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Page 14
"Yes; it's a solemn subject."
"_Shall_ you 'do your own work'?"
"Of course I shall. How can I help it?
'Each hath a work that no other can do;'
but just precisely what my own work will be I am not at present
prepared to say."
"Is Aunt Melville as solemn as Aunt Jerusha?"
"Aunt Melville assures her dear niece that 'the last plans are
absolutely beyond criticism: the rooms are large and elegant, the
modern conveniences perfect, the kitchen and servants' quarters
isolated from the rest of the house'--"
"That won't suit the other aunty."
"The porte coch�re and side entrance most convenient and the front
entrance sufficiently distinguished by the tower. I particularly like
the porte coch�re at the side. If none of your callers came on foot
there would be no objection to having it at the front entrance, but it
isn't pleasant to be compelled to walk up the carriage-way. As you
see, this is a brick house, and I am persuaded you ought to build of
bricks. It will cost ten or fifteen per cent. more--possibly
twenty--but in building a permanent home you ought not to consider the
cost for a moment.'"
"That's a comfortable doctrine, if everybody would live up to it," said
Jack.
"Yes; and like a good many other comfortable doctrines, it contains too
much truth to be rejected--not enough to be accepted. We _must_ count
the cost, but if we limit ourselves to a certain outlay, and positively
refuse to go beyond that, we shall regret it as long as we live. We may
leave some things unfinished, but whatever is done past alteration,
either in size or quality, must be right, whatever it costs."
And herein Jill displayed her good sense. It is, indeed, a mistake to
build a house beyond the possibility of paying for it, or of
maintaining it without a constant struggle, but in building a permanent
home there is more likely to be lasting regret through too close
economy in the first outlay, than through extravagance--regret that can
only be cured by an outlay far exceeding what the original cost would
have been.
The architect came as the sun went down, and, after being duly warmed,
fed and cheered, was informed by Jill that all she expected from him
that evening was an explanation of the respective merits of wood and
brick houses. Jack begged the privilege of taking notes, to keep
himself awake, Jill begged the architect to be as brief as possible,
and the architect begged for a small blackboard and a piece of chalk,
that he might, in conveying his ideas, use the only one, true, natural
and universal language which requires no grammar, dictionary or
interpreter.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
MANY FIRES MAKE SMALL DIVIDENDS.
There are two things belonging to modern civilization," the architect
began, "that fill me with amazement. This morning, at the usual hour, I
sat at my own breakfast table. During the day I have been reading and
writing, eating, drinking and making merry with pleasant acquaintances,
old and new. I have observed the architecture of a dozen cities and a
hundred villages and have seen landscapes without number. I have been
occupying an elegantly finished and furnished drawing-room all the
time, with every possible comfort and convenience at hand, and now am
sitting at your fireside, two hundred and fifty miles from home. I have
just assured the girl I left behind me of my safe arrival, and have
listened to her grateful reply. With my ten thousand companions going
in the same direction I have met ten thousand others crossing and
recrossing our path, every one of whom was as safe and comfortable as
ourselves, every one of whom knew the hour and the minute at which he
would reach his destination. To an observer above the clouds our
pathways would appear more frail than the finest gossamer; and the most
daring engineer that ever lived, seeing for the first time our mode of
travel, would stake his reputation that we were rushing to
inevitable destruction. Yet every foot of our way has been so guarded
that not one of these swiftly-moving palaces has swerved from its track
or been hindered on its course. This annihilation of space, with the
human skill, vigilance and fidelity incidental to it, are more
wonderful to me than any tales of magic, stranger than any fiction. I
believe because I see; nevertheless it is incredible. My second
amazement is that fire insurance companies should continue to live and
thrive against such apparently fearful odds, for I see whole villages
and cities composed of buildings that seem expressly designed to invite
speedy combustion, and at the same time to resist all attempts to
extinguish a fire once started in their complex interiors. Indeed, the
most effective modes of treatment yet discovered for a burning building
are drowning it with all its contents in a deluge of water or blowing
it up with gunpowder. It is an open question which of the two methods
is to be preferred.
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