, "I thought we'd have a tub for the boys, a tub
for the girls, then tubs for you and me, mother, and one for our hired
help."

"Sakes alive, Joe! All those tubs to keep clean!"

"But didn't you want a large bathroom?" the old Squire rejoined, with
twinkling eyes.

"Yes, yes," cried grandmother, "but I had no idea you were going to make
a regular Bethesda!"

Bethesda! Sure enough, like the pool in Jerusalem, it had five porches!
And that name, born of grandmother Ruth's indignant surprise, stuck to
it ever afterwards.

When the old Squire began work on that bathroom he expected to have
it finished in a month. But one difficulty after another arose: the
tank leaked; the sewer clogged; nothing would work. If the hardware
dealer from the village came once to help, he came fifty times!
His own experience in bathrooms was limited. Then, to have hot
water in abundance, it was necessary to send to Portland for a
seventy-five-gallon copper heater; and six weeks passed before that
order was filled.

November, December and January passed before Bethesda was ready to turn
on the water; and then we found that the kitchen stove would not heat so
large a heater, or at least would not do it and serve as a cook-stove