28 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



board is off they tumble over like a row of nine- 

 pins and you may be bowled out with them if you 

 are not clever enough to foresee this. 



As with the roof-boards, so with the floors and 

 walls. Blows with the great bar, or its patient 

 use as a lever, separate part from part, board 

 from joist, and joist from timber, and do the 

 work, and you learn much of the wisdom and 

 foolishness of the old-time builder as you go on. 

 Here he dovetailed and pinned the framework so 

 firmly and cleverly that nothing but human pa- 

 tience and ingenuity could ever get it apart ; 

 there he cut under the ends of splendid strong 

 floor joists and dropped them into shallow mor- 

 tises, so that but an inch or two of the wood 

 really took the strain, and the joist seemed likely 

 to split and drop out, of its own weight. You 

 see the work of the man who knew his business 

 and used only necessary nails, and those in the 

 right places; and the work of that other, who 

 was five times as good a carpenter because he 

 used five times as many nails ! 



You learn, too, how the old house grew from 

 a very humble beginning to an eleven-room 

 structure that covered a surprising amount of 

 ground, as one generation after another passed 



