CHARLIE BUILDS A REAL HOUSE
WELL, the days passed and passed—and at last it was time for Charlie to go back to the city. He said “Good-by” to the stage driver and to the postmaster and to the man at the country store and to the lady at the farm, where he and his Mother and his Auntie lived while they were in the country. And he said “Good-by” to the cows and to the chickens and to the baby pigs.
Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie packed the suitcase and the trunk and put Topsy into his basket, and he did not like it at all and said “Miaouw, miaouw!” And Jane was put into her basket and she did not like it either, but she was a good cat and she did not say a word. Then Charlie put the leash on Bingo’s collar and they all climbed into the surrey, which is a two-seated carriage, and they all drove to the station. Then they all got on to the train and off they went to the city.
This time there was another fireman, as Charlie’s friend was having a day off, so Charlie did not ride on the engine this time; no, this time he rode in the day coach with his Mother and his Auntie and Topsy and Bingo and Jane.
Charlie was feeling rather sad that he had to leave the country and all his new friends, but as the train steamed farther and farther away, he began to think that it was rather nice to be going back to the city after all.
It would be nice to see his Daddy again and the iceman—and he wanted to tell the postman all about the stage driver and how letters are delivered in the country. And Charlie wanted to see his house again, where he lived, and the garden and his electric train and his automobile and his great e-nor-mous flashlight. Yes, Charlie began to feel very glad that he was going home again.
And—when Charlie did get home, what do you think he found? Why, Charlie found that something most interesting and ex-cit-ing had been happening while he was away in the country. Some builders had started to build a house on the other side of the road, and he could sit on his own front gate and watch them build.
The builders had already built quite a lot of the house, and in front of what they had built was a big pile of bricks and also a pile of sand and quicklime to make mortar of.
Charlie Watched the Builders
It was late in the afternoon, so the builders had stopped working, but Charlie wanted to stay right there and look at everything. But his Mother and his Auntie said, “No.” They said that it was getting late and Charlie must come right in and have his supper and go to bed. To-morrow he could watch the builders build as much as ever he wanted to.
So the next day Charlie ran out immediately after breakfast. The builders were already at work—they were working hard, putting the bricks on top of each other. Charlie saw how they put each brick on top of two others, he saw how they did it very carefully so that the brick was ex-act-ly in the middle of the two below it. Then he saw how carefully the builders put the mortar on with a flat, wide knife, so that none of the mortar dripped over the edge of the bricks but made a nice straight line up and across. And, because the bricks were laid, one in the middle of the two below, the white line of the mortar made a most interesting design.
Charlie was ab-so-lute-ly fascinated, he thought that he would never get tired of watching those builders build.
Then Topsy and Bingo came out to see what Charlie was doing and to get him to play with them, but Charlie was much too interested in watching the house being built, so he paid no attention at all. No, he paid no attention to Topsy and Bingo, but went on watching the builders build the house.
After a while one of the builders looked up, and he said, “Hello, you seem to like watching us build this house; I guess you would like to be over here helping us.” And Charlie said, “Oh, yes, I would like to come over and help you, I mean to be a house builder when I grow up.” Then the builder said, “Is that so? Have you had any practice in building houses?” Charlie said, “No, I have never built a real house, but I can build beautiful houses with my wooden blocks.”
But the builder said, “Well, I guess you need more practice than that—you have to know how to put the mortar on, and that is not as easy as it looks. How would you like me to give you some bricks and mortar and then you can build yourself a house in the corner of your yard?” Yes, the builder ac-tu-al-ly said that to Charlie! And he also asked him, “Have you an express wagon that you can haul the bricks in?”
Of course Charlie said, “Yes,” and he ran off to the house to tell his Mother and his Auntie all about the house builder, and to ask if he might go across the road by himself to get the bricks. And his Mother and his Auntie both said, “Yes.” They said that it would be perfectly safe for Charlie to go across the road all by himself, because no automobiles were allowed on the road and there was a sign which said, “Closed to Traffic.”
Then Charlie got his express wagon and he went across the road to get the bricks. He loaded the bricks into his express wagon and he dragged them across the road and in at the garden gate to the corner of the garden where there were no flowers and no vegetables. Charlie did this over and over again; he did it so often that his legs ached,—and every time that Charlie went across the road Topsy and Bingo followed him. When Charlie had been across the road four, five, six times getting his express cart full of bricks every time, the builder said, “Now you have enough bricks to start with. Suppose you go now and ask your Mother for a pail and I will give you some mortar, already mixed.”
Charlie ran and got the pail, and the builder filled it with mortar and carried it over to Charlie’s yard himself because it was too heavy for Charlie to carry. The builder certainly was a nice man.
Of course Charlie wanted immediately to start in building the house. But his Mother and his Auntie said, “No.” They said that Charlie had worked enough for one day, and that he had better play a little. And his Mother said, “You had better wait till your Daddy comes home before starting to build your house; I think you ought to ask his advice as to exactly where would be the best place to build it.”
Charlie thought that his Mother was right and he determined to wait till his Daddy came home before building the house. So he went off and had a lovely game with Topsy and Bingo.
