defending would probably
have declared that the architect knew the people of the village, and
was merely supplying their wants. Of course he knew them, and their
wants--he was probably one of them.

However, the rest of the village was all against him. Had he been an
abstemious man, there is no doubt but the village market-place would
have been a square, or a triangle, an oval, a circle, or--well, some
definite shape. As it was, it had no definite shape. It was not even
irregular. It was nothing--just a space, with no apparent defining
line.

Then there were no definite roads--at least, the roads seemed to have
happened, and ran just where the houses permitted them. It was a
reversal of ordinary civilized methods, which possibly had its
advantages. There were certainly no straight lines for the men-folk to
walk after leaving the saloon at night for their homes.

As for the houses which composed the village, they were too uncertain
to be described in any but a general view of their design, and their
grouping. In the latter, of course, the evidence was all against the
designer of the place. Who but a madman or a drunkard would set up a
laundry next to the coal yard?

Then another thing. Two churches--they called them "churches" in
Barnriff--of different denomination, side by side. On Sundays the
discord that went on was painful. The voices of the preachers were in
endless conflict through the thin weather-boarding sides, and when
the rival harmoniums "got busy" there was nothing left for the
confused congregations but to chant their rival hymns to some
popular national tune upon which they were mutually agreed beforehand.
The incongruities of this sort were so many that even the most
optimistic could not pass them unheeded.

As regards the style of the buildings themselves, the less said about
them the better. They were buildings, no one could deny that; but even
an impressionist painter could claim no beauty for them. Windows and
doors, weather-boarding, and shingle roof. One need say no more,
except that they were, in the main, weatherproof. But wait. There was
one little house that had a verandah and creepers growing around it.
It was well painted, too, and stood out amongst its frowzy neighbors a
thing approaching beauty.

But Barnriff, as a residential hamlet, was hardly worth considering
seriously. It was a topsyturvy sort of place, and its methods were in
keeping with its design. It was full of unique comb