BOLLY EXPLAINS HIS PLANS FOR THE BOAT-HOUSE AND WHARF.
Bolingbroke Millweed was a good scholar and a fair mechanic, but both
instructors and students were astonished when both prizes were awarded
to him. He had formerly been a "swell," but he had entirely recovered
from the malady which made him such. Only a few weeks before he was too
proud to work with his hands.
His pride, or rather vanity, had kept down his manhood, and made of him
what the genuine boy called a "donkey." His father had become the "head
of the family," at home, and introduced a new order of things. The two
sons were in the Beech Hill School, and the two girls were not only
earning their own living, but were doing a great deal towards the
support of the family.
The new order of things had placed Bolly, as everyone called him, on his
own proper level. It had developed faculties which had been dormant,
and made him a useful as well as a sensible young man. The result of the
competition proved that he had talent of a high order, and that the
industrial school was bringing it out.
Bolly was fairly popular among his associates, though there was nothing
magnetic about him. He was not likely to become a leader among men, but
Mr. Plint thought he had the right kind of ability to make a good
architect. The practical education he was now receiving was exactly what
he needed. While he was learning to draw, he was also obtaining a
knowledge of practical carpentry and work in metals, as well as an
insight into other trades.
The boys had given the successful competitor a liberal demonstration of
applause, which proved that they had no ill-will or jealousy; of if they
had, they were ashamed to manifest it. The excitement had been intense,
and it did not seem to moderate after the prizes had been awarded. The
students wanted to know all about the plans and the location, and how
the wharf was to be built.
Captain Gildrock took from his pocket a couple of fifty-dollar bills,
and laid them on the desk, and Bolly was called to the platform. Another
round of applause greeted him, and the principal did not object to it.
The victor was formally introduced to each of the visitors, who took him
by the hand and congratulated him upon his success. Mr. Bridges said he
could not help laughing when he thought of the triumphant architect
doing duty as third fireman in the hold of the Sylph.
"If this boy should happen to become an architect in the future, do you
suppose that what he learns in the fireroom of the steamer will be any
disadvantage to him?" said the principal.
"On the contrary, I think what he learns in any capacity will be of
immense value to him," replied the civil engineer earnestly. "In fact,
it would be worth all it cost in any calling."
"I noticed that this young gentleman's brother was first cook," added
Mr. Plint. "I have often had to get up designs and make drawings for
hotels, prisons, insane asylums, and other buildings in which a kitchen
was a very important apartment. Now, I am sure, if I had ever been a
cook I should have been better fitted to manage the details of such a
department."
"An eminent surgeon told me he was sorry he had not learned to be a
carpenter or a machinist after he graduated from college, for a
knowledge of these arts would make him a better surgeon," Mr. Bridges
remarked.
"Now, Millweed," continued the principal, "the students want to know all
about your plans,"--and this observation was greeted with a clapping of
hands. "I propose that you shall tell them yourself, and explain your
plans in full." This remark was applauded. "There is a large, clean
blackboard behind you, and you may do it in your own way."
"I am no orator, as Brutus is," replied Bolly, blushing.
"Brutus Shoreham!" exclaimed one of the boys, and all the assembly
laughed; and from that time the last of the rebels was called Brutus by
the students oftener than anything else.
"I am afraid I can't speak well enough to make myself understood," said
Bolly, as he looked nervously at the blackboard and then at the
students.
"You need not declaim it; only tell what your plans are, just as you
would explain them to one of your companions over in the grove," added
Captain Gildrock, encouragingly.
"I will try, sir. Shall I explain the building, or the location first,"
asked Bolly.
"Suit yourself, Millweed."
"Then I will begin with the location," replied the successful
competitor, as he took a crayon and turned to the blackboard, where he
rapidly sketched the shore-line of the northeast corner of Beech Hill
Lake.
This part of the lake formed a considerable bay, abreast of which was
the school building and shops, while the dormitory was near the rocks at
the foot of Beech Hill. About one third of the way across the lake was a
low peninsula, whose surface was nearly flat, and not more than three
feet above the usual level of the lake. This point projected out into
the lake about ten rods, and formed the western shore of the
bay,--called by the boys Hornet Bay, on account of a quarrel some of
them had had with insects of that name, in which the hornets got the
better of them.
"This is Chowder Point," Bolly began, indicating with the pointer the
projection of rocks, which had formerly been much used for picnic
purposes. "This is the location I have chosen for the boat-house."
"Why didn't you put it on the other side of the lake?" asked one of the
students, who thought it was too far from the old wharf.
