"Yes," sez I, "a uneeker one wuz never seen on this planet." And agin I seemed to lose myself in strange emotions, it looked so awful, a kind of or mingled with my indignation and regret. "Nobody will steal them idees!" sez he proudly. "No," sez I sadly, "you're safe from that." And I sez, as I looked up at the queer, lop sided, flighty, vain thing, "It leans over considerable, Josiah Allen, it is very tippin'." He looked worried, but sez in a sort of apology way, "I had it lean over one side on account of havin' rain water dripp offen the eaves, and have the snow slide off in drifty times. Ruffs have been known to fall in, and I wanted to ensure Tirzah Ann's havin' a ruff over her head anyway." Agin I looked on in solemn or, and sez wonderin'ly, "What will Tirzah Ann say when she sees it?" "I don't care," sez he, "what she sez! if she don't like it she can lump it!" But I could see that the tippin' sides wuz done through a mistake, and he wuz tryin' to cover it up with a mantilly of bravado and boastfulness. I agin kep' silence for quite a spell, and my next words, so fur as I remember 'em, wuz, "Where is the suller?" He stood agast and repeated, "The suller!" He looked perfectly dumb-foundered but wuzn't goin' to give in he made a mistake, it wuz too mortifyin' to his pride, so sez he in faint axents: "I laid out to build it after the house wuz done." Sez I, "What wuz you goin' to do with the dirt?" "Why, I laid out," sez he lookin' helplessly round for a excuse, "I laid out to bring it up in baskets," and he went on brightenin' up as a idee struck him--"I've observed, Samantha, that dirt is handy for house plants, or to plant seeds in the spring of the year." Sez I dryly, "I guess three or four hundred wagon loads won't be needed for house plants, and after Tirzah Ann sees all that dirt lugged up her suller stairs and through her kitchen she won't have much time or ambition for posies." [Illustration: "_'The suller!' He stood agast, perfectly dumb-foundered but wuzn't goin' to give in he had made a mistake. It wuz too mortifying to his pride._" (_See page 318_)] "Well," sez he, a bright idee occurrin' to him, "it will be a first rate job for the men to do rainy days. In buildin' a house there hain't much a man can do durin' a hard thunder storm, or hail storm, but they can go right on with the suller jest as well as though it wuz a sunshiny day. That is one great thing that architects have heretofore overlooked, work that men can do durin' cyclones--I have met that want," sez he proudly. "I should think as much," sez I mekanically, for my thoughts wuzn't there, they wuz afar with Tirzah with her poor health, and the blow that had got to come onto her, when she see this thing that wuz rared up in front of me.