PREFACE 



THE history of the 

 world was begun in a 

 garden, and to judge 

 by the temper and 

 sentiment of the rising genera- 

 tion it is likely to end in one. 

 Every year more and more people 

 seek the country, not only in 

 Summertime when the lanes and 

 byways are aglow with flowers 

 and merry with the songs of 

 birds, but also in Winter when Nature has "wrapped 

 the draperies of her couch about her and laid down 

 to pleasant dreams." As our forefathers knew, we 

 are beginning to learn that the lasting pleasures of 

 life are not to be found in the teeming cities, but 

 in the fields and woods within sound of the voice 

 of Nature who is forever calling her children home. 

 When an Englishman accumulates a small 

 fortune he retires to the country to live before 

 his youth is spent and his health broken, for he 

 knows that in the open a man need never grow 

 old; his great ambition in life is to leave the city 



