There was thus formed a little hall five feet wide in the center of the new bathroom, from which small doors opened to each tub.
"What do you mean, Joseph, by so many tubs ?" grandmother cried in astonishment, when she discovered what he was doing.
"Well, Ruth," he said, "I thought we'd have a tub for the boys, a tub for the girls, then tubs for you and me, mother, and one for our hired help." "Sakes alive, Joe! All those tubs to keep clean!" "But didn't you want a large bathroom ?" the old Squire rejoined, with twinkling eyes.
"Yes, yes," cried grandmother, "but I had no idea you were going to make a regular Bethesda!" Bethesda! Sure enough, like the pool in Jerusalem, it had five porches! And that name, born of grandmother Ruth's indignant surprise, stuck to it ever afterwards.
When the old Squire began work on that bathroom he expected to have it finished in a month.

But one difficulty after another arose: the tank leaked; the sewer clogged; nothing would work.

If the hardware dealer from the village came once to help, he came fifty times! His own experience in bathrooms was limited.

Then, to have hot water in abundance, it was necessary to send to Portland for a seventy-five-gallon copper heater; and six weeks passed before that order was filled.
November, December and January passed before Bethesda was ready to turn on the water; and then we found that the kitchen stove would not heat so large a heater, or at least would not do it and serve as a cook-stove at the same time.

Nor would it sufficiently warm the bathroom in very cold weather even with the kitchen door open.