234 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



yellow-skinned Jersey give down her fourteen 

 quarts a day. I can live in a rented house with 

 less inconvenience than in this house of my own. 

 I am always free to go away from a rented house, 

 and I am always glad to go. The joy of renting 

 is to move, or sublet; to be rid also of taxes and 

 repairs. 



" Let the risers rot ! It is n't my house, and if I 

 break my neck I '11 sue for damages ! " 



There is your renter, and the joy he gets in 

 renting. 



There are advantages, certainly, in renting; 

 your children, for instance, can each be born in a 

 different house, if you rent; and if they chance to 

 come all boys, like my own, they can grow up 

 at the City Athletic Association — a convenient, 

 and more or less permanent place, nowadays, 

 which may answer very well their instinctive 

 needs for a fixed abode, for a home. There are 

 other advantages, no doubt. But however you 

 reckon them, the rented house is in the end a 

 tragedy, as the willful renter and his homeless 

 family is a calamity, a disgrace, a national men- 

 ace. Drinking and renting are vicious habits.( A 

 house and a bit of land of your own are as neces- 



