FARM HOMES, 

 IN- DOORS AND OUT-DOORS, 



CHAPTER I. 

 BUILDING. 



Some one has intimated that he who has eyes for seeing 

 is a very wealthy man he owns the landscape ! Whoever 

 is blessed with eyes, then, owes it to God and to his fel- 

 low-man that he should contribute his mite of beauty 

 and cheerfulness to the world around him. 



In no way can he do this with more telling effect than 

 in creating a lovely home, in building a comfortable and 

 attractive house, and making the most and best of its 

 surroundings. No matter how small his possessions may 

 be, or how plain and cheap his materials, it is always 

 possible for every farmer to make the landscape a little 

 more pleasing, from the fact of his having a hand in it. 



If this seems a small achievement, and one without 

 " profit," let the reader call to mind those farm-houses 

 seen too often whose ricketty fences, unkempt door- 

 yards, and scattered tools, are an ugly blot upon nature's 

 fair page, and I am sure he will feel the great moral as 

 well as financial meaning that lies in even the humblest 

 expressions of beauty, thrift, and order a meaning that 

 (9) 



