Rudder Grange.

either veryreasonableorelse greatlyreduced on acco-. mt of the season being advanced . ( It was now the fifteenth of May . ) Euphemia and I once Avrote a book , — this was just before Ave were married , —in Avhich Ave told young married people how to go to housekeeping and IIOAV much it

would cost them . AVe knew all about it , for we had asked several people . Now the prices demanded as yearly rental for small furnished houses ,. by the owners and agents of whom I have been speaking , wereactually more than Ave had stated a house could be

bought and furnished for ! The advertisements of other people did not serve any better . There was ahvays something wrong about the houses Avhen Ave made close inquiries , and the trouble Avas generally in regard to the rent . AVith agents

Ave had a little better fortune . Euphemia sometimes Avent with mo on my expeditions to real estate offices , and she remarked that these offices Avere ahvays in the basement , or else you had to go up to them in an elevator . There Avas nothing between these

extremes . And it Avas a good deal the same Avay , she said , with their houses . They Avere all very low indeed in price and quality , or else too high . She assured me several times that if Ave could find any oflice on the second or third floor Ave should certainly be suited . But Ave never found such an office .

One trouble Avas that we Avanted a house in a country place , not A'ery far from the city , and not very far from the railroad station or steamboat landing . We also Avanted the house to be nicely shaded and fully furnished , and not to be in a malarious nei ghbourhoodor one infested

bmos-, y quitoes . " If Ave do go to housekeeping , " said Euphemia , " we might as well get a house to suit us while Ave are about it . Moving is more expensive than a fire . " There AA'as one man AVIIO offered us a

house that almost suited us . It was near the Avater , had rooms enough , and somehut not very much—ground , and Avas very accessible to the city . The rent , too , Avas quite reasonable . But it was unfurnished . The agenthoweverdid not think that this

, , Avould present any obstacle to our taking it . He Avas sure that the owner Avould furnish it if Ave paid him ten per cent , on the value of the furniture ho put into it . We agreed that if the landlord would do this

and let us furnish the house according to the plans laid cloAvn in our book , that we Avould take the house . But unfortunately this arrangement did not suit the landlord , although he Avas in the habit of furnishing houses for tenants and charging them ten centon the cost .

per , I saAv him myself and talked to him about it . "But you see , " said he , when I had shoAvn him our list of articles necessary for the furnishing of a house , " it would not me to buy all these thingsand rent

pay , them out to you . If you only Avanted heavy furniture , Avhich Avould last for years , the plan Avould ansAver , but you Avant everything . I believe the small conveniences you haA'e on th'slist come to more money than the furniture and carpets . "

" Oh , yes , " said I . " We are not so very particular about furniture and carpets , but those little conveniences arc the things that make housekeeping pleasant and , — speaking from a common-sense point of vieAv , —profitable . " " That may be , " he answered , " hut I can ' t afford to make matters pleasant aud

profitable for you in that way . NOAV , then , let us look at one or tAvo particulars . Here , on 3 'our list , is an ice-pick : tAventy-five cents . NOAV , if I buy that ice-pick and rent it to you at tAvo and a-half cents a year , I shall not get my money back unless

it lasts you ten years . And even then , as it is not probable that I can sell that icep ick after you haA'e used it for ten years , I shall have made nothing at all by my bargain . And there are other things in that list , such as feather-dusters and

lampchimneys , that couldn ' t possibly last ten years . Don't you see my position ?" I saAv it . AVe did not get that furnished house . Euphemia Avas greatly disappointed . " It Avould have been just splendid" she

, said , "to have taken our book and have ordered all these things at the stores , one after another , Avithout eA'en being obliged to ask the price . " I had my private doubts in regard to this matter of price . I am afraid that Euphemia

generally set doAvn the lowest prices and the best things . She did not mean to mislead , and her plan certainly made our book attractive . But it did not work very Avell

in practice . AVe have a friend who undertook to furnish her house by our book , and Q 2