THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



will do admirable service. Tan-bark is often a con- 

 venient substance, while chip-waste will serve, 

 where it can be obtained in quantity; better yet 

 sawdust. Weeds will not easily come up through 

 the ashes, but will, in time, work their way through 

 sawdust. The mulch should be removed once a 

 year, the soil thoroughly forked, and then the mulch 

 replaced or renewed. 



You can coax a brook to do almost anything, from 

 turning a boy's mimic wheel to forming a carp pond 

 or a cranberry bog. A neighbor has built a dam 

 across a brook, and it goes down to irrigate his gar- 

 den, to fill water-lily tubs, and then create a garden 

 pond, where he has a fountain constantly playing. 

 But the best part of the brook is, after all, up under 

 the limbs of the huge willows, where the bare-foot- 

 ed boys can wade, or take a noonday bath. Utili- 

 zation of brooks does not consist wholly in the use 

 of the water for houses, barns, and irrigation. Al- 

 ways buy a brook, if you can, while seeking a coun- 

 try home. The most beautiful thing in the country 

 is a brook that sweeps and tumbles, and whirls 

 about and eddies, — kissing the overhanging rocks 

 — that bathes the tree roots, plays with the peb- 

 bles, dashes spray over the lichens, and then carries 



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