162 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



and a goodly number of friends. We had agreed 

 that the house should be simple in all ways, with 

 no hard wood except floors, and no ornamenta- 

 tion except paint and paper. It must be larger 

 than our needs, for we looked forward to delight- 

 ful visits from many friends. We were to have 

 more leisure than ever before for social life, and 

 we desired to make the most of our opportunities. 

 A country house is by all odds the finest place 

 to entertain friends and to be entertained by 

 them. They come on invitation, not as a matter 

 of form, and they stay long enough to put by 

 questions of weather, clothes, and servant-girls, 

 and to get right down to good old-fashioned 

 visiting. Real heart-to-heart talks are everyday 

 occurrences in country visits, while they are 

 exceptional in city calls. We meant to make 

 much of our friends at Four Oaks, and to have 

 them make much of us. We have discovered new 

 values even in old friends, since we began to live 

 with them, weeks at a time, under the same 

 roof. Their interests are ours, and our plans are 

 warmly taken up by them. There is nothing 

 like it among the turmoils and interruptions of 

 town life, and the older we grow the more we 

 need this sort of rest among our friends. The 

 guest book at the farm will show very few weeks, 

 in the past six years, when friends haven't been 

 wtth us, and Polly and I feel that the pleasure 

 we have received from this source ought to be 

 placed on the credit side of the farm ledger. 



