ty can live in the back
building,--for, of course, your house will now be the same thing as a
back building,--and you can have the second floor. We won't have any
separate tables, because it will be a great deal nicer for you and
Kitty to live with me, and it will simply be your paying board for two
persons instead of one. And you know you can manage your vineyard just
as well from the bottom of the hill as from the top. The lower rooms
of what used to be your house can be made very pleasant and comfortable
for all of us. I have been thinking about the room on the right that
you had planned for a parlor, and it will make a lovely sitting-room
for us, which is a thing we have never had, and the room on the other
side is just what will suit beautifully for a guest-chamber. The two
houses together, with the roof of my back porch properly joined to the
front of your house, will make a beautiful and spacious dwelling. It
was fortunate, too, that you painted your house a light yellow. I have
often looked at the two together, and thought what a good thing it was
that one was not one color and the other another. As to the pump, it
will be very easy now to put a pipe from what used to be your back
porch to our kitchen, so that we can get water without being obliged to
carry it. Between us we can make all sorts of improvements, and some
time I will tell you of a good many that I have thought of.

"What used to be your house," she continued, "can be jack-screwed up a
little bit and a good foundation put under it. I have inquired about
that. Of course it would not have been proper to let you know that I
was satisfied with the state of things, but I was satisfied, and there
is no use of denying it. As soon as I got over my first scare after
that house came down the hill, and had seen how everything might be
arranged to suit all parties, I said to myself, `What the Lord has
joined together, let not man put asunder,' and so, according to my
belief, the strongest kind of jack-screws could not put these two
houses asunder, any more than they could put you and Kitty asunder, now
that you have agreed to take each other for each other's own."

Jack Brandiger came to call that evening, and when he had heard what
had happened he whistled a good deal. "You are a funny kind of a
fellow," said he. "You go courting like a snail, with your house on
your back!"

I think my friend was a little discomfited. "Don't be discouraged,
J