246 Our Farming. 



then her eye fell on the little phaeton and her remark was never 

 finished, and she looked as though she was awful sorry she ever 

 began it. Still she was right; one's practice should always be up 

 to his preaching. We had fooled her completely, once. But 

 don't you dream that she hasn't done the writer up as badly. 



All these doors in the tool house are fastened on the inside 

 except one. The natural place of entrance as we go from the 

 house is near the centre of the tool house, so one door in space d 

 is fastened inside and the other has a large latch on so it can 

 readily be opened from either side, and this is our regular place 

 of entrance in going to the stable in the main barn to the right. 



I have not said anything about it, but you have probably in- 

 ferred that we have a ground floor in the tool house. We have, 

 and I think it is the best. Of course, it costs nothing, while a 

 wooden floor with joists and planks would be quite expensive. 

 But the matter of convenience was of more importance to us. It 

 is so much less trouble to get things in and out, with a ground 

 floor. To prevent water from running in, the floor is raised 

 slightly above the surface outside, say six inches, with a slope 

 some ten feet long to make this little rise in. Practically, this 

 does not bother at all about getting tools in. I back the binder 

 in with the team ; other tools are readily put in by hand. Again, 

 the ground floor is better for buggies and most tools, as the air 

 does not get so dry as with a plank floor raised from the ground. 

 There is no tendency to shrinkage of woodwork in the hottest 

 weather, but there is one slight drawback. In the spring, with a 

 sudden thaw, a great change of temperature, the tools, etc., will 

 be damp a few hours, and without care, iron will rust some. This 

 may occur two or three times. Also, the ground floor becomes 

 dusty after a time. Where tools are, it makes no difference; in 

 'fact, it hardly gets much so there ; but where the buggies are, there 

 is so much tramping that it is quite dusty. I have to hitch up be- 

 fore putting on my best shoes, or they would not look freshly 

 blacked. We have tried sprinkling, but the effect does not last 

 long. A floor of clean gravel would be less dusty, but not as 

 pleasant to walk on. Ours is of clay. It would be just perfect if 

 we had a cement floor about three inches deep all over. Quite 

 likely we may put this in at some future time. Do not think it is 

 not very good as it is, but I thought best to give the slight draw- 

 backs that we had found to the earth floor. I should build just the 

 same again, by all means. Except where there are doors, the 

 tool house has underpinning all around, so it is tight. The 

 boards run up and down and are well battened, so no snow or rain 

 drives in. The doors come within about two or three inches of the 

 gravel which forms the entrance and approach. They cannot 

 come closer, as the gravel rises with the frost in the winter nearly 

 two inches. To prevent snow from driving under these doors in 

 the winter, we put straw along against them inside, and lay boards 



