BUILDING THE HOUSE 61 



house might be mostly glass, or that front which can 

 let in most of the glory of the world and the sky. 



Then your narrow six-foot or seven-foot veranda 

 is a meaningless as well as a useless adjunct. It is 

 just big enough to pinch you, and not large enough 

 to give you comfort. A country house should have 

 ten or twelve foot verandas, on at least two of its 

 sides, or all around it, and here should be everything 

 to suggest comfort and companionship not only 

 hammocks and easy chairs, but hammock beds, that 

 by day can be drawn up under the roof. 



We start in with this fixed conviction, that in the 

 country we are to live mostly among our trees and 

 flowers, and that, apart from a few forms of toil, 

 the house is to be used only when we need to get out 

 of the rain or the snow. If you cannot agree with 

 me on this point you may as well lay aside this book 

 altogether. We do not need to be under cover most 

 of the time. God made us to be as free as the other 

 creatures. The sky is roof enough, except in a 

 storm. 



The best chairs are mossy logs and the brown 

 lichen turfs. Our sweetest canaries are in the bushes, 

 or freely hopping about the apple boughs. Live out 

 of doors for beauty if for nothing else, for it will 

 paint your cheeks, while indoors will make them 

 pallid; for health, also, and for long life drink oxy- 

 gen. Learn to walk, not merely when you must, but 

 to enjoy it. Get into argument with the folks that 

 live in the glens and exchange calls with the birds 