"Chowder Point is just the same distance from the shop and schoolroom
as the old wharf, and only half the distance from the dormitory,"
replied Bolly, with patient dignity.
"And about the same distance from the mansion-house," added the
principal. "I must ask the students not to interrupt the speaker, and
not to ask any more questions until he has finished his explanation."
While the captain was making this remark, Bolly dashed off a
parallelogram, rather more than twice as long as it was wide. It covered
the end of Chowder Point, the extremity of which extended a short
distance outside of it.
"This figure represents the location of the boat-house," continued
Bolly, using the pointer. "You observe that about one third of the
building is on the land, or rocks, and the rest of it is over the
water."
"But where does the wharf come in?" asked an excited student.
"No questions!" interposed the principal. "You need not answer it,
Millweed."
"I shall come to the wharf in a few minutes," replied Bolly. "The main
building, represented by this parallelogram, is to be ninety-one feet
long by thirty-one feet wide,--rather narrow for the length, you will
say; but the proportions will be improved a little before I finish."
The speaker took the crayon and marked off the docks for the barges.
They opened at the south end of the structure, into Hornet Bay. He had
made the inner ends of the two docks something in shape of the bows of
the boats, so that the idea could be better obtained by the listeners.
"These docks are fifty-four feet long, and nine feet wide. The space
between them is a platform six feet wide. Next to the walls of the
building on each side is a platform three feet wide. You will see that I
am giving you the plan of the building as well as the location; but this
seems to be the most natural way to do it."
Bolly then drew a section of the structure, looking at the south end of
it. At the lower part on each side four feet were added to the breadth
of the house, increasing it to forty feet, with the allowance for the
thickness of the sides. But this addition was only one fourth of the
whole height of the house. It had a slanting roof, making the addition
what used to be called a "lean-to."
The excitement of the boys increased as Bolly advanced with his plans,
and they wondered what this narrow strip on each side of the building
could mean. They wanted to ask questions, and it was hard work for them
to keep from bursting out into a volley of inquiries. The amateur
architect drew a great many lines across this narrow addition, which
tended to throw some light on the mystery. But the added strips looked
very like a couple of ladders.
"These are the dressing-rooms," Bolly proceeded, when he had finished
this part of the drawing. "There are forty of them, as required in the
terms, and each of them is four feet by three. From each a door opens to
the outside platforms on the docks."
At this point the students took it all in, and a round of applause
greeted this feature, which the boys thought was an admirable one. The
oarsmen could come out of the dressing-rooms in which they had put on
their uniforms, and step directly into the barges.
"These additions to the sides are only six feet high at the eaves and
seven at the walls. The lower story of the boat-house is twelve feet
high. This leaves five feet of space above the roof of the
lean-to,--that's what my father calls the L of his house. In this space
are to be ten windows on each side. There are also four windows over
the doors at the end of the boat-house by which the barges are to be
admitted."
"I think your building will be well lighted, Mr. Millweed," interposed
Mr. Plint, thinking the speaker appeared to have some doubts on this
point.
"Thank you, sir," replied Bolly, much gratified at the architect's
approval. "Six feet from the inner ends of the docks will be a fence,
with a gate opposite each platform," continued the speaker, indicating
it by a dotted line. "The dressing-rooms end at this fence. Then there
is a passage-way ten feet wide across the house. At the shore end of it
is the principal entrance."
Bolly then divided the space on the plan north of this passage-way into
four parts, and said they were the two storerooms, the sailroom, and the
paint shop. Against the sides at this end of the structure he made two
more additions, wider than the others. The one on the shore side was for
the stairs to the hall; the other was for one of the four-oar boats; and
a third was run along the water part of the north end for the other.
Bolly explained these features of the plan at some length.
"The wide passageway through the building from the main entrance to the
water side of the building leads to the wharf," continued the speaker,
pointing to it on his drawing. "You will observe that the great doors on
the water side are in the middle of the tip end of Chowder Point. The
rock extends only four feet outside of it.
"The wharf is to be in the form of the letter T," Bolly proceeded,
drawing this pier in the place where his plan located it. "The cross
part, or top of the T, is to be sixty feet from the boat-house, and is
to be reached by a wooden bridge ten feet wide, with a single span of
fifty-six feet. The landing part of the wharf is a huge caisson, or box,
sixty feet long by twelve feet wide, which is to be built at the shore,
floated to the place where it is to be located, and sunk with rocks; and
the bottom of the lake at this place is almost parallel with the surface
of the water."
The students were filled with wonder by these last details.