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CHAPTER. FIVE 

 SHELTER 



FOR many years, shelter for us had meant the four 

 walls of an apartment in New York City with all the 

 conveniences and services which were included in the 

 rent we paid. We took electricity and gas, running 

 hot and cold water, steam heat and modern plumbing, 

 and janitor service, quite for granted. It is true that a 

 few years before our flight from the city we had 

 moved into a house in Flushing, a half-hour from the 

 center of the city. We then made the discovery that it 

 was possible for us to run a house and that we could 

 have much more room, for the same rent, if we were 

 willing to burden ourselves with the responsibility 

 for producing our own hot water and our own heat 

 in the winter. This experience helped to get us into 

 a frame of mind in which we could seriously con- 

 sider living in a house in the country in which there 

 were none of the comforts to which we were accus- 

 tomed, until we installed them and maintained them 

 for ourselves. The purchase of a home in which they 

 were already present was out of question because our 

 funds were too small, and besides, that would have 

 reduced the field in which we might experiment with 

 building and making things for ourselves. 



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