By this time we have become very suspicious of the house, so that when we finally go down into the cellar our attention is attracted to a section of the cement floor near the furnace where the large ash-cans are standing. The top surface has cracked under the weight of the cans, and it appears to be in thin slivers of cement. Leaning down and prying under one of these cracked pieces with a knife, a thin slab of concrete, about a quarter of an inch thick, is lifted up from the floor, and beneath this slab we find about 2 or 3 inches of tamped ashes, and then dirt. We marvel that this floor has lasted even as long as it has with so much water running into the cellar in damp weather. Think of it, 2 inches of ashes and a quarter of an inch of cement mortar on the top, when the correct method of building is to lay about 6 inches of cinders for a foundation, then 3 inches of concrete on top of this, and finally a top coat, 1 inch thick, of cement mortar over all. Looking up from the floor we are rather impressed by the clean, whitewashed effect of the walls of the cellar, and one would hardly believe that it was a damp one, but around the windows and at certain points in the wall the whitewash is streaked with black, as though water had leaked in. Going over to these places in the wall it is quite evident that during the winter and damp season water has soaked through these crevices. Poking around with a penknife we are amazed at the ease with which the knife penetrates the mortar between the joints of the stones. Working at it a little harder with the knife soon shows that if the cellar were a prison it would not be very hard to scratch one’s way out through that wall. Suddenly, without warning, one of the stones in the wall drops out onto the floor, and we get a view of the construction within. For certain it is one of those stone walls built up with two faces, not bonded together, except by mortar which seems to be made up of mud and a small trace of lime, which lime has disintegrated with the constant dampness to which it has been subjected. A piece of the mortar we find can be crumbled easily in the hand. This is evidence of the employment of the cheapest kind of labor for the masonry work and the cutting down of expense in using poor materials. We only have to look closely to see that there is developing a long diagonal crack in the wall, and we can imagine that if the contractor built so poor a wall above the ground, the chances are that there is no footing beneath it. Near at hand a large bulge is noticeable, and when we hit it with a hammer the whole thing has a rotten sound, for the inside face is bulging inward from the load upon it and the uneven settling of the foundations.