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. 
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