the house to the other and occupied the entire front half. The open kitchen area was recessed at the back, wedged between the two bedrooms. It contained a pot-bellied stove, a stone sink with a pump, in addition to the outdoor one in what became the front yard when they put up a fence, and a few cupboards and shelves. The ceiling over the bedrooms and kitchen area was lower, and formed an open loft accessible only from the main room, which Caliban could reach if the ladder was placed at not too steep an angle.
There was a window in each bedroom and another near the front door. The bedrooms extended to the back of the house, farther than the kitchen. There were no closets, only pegs to hang their clothes. What one would have taken for 14their closet doors led to the section behind the kitchen, a kind of indoor woodshed, cold pantry and coal bin, which they could also enter —and most often did— from behind the house. They had a shallow storm cellar under the rear of the house, with entrances outside and through a trap door in one of the bedrooms.
For outbuildings, they had a carriage house for the wagon and the sled, with two stalls for the horses and a hayloft above it, another hayshed, and a tool and work shed, all well behind the house on the south side, uphill from the privy. The carriage house was nearly as big as the one they lived in. They also had chicken coops built right up against the house on the south side of the front room, so they were not right under Caliban's window. The following summer Caleb built a free-standing outdoor shower, with a plank floor and a chain you pulled to release a spray of water from a barrel fixed into a hoop on a frame above you.
To fill it, you had to get the water from the pump in front and climb a ladder, which Caliban couldn't do, so it was seldom used.
No improvements were ever made to the house,
except after Nick came they enclosed the yard, but not the outbuildings, in a high plank fence they called the stockade.
They said barbed wire was no good for keeping varmints away from the chickens, but the stockade proved no better. It did, however, provide an excellent windbreak that protected the house from the iciest blasts and kept the yard clear of deep drifts in winter. They had to pump all their water by hand. However, they did have a cistern in back to collect rainwater.
Over the years they would put on two new coats of paint, but otherwise the house was exactly the same when Caliban left twenty-eight years later as it had been the day he and Caleb moved in. After he left, it was abandoned and fell apart. The stockade and outbuildings were taken down and the planks used to build a cattle barn for Mr. Troilus Pardoner, the man who eventually came to own the land.
The house stood alone and exposed more than ten miles out on the range and crumbled away. The fresh paint peeled off, the pump rusted shut, the window panes broke, the fence fell over, the roof sagged and eventually caved in, bringing one of the walls with it. Of Caliban's house not a stick remains, but the barn built with the lumber from the outbuildings still stands, weather-beaten and decaying.
The house took less than a month to build, and they had sunk the well, but they had not yet built the privy and other outbuildings, and they needed furniture. Even if they had had furniture and all the rest, Caliban could not have lived there. He could not sit on a horse or walk the twelve miles back and forth every day to the stables in 14Caladelphia. It took most of the summer to build a dirt road so he could go by wagon, or horse-drawn sled when the snow was high in winter. They had planned to build a windmill pump like those at Calvin's and Calhoun's —and at Caleb's, too, when he got married and built his own house— but putting in a road was a more pressing priority, and for some reason they never got around to the windmill after they had moved in.
Jaggers liked the new house because he was
allowed inside it
There was a window in each bedroom and another near the front door. The bedrooms extended to the back of the house, farther than the kitchen. There were no closets, only pegs to hang their clothes. What one would have taken for 14their closet doors led to the section behind the kitchen, a kind of indoor woodshed, cold pantry and coal bin, which they could also enter —and most often did— from behind the house. They had a shallow storm cellar under the rear of the house, with entrances outside and through a trap door in one of the bedrooms.
For outbuildings, they had a carriage house for the wagon and the sled, with two stalls for the horses and a hayloft above it, another hayshed, and a tool and work shed, all well behind the house on the south side, uphill from the privy. The carriage house was nearly as big as the one they lived in. They also had chicken coops built right up against the house on the south side of the front room, so they were not right under Caliban's window. The following summer Caleb built a free-standing outdoor shower, with a plank floor and a chain you pulled to release a spray of water from a barrel fixed into a hoop on a frame above you.
To fill it, you had to get the water from the pump in front and climb a ladder, which Caliban couldn't do, so it was seldom used.
No improvements were ever made to the house,
except after Nick came they enclosed the yard, but not the outbuildings, in a high plank fence they called the stockade.
They said barbed wire was no good for keeping varmints away from the chickens, but the stockade proved no better. It did, however, provide an excellent windbreak that protected the house from the iciest blasts and kept the yard clear of deep drifts in winter. They had to pump all their water by hand. However, they did have a cistern in back to collect rainwater.
Over the years they would put on two new coats of paint, but otherwise the house was exactly the same when Caliban left twenty-eight years later as it had been the day he and Caleb moved in. After he left, it was abandoned and fell apart. The stockade and outbuildings were taken down and the planks used to build a cattle barn for Mr. Troilus Pardoner, the man who eventually came to own the land.
The house stood alone and exposed more than ten miles out on the range and crumbled away. The fresh paint peeled off, the pump rusted shut, the window panes broke, the fence fell over, the roof sagged and eventually caved in, bringing one of the walls with it. Of Caliban's house not a stick remains, but the barn built with the lumber from the outbuildings still stands, weather-beaten and decaying.
The house took less than a month to build, and they had sunk the well, but they had not yet built the privy and other outbuildings, and they needed furniture. Even if they had had furniture and all the rest, Caliban could not have lived there. He could not sit on a horse or walk the twelve miles back and forth every day to the stables in 14Caladelphia. It took most of the summer to build a dirt road so he could go by wagon, or horse-drawn sled when the snow was high in winter. They had planned to build a windmill pump like those at Calvin's and Calhoun's —and at Caleb's, too, when he got married and built his own house— but putting in a road was a more pressing priority, and for some reason they never got around to the windmill after they had moved in.
Jaggers liked the new house because he was
allowed inside it
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