sixteen] nooks and CORNERS 



was made up of arbors, rockeries, grottoes, ever- 

 greens sheared into hens, fountains where spouting 

 geese vied with negroes grinning in the pools, and 

 stone dogs in the grass. Such things are abhorrent 

 to nature, and they do not constitute a home. I 

 think the people catch the spirit of this sort of work 

 from some of our public parks. If a trellis of wood 

 or wire is needed, let it be strong and simple, and 

 demonstrate its fitness by its utility. I have seen a 

 great many wooden arbors about the country, as I 

 have seen many observatories on the tops of houses, 

 but I rarely ever saw anybody inside one of them. 

 They are artificial and superfluous as a rule — not 

 always. 



There are, however, some people who cannot 

 live out of doors. So far as I can see, they have 

 nothing out there to live for, or to live with. In- 

 doors they have a lot of furniture that they sym- 

 pathize with, and they make up the rest with other 

 conventionalisms. Half our country houses might 

 as well be in Sahara, so far as trees, flowers, birds, 

 brooks, hedges, nooks and common sense are con- 

 cerned. Birds rarely go near such houses. A few 

 trees are set out for a show — a row of something 

 on exhibition; birds never nest in such things. 



[365] 



