Year: 1865

But it won't break down if we walk withou tspringing and don't sneeze, though the mortar

 boys whooping cough was strong enough ir my poor brother Jim's case,' he continued ab stractedly. as if he himself possessed severn

 necks, and could afford to break oae or two.

 My wife was picking daisies little distance oil, apparently ia state of complete indifer ence as to whether was on the scaffold, at the foot of it, Or in St. Georges Hospital SO reused myself for descent, and tried the small ladder. l cannot accurately say how did gel down; but during that performance, my body seemed perforated by holes, through whicl breezes blew in all directions. As I got near CT the earth, they went away. It may be sup posed that my wife's notion of the height differ ed considerably from my own, aud she inquired particularly for the landscape, which had quite forgotten; but the discovery of that fact did not cause me to break a resolution not tc trouble my chimneys again. o5e F

 Beyond continual anxiety and frequent journeyings along the sides of triangle, ot which the old house, the new house, and the architects office were the corners, nothing worth mentioning happened till the building vas nearly finished. Sophias ardor in the bu. siness, which at the beginning was so intense had nearly burned itself out, 80 was left pret- ty much to myself in getting over the later diff.

 iculties. Amongst them was the question oi porch. l had often been annoyed whilst waiting outside door on wet day at being exposed to the wind and rain, and it was my favorite notion that would have model porch whenever should build house. Thus it was very vexing to recollect, just as the workmen were finishing off, that had never mentioned the subject to Mir. Penny, and that he had not suggested anything about one to me.

 porch or no porch is entirely matter of personal feeling and taste,' was his remark, in answer to complaint from me; !" so, of course, l did not put one without its being mentioned. But it happens that in this case it would be an Improvements feature, in fact. There is this objection, that the roof will close up the win dow of the little place on the landing but We may get ventilation by making an opening higher up, if you don't mind triaing darkne ss or rather gloom. #a s

 My first thought waa that this might tend to reduce myself and family to state of chronic melancholy but remembering there were re- aenf0rss aduartisad4 fn thrnw annlinht into any nook almost, agreed to the inconvenience, for the sake of the porch, though found after wards that the gloom was for all time, the pat ent reflector. naturally enough, sending it's spot of light against the opposite wall, where it was not wanted, and leaving none about thelanding, where it was. tu.' 'i

 In getting house built for specified sum by contract with builder, there is certain pitfall into which unwary people are sure to step-this accident is technically termed get ting into extras It is evident that the only way to get out again without making town talk about yourself, is to pay the builder large sum of money over and above the contract amount-the value of course of the extras. In the present case, I knew very we'll that the perceptible additions would have to be paid for. Common sense, and Mr. Penny himself perhaps, should have told me little more distinctly that l must pay if I said 'yes' to questions whether preferred one window trihe larger than it was originally intended, another triAe smaller, second thoughts as to where door. way should be, and so on. Then came host of things "not included'-a sink in the sculle- ry, a rainwater tank and a pump, trap-door in the roof, scraper, weathercock and four letters, ventilators in the nursery, same in the kitchen, all of which worked vigorously enough, but the wrong way; patent remarka- ble bell pulls; royal letters extraordinary kitchen range, which it would cost exactly threepence three farthings to keep fire in for twelve hours, and yet cook any joint in any way, warm up what was left yesterday, boil che vegetables, and do the ironing. But not keep ing strict account of all these expenses, and thinking myself safe in MT. Pennys hands from any enormous increase, was astounded to find that the additions altogether came to some hundreds of pounds. could almost go through the worry of building another house, to show how carefully I would avoid getting into extras again. @ E

 Then they have to be wound up. sur- veyor is called in from somewhere, and, by a fiction, his hearts desire is supposed to be that you shall not be overcharged one half- penny by the builder for the additions. The builder names certain sum, as the value of a portion-say double it's worth, the surveyor then names sum, about half it's true value Then they fight it out by word of mouth, and gradually bring their valuations nearer to- gether, till at1ast they meet in the middle.

 A families removing van carried our effects to the new building, without much trouble ;- but number of vsxing incidents occurred on our settling down. Smoke was one of our nu. isances. On lighting the study fire, all the smoke came cerling into the room. In our trouble, we sent for the architect, who asked if we had tried the plan of opening the regis ter. We had not, but did so, and the smoke at once ascended. The last thing I recollect was Sophia jumping up one night, exclaiming IE that builder Not single bar of any