at
the same time. Nor would it sufficiently warm the bathroom in very cold
weather even with the kitchen door open. Then one night in February the
pipes at the far end froze and burst, and the hardware man had to make
us another hasty visit.

To ward off such accidents in the future the old Squire now had recourse
to what is known as the Granger furnace--a convenience that was then
just coming into general favor among farmers. They are cosy,
heat-holding contrivances, made of brick and lined either with fire
brick or iron; they have an iron top with pot holes in which you can set
kettles. The old Squire connected ours with the heater, and he placed it
so that half of it projected into the new bathroom, through the
partition wall of the kitchen. It served its purpose effectively and on
winter nights diffused a genial glow both in the kitchen and in the
bathroom.

But it was the middle of April before the bathroom was completed; and
the cost was actually between eight and nine hundred dollars!

"My sakes, Joseph!" grandmother exclaimed. "Another bathroom like that
would put us in the poor-house. And the neighbors all think we're
crazy!"

The old Squire, however, rubbed his hands with a smile of satisfaction.
"I call it rather fine. I guess we are going to like it," he said.

Like it we did, certainly. Bathing was no longer an ordeal, but a
delight. There was plenty of warm water; you had only to pick your tub,
enter your cubicle and shut the door. Bethesda, with its Granger furnace
and big water heater, was a veritable household joy.

"Ruth," the old Squire said, "all I'm sorry for is that I didn't do this
thirty years ago. When I reflect on the cold, miserable baths we have
taken and the other privations you and I have endured all these years it
makes me heartsick to think what I've neglected."

"But nine hundred dollars, Joseph!" grandmother interposed with a
scandalized expression. "That's an awful bill!"

"Yes," the old Squire admitted, "but we shall survive it."

Grandmother was right about our neighbors. What they said among
themselves would no doubt have been illuminating if we had heard it; but
they maintained complete silence when we were present. But we noticed
that when they called at the farmhouse they cast curious and perhaps
envious glances at the new lean-to.

Then an amusing thing happened. We had been enjoying Bethesda for a few
weeks, but had not yet got past our daily pride in it, when one h