SHELTER 63 



work, and besides, that it was connected to a cistern 

 in which there was rarely any water. 



To make this house over into what would furnish 

 us the equivalent of the comforts to which we were 

 accustomed would have required the employment of 

 carpenters, of joiners, of plasterers, of plumbers, of 

 steam-fitters, of electricians. 



To us these necessary alterations loomed up por- 

 tentously. If the house was to be made livable, all of 

 them would have to be made, and since we lacked the 

 means to employ contractors to make all of them for 

 us, there was only one way out of the dilemma, and 

 that was to undertake to make most of them myself. 

 An initial experience with contractors helped to 

 strengthen our determination in this direction. We 

 had purchased an electric range price $75 for use 

 in the country. We made arrangements with an elec- 

 trician to install the range the day after we arrived, 

 and received a bill for $35 for the work nearly half 

 the cost of the range. Whether the charge was ex- 

 orbitant or not, it seemed to us high, and to me it did 

 not seem to involve much in the way of skills which 

 I could not master. 



I began to accumulate tools from that moment, and 

 decided to train myself for the job of jack-of-all- 

 trades by undertaking to build something on which 

 my 'prentice hand could do no irretrievable damage. 

 A new chicken-house was elected. The shanty we had 

 found on the place, and which had been used for a 

 chicken-house, was such a dirty, hopelessly inefficient 



