The house was in perfect keeping with the site upon which it stood. The walls were covered with shingles, two courses of which had rotted away near the foundations, in consequence of banking up the walls with earth; part of the top of the chimney had fallen off, and lay on the roof that in places was bare of shingles and covered with moss.
Upon entering the house, a door on the left opened into the kitchen, the plastering of which was the color of milk and molasses, and appeared to have been flung on, and then clawed in by cats, affording in the furrows lodgments for smoke and secure harbors of refuge for flies. At the back of this room was a small bedroom, finished in the same manner, with the exception of being sealed to the height of a chair, and the wood work painted with a color intended, probably, for red; it, however, looked very much as though a hog had been killed on it. In this apartment the parents slept. Another door, on the right, admitted to an unfinished room, with a rough floor. Here were Rich's lathe and tool chest, a pair of cart wheels finished, except smoothing up, and a wheelbarrow that only required ironing.
"This is my workshop," said Rich. "My mechanical genius, that used to expend itself on flower-pots and vases, in turning canes and cups, tops and nine-pins, balls and drum-sticks, is now directed by stern necessity, into a more useful channel; and, believe me, when I have made a pair of wheels, got my money for them, and bought provisions for the family, I feel a great deal better satisfied with myself than I used to after spending two or three days making something that was a mere plaything, or at best only served the purpose of ornament."
At each end of the garret was a window, and there two bedrooms were made, with rough board partitions, one of which was occupied by the two daughters, the other by Rich. Here was his library, that was quite extensive, his father having indulged his fondness for books, among which was a German edition of the classics.
The room was small, and the roof of a low pitch. The book-cases, writing-desk, bureau, and chairs all occupied so much of the room that the bedstead was necessarily pushed far under the eaves in order to afford space enough in the middle to move around and stand upright.
"It is quite convenient," said Rich, as they entered, "for you can reach everything without getting out of your chair."
"And then to consider," replied Morton, in the same vein, "that the most celebrated philosophers and poets have meditated and sung in garrets."
"True," said Rich; "but I suspect it would be far more pleasant to meditate about than it will to occupy it come next dog days. Now, Mort, you must sleep on the front side, for the shingle nails come through the boards of the roof, and if you should forget, and jump up on end, they'd stick right into your skull."
"They are not long enough to go through."
"Probably not through a skull so thick as yours, but they would draw blood, and might give you a headache."