FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 3 



city problem, we were overcome with longing for 

 the country for the security, the health, the leisure, 

 the beauty we felt it must be possible to achieve there. 

 Thus we came to make the experiment in living 

 which we had often discussed but which we had post- 

 poned time and again because it involved so radical 

 a change in our manner of life. 



Instead, therefore, of starting the irritating task 

 of house and apartment hunting, we wrote to real 

 estate dealers within commuting distance of the city. 

 We asked them for a house which could be readily 

 remodeled; a location near the railroad station be- 

 cause we had no automobile; five to ten acres of land 

 with fruit trees, garden space, pasturage, a woodlot, 

 and if possible a brook; a location where electricity 

 was available, and last but not least, a low purchase 

 price. Even if the place we could afford only barely 

 complied with these specifications, we felt confident 

 that we could achieve economic freedom on it and a 

 degree of comfort we never enjoyed in the city. All 

 the other essentials of the good life, not even except- 

 ing schooling for our two sons, we decided we could 

 produce for ourselves if we were unable to buy in a 

 neighborhood which already possessed them. 



We finally bought a place located about an hour 

 and three-quarters from the city. It included a small 

 frame house, one and a half stories high, containing 

 not a single modern improvement there was no 

 plumbing, no running water, no gas, no electricity, 

 no steam heat. There were an old barn, and a 



