THE COUNTRY HOME [chapteh 



brooks that run where the plow cannot run, and 

 teach us to understand thickets that only need 

 brains to transform them into nooks and corners. 



One of my friends has built a storm arbor of 

 fossiliferous rock. It stands in a corner of his or- 

 chard, overlooking a magnificent bit of scenery, 

 while it constitutes a cosy retreat from house work 

 and field work. Not far away is a sun-dial, carved 

 on a round boulder. And so you will find that his 

 whole orchard is a quaint and nooky place where 

 one may not only pick apples, but may saunter and 

 rest. "Why not.?" he says. "Money is not the 

 only thing a man wants. It's about the meanest 

 stuff we get. It smells of old pockets; I don't like 

 to handle it, and it sort of makes me feel cheap to 

 measure myself by a roll of bills. But, you see, 

 here you can feel that you are as large as nature." 

 Then he has done another thing which people 

 ought to do more often; he has collected all the 

 water of his meadows and pastures, and run the 

 pipes and drains to a hollow, where they make him 

 a pond full of white and yellow lilies; and farther 

 down the swale the water again throws a fountain 

 jet, a spray that flies away with the wind and 

 waters a lot of wild asters, cypripediums, and golden 



1352] 



