Two] SELECTING A HOME 
As your place progresses it should express one 
concrete single idea. Most places undertake to 
make a bundle out of gathered notions. They put 
together as much of the useful or of the beautiful, 
or both, as can be collected by the owner. He buys 
whatever he hears of as desirable, especially what 
agents urge upon him, and places his collections as 
conspicuously as possible around his house. His 
property not only does not express himself, his taste, 
his likes, his imagination, his growth, but his utter 
lack of all these. I never could see why a house 
should be surrounded by all the queer things and 
all the pretty things collectable; for this is to create 
a museum, nota home. Around the house let na- 
ture do largely as she will, with your brains and 
hands to cooperate. Better a half-dozen hearty 
native trees, in free development, full of birds’ nests, 
than a lot of dwarf trees and weeping trees and 
homesick trees from China, each out of harmony 
with the others, and with the place which you 
call home. This unity should include the whole 
property—house, barns, gardens, lawns. Your 
business is to see that this unity is sustained, and 
no part of the home allowed to run down. 
[35] 
