TAKING REINS IN HAND 



not have need of revision. Did their opinion 

 spring from a discerning measurement of the 

 real fitness of a country house, or out of a cher- 

 ished^and traditional regard for white and green ? 



The final question, however, in regard to it, 

 as a matter of practical interest, is one of econ- 

 omy. Can a house of the homely material 

 and character described be built cheaply? Un- 

 questionably. In my own case the cost of a 

 cottage fifty feet by twenty-six, and with ten- 

 feet walls — containing five serviceable rooms, 

 besides closets on its main floor, and two large 

 chambers of good height under the roof, as well 

 as dairy room in the east end of the cellar — 

 was between eleven and twelve hundred dollars. 

 The estimates given me for a wooden house, of 

 the stereotyped aspect and similar dimensions, 

 were within a few dollars of the same sum. 



It must be remembered, however, that any 

 novelty of construction in a particular district, 

 costs by reason of its novelty ; the stone mason 

 charges for the possible difficulties of over- 

 coming his inexperience in the material. The 

 carpenter rates the rough joining at the same 

 figure with the old mouldings and finishing 

 boards to which he is accustomed, and of which 

 he may have a stock on hand. Yet, notwith- 

 standing these drawbacks, the work was ac- 



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