“But do you suppose the association builds houses for all its members?” I asked.
“Of course I suppose so. Else why is it called a building association?”
I had read a good deal about these organizations, and I explained to Euphemia that a dollar a week was never received by any of them in payment for a new house.
“Then build yourself,” she said; “I know how that can be done.”
“Oh, it's easy enough,” I remarked, “if you have the money.”
“No, you needn't have any money,” said Euphemia, rather hastily. “Just let me show you. Supposing, for instance, that you want to build a house worth—well, say twenty thousand dollars, in some pretty town near the city.”
“I would rather figure on a cheaper house than that for a country place,” I interrupted.
“Well then, say two thousand dollars. You get masons, and carpenters, and people to dig the cellar, and you engage them to build your house. You needn't pay them until it's done, of course. Then when it's all finished, borrow two thousand dollars and give the house as security. After that you see, you have only to pay the interest on the borrowed money. When you save enough money to pay back the loan, the house is your own. Now, isn't that a good plan?”
“Yes,” said I, “if there could be found people who would build your house and wait for their money until some one would lend you its full value on a mortgage.”
“Well,” said Euphemia, “I guess they could be found if you would only look for them.”
“I'll look for them, when I go to heaven,” I said.
We gave up for the present, the idea of building or buying a house, and determined to rent a small place in the country, and then, as Euphemia wisely said, if we liked it, we might buy it. After she had dropped her building projects she thought that one ought to know just how a house would suit before having it on one's hands.
We could afford something better than a canal-boat now, and therefore we were not so restricted as in our first
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