WE TAKE POSSESSION 41 



chamber eighteen by twenty-six, with closets five 

 feet deep, to be used as a sleeping room for the 

 men. I intended to change the sitting room, 

 which ran across the main house, into a dining and 

 reading room twenty feet by twenty-five, and to 

 improve the shape and convenience of the kitchen 

 by pantry and lavatory. There must also be a 

 well-appointed bathroom on the upper floor, and 

 set tubs in the kitchen. My men would dig the 

 cellar, and the mason was to put in the founda- 

 tion walls (twelve inches thick and two feet 

 above ground), the cross or division walls, and the 

 chimneys. He was also to put down a first-class 

 cement floor over the whole cellar and ap- 

 proach. The house was to be heated by a hot- 

 water system ; and I afterward let this job to 

 a city man, who put in a satisfactory plant for 

 $500. 



We had hardly finished with the carpenter 

 and the mason when we saw our wagons turn- 

 ing into the grounds. We left the contractors 

 to their measurements, plans, and figures, while 

 we hastened to turn the teams back, as they 

 must go to the cottage on the north forty. The 

 horses looked a little done up by the heat and 

 the unaccustomed journey, but Thompson said : 

 They're all right, stood it first-rate." 



The cottage and out-buildings furnished scanty 

 accommodations for men and beasts, but they 

 were all that we could provide. I told the men 

 to make themselves and the horses as comfort- 



