NATURE IN DECORATION AND PLEASURABLE RESOURCE. 163 



"I WISHED, HOWEVER, THAT THE STATUE-LIKE CHARACTERISTIC WOULD 

 HAVE APPLIED A LITTLE MORE TO THEIR HEADS.'' 



than the nadir? From the nadir's point 

 of view the earthworm is the "highest." 

 But pardon this bit of soliloquy. The 

 point I want to make is be honest in 

 using the English language. If you 

 have "country," "beauty" and a "home," 

 as in this particular instance, call it so. 

 If you have coldness in architecture or 

 in grounds, if vou have artificiality in 

 the exclusive extreme, if you have a 

 palace, call it so. But to most human 

 beings who live the natural and the im- 

 proved in nature let there be the proper 

 intermingling. 



But, says some one, not all have the 

 means to use nature so extensively as a 

 decoration and a resource. The answer 

 is that the plea is not for quantity but 

 quality ; not for ownership but interest. 



If you love waterfowl get some ducks 

 and geese and keep them in the frog 

 pond. If vou cannot get several get 

 one duck or one goose. If you havn't 

 the frog pond and really want one, move 

 where there is one. If you cannot have 

 a cement fountain, sink a half barrel 

 in the ground of the back yard. 



In other words, use nature as a deco- 

 ration and as a pleasurable resource. 

 Rightfully used, be your estate large 

 or small, there is nothing more beauti- 

 ful, nothing more helpful, than nature 

 properly trained, properly restrained 

 and properly, which means tenderly, led 

 along on the way which she would, if 

 left to herself, select her own path and 

 freely fling abroad all her native beauty. 



