two] selecting a home 



As your place progresses it should express one 

 concrete single idea. Most places undertake to 

 make a bundle out of gathered notions. They put 

 together as much of the useful or of the beautiful, 

 or both, as can be collected' by the owner. He buys 

 whatever he hears of as desirable, especially what 

 agents urge upon him, and places his collections as 

 conspicuously as possible around his house. His 

 property not only does not express himself, his taste, 

 his likes, his imagination, his growth, but his utter 

 lack of all these. I never could see why a house 

 should be surrounded by all the queer things and 

 all the pretty things collectable; for this is to create 

 a museum, not a home. Around the house let na- 

 ture do largely as she will, with your brains and 

 hands to cooperate. Better a half-dozen hearty 

 native trees, in free development, full of birds' nests, 

 than a lot of dwarf trees and weeping trees and 

 homesick trees from China, each out of harmony 

 with the others, and with the place which you 

 call home. This unity should include the whole 

 property — house, barns, gardens, lawns. Your 

 business is to see that this unity is sustained, and 

 no part of the home allowed to run down. 



[35] 



