seems
to be accepted as a foregone conclusion that modern dwelling houses,
even in the country, where the cost of the land actually covered by the
house is of no consequence, must be two stories at least above the
basement; but I doubt whether this principle in the evolution of
domestic habitations is well established. Between the aboriginal
wigwam, whose first and only floor is the bare earth itself, and the
'high-basement-four-story-and-French-roof' style, there is somewhere
the happy medium which our blessed posterity--blessed in having had
such wise ancestors--will universally adopt as the fittest survivor of
our uncounted fashions. I fancy it will be much nearer to this
one-story house, with the high basement and big attic, than to the
seven-story mansard with sub-cellar for fuel and furnace. Still the
tendency during the last fifty years has been upward. Our grandfathers
preferred to sleep on the ground floor; _we_ should expect to be
carried off by burglars or malaria if we ventured to close our eyes
within ten feet of the ground. Our city cousins like to be two or
three times as high. Under these circumstances building a one-story
house would be likely to prove a flying-not in the face of Providence,
but, what is reckoned more dangerous and discreditable--flying in the
face of custom. Humility isn't popular in the matter of
house-building."

"I am not afraid of custom, and have no objection to a reasonable
humility," said Jill, "but I never once thought of burglars. If a house
has but one floor I think it should be so for from the ground as to be
practically a 'second' floor. The main point is to have all the family
rooms on one level."

"That is, a 'flat.'"

"Yes, one flat; not a pile of flats one above another, as they are
built in cities, but one large flat raised high enough to be entirely
removed from the moisture of the ground, to give a pleasant sense of
security from outside intrusion and to afford convenient outlooks from
the windows. One or two guest rooms, that are not often used, might be
on a second floor, under the roof, if there was space enough."

"But this plan has the servants' chambers, the kitchen and the store
closets all in the roof. Isn't that rather overdoing the matter?"

"Better in the attic than in the basement. It is light, dry and 'airy.'
There is no danger that the odors of cooking will come down, and as for
the extra trouble, a well-arranged elevator will take supplies from t