Year: 1874

 we should like it. Euphemia said tha: she never felt at home except when she was ont, which feeling, indicating such an excessively unphilosophic state Of mind, was enough to make me desire to have home of my own. where, ezcep: upon rare and exceptional occasions. my Wife would never csre to go ont.

 If you should want to rent a hoItse, there ar- three ways to find one. One way is to advertise; another is to read the advertisements of other people This IS comparatively cheap way. \ third meth cd is to apply to al agent. But none of these plans are worth anything. The pro- per way Is to kLow some one who will tell you ot a house that will just suit you. Eu- phemia and thoroughly investigated this matter, and know that what I say is a fact.

 We tired all the plans. When we ad- vertised, we had about dozen admirable answers, but although everything seemed to suit, the amount of rent was not nam ed. (None of those in which the rent was named would do at all. And when went to see the owners, or agents of these houses, they asked much higher rents than those mentioned in the unavailable

 

 fact that they always asserted that their terms were either very reasonable or else greatly reduced on accout of the season being advanced. It was now the fifteenth of May.)

 Euphemla and l once wrote a book this was just before we were married,-in which we told young married people how to go to housekeeping and how much it Va oil ai, for we had asked several people. Now the prices demanded as yearly rental for small furnished houses, by the owners were actually more than we had stated a

 The advertisements of other people did something wrong about the houses when we made close inquiries, and the trouble was generally in regard to the rent. With agents we had little better fortune. Flu phemia sometimes went with me on my expeditions to real estate offices, and she remarked that these offices were always in the basement, or else you had to go up to them in an elevator. There was nothing between these extremes. And 1t was B good deal the same was, she said, with their houses. They were all very low inz deed in price and quality, or else too high. She assured me several times that if we could find any office on the second or third floor we should certainly be suit ed. But we never found such an office.

 One trouble was that we wanted house in country place, not very far from the station or steamboat landing. We also vvon %o6 %bo k~ 1>o ,ol> lol fully furnished, and not to be in a mala- rrous neighborhood, or one infested by mosquitoes.

 elf we do go to housekeeping, said Flu phemia, ''we might as we'll get a house to suit us while We are about it. Moving is more expensive than fire"

 There was one man who offered us a house that almost suited us It was near the water, had rooms enough, and some but nos very much-ground, and was very accessible to the city. The rent, too, was quite reasonable. But it was unfurnish- ed. The agent, however, did not think that this would present any obstacle to our taking 1t. He was sure that the owner would furnish 1t if we paid hlm ten per ct on the value of the furniture he put into 1t. We agreed that if the landlord would do this and let us furnish the house ac- cording to the plans laid down ill our book, that We would take the house. But unfortunately thls arrangement did not suit the landlord, although he was in the habit of furnishing houses for tenants and charging them ten per cent. on the cost.

 saw him myself ard talked to him about it.

 ''But you see," said he, when I had shown him our list of articles necessary for the furnishing of house, ''it would not pay me to buy all these things, and rent them out to you. If you only want ed heavy furniture, which would last for years, the plan would answer, but you want everything. I believe the small con- veniencess you have on this list come to more money than the furniture and car pets."

 "Oh, yes," said l. ''We are not SO very particular about furniture and carpets, but these little conveniences are the things that make housekeeping pleasant and, speaking from a common-sense point of ofview,-profitable."

 ''That may be" he answered, ''but I can't afford to make matters pleasant and profitable for you in that way. Now, then, let us look at one or two particulars. Here, on your list, Is an ice-pick: twenty five cents. Now, if buy that ice-pick and rent 1t to you at two and a-half cents ;l year, shall not get my money back un- less 1t lasts you ten years. And even then, as it Is not probable that can sell that ice-pick after you have used 1t for ten years, shall have made nothing at all by my bargain. And there are other things in that list, such as feather-dusters and lamp -chinneys, that couldn't possib- ly last ten years. Don't you see my posi- tion?'

 saw 1t. We did not get that furnish ed house. Euphemia was greatly disap- pointed:

 ''It would have been just splendid" sde said, ito have taken cur book and have ordered all these things at the stores, one after another, without even being ob- llged to ask the price"

 l had my private doubts in regard to this matter of price. I am afraid that Euphemia generally set down the lowest prices and the best. things She did not mean to mislead, and her plan certainly made o1r book attractive. But it did not work very well in practice. We have a friend who undertook to furnish her house by our book, and she never could get the things as cheaply as we had them quoted.

 ''But you see," said Euphemia, to her. s'we had to put them down at very low prices, because the model house we speak of in the book is to be entirely furnished for just so much.''

 But, in spite of this explanation, the lady was not satisfied.

 We found ourselves obliged to give up the idea of furnished house. We would have taken an unfurnished one and fur nished 1t ourselves. but we hadn't money enough. We were dreadfully afraid that we should have to continue to board.

 It was now getting on toward summer, at least there was only part of a month of spring left, and whenever I could getl off from my business Euphemia and JI made little excursions into the county round about the elty. Sometimes we h.d only an hour or two of an evening, button Sundays we had all day. One aftern.on we went up the Harlem river, and tlere