bowlders such firm resting-place as they have found for themselves in the ages since they were dropped by the dissolving glaciers.  However you handle them, there will be cavities underneath, where the stone does not bear upon the solid ground.  The smaller ones you may rub or pound down till every inch of the motherly bosom shall feel their pressure.  Upon this first course of—­pebbles, if you please, lay larger ones that shall overlap and bind them together, using mortar if you wish entire solidity.  As the wall rises, introduce enough of large size to bind the whole thoroughly.  Above the footing the imperfect bearings of the larger stones are of less consequence, since there is little danger of their crushing one another.

[Illustration:  Rough strength and smooth-faced weakness.]

I say you will probably set their smooth faces inward, where they can be seen, which is quite natural and well enough, provided this is not their only merit.  If behind there is a lame and impotent conclusion, a tapering point on which it is impossible to build without depending upon the bank of earth, it will be better to have less beauty and more strength.  I don’t like a foundation wall that is “backed up”; it should be solid quite through; if any difference, let it be in favor of the back or outside.  You will find plenty of walls bulging into the cellar, not one crowding outward.

If the footing of a foundation is made as it should be, the upper part may be much thinner, since there is no danger of crushing it by any probable weight of building.  It may be crowded inward by the pressure of surrounding earth, especially if the building is of wood.  To guard against this, interior buttresses of brick, or partition walls in the cellar, will perhaps cost less than a thicker main wall.  The buttresses you may utilize by making them receive shelves, support the sides of the coal-bin, etc., while the partitions will take the place of piers, and, if well laid, need be in smaller houses but four inches thick.

Should your cellar happen to be in a gravelly knoll,—­you are thrice and four times blessed if it is,—­and if there is a stony pasture near it or a quarry from which you can get the chips, you may try a concrete wall of small stones, gravel, and cement.  It will be strong and durable; with a wheelbarrow you can make it yourself if you choose, and the rats will despise it.

Whether your house is one story or ten, built of pine or granite, you can have no better foundation than good hard brick laid in cement mortar; cellular above the footing, as brick walls should usually be made.  Between this and stone it will be then a question of economy to be determined by local circumstances.