SHELTER 65 



hasn't the right to be mysterious to anyone over the 

 age of fifteen. 



The effort to produce shelter for ourselves in this 

 way produced a number of dividends upon which we 

 had not counted in the beginning. We, of course, 

 counted most upon reducing the cost of shelter. In 

 the city, a full quarter of our income had been spent 

 for rent. By owning our home, and above all by mak- 

 ing our investment small because we were willing to 

 put some of our own labor into rebuilding, we cut 

 down the cost of shelter to not much more than I 

 earned by one or two days' work a month. That left 

 just so much more of what we used to spend for rent 

 available for other purposes than shelter; we had the 

 income for from four to five days more each month 

 to save or spend. 



One of the dividends upon which we had not 

 counted was that of health. We found that this sort 

 of work, if it was not overdone (of which there is a 

 real danger when one's enthusiasm is great) , furnishes 

 wholesome and necessary exercise. And instead of be- 

 ing just the mechanical exercise of gymnasium work, 

 it is exercise for the intellect and the emotions as well. 



Another dividend was the discovery that building 

 could be fun. Slowly but surely the things we con- 

 ceived first as an idea finally became realities embodied 

 in sticks and stones. The space where we decided that 

 a cupboard was needed was eventually occupied by 

 one, and the cupboard we dreamed and designed 

 on a piece of paper eventually grew into a real cup- 



