ADVICE FOR LACKLAND 



sunny porch upon which the early vines will 

 clamber, and under whose eaves the Phoebe 

 birds will make their nests. I want, too, my 

 after-dinner lounges at a sunny door, where 

 I can smoke my pipe, basking in the yellow 

 light, as I watch the shadows chasing over the 

 grass. About the stupid little design I send 

 you, there is neither hope nor possibility of 

 this. 



"Again, even with a dining-room, or library 

 added, and perhaps a kitchen, I shall be still 

 in want of further chamber range, which if I 

 gain (as our carpenter suggests) by piling on 

 a story more, it appears to me that I should 

 give to the narrow front of the house an ab- 

 surd cock-loft look that would be unendur- 

 able. 



"Mrs. L. and myself have scored out an 

 incredible number of diagrams — all which 

 have been discussed, slept on, admired, and 

 eventually condemned. Sometimes it is the 

 old pinched entrance way that works condem- 

 nation; sometimes (on my part) the lack of 

 sunny exposure; and oftenest (on hers) the 

 lack of closets. She insists that no man yet 

 ever planned a house properly on this score. 

 She does n't see clearly (being deficient in 

 mathematics) why a closet should n't be made 



55 



