14 THE HOME ACRE. 



are few who would care to follow a plan which 

 many others had adopted. Indeed, it would be 

 the natural wish of persons of taste to impart 

 something of their own individuality to their rural 

 home ; and the effort to do this would afford much 

 agreeable occupation. Plates giving the elevation 

 and arrangement of country homes can be studied 

 by the evening lamp ; visits to places noted for 

 their beauty, simplicity, and good taste will afford 

 motives for many a breezy drive ; while useful sug- 

 gestions from what had been accomplished by 

 others may repay for an extended journey. Such 

 observations and study will cost little more than 

 an agreeable expenditure of time; and surely a 

 home is worth careful thought. It then truly 

 becomes your home, something that you have 

 evolved with loving effort. Dear thoughts of wife 

 and children enter into its very materiality ; walks 

 are planned with a loving consciousness of the 

 feet which are to tread them, and trees planted 

 with prophetic vision of the groups that will gather 

 beneath the shade. This could scarcely be true 

 if the acre was turned over to architect, builders, 

 and landscape-gardeners, with an agreement that 

 you should have possession at a specified time. 



We will suppose that it is early spring, that the 

 ground has received its second ploughing, and 

 that the carriage-drive and the main walks have 



