UNBUILDING A BUILDING 29 



and one owner succeeded another. In this the 

 counsel of the local historian helps you much, for 

 he comes daily and sits by as you work, and 

 daily tells you the story of the old place, usually 

 beginning in the middle and working both ways ; 

 for the unbuilding of a building is a great pro- 

 moter of sociability. Fellow townsmen whom 

 you feel that you hardly know beyond a rather 

 stiff bowing acquaintance hold up their horses 

 and hail you jovially, even getting out to chat a 

 while or lend a hand, each having opinions ac- 

 cording to his lights. Strickland, whose pros- 

 perity lies in swine, sees but one use for the old 

 timbers. ''My!" he says, "what a hog-pen this 

 would make !" Downes is divided in his mind be- 

 tween hen-houses and green-houses, and thinks 

 there will be enough lumber and sashes for both. 

 Lynde suspects that you are going to establish 

 gypsy camps wholesale, while Estey, carpenter 

 and builder, and wise in the working of wood, 

 knows that you are lucky if the remains are good 

 enough for fire-wood. 



Little for these material aspects cares the his- 

 torian, however, as he skips gayly from one past 

 generation to another, waving his phantoms off 

 the stage of memory with a sweep of his cane, 



