"No questions!" interposed the principal. "You need not answer it, Millweed."
"I shall come to the wharf in a few minutes," replied Bolly. "The main building, represented by this parallelogram, is to be ninety-one feet long by thirty-one feet wide,—rather narrow for the length, you will say; but the proportions will be improved a little before I finish."
The speaker took the crayon and marked off the docks for the barges. They opened at the south end of the structure, into Hornet Bay. He had made the inner ends of the two docks something in shape of the bows of the boats, so that the idea could be better obtained by the listeners.
"These docks are fifty-four feet long, and nine feet wide. The space between them is a platform six feet wide. Next to the walls of the building on each side is a platform three feet wide. You will see that I am giving you the plan of the building as well as the location; but this seems to be the most natural way to do it."
Bolly then drew a section of the structure, looking at the south end of it. At the lower part on each side four feet were added to the breadth of the house, increasing it to forty feet, with the allowance for the thickness of the sides. But this addition was only one fourth of the whole height of the house. It had a slanting roof, making the addition what used to be called a "lean-to."
The excitement of the boys increased as Bolly advanced with his plans, and they wondered what this narrow strip on each side of the building could mean. They wanted to ask questions, and it was hard work for them to keep from bursting out into a volley of inquiries. The amateur architect drew a great many lines across this narrow addition, which tended to throw some light on the mystery. But the added strips looked very like a couple of ladders.
"These are the dressing-rooms," Bolly proceeded, when he had finished this part of the drawing. "There are forty of them, as required in the terms, and each of them is four feet by three. From each a door opens to the outside platforms on the docks."
At this point the students took it all in, and a round of applause greeted this feature, which the boys thought was an admirable one. The oarsmen could come out of the dressing-rooms in which they had put on their uniforms, and step directly into the barges.
"These additions to the sides are only six feet high at the eaves and seven at the walls. The lower story of the boat-house is twelve feet high. This leaves five feet of space above the roof of the lean-to,—that's what my father calls the L of his house. In this space are to be ten windows on each side. There are also four windows over the doors at the end of the boat-house by which the barges are to be admitted."
"I think your building will be well lighted, Mr. Millweed," interposed Mr. Plint, thinking the speaker appeared to have some doubts on this point.