THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



made yourself. A home-made table is one of the 

 easiest things to prepare. Get an old, rejected mill- 

 stone, and set it on boulders. In the hole through 

 the middle fix a large vase, to hold flowers; or, if 

 you will, saw a section of a big tree that is three feet 

 in diameter, and make the section three feet high. 

 Let the bark cling to such a table, and lest it cleave 

 off, drive in a few nails. 1 am using sections of 

 smaller trees for seats, and similar sections serve 

 admirably for seats elsewhere, as, for instance, about 

 your croquet ground, or in sheltered nooks behind 

 the edges. I have three living arbors, and con- 

 sider them delightful features of my homestead be- 

 cause they are so entirely natural looking, like large, 

 solid trees. I find that the birds approve of these 

 dense evergreen growths as much as I do, and they 

 nest overhead, and sing, without being disturbed 

 by their neighbors in the hammocks below. 



Concerning arbors of wood I say little; and about 

 all those other structures put up by carpenters, the 

 less that is said the better. They are out of place, 

 and out of taste, unless it be to hold up vines. 1 

 have seen rustic work carried clear out of natural 

 proportions, and made fantastic. The most ar- 

 tificial and disagreeable country place I ever saw 



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