ad made his agreement with the family, he had brought a man
down from Harrington, whose business it was to move houses, and had put
the job into his hands. He stipulated that at one o'clock P.M. on the
day agreed upon the house was to begin to move, and he arranged with the
mason to whom he had given the contract for preparing the cellar on the
new lot, that he should begin operations at the same hour.

He then offered a reward of two hundred dollars to be given to the mover
if he got his house to its destination before the cellar was done, or to
the mason if he finished the cellar before the house arrived.

The Barnards had an early dinner, which was cooked on a kerosene stove,
their chimney having been taken down, but they had not finished washing
the dishes when their house began to move.

Mrs. Cliff and Willy ran to bid them good-bye, and all the Barnards, old
and young, leaned out of a back window and shook hands.

Mr. Burke had arranged a sort of gang-plank with a railing if any of
them wanted to go on shore--that is, step on terra firma--during the
voyage. But Samuel Rolands, the mover, heedful of his special prize,
urged upon them not to get out any oftener than could be helped, because
when they wished to use the gang-plank he would be obliged to stop.

There were two boys in the family who were able to jump off and on
whenever they pleased, but boys are boys, and very different from other
people.

Houses had been moved in Plainton before, but never had any inhabitants
of the place beheld a building glide along upon its timber course with,
speaking comparatively, the rapidity of this travelling home.

Most of the citizens of the place who had leisure, came at some time
that afternoon to look at the moving house, and many of them walked by
its side, talking to the Barnards, who, as the sun was warm, stood at an
open window, very much excited by the spirit of adventure, and quite
willing to converse.

Over and over they assured their neighbors that they would never know
they were moving if they did not see the trees and things slowly passing
by them.

As they crossed the street and passed between two houses on the opposite
side, the inhabitants of these gathered at their windows, and the
conversation was very lively with the Barnards, as the house of the
latter passed slowly by.

All night that house moved on, and the young people of the village
accompanied it until eleven o'clock, when the Barnards we