At last Charlie’s Daddy came home. Charlie was watching for him out of the dining-room window. As soon as he saw his Daddy come in at the gate, Charlie ran out to meet him and to tell him all about the bricks that the builder had given him and about the house he was going to build.
Charlie’s Daddy was very interested; he was so interested that he said he would like to help Charlie to build the house. Then Charlie’s Daddy went upstairs and changed into his old suit, the one he always wore when he was digging in the garden, and he found a spade, and he said, “Come on, Charlie, let us start building the house.”
So they went into the garden and started to build the house. First Charlie’s Daddy dug a trench, the size that the house was to be; this was to be the foundation so that the house should not blow over in a wind-storm. Charlie helped dig the trench also. It was very hard work digging the trench—it was such hard work that both Charlie and his Daddy were puffing and blowing before they had finished digging. But at last the trench was finished, and while they were both standing still to admire it Charlie’s Auntie came and called them in to supper.
So they both had to go in and change their clothes and eat their supper and, by the time that supper was over, it was too dark to work at the house any longer. Charlie did not like this at all, he said, “I do not want to stop for a single minute until the house is built.”
But his Daddy said, “Cheer up, Charlie, to-morrow is a legal holiday, and I shall be home all day. So I shall be able to help you build your house until it is finished.” Then Charlie was satisfied and he went to sleep the minute he got into bed—and all night long he dreamed about the beautiful house he was going to build.
The next morning both Charlie and his Daddy got up early; they got up at six o’clock! They each had a glass of milk and a cookie, then they went into the garden and began to work.
First they started piling bricks into the trench, one on top of two others, ex-act-ly the way Charlie had seen the builders doing it; and his Daddy showed him how to put the mortar on each brick with a flat trowel that he had found in the woodshed and that looked ex-act-ly like the one the builders used. It is very important to put the mortar on right, as that is what makes the bricks stick together.
Before breakfast Charlie and his Daddy had ac-tu-al-ly finished the foundation! Charlie was very glad that he had his Daddy to help him—why, if it had not been for his Daddy I don’t think that Charlie would have thought of building any foundation for his house, and then it would have blown down!
Well, you may be sure that the moment they had finished breakfast, and when Charlie’s Daddy had smoked just one cigarette, they both of them were hard at work on the house again.
For one reason Charlie was sorry that it was a legal holiday, and that was because the builders were having a holiday, too, and Charlie would have liked them to see him in his overalls that were all covered with mortar and pink with brick dust—so that he looked ex-act-ly like a real builder.
Well, they worked and they worked. And you never can guess how clever Charlie’s Daddy was. He was just as clever as a real builder. Yes, Charlie’s Daddy ac-tu-al-ly knew how to make a window in the house—and a door also! The window went all the way to the top of the roof and so did the door, for Charlie’s Daddy said that there was one thing he did not know how to do that a real builder knows, and that is how to make an arch, with a keystone! Soon the house was tall enough for Charlie to go in at the door, and then his Daddy said that the front of the house was tall enough. But the sides had to be built sloping higher toward the back so that the roof should slope—it is very important that a house should have a sloping roof so that the water may drain off it when it rains.
At last his Daddy said, “There, the house is finished, all but the roof!”
Charlie was excited! He jumped and he shouted, “My house is nearly finished, my house is nearly finished!”
Then his Daddy went off to the woodshed and he brought back a whole lot of boards and a roll of tar paper. He put the boards all across the roof and covered them with tar paper—and THE HOUSE WAS FINISHED!
Yes, it was ac-tu-al-ly finished. It had a beautiful doorway, and a window and a roof—anybody could see that it was a real house.
Topsy and Bingo were nearly as much excited as Charlie. Bingo ran in and out of the door and barked and barked. But Topsy climbed up the wall and in at the window and he did this again and again.
Then Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie came to look at the beautiful house. And, my goodness! they were surprised that Charlie and his Daddy had built a house that looked exactly like a real house.
And Charlie’s Mother said, “Now, we will go back to the house and we will bring Charlie’s little chairs and his table, and I will get a rag rug that is in the attic; then the house will be furnished and Charlie can live in it with Topsy and Bingo and Jane.”
So that is what they did! And Charlie’s Auntie hung some curtains across the window and tied them with blue ribbon, and his mother put the rag rug on the floor, and placed the furniture around the room so that it looked most cozy and most comfortable.
Well, just when everybody was standing and admiring the house, Jane the cat came up, and she looked at the house for a minute. Then she walked straight in at the door and lay down on the rug, and she purred and purred as loud as she could purr, because she liked Charlie’s house so tremendously. But Topsy jumped in at the window and he walked around the house and sat down on every one of the little chairs and even on the table, but when he jumped into the express cart, which was in the corner of the house, he liked it so much that he curled up and went to sleep. But Bingo was the most excited of all—he dashed around and around the house, and he jumped up in the air and barked and barked and BARKED!
The next day, when the builders were at work again, Charlie climbed up on the gate and called out to the builder who had given him the bricks, “Good morning, Mr. Builder! I have finished my house!”
The builder was most interested and he came over to look at the house that Charlie had built.
He said, “Did you build that house all by yourself?”
And Charlie said, “Yes, I built that house all by myself, and my Daddy helped me.”
