Rudder Grange | Page 4

earthly use to look at the book. It would only make us doubt our own
calculations. You might as well try to make brick without mortar, as the

children of Israel did."
"I could do that myself, my dear," said I, "but we won't discuss that
subject now. We will buy just what we absolutely need, and then work
up from that."
Acting on this plan, we bought first a small stove, because Euphemia
said that we could sleep on the floor, if it were necessary, but we
couldn't make a fire on the floor--at least not often. Then we got a table
and two chairs. The next thing we purchased was some hanging shelves
for our books, and Euphemia suddenly remembered the kitchen things.
These, which were few, with some crockery, nearly brought us to the
end of our resources, but we had enough for a big easy-chair which
Euphemia was determined I should have, because I really needed it
when I came home at night, tired with my long day's work at the office.
I had always been used to an easy-chair, and it was one of her most
delightful dreams to see me in a real nice one, comfortably smoking my
pipe in my own house, after eating my own delicious little supper in
company with my own dear wife. We selected the chair, and then we
were about to order the things sent out to our future home, when I
happened to think that we had no bed. I called Euphemia's attention to
the fact.
She was thunderstruck.
"I never thought of that," she said. "We shall have to give up the stove."
"Not at all," said I, "we can't do that. We must give up the easy- chair."
"Oh, that would be too bad," said she. "The house would seem like
nothing to me without the chair!"
"But we must do without it, my dear," said I, "at least for a while. I can
sit out on deck and smoke of an evening, you know."
"Yes," said Euphemia. "You can sit on the bulwarks and I can sit by
you. That will do very well. I'm sure I'm glad the boat has bulwarks."

So we resigned the easy-chair and bought a bedstead and some very
plain bedding. The bedstead was what is sometimes called a
"scissors-bed." We could shut it up when we did not want to sleep in it,
and stand it against the wall.
When we packed up our trunks and left the boarding-house Euphemia
fairly skipped with joy.
We went down to Ginx's in the first boat, having arranged that our
furniture should be sent to us in the afternoon. We wanted to be there to
receive it. The trip was just wildly delirious. The air was charming. The
sun was bright, and I had a whole holiday. When we reached Ginx's we
found that the best way to get our trunks and ourselves to our house
was to take a carriage, and so we took one. I told the driver to drive
along the river road and I would tell him where to stop.
When we reached our boat, and had alighted, I said to the driver:
"You can just put our trunks inside, anywhere."
The man looked at the trunks and then looked at the boat. Afterward he
looked at me.
"That boat ain't goin' anywhere," said he.
"I should think not," said Euphemia. "We shouldn't want to live in it, if
it were."
"You are going to live in it?" said the man.
"Yes," said Euphemia.
"Oh!" said the man, and he took our trunks on board, without another
word.
It was not very easy for him to get the trunks into our new home. In
fact it was not easy for us to get there ourselves. There was a
gang-plank, with a rail on one side of it, which inclined from the shore
to the deck of the boat at an angle of forty-five degrees, and when the

man had staggered up this plank with the trunks (Euphemia said I ought
to have helped him, but I really thought that it would be better for one
person to fall off the plank than for two to go over together), and we
had paid him, and he had driven away in a speechless condition, we
scrambled up and stood upon the threshold, or, rather, the after-deck of
our home.
It was a proud moment. Euphemia glanced around, her eyes full of
happy tears, and then she took my arm and we went down stairs--at
least we tried to go down in that fashion, but soon found it necessary to
go one at a time. We wandered over the whole extent of our mansion
and found that our carpenter had done his work