170 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



more neatly wrought, and without much pig- 

 ment or paint. Whereas you know it is 

 seldom, if ever, that you can see the inside of 

 any part of a wooden house shingled or clap- 

 boarded. We should laugh outright, to see 

 the walls of a beautiful parlor or bed-room 

 shingled. 



There is one more essential and important 

 difference. The rooms in many dwellings are 

 often partly or wholly empty ; or at least there is 

 nothing in them except a small quantity of furni- 

 ture and air. But except a few very small and 

 not very important apartments, all the rooms of 

 the house I live in are completely filled. Such 

 a thing as empty space is hardly known there. 

 The furniture, or whatever is in them, at all 

 times completely fills them ; for when anything 

 is removed from them, their walls are accus- 

 tomed to shrink accordingly ; and when any- 

 thing is introduced into them, these walls have 

 the power of gradually yielding so as greatly 

 to increase the capacity of the apartments. 



It is true that the furniture, &c., in each 

 room, does not so entirely fill it as not to leave 

 place for air; for as I have already said, all the 



