THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
will do admirable service. Tan-bark is often a con- 
venient substance, while chip-waste will serve, 
where it can be obtained in quantity; better yet 
sawdust. Weeds will not easily come up through 
the ashes, but will, in time, work their way through 
sawdust. The mulch should be removed once a 
year, the soil thoroughly forked, and then the mulch 
replaced or renewed. 
You can coax a brook to do almost anything, from 
turning a boy’s mimic wheel to forming a carp pond 
or a cranberry bog. A neighbor has built a dam 
across a brook, and it goes down to irrigate his gar- 
den, to fill water-lily tubs, and then create a garden 
pond, where he has a fountain constantly playing. 
But the best part of the brook is, after all, up under 
the limbs of the huge willows, where the bare-foot- 
ed boys can wade, or take a noonday bath. Utili- 
zation of brooks does not consist wholly in the use 
of the water for houses, barns, and irrigation. Al- 
ways buy a brook, if you can, while seeking a coun- 
try home. The most beautiful thing in the country 
is a brook that sweeps and tumbles, and whirls 
about and eddies, — kissing the overhanging rocks 
— that bathes the tree roots, plays with the peb- 
bles, dashes spray over the lichens, and then carries 
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