f mind to
old Mrs. Prichard, the easier of maintenance that the old lady's failing
sight left more interpretations of the text open to her imagination.

Mrs. Burr, moreover, went on to say that Mrs. Prichard had been that
upset by hearing about the builders, that she wasn't herself. This odd
result could not but interfere with the reading of even the lightest
literature. Its cause calls for explanation. Circumstances had arisen
which, had they occurred in the wintertime, would have been a serious
embarrassment to the attic tenants in Sapps Court. As it chanced, the
weather was warm and dry; otherwise old Mrs. Prichard and Mrs. Burr
would just have had to turn out, to allow the builder in, to attend to
the front wall. For there was no doubt that it was bulging and ought to
have been seen to, aeons ago. And it was some days since the landlord's
attention had been called, and Bartletts the builders had waked all the
dwellers in Sapps Court who still slept at six o'clock, by taking out a
half a brick or two to make a bearing for as many putlogs--pronounced
pudlocks--as were needed for a little bit of scaffold. For there was
more than you could do off a ladder, if you was God A'mighty Himself.
Thus Mr. Bartlett, and Aunt M'riar condemned his impiety freely. Before
the children! Closely examined, his speech was reverential, and an
acknowledgment of the powers of the Constructor of the Universe as
against the octave-stretch forlorn of our limitations. But it was
Anthropomorphism, no doubt.

CHAPTER XVI

OF LONDON BUILDERS, AND THEIR GREAT SKILL. OF THE HUMILIATING
POSITION OF A SHAMEFACED BAT. HOW MR. BARTLETT MADE ALL GOOD. A
PEEP INTO MRS. PRICHARD'S MIND, LEFT ALONE WITH HER PAST. MR.
BARTLETT'S TRUCK, AND DAVE WARDLE'S ANNEXATION OF IT. MRS.
TAPPING'S IMPRESSIONABILITY. AN ITALIAN MUSICIAN'S MONKEY. A CLEAN
FINISH. THE BULL AND THE DUCKPOND. OF MRS. PRICHARD'S JEALOUSY OF
MRS. MARROWBONE. CANON LAW. HOW DAVE DESCRIBED HER RIVAL. HER
SISTER PHOEBE. BUT--WHY DAVERILL, OF ALL NAMES IN THE WORLD?
FOURPENNYWORTH OF CRUMPETS

If you have ever given attention to buildings in the course of erection
in London, you must have been struck with their marvellous stability.
The mere fact that they should remain standing for five minutes after
the removal of the scaffold must have seemed to you to reflect credit on
the skill of the builder; but that they should do so for a
lifetime