266 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



some trusty and sagacious foreman who could be 

 brought to entertain some pride in the issue of the 

 proposed scheme and allow him to select the laborers 

 through whom it should be carried into execution 

 on " day's wages." Good country wall-layers, who 

 have only a little deftness in the use of the trowel, 

 would be capital co-workers ; and at all hazards, that 

 riffraff of lazy fellows should be discarded who de- 

 light in hammering out ten listless hours in deface- 

 ment of the beautiful natural cleavage of our rocks. 



Another matter worthy of full consideration is 

 the fact that the cost of a stone house increases 

 rapidly with its height ; the first twelve feet, may be 

 easily manageable, but the next twelve involve por- 

 tentous array of scaffolding, and the lifting of large 

 masses of material: economy would thus seem to 

 dictate, where stone is employed, low walls and a 

 large area. Would our country houses lose in pic- 

 turesqueness or in comfort by such a readjustment of 

 proportions ? 



Form and Color. 



THIS leads me to speak of form. The man who 

 goes up two flights of stairs every night in the 

 country to his bed, does a very preposterous thing. 

 If not two, why go up one ? A large compensa- 



