two] selecting a home 



you have one deepening conviction that man was 

 never intended to live out of relation with nature. 

 You think of rows of city houses as so many graded 

 prisons. Those who live in them, even in artificial 

 luxury, are deprived of the very best that God pre- 

 pares for us to enjoy. 



At the close of the first day we will sit down for a 

 council. We have seen and taken notes of a dozen 

 most inviting places — spots that seem to need us, 

 just as we need them. There are many things to 

 consider; our pockets as well as our eyes, our hands 

 as well as our heads. It is folly to undertake a task 

 that will be beyond our experience, and will so over- 

 burden us with novel cares that we shall stop in de- 

 spair, and crawl back into town life. You may be 

 sure of one thing — that no work needs more tact, 

 patience, resolution, and wit than that of the farm. 

 A home in the country during the twentieth century 

 will mean the liveliest sort of intellectual activity. 



In the first place, we do not want too large a place ; 

 only what we can manage and completely master. 

 Most of us will not be experienced land-tillers, and 

 would not know what to do with a hundred acres, 

 if given to us. Besides this, the old style of exten- 

 sive farming is now steadily passing out in favor of 



[17] 



