The House that Grew Author:Molesworth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: it was, I nearly called out, I felt so struck and startled at first, just as if some one had said it to me, though with astonishing quickness it spread itself ou... more »t before me as a really possible and even sensible plan, with nothing dreamy or fanciful about it. It was this. ' Why should not we all—mamma, that is to say, and we four children—why should we not live altogether at the hut during the year, or more perhaps, that papa would have to be away ?' It may seem to those who read this story—if ever there are readers of it—a wild idea that had thus come to me. But' the proof of the pudding is in the eating,' as Hoskins is fond of saying. So please wait a little before you judge. And no sooner had the idea got into words than all the bits of it began to place themselves in order like the pieces of a dissected puzzle-map, or, still better, like the many-coloured skeins of silk in the pretty fairy story where the touch of the wand made them all arrange themselves. Still more—no sooner had the first vague thoughts settled down than others came to join them, each finding its own corner in the building that I began to see was not a castle in the air but a good solid piece of work. It would be so healthy and airy, and yet not damp; nor, with proper care, need it be very cold, even in winter. It would be near enough to Kirke for Geordie to go on with his lessons with Mr. Lloyd, and for us to feel we had old friends close at hand, who would understand all about us, and very likely be kinder than ever. It would be near enough to home —dear Eastercove—indeed, it would be Eastercove —for us to take lots of furniture and things from the house to furnish as much more as was needed and to make ifc comfortable and even pretty, without emptying Eastercove house at all. There was, as ...« less