are a costly luxury and they are a great care. Owing to the few
hardwood floors in our new house we were delayed moving into the place
for many weeks. When Uncle Si and his cohort got through with them
they were as billowy as the surface of the ocean.

The painters came to us one by one and apprized us in confidence that
those floors were the worst they had ever seen. They said that the
carpenters must have supposed that we wanted a toboggan slide instead
of hardwood floors. This sarcasm rankled in our bosoms.

At this critical juncture Lansom Mansom, the cabinetmaker who had made
our bookcases for us, came to our relief with the suggestion that he be
employed to "go over" the floors and make them practicable. He advised
the per-diem scheme, and with characteristic good nature we acceded to
it. Thereupon this crafty and thrifty person set himself about this
delectable task, which busied him five weeks at four dollars a day--a
sum not to be sneezed at, I can tell you.

When the floors were scraped and stained and varnished it took two
weeks for them to dry; meanwhile nobody was permitted to approach them.
A favored few among our most intimate friends were graciously allowed
to peer in at the shining floors from the porch outside, and it seemed
very tedious waiting for the time to come when we could put those
floors to the uses for which floors are undoubtedly intended.

When at last we _were_ suffered to walk upon the floors an unlooked-for
casualty came very near dashing to the ground the cup of joy which our
pride had, metaphorically speaking, raised to our lips. Little
Josephine, the most precious jewel in our domestic diadem, had never
before had any experience with hardwood floors, and no sooner did she
begin to dance and caper on that smooth and lustrous surface than the
innocent little lambkin lost her footing and fell, sustaining so severe
a shock as to render the services of a physician necessary.

This mishap confirmed me in my dislike for hardwood floors, and that
dislike has increased steadily. Several other people have come very
near breaking their necks by losing their balance on that treacherous
surface, and I confess that I myself am compelled to exercise the art
of a Blondin in order to maintain my equilibrium in those slippery
places.

Alice has always argued that hardwood floors were particularly
desirable for the reason that they did away with the expense and care
of carpets. It is tr