urself?"

Sez he, "Let me once git into a place where my mind can work, I'll
show what I can do, let me once git away from meddlin' and clack."

But that night of his own accord (I'd had a uncommon good supper) he
acted real affectionate and more confidentialer than he had for weeks,
an' he sez, "There is one thing, Samantha, I'm bound to have, and that
is a mullin' winder."

"A what?" sez I. "A mullin winder; what is that?"

"Why a winder made out of mullins," sez he hautily.

Sez I, "How do you make it? Mullin leaves are thick and the stalks
tougher than fury, how do you make winders out of 'em?"

"That," sez he proudly, "is the work of a architect to take stalks of
the humble mullin and transfer it into a tall and stately winder."

Sez I, "I don't believe it can be done. How would you go to work to do
it?"

Sez he, "It would be fur from me, Samantha, to muddle up a woman's
brains any more than they be muddled naturally, tryin' to inform her
how this is done. I only say there will be a mullin' winder in the
house."

Sez I, "Hain't you goin' to have a bay winder?"

"That depends on whether there will be room for the bay. But as to the
ventilation, on that pint my plans are made. I believe a house should
be ventilated to the bottom instead of the top. Air goes up instead of
down, a house should be ventilated from the mop boards, I think some
of havin' em open like a trap door to let the air through. Sime
Bentley sez have a row of holes bored right through the sides of the
house to let in the air, and when you didn't want to use 'em plug 'em
up, when you want a little air take out one stopple, when you want a
good deal take out a hull row of plugs. That's a good idee," sez
Josiah, "but I convinced him that it lacked one important thing, the
air didn't come up from the bottom as I consider it necessary for
health and perfect ventilation."

Sez I dryly, "You might have the holes bored through into the suller!"
My tone wuz as irony as a iron tea-kettle, but he didn't perceive it.

"That is a woman's idee," sez he, "rip up a breadth of carpet every
time you want a little air, keep a man down on his knee jints the hull
of the time tackin' down carpets and ontackin' 'em. Nothin' ever made
a woman so happy as to see a man down on his marrer bones tackin' down
a carpet, unless it is seein' him takin' it up and luggin' it
outdoors, histin' it up on a line and beatin' it. No, my idee is the
only right one, ventilate