"I think so, my dear; but hear what papa is saying."
"Who drew this plan, Walter?"
"I heard you say, sir, that Mr. Bond, the architect, did, and that you gave him fifty dollars for doing it."
"Yes, and it was cheap enough too; a very nice house it is; and how comfortable we have been since we moved into it! I remember well how pleased I was when he showed me this plan; and that after your mother and I had passed a whole evening in carefully examining every part, I determined, or purposed, that my house should be like it."
The children had gathered around their father, though wondering not a little that he had so entirely forgotten their lesson.
"See here," added the gentleman, turning the large sheet of stiff paper, at which they had been looking. "Here is what is called a framing plan, so that the carpenters may know, before they buy their lumber, exactly how much they shall need, and of what size. And here at the corner is a little sketch of the pillars to support the piazza, and the form of the brackets that go around the coving."
"I heard the carpenters say," exclaimed Walter, "that it was a great help to have such a plan, and prevented much misunderstanding and unkind feeling; for often the carpenter will understand the contract one way, and his employer quite another; and he wished every man, who was going to build a house, would have an exact framing plan, as well as a profile of the rooms."
"Yes, it is very important," replied the gentleman. "The house we rented while ours was building, is an illustration of the folly of not having a plan. Mr. Longworth wished to build a house. He wanted one that would look handsomely outside; but his own family was small, and so he concluded to make a building with two tenements. He consulted Mr. Bond about it, and found that an exact plan of the building, and of framing, with specifications, would cost him sixty-five dollars. It was to be larger than mine. Sixty-five dollars was quite too much money, he thought, to pay for the plan of a house, when he could make one just as well himself. I told him he would find it would be a saving of money in the end. But he thought otherwise, and, having engaged the carpenters, set them to work.
"As I was to have the tenement when it was ready, I felt an interest to watch the job. The workmen knew that they were to put up a frame forty-four feet front and forty deep; and so far they went on tolerably well, though even here there were some hard words about the size of timbers, &c. But after that, every thing went 'at sixes and sevens,' as old Mr. Carter used to say. The men would go on from day to day, receiving their directions from Mr. Longworth; but as he was a hatter, and not a mechanic, he did not make his plans aright, and the men used often to pull down one day what they had built up the preceding.
"You know the consequences, for we all suffered from living in an ill-contrived, sham-built house; and we were glad enough to get away from it. Now, Mr. Longworth cannot rent it at all; and he told me, a few days since, that if he had followed my advice, and let Mr. Bond make a plan, he should have been a thousand dollars better off than he is at present.