UNBUILDING A BUILDING 35 



reference to the present structure. Some build- 

 ing, old a century and a half ago, had been torn 

 down and its timbers used for the part that "had 

 been Wheeler/ 7 



Thus the old house grew again as it fell, and 

 the old-time owners and inhabitants stepped 

 forth into life once more. Yet I found traces 

 of other tenants that paid neither rent nor taxes, 

 yet occupied apartments that to them were com- 

 modious and comfortable. In the attic were the 

 bats, but not they alone. Snuggled up against 

 the chimney in the southern angle, right under 

 the ridge-pole, was a whole colony of squash- 

 bugs which had wintered safely there and were 

 only waiting for the farmer's squash vines to be- 

 come properly succulent. A bluebottle fly slipped 

 out of a crevice and buzzed in the sun by the attic 

 window. Under every ridge-board and corner- 

 board, almost under every shingle, were the co- 

 coons and chrysalids of insects, thousands of si- 

 lent lives waiting but the touch of the summer 

 sun to make them vocal. 



On the ground floor, within walls, were the 

 apartments of the rats, their empty larders 

 choked with corn-cobs showing where once had 

 been feasting, their bed chambers curiously up- 



