is, but you know how I hate to begin it."

"But you needn't hate it," said he. "There isn't the least reason in the
world for any objection to it. I've a plan which will make it all clear
sailin'. I've been thinkin' it out, and this is the way I've thought
it." Mrs. Cliff listened with great attention.

"Now then," said Burke, "next to you on the west is your own lot that
you're going to put your new dining-room on. Am I right there?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Cliff, "you are right there."

"Well, next to that is the little house inhabited by a family named
Barnard, I'm told, and next to that there's a large corner lot with an
old house on it that's for sale. Now then, if I was you, I'd buy that
corner lot and clear away the old house, and I'd build my dining-room
right there. I'd get a good architect and let him plan you a
first-class, A number one, dining-room, with other rooms to it, above it
and below it, and around it; with porticos, and piazzas, and little
balconies to the second story, and everything that anybody might want
attached to a first-class dining-room."

Mrs. Cliff laughed. "But what good would it be to me away up there at
the corner of the next street?"

"The reason for putting it there," said Burke, "is to get clear of all
the noise and dirt of building, and the fuss and bother that you dislike
so much. And then when it was all finished, and painted, and papered,
and the carpets down, if you like, I'd have it moved right up here
against your house just where you want it. When everything was in order,
and you was ready, you could cut a door right through into the new
dining-room, and there you'd be. They've got so in the way of slidin'
buildings along on timbers now that they can travel about almost like
the old stage coaches, and you needn't have your cellar dug until you're
ready to clap your new dining-room right over it."

Mrs. Cliff smiled, and Willy listened with open eyes. "But how about the
Barnard family and their house?" said she.

"Oh, I'd buy them a lot somewhere else," said he, "and move their house.
They wouldn't object if you paid them extra. What I'd have if I was in
your place, Mrs. Cliff, would be a clear lot down to the next street,
and I'd have a garden in it with flowers, and gravel walks, and
greenhouses, and all that sort of thing."

"All stretching itself out in the sunshine under the new dining-room
windows!" cried Willy Croup, with sparkling eyes.

Mrs. Cliff sat and consi