ARCHITECTURE. 
53 
sticks are slanted over him or under him, and what colors 
are daubed upon his box. It would signify somewhat, 
if, in any earnest sense, he slanted them and daubed it; 
but the spirit having departed out of the tenant, it is of 
a piece with constructing his own coffin, — the archi¬ 
tecture of the grave, and “ carpenter,” is but another 
name for “ coffin-maker.” One man says, in his despair 
or indifference to life, take up a handful of the earth at 
your feet, and paint your house that color. Is he think¬ 
ing of his last and narrow house ? Toss up a copper for 
it as well. What an abundance of leisure he must have ! 
Why do you take up a handful of dirt ? Better paint 
your house your own complexion; let it turn pale or 
blush for you. An enterprise to improve the style of 
cottage architecture! When you have got my orna¬ 
ments ready I will wear them. 
Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides 
of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with 
imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of 
the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a 
plane. 
I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten 
feet wide by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a gar¬ 
ret and a closet, a large window on each side, two trap 
doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace oppo¬ 
site. The exact cost of my house, paying the usual 
price for such materials as I used, but not counting the 
work, all of which was done by myself, was as follows; 
and I give the details because very few are able to tell 
exactly what their houses cost, and fewer still, if any, 
the separate cost of the various materials which com¬ 
pose them: — 
