70 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



After this every member of the family should have 

 one room to himself or herself, in which to grow his 

 own individual tastes. Sleeping together is irrational 

 and generally destructive to health and character. 

 There is no need of it in a country house. 



A library is needed in a modern house, unless pov- 

 erty forbids it. In the latter case every child should 

 be taught to collect a few choice books for himself 

 in his own private room. The family room is for 

 music, and not for books or for pictures. It is not 

 the place for reading, but for social life. However, 

 beware of book dissipation, the book disease that has 

 run over into our generation. Fifty years ago a book 

 was a book, and half a dozen dotted a year, but now 

 they are poured in upon us like a Galveston flood. 

 A book at the best is only a translation of Nature, 

 and here in the country it is not right that you should 

 be able to read books and not Nature itself. Learn 

 to listen to the birds and the brooks and to see for 

 yourself. 



But I would have, either as a part of the barn or 

 the house, a shop and a laboratory. Ours is an age 

 of industrialism, and at least one-third of our chil- 

 dren are born with an instinct for tools. This is 

 growing on us, and it is a good thing. When our 

 children are born to do, as well as to learn, to think 

 for themselves and act, rather than to stuff their mem- 

 ories with book information, it will be vastly better 

 for us. 



The laboratory should be a large room and simply 



