WHAT WE DID FIRST 



The engine, run usually only one day in the week, fills this reser- 

 voir in nine and a half hours. The main waterpipes have a diameter 

 of four inches and are laid four feet deep to be beyond the reach of 

 frost ; the pressure is great enougli to throw several streams of water 

 entirely over the house from a two-inch fire hose. It was a simple 

 thing to put reducers on the house plumbing, and a great comfort 

 always to have plenty of water to use as we liked. I heard a woman 

 say once that her ideal of country life was to combine the informality 

 and simplicity of tent life with plenty of bath-rooms ! 



Along the roadway, hidden behind boulders and shrubs, through 

 the kitchen garden and flower garden, over the lawn and in the wood 

 at irregular intervals, the water taps began to appear, standing 

 twelve inches high with wheels turning easily to control the supply, 

 ready to keep the whole place moist in time of drought. Fifteen 

 sprinklers of the simplest construction, six and eight feet in height 

 and throwing a spray thirty-five feet in diameter, could even be run 

 all night if necessary, the faint throb, throb, of the engine carrying 

 the basso for the crickets' and katydids' song. 



Meanwhile the little cottage in the woods was growing rapidly. 

 We frankly admired its brown rough-hewn timbers, overhanging 

 eaves, and hooded casements, its small, open porch, its covered 

 entry, and big woodshed for the summer cooking. With neither 

 shades nor blinds, the trees had to be our protectors from the sun; 

 though flowered cretonne curtains could be drawn across when 



needed, making bright bits of color on the rough plaster walls. 



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