Page:A New England Tale.djvu/57

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46
A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.

which, being a Quaker, he deemed essential to it. He looked at the little stream of water we have mentioned, and which the rain had already swollen so much that it seemed to threaten an inundation of the house; and observing, that neither the complexion of the floor nor of the children seemed to have been benefited by its proximity, he remarked to the man, that he "should think a person of his ingenuity would have contrived some mode of turning the stream."

"Why, yes, Sir," said the man, "I suppose I might, for I have got a book that treats upon hydrostatics and them things; but I'm calculating to build in the fall, and so I think we may as well musquash along till then."

"To build! Do explain to me how that is to be done?"

"Why, Sir," said he, taking a box from the shelf behind him, which had a hole in the centre of the top, through which the money was passed in, but afforded no facility for withdrawing it, "my woman and I agreed to save all the cash we could get for two years, and I should not be afraid to venture, there is thirty dollars there, Sir. The neighbours in these parts are very kind to a poor man; one will draw the timber, and another will saw the boards, and they will all come to raising, and bring their own spirits into the bargain. Oh, Sir, it must be a poor shack that can't make a turn to get a house over his head."

Mr. Lloyd took ten dollars from his pocket-book, and slipping it into the gap, said, "There is