red, the
schoolmaster, Miss Jane, and any other friends or neighbors who may be
in an inquiring mood. Tell them, too, there is no safety, even with
the utmost vigilance, unless every workman carries with him that
old-fashioned instrument, a conscience. Give me credit here for great
self-control. This is the place for some preaching of the most
powerful kind, but I refrain, knowing you are too much engrossed with
the finishing of your house to heed it. Do you remember how it is
recorded in terse Scripture phrase that "Solomon builded a house and
finished it"? Evidently the finishing was then quite as important and
onerous a matter as the building. I think it is a great deal more so.
The carpenters and masons, to whom you pay a certain sum of money,
build it. Before they come and after they go you exercise upon it
your noblest, manliest faculties. Yet it will never be done. The walls
may not grow any larger or the roof any higher, but every year will
add some new charm, some new grace and harmony without and within.
More and more the ground around it, the trees, the walks, and the
grateful soil will assimilate themselves to its spirit. More and more
each article of furniture will grow to be an essential part of the
home, dear for its comfort, and beautiful in its fitness and
simplicity. More and more you will learn the worthlessness of boastful
fashion, and the exceeding loveliness of truth.

LETTER XLIII.

From John.

FINAL AND PERSONAL.

MY DEAR ARCHITECT: We've moved in. The house wasn't done but the
plastering was dry, and the paint too, what there is of it, and enough
rooms were finished to hold us comfortably. Mrs. John thought we
should somehow feel better acquainted if we took possession while
things were in a chaotic state, before the house had a chance to put
on airs, and make us feel like intruders; that it would fit us better
if it wasn't entirely hardened before we crawled into it. I told her
't would be a great deal easier to wait till everything was cleared
up and we could take a fresh start, but she couldn't see it in that
light. Said she'd known lots of folks to be completely overpowered by
a new house, and she proposed to take it while it was sort of
helpless, and would be under obligation to her. It's better, too,
according to her notions, to get familiar with the rooms before
furnishing them, and--I've forgotten what other reasons, all good
enough but not exactly correct, as I've since fo