.208 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



Our flag pole does double duty, as on it is rigged a wireless, 

 catching messages from Eastport, Maine, to the Florida Keys, 

 and for a thousand miles out at sea, from dreadnought and liner as 

 they fly past, or the code language of a manoeuvering army. 



The dock is partially enclosed with a woven, galvanized wire 

 guard with brass top rail and broad stone ledge steps are built against 

 its sides, enabling one to bathe or land from boats at all tide levels.* 



In the grounds is an interesting example of tree growth. Bor- 

 dering the Sound are two trees, one a hoary-headed oak of two and 

 a half centuries, and less than a stone's throw from it a Wier's cut 

 leaf maple that I shouldered and planted as easily as I would a bean 

 pole exactly seventeen years ago. The trunk of the maple is now 

 three-quarters the diameter of the sturdy oak, and in height closely 

 crowds its aged neighbor. 



Centreing the belvedere is a sun dial of the type that marked 

 the hours for Pliny in that wonder garden. It is fitted with time 

 equation and bears the motto, "It is always morning somewhere in 

 the world," the antithesis of the less helpful and more lugubrious 

 saying, "We are all traveling toward sunset." 



*The absence of all sewage in the clear water surrounding Shore Rocks made our 



special and essential August battle against the teredo and xylotrya strenuous. Kyanizing the 



wood did not rout the mollusk, his diet being minute organisms and plants that float through 



the doorway of his shell-lined house-tomb. Copper paint and big headed rusty nails saved 



, boats, ways, and spiles from the inroads of these destructive rats of the water. 



