26 LIVING OUTDOORS 



cooperating with a few neighbours, because mosquitoes (so entomol- 

 ogists tell us) rarely travel more than a quarter of a mile from the 

 spot where they originate. And, secondly, some of us can get 

 two more hours of daylight by shortening or rearranging the hours 

 of labour. 



Many people think that it is hopeless to try to get Americans 

 to modify their pace of living. They believe that our climate 

 will always breed haste and intensity. But I believe our pace is 

 merely an incident of the pioneer stage. Remember how many 

 men of the last generation boasted that they never took a vacation! 

 Yet how firmly the vacation habit is now established ! We may 

 work just as hard while we work, but we work fewer hours than OUT? 

 parents. And, as a nation, we are steadily learning better how 

 to rest and play. No amount of scolding will make us slow up. 

 But men's instinctive love of pleasure will bring about the change 

 easily and naturally perhaps within a century. For the 

 example of Europe is constantly before us, since Americans are 

 always going there, and they all say when they return that the 

 Europeans get more "fun "out of life than we. 



One of the great features of outdoor life in England is eating, 

 and the characteristic outdoor meal is tea. At one time I thought 

 there must be forty million places in England where a person could 

 have tea served outdoors. You can generally get it in a beauti- 

 ful garden, often with music, and always with privacy and courtesy. 

 The English climate naturally suggests a light meal about five 

 o'clock; ours does not. Moreover, we haven't daylight enough 

 to justify tea. A much better institution for us, I believe, is the 

 screened veranda, where we may eat dinner leisurely in the cool of 

 the evening after it is too dark to play. I recall a beautiful 

 veranda on the Porter place at Lake Geneva, large, secluded, 



