The Personal Equation 185 



with it; absorption in interesting work will have its 

 part; but more than all else, the spiritual companion- 

 ship that goes with the trees and flowers and open skies. 

 Not only will there be fewer divorces ; there will be 

 more marriages and more children, and for similar 

 reasons. 



The occupations of the garden home are all such as 

 women can readily pursue, if they have the taste for 

 such things. An interesting and inspiring book might 

 be written on this phase of the subject. Nothing ex- 

 cept the limitation of space restrains me from relating 

 many experiences of the kind which have come under 

 my own observation during the past c l() years. Even 

 so, I must refer to a single instance that may inspire 

 others to the adventure. 



In one of the most picturesque of California valleys, 

 not far from Los Angeles, two young women started 

 out ten years ago to make a self-sustaining home on 

 a single acre. They were accomplished artists, and 

 perhaps the wild beauty of the region lured them into 

 this new way of life, so strange to their experience 

 and — some would have thought — so forbidding to per- 

 sons of their delicate strength. They built a com- 

 modious and beautiful tile house, largely with their own 

 hands, and proceeded to organize their small holding 

 on the basis of the most diversified production — vege- 

 tables, fruit trees, berries, poultry, rabbits, bees, and, 

 finally, goats. "Pretty hard work for two girls," they 

 always cautioned me to say, yet there they are after 

 many years, and there their hearts will always abide. 



They demonstrated that they could make a living 

 from an acre of ground within easy distance of a great 



