ely to sow the seeds
of rancor and of suspicion in one's bosom as an experience at building
a house.

It has seemed to me at times during the last four months as if the
carpenters and joiners and plumbers and painters were leagued against
Alice and me to defraud and to rob us. I supposed that in these dull
and hard times these people would feel in a measure grateful to us for
giving them a chance to ply their trades. I find, however, that they
expect me to be grateful to them for allowing me the privilege of
paying them exorbitant prices for very indifferent services.

Alice wanted to make a contract in every instance, but she was wheedled
out of this by the eloquent representations of the sharpers to the
effect that it would be much cheaper in the end to pay for the material
used and so much per diem for the actual labor done. This looked
reasonable enough, but the result was wholly in favor of the per-diem
fellows. Our experience has convinced us that a mechanic who is
working per diem will never make an end to his job so long as the
appropriation holds out.

Of what use would our new house have been to us if the doors and
windows and screens and blinds had not been supplied with the fixtures
required for their operation? We have very little worth stealing, and
yet I feel more secure if there are locks upon our doors and if the
windows are fastened down. Uncle Si knew that we would need bolts and
locks and other similar hardware fixtures; the neighbors, our busiest
advisers, knew it, too; yet nobody ever said booh about these things to
us. They fancied, forsooth, that we would have by intuition the
knowledge which they had acquired by costly experience! And when we
complained of the expense and trouble involved in the selection and
purchase of these extras, the intimation that we were unreasonably
idiotic was freely bandied about by the very people who should have
sympathized with us.

The fixtures came late, too late for the big storm. There being no
bolt or any other fastening to the north porch door, the wind blew that
door open and the rain descended in torrents upon the hardwood floor of
the guest chamber. Next day it was apparent that the floor was
practically ruined. The carpenters agreed that it would have to be
scraped and that it was very likely to swell and spring out of place on
account of the soaking it had suffered.

Hardwood floors may have their advantages: they ought to have, for they