HOW TO LIVE IN THE 

 COUNTRY 



CHAPTER I 



FINDING THE PLACE 



I PROPOSE a book that shall be helpful to those 

 who desire to create country homes. I shall 

 let the mansions well enough alone, for I have 

 no interest in seeing costly residences on our hill- 

 sides that few can afford to occupy and that no one 

 can make pay. These are extravagances that are 

 apt to display only the wealth of their owners. They 

 create tenantry and retinues of servants instead of 

 freeholders and free men. They are not a- growth 

 of the land, coming up out of the needs of the peo- 

 ple, but they are a transplantation of the city into 

 the country; and wherever they are, the simplicity 

 of Nature is compelled to give way to the artificiality 

 of display. The violet goes, and the lotus pond 

 comes in ; and there is nowhere a smell of the wild 

 mint left. 



What I shall hold myself to strictly is helping 

 the men of moderate means, who intend to live 



II 



