As I came into my own dooryard, I found Hard Cider unloading lumber. He nodded briefly, and handed me a dirty slip of paper--his estimate. Evidently he, too, had paternally taken me over, for this estimate included the plumber's bill for a heater, the water connections for house and barn, a boiler on the kitchen range, and the bathroom. The bill would come to $3,000. That far exceeded my own estimate, and I had still the painters to reckon with! However, Hard's bill seemed fair enough, for Bert had told me the price of lumber, and there was a lot of digging to connect with the town main. I nodded "Go ahead," and opened the door. In three minutes he and his assistant were busily at work. In the woodshed I found Mike cutting up the seed potatoes into baskets. "Good mornin'," he said. "Joe's got the tooth harrer workin', and we'll be plantin' this afternoon." I started then toward the orchard, only to meet the boss plumber arriving. With him I went down cellar to decide on the position for the heater. "Of course you're going to have hot water?" said the boss. "Am I?" said I. "I loathe radiators. They spoil the rooms. Wouldn't you, as a great concession, let me have old-fashioned hot air?" "You can have anything you want, of course," the plumber replied, being, like most of his kind, without a sense of humour, "but to get register pipes upstairs in this old house you'll spoil your rooms more than with radiators. We have some very ornamental radiators." "There ain't no such animal," said I. But I ended with hot water. There were to be four radiators downstairs and three upstairs, one in the bathroom, one in the hall, and one in a chamber. The other chambers, having fireplaces, I decided needed no further heat, though the plumber was mournfully skeptical. That made seven in all, and did not call for a large heater. After much dickering and argument, the plumber consented to leave the old copper pump at the sink, in addition to the faucets. I refused to let that pump go, with its polished brass knob on the iron handle, even though the sink was to be replaced by a porcelain one. As the bathroom was almost over the kitchen, and as the house already had a good cesspool, by some happy miracle, the work was comparatively simple, and the plumber left to get his men and supplies.