How to build a house

Who is happier than the young student from the Lyceum when he comes home for the summer vacation, bringing with him proofs of a well-spent year? Everything smiles upon him. The...

“Take your seat here, cousin; you are going to render on paper the result of our meditations, since you know so well how to make use of our instruments. Let us proceed methodica...

His mother looked at him with astonishment; his father became serious, and said: “Paul, this house satisfies your mother just as it is, and me too; you three—your two sisters an...

“Before resuming our pencil,” said Eugène, as soon as they were seated once more in his study, “you must know how you are going to proceed. We have sketched the ground plans. We...

Meantime, letters and newspapers were daily bringing the most distressing intelligence. The enemy had crossed the French boundary a week ago. Building was a matter scarcely to b...

When, in the evening, Paul’s report of the lesson was read in the family circle, M. de Gandelau interrupted the reading at this phrase incorrectly given, “Good is only the absen...

Next day a letter dated Naples was received from Madame Marie N——, expressing the liveliest and most patriotic apprehensions with regard to recent events. Paul’s sister wished t...

“No, thank you. My hunger is quite satisfied. What bothers me is, that I don’t half understand all you have been so kindly explaining to me. There are points which I cannot catc...

“Go, my dear Paul, and see how far the excavations are advanced this morning,” said Eugène, two days after the visit to the ground, “and bring me your report. Take a rule and a...

In spite of the news of the war, which was daily assuming a more threatening character, M. de Gandelau insisted on the works not being interrupted; and the inhabitants of the _c...

“We have a good part of the materials on the ground. As regards stones of large size, we shall get them from the quarries of Le Blanc, which are only a mile or two distant. Our...

Paul, with his head bent over the paper covered with sketches, and his hands between his knees, could not help thinking, for his part, that his cousin was covering a good deal o...

The building was beginning to assume a definite shape; the plan was becoming visible above the ground. About twenty masons and stonecutters, four carpenters and their helpers, e...

One thing astonished Paul,—the facility with which his cousin could express with a few strokes of his pencil what he wished to explain. His perspective sketches, above all, seem...

It was time to give the details required for the execution of the staircases. Eugène had told Paul to prepare these details; but Paul, as may be imagined, had not been very succ...

It was the end of November, and the weather had hitherto allowed our builders to make use of every day. The autumn sun was favourable to the enterprise, and at several points th...

Eugène expected Paul to return to the discussion of the previous evening, and in fact, when they were going early in the morning to visit the works, Paul did not fail to throw o...

The cold and the state of the times prevented the works from being continued. The winter might be a long one. Eugène and Paul prepared themselves, therefore, to employ this comp...

The weather becoming more and more severe prevented the works from being resumed. The parts that had been begun were hidden by a thick layer of mould and stubble, which in its t...

A few days after this conversation a considerable number of troops traversed the country. The Germans were manœuvring on both sides of the Loire, and were threatening Tours. A g...

Towards the middle of March, the weather being fine, the works were resumed, and instructions for executing the floors and roofs had to be given to the carpenter, that no time m...

“You mean rather to ask me,” replied the latter, “why _some_ chimneys smoke. Many causes contribute to make chimneys smoke, while there is only one condition which _must_ be obs...

In spite of the recent disasters, life seemed to return as by enchantment, both in the towns and the rural districts. In all directions every one was setting himself to work aga...

“All the particulars of the woodwork,” continued Eugène, “ought to be furnished before a house is begun to be built, for the first consideration in work of this kind is selectin...

Paul now knew enough to feel that the commission with which he was charged was one of considerable importance. The sole responsibility of it made him a little anxious. It would...

Although Paul could have returned to the Lyceum at Paris in June, Madame de Gandelau insisted upon her son remaining at home during the summer. She was afraid of typhus. Anxiety...

The nearer the building was to completion, the more complicated did the office work become. When Paul saw that nearly all the particulars had been furnished to the contractors,...

Matters had been proceeding according to arrangement; the painters’ work, begun at the commencement of February, in fine weather, was finished in April, and likewise all the acc...