The fifteen hundred dollars raised on the mortgage had gone and of the money obtained by the sale of the cranberry bog shares--Mrs.Pearson's legacy--nearly half had gone also.

Estimates are one thing and actual expenditures are another, a fact known to everyone who has either built a house or rebuilt one, and more than once during the repairing and furnishing process Thankful had repented of her venture and wished she had not risked the plunge.
But, having risked it, backing out was impossible.

Neither was it possible to stop half-way.

As she said to Captain Obed, "There's enough half-way decent boardin'-houses and hotels in this neighborhood now.
There's about as much need of another of that kind as there is of an icehouse at the North Pole.

Either this boardin'-house of mine must be the very best there can be, price considered, or it mustn't be at all.
That's the way I look at it." The captain had, of course, agreed with her.