OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



landscape — what fertility of soil— what ad- 

 denda of convenience? 



I don't think, for a moment, that you have; 

 I don't think that one in a hundred has, who 

 amuses himself in dreamy hours with fore- 

 casts of a pleasant home in the shade of oaks, 

 and in the midst of cornlands, which, in boy- 

 ish days, he knew — only too well. The man 

 who is eager for a town purchase of house or 

 lot, has very distinct notions (ordinarily) of 

 the size he covets — the number of rooms 

 requisite — of the household service he will 

 possibly require, and of the probable range of 

 his annual costs in maintaining the same. But, 

 with respect to the country, whenever his 

 aspirations turn in that direction, he is in a 

 maze. He counts it an indulgence, which, like 

 city indulgences, has no determined laws of 

 cost ; . it is another opera-box, of which the 

 trees make the upholstery, and some Killarney 

 manager presents the bills in brogue. Under 

 these conditions of uncertainty, an intermedi- 

 ate agent, who can interpret in some measure 

 a man's own indefinite wishes, and by a few 

 direct, practical questions, reduce his inten- 

 tions to form, is eminently needed — one, more- 

 over, who, by his own experience and observa- 

 tion, can suggest the costs and capabilities of 



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