Foundation three feet, height of parlor ceilings twelve feet, allow for floors two feet more, made the chamber-floor seventeen feet above the level of the ground.

Climbing one of the hemlocks which I thought must be in line with the river and the window, I dropped my line until I had unrolled seventeen feet, and then ascended until the end of the line just touched the ground.  I found I was right in my supposition; and in the clear, mellow light of the moon the river, the hills and valleys, woods, fields, orchards, houses and rocks (the latter ugly enough by daylight, and utterly useless for building purposes) made a picture which set me thinking of a great many exquisite things entirely out of the housebuilding line.

I might have stared till the moon went down, for when I’ve nothing else to do I dearly enjoy dreaming with my eyes open; but I heard a rustling in the leaves a little way off, and then I heard footsteps, and then, looking downward, I saw a man come up the path, and stop under the tree in which I was.

Of course I wondered what he wanted; I should have done so, even if I had had no business there myself; but under the circumstances, I became very much excited.

Who could it be?  Perhaps some rival builder, come to take revenge by setting my lumber afire!  I would go down and reason with him.  But, wait a moment; if he has come for that purpose, he may make things uncomfortable for me before I reach the ground.  And if he sets the lumber afire, and it catches the tree I am in, as it will certainly do, I will be—­

There is no knowing what sort of a quandary I might not have got into if the man had not stepped out into the moonlight, and up on the sills, and shown himself to be—­Mr. Markson.

“Well,” I thought, “you are the most particular man I ever knew—­and the most anxious!  I don’t know, though—­it’s natural enough; if I can’t keep away from this house, it’s not strange that he should want to see all of it he can.  It’s natural enough, and it does him credit.”

But Mr. Markson’s next action was neither natural nor to his credit.  He took off his traveling shawl, and disclosed a carpenter’s brace; this and the shawl he laid on the ground, and then he examined the sills at the corners, where they were joined.

They were only half joined, as we say in the trade—­that is, the ends of each piece of timber were sawn half through and the partially detached portions cut out, so that the ends lapped over each other.

Well, Mr. Markson hastily stacked up bricks and boards to the height of the foundation, and then made a similar stack at the other end of the foundation-wall, and then he rolled one of the sills over on these two supports, so it was bottom side up.  Then he fitted a bit—­a good wide one, an inch and a quarter, at least, I should say—­to the brace, and then commenced boring a hole in the sill.