h the bricks?"

"Got your plans--sketches--papers?" said the doctor.

"Yes, uncle," cried the boy, eagerly, taking some sheets of note-paper
from his breast. "You can see it all here. This is where the pipe
would come out of the top of the boiler, and run all round three sides
of the house, and go back again and into the boiler, down at the
bottom."

"And would that be enough to heat the greenhouse?"

"Plenty, uncle. I've worked it all out, and got a circular from London,
and I can tell you exactly all it will cost--except the bricklayers'
work, and that can't be much."

"Can't it?" cried the doctor, laughing. "Let me tell you it just can be
a very great deal. I know it of old. There's a game some people are
very fond of playing at, Vane. It's called bricks and mortar. Don't
you ever play at it much; it costs a good deal of money."

"Oh, but this couldn't cost above a pound or two."

"Humph! No. Not so much as building a new flue, of course. But, look
here: how about cold, frosty nights? The kitchen-fire goes out when
Martha is off to bed."

"It does now, uncle," said the lad; "but it mustn't when we want to heat
the hot-water pipes."

"But that would mean keeping up the fire all night."

"Well, you would do that if you had a stove and flue, uncle."

"Humph, yes."

"And, in this case, the fire on cold winters' nights would be indoors,
and help to warm the house."

"So it would," said the doctor, who went on examining the papers very
thoughtfully.

"The pipes would be nicer and neater, too, than the brick flue, uncle."

"True, boy," said the doctor, still examining the plans very
attentively. "But, look here. Are you pretty sure that this hot-water
would run all along the pipes?"

"Quite, uncle, and I did so hope you would let me do it, if only to show
old Bruff that he does not know everything."

"But you don't expect me to put my hand in my pocket and pay pounds on
purpose to gratify your vanity, boy--not really?" said the doctor.

"No, uncle," cried Vane; "it's only because I want to succeed."

"Ah, well, I'll think it over," said the doctor; and with that promise
the boy had to rest satisfied.

CHAPTER TEN.

VANE'S WORKSHOP.

But Vane went at once to the kitchen with the intention of making some
business-like measurements of the opening about the range, and to see
where a boiler could best be placed. A glance within was sufficient.
Martha was busy about the very spot; a