"And so have been in debt for the land," said Mary.

"Yes," said Albert. "I could have paid off that debt by the profits of
the farming. I can lay up a hundred dollars a year, certainly."

"No," said Mary Erskine. "I like this plan the best. We will pay as
we go along. It will be a great deal better to have the three hundred
dollars for something else than to pay old debts with. We will build a
better house than this if we want one, one of these years, when we get
the money. But I like this house very much as it is. Perhaps, however,
it is only because it is my own."

It was not altogether the idea that it was her own that made Mary
Erskine like her house. The interior of it was very pleasant indeed,
especially after Albert had completed the furnishing of it, and had
laid the floor. It contained but one room, it is true, but that was a
very spacious one. There were, in fact, two apartments enclosed by the
walls and the roof, though only one of them could strictly be called
a room. The other was rather a shed, or stoop, and it was entered from
the front by a wide opening, like a great shed door. The entrance to
the house proper was by a door opening from this stoop, so as to be
sheltered from the storms in winter. There was a very large fire place
made of stones in the middle of one side of the room, with a large
flat stone for a hearth in front of it. This hearth stone was very
smooth, and Mary Erskine kept it always very bright and clean. On
one side of the fire was what they called a settle, which was a long
wooden seat with a very high back. It was placed on the side of the
fire toward the door, so that it answered the purpose of a screen to
keep off any cold currents of air, which might come in on blustering