Rudder Grange

RUDDER GRANGE
by Frank R. Stockton
CHAPTER I.
TREATING OF A NOVEL STYLE OF DWELLING HOUSE.
For some months after our marriage, Euphemia and I boarded. But we
did not like it. Indeed, there was no reason why we should like it.
Euphemia said that she never felt at home except when she was out,
which feeling, indicating such an excessively unphilosophic state of
mind, was enough to make me desire to have a home of my own, where,
except upon rare and exceptional occasions, my wife would never care
to go out.
If you should want to rent a house, there are three ways to find one.
One way is to advertise; another is to read the advertisements of other
people. This is a comparatively cheap way. A third method is to apply
to an agent. But none of these plans are worth anything. The proper
way is to know some one who will tell you of a house that will exactly
suit you. Euphemia and I thoroughly investigated this matter, and I
know that what I say is a fact.
We tried all the plans. When we advertised, we had about a dozen
admirable answers, but in these, although everything seemed to suit,
the amount of rent was not named. (None of those in which the rent
was named would do at all.) And when I went to see the owners, or
agents of these suitable houses, they asked much higher rents than
those mentioned in the unavailable answers--and this, notwithstanding
the fact that they always asserted that their terms were either very
reasonable or else greatly reduced on account of the season being
advanced. (It was now the fifteenth of May.)
Euphemia and I once wrote a book,--this was just before we were

married,--in which we told young married people how to go to
housekeeping and how much it would cost them. We knew all about it,
for we had asked several people. Now the prices demanded as yearly
rental for small furnished houses, by the owners and agents of whom I
have been speaking, were, in many cases, more than we had stated a
house could be bought and furnished for!
The advertisements of other people did not serve any better. There was
always something wrong about the houses when we made close
inquiries, and the trouble was generally in regard to the rent. With
agents we had a little better fortune. Euphemia sometimes went with
me on my expeditions to real estate offices, and she remarked that these
offices were always in the basement, or else you had to go up to them
in an elevator. There was nothing between these extremes. And it was a
good deal the same way, she said, with their houses. They were all very
low indeed in price and quality, or else too high.
One trouble was that we wanted a house in a country place, not very far
from the city, and not very far from the railroad station or steamboat
landing. We also wanted the house to be nicely shaded and fully
furnished, and not to be in a malarial neighborhood, or one infested by
mosquitoes.
"If we do go to housekeeping," said Euphemia, "we might as well get a
house to suit us while we are about it. Moving is more expensive than a
fire."
There was one man who offered us a house that almost suited us. It was
near the water, had rooms enough, and some--but not very much--
ground, and was very accessible to the city. The rent, too, was quite
reasonable. But the house was unfurnished. The agent, however, did
not think that this would present any obstacle to our taking it. He was
sure that the owner would furnish it if we paid him ten per cent, on the
value of the furniture he put into it. We agreed that if the landlord
would do this and let us furnish the house according to the plans laid
down in our book, that we would take the house. But unfortunately this
arrangement did not suit the landlord, although he was in the habit of
furnishing houses for tenants and charging them ten per cent. on the

cost.
I saw him myself and talked to him about it.
"But you see," said he, when I had shown him our list of articles
necessary for the furnishing of a house, "it would not pay me to buy all
these things, and rent them out to you. If you only wanted heavy
furniture, which would last for years, the plan would answer, but you
want everything. I believe the small conveniences you have on this list
come to more money than the furniture and carpets."
"Oh, yes," said I. "We are not so very particular about furniture