se for two people sounded rather
formidable but as this house contained only two rooms its rental was not
as extravagant as might have been imagined. It was located on the main
thoroughfare which had the very American name of Washington Street. Like
the typical native house, our Washington Street mansion was built
chiefly of bamboo and _nipa_ palm, with a few heavier timbers in the
framework. Upon the main timbers of the frame was built a sort of
lattice of split bamboo, upon which in turn was sewed, shinglewise,
close layers of nipa palm that are quite impervious to rain, are fairly
durable, and are very inflammable. The _people's_ floor was elevated
four or five feet above the ground, thereby securing not only air and
dryness for the people above, but also providing a very convenient
chicken-coop and pig-pen beneath. The floor was made of split bamboo
which made sweeping easy--merely a matter of pushing the dirt
through the cracks between the strips of bamboo.

[Illustration: MARIVELES VILLAGE AND MOUNTAIN, FROM MANILA BAY.]

Although the smell of even a _clean_ pig under the dining-room table is
rather objectionable at first, as is the crowing of two or three
roosters early in the morning, it is surprising how soon one becomes
accustomed to these little annoyances, and it simplifies domestic
science considerably to be able to throw, from one's seat at table,
banana skins and other scraps through a convenient hole in the floor and
have them immediately disposed of by the pig and chickens beneath.

[Illustration: OUR RESIDENCE ON "WASHINGTON STREET."]

The dining room, as in many American houses, also served as a kitchen.
The stove was a large box, elevated two or three feet from the floor,
lined with baked clay upon which the fire is made. Large iron spikes,
arranged in groups of three, may be imbedded in the clay to hold one or
more pots of different sizes. There was no chimney, but a convenient
window carried out the smoke quite effectively. The fire-wood was stored
under the house in the pig-pen and consisted chiefly of short sticks of
such diameter as could be easily cut with the large knife or bolo that
the natives wear suspended from a belt at the waist. The sticks, when
the cooking is done, are simply withdrawn from beneath the pot and lie
ready to be pushed in again when the fire is lit for the next meal. A
very few sticks will thus serve for cooking a large number of the simple
native meals. Opening from t