"It must be like putting raisins in a plum pudding," suggested Ethel Brown. "You have to be careful the stones--the raisins--don't all sink to the bottom or get bunched together in one place."
"That's the idea," smiled Mr. Anderson. "All those things and water go into one end of the mixer and they come out at the other end concrete in a soft state. Then the men shovel the stuff into the space between the fence and the earth bank, making sure that that widening trench at the foot is chock full and they thump it down and let it 'set.'"
"I think the cellar will look very ugly with that old plank wall," decided Dorothy seriously.
"Won't the concrete show lines where the cracks between the boards were?"
"Do you see those rolls of heavy paper over there? The planks will be lined with that so that the concrete will come against a perfectly smooth surface. When the wood is taken away the men will go over it with a smoothing tool and when they have finished even your particular eye will see nothing to take exception to."
"O, I knew it would be right somehow," murmured Dorothy, who was afraid she had hurt Mr. Anderson's feelings. "I just didn't know how you managed it."
"Here's the way the end of the wall would look if you could slice down right through it," and the contractor took out his notebook and drew a cross section of the concrete wall showing its widened foot.
"What's the floor to be made of?" asked Ethel Blue.
"Concrete--four inches of it," answered Mr. Anderson promptly. "It will slope a trifle toward this end, and there a drainage pipe will be laid to carry off any water used in washing the floor. Then a layer of cement will go on top of the concrete."
"To make it all smooth. It will be rounded up at the corners and sides where it joins the walls, so there won't be any chance for the dust to collect."
"The cellar in our house is awfully damp," remarked Ethel Brown. "Sometimes you can see the water dripping down the stones."
"The walls and the floor of this cellar will be waterproofed with a mixture of rich cement and sand mortar, and I think you'll find, young ladies, that you'll have a cellar that'll be hard to beat."
The contractor slapped his notebook emphatically and beamed at them so amiably that they felt the greatest confidence in what he proposed.