OUR LITTLE HOME. 65 



farm, wherever it might be, was to be transformed into 



a little oasis in the desert. T covered many sheets 



of writing-paper with designs for the horse-shoe arches ; 

 and with neatly-drawn plans for the long, cool Oriental 

 rooms, surrounding the square open court ; in the centre 

 of which was to be a fountain with bananas, ferns, blue 

 lotus, and other water-loving plants. 



Alas ! however ; when we did take a farm, we found 

 ourselves obliged after all to sacrifice beauty to useful- 

 ness, just like our neighbours. The unlovely Dutch 

 house, incapable as it was of adapting itself to Moorish 

 arches, had to be utilized ; the press of other work 

 allowing us no time for pulling down and re-building, 

 neither for indulging in any artistic vagaries ; and the 

 two first rooms which to meet immediate require- 

 ments were added as soon as bricks could be made for 

 them, were, for greater haste, built straight and square, 

 in the true packing-case style. They were the same 

 size as the two old Dutch rooms ; flat-roofed like them, 

 and built on to them in a straight line the four, each 

 with its alternate door and window, reminding us of the 

 rows of little temporary rooms which form the dwellings 

 of railway workmen when a new line is being made, 

 and which are moved on as the work progresses. 



After this unpromising beginning, it is needless to 

 say that our idea of building an Algerian house was 

 given up ; and though in time we improved the out- 

 ward appearance of our dwelling; breaking the straight- 

 ness of its outlines by the addition of a pretty little 

 sitting-room projecting from the front, and of a large 



