oing to lay, not the
first stone, but the first tree of our house. So we went in great state
to the ceremony, and we took a bottle of wine with us to drink success
to the new house, and the clerk of the works made a very neat and
appropriate speech, in which, however, she showed herself on rather too
familiar terms with her workpeople; and I, in return, proposed, "health
and long life to the clerk of the works," which was received with great
cheering and applause. Madame became quite merry, and having settled the
well-being of the piano, actually offered her services to assist in the
building, and never mentioned lessons the whole day. We had a superb
feast. A magnificent dish of fish, the last piece of beef in our
possession, peas, bacon and beans, roasted yams, a glorious
plum-pudding, with brandy blazing up in the middle, fruit, beautiful to
behold and delicious to taste. Then, after dinner, we sang songs, and
Madame told us some stories, and we went to bed extremely happy, but
nearly as weary of our day's pleasure as we were of our daily work, we
had laughed and talked so much. It was quite a month before the clerk of
the works would allow us to consider our house fit to be looked at, and
I cannot say it was ever quite finished, as we always found something to
alter and arrange in it. It consisted of one hall in the middle, thirty
feet long, twenty feet wide, the walls of which were composed of the
trees we had cut down, a double row of them, the intermediate space
being filled up with everything we could collect in the shape of grass
and moss; the inside was plastered with clay, which, after a while, we
painted, as we had a good store of oils and turpentine and other things,
which had been designed for the ship. On both sides of the hall, we had
what we called lean-tos, the roofs of which began where the roof of the
hall ended, and they sloped down to within four feet of the ground. The
other side, or point of the hall, was the entrance. The sheds on each
side opened into the hall, but had no other outlet. There were two on
each side and one at the end opposite the entrance, which was a kitchen
and scullery. Of the four little side rooms, Schillie and I occupied the
one on the right hand of the door, Madame and the three little girls the
next one, the two maids and two boys opposite us, and the three girls
opposite Madame. The little girls used our room to dress and wash in, so
that Madame's was not intruded upon exc