And sometimes Serenus Gowdey would be called in to aid in their deliberations, though their talk always led off onto Coney Island and rested there, he didn't git no other idees out of him. Josiah never called on a woman for advice and counsel, not once, though a woman stood nigh him who wuz eminently qualified to pass a first class judgment on the plan. But no, it wuz males only who gin him their deepest thoughts and counsels. Once in awhile I would ask how many stories he wuz layin' out to have it, and how big it wuz goin' to be, and every time I asked him he said: "Wimmen's minds wuz too weak to comprehend his views. It took a man's mind to tackle such a subject and throw it." And that would mad me so that it would be some time before I would ask him agin, and then curosity would git the better of me and I would ask him agin sunthin' about it, but his reply wuz always the same: "Wimmen's minds wuz too weak and tottlin' to tackle the subject." So all the light I could git wuz to hear him talk it over with some man. I see that there wuz a great difference of opinion between 'em. Josiah, true father of Tirzah Ann, seemed anxious mainly to unite display and cheapness. Uncle Nate seemed more for solidity and comfort. Sez Josiah to him: "It is my idee to have the house riz up jest as high as the timbers will stand, the main expense anyway is the foundation and floorin' and I would rise up story after story all ornamented off beautiful and cheap, basswood sawed off in pints makes beautiful ornaments, and what a show it would make round the country, and what air you could git up in the seventh or eight story." So he would go on and argy, regardless of common sense or Tirzah Ann's legs. And then Uncle Nate would reply: "Josiah, safety lays on the ground, and in this climate more liable each year to tornadoes and cyclones, the only safety lays in spreadin' out on the ground. Build only one story," sez he, "and a low one at that, and let it spread out every way as much as it wants to." "But," sez Josiah, "to have every room on the bottom would take up all the lot and lap over into the river." "Better do that," sez Uncle Nate, "than to have your children and grand-children blowed away. Safety is better than sile," sez he solemnly. And then I hearn 'em talkin' about a travelin' woodhouse. Josiah advoctated the idee of havin' the woodhouse made in the form of a boat, only boarded up like a house, and have big oars fixed onto the sides on't so's it could be used as a boat, and a house. Sez he: "How handy it would be to jest onmoor the woodhouse and row over to the main land and git the year's stock of wood, and then row back agin, cast anchor and hitch it onto the house agin." But Uncle Nate demurred. He thought the expense would be more than the worth of usin' it once a year.