The Situation — Vl^HAT is a11 this talk about situa ' 
Outdoors and In * * tion in house building and the 
fitting of house to land and room to 
house? It is merely the old law of harmony made applicable to 
the home not merely to develop it as a work of art hut because 
when planned most consistently its economy of comfort is great¬ 
est. The days of a roof and four walls are past, because history 
and civilization have advanced our tastes and increased our de¬ 
sires. The cave man might have found little to bother him in a 
stone bed; the present-day citizen can be iritated by an ugly color 
scheme. It is not elegance that is demanded but relation of parts. 
In several instances described in this magazine house builders 
have sought and obtained this ideal. The section upon which 
they chose to build appealed to the architect’s constructive imagin¬ 
ation and he designed a type suitable to the situation. That is the 
hope of architects. They accepted his ideas and carried them out 
still further by seeking to have everything inside the completed 
dwelling add to the unity of the whole. But how often is the 
good beginning spoiled by a poor completion of the work. The 
style of exterior design is forgotten in interior decoration, and 
the furnishing is undertaken as chance dictates. It is not a 
matter of greater expense to complete a scheme. In these several 
instances it was a saving. But the greatest gain is in the living. 
As we are influenced by our environment we will find our days 
run much pleasanter in a home where there is no constant fight 
between the house and the things in it. The old song can then be 
changed to this rendering: Behold how good it is to dwell in a 
house where there is unity. 
The Grip TT is only within very recent years 
of Winter ^ that Winter has began to be ap¬ 
preciated. Even so keen a nature lover 
as Thoreau, writing fifty years ago of his sojourn at Walden 
Pond, dwells but lightly on winter. He tells of the animals and 
their winter habits, of fishing through the ice, of the ice harvest, 
but of the beauty of nature in her winter dress he says very little. 
Perhaps he was too close to nature to appreciate her Winter, the 
need of replenishing his fire and chopping through a foot of ice 
for his morning's water, too grim realities for even his apprecia¬ 
tive moods. We have the advantage of him in this. It is a far 
more comfortable and enjoyable experience to pay a short visit 
to the Winter woods from our comfortably heated homes of to¬ 
day. There is less chance for the real zest of it to be numbed by 
the reality. And he who has once tramped, preferably on snow- 
shoes, over the blanket-like drifts of the Northern woods needs 
no suggestion that he repeat the experience. He would as soon 
miss the thrill of a hunt through the woods for the May wild- 
flowers. 
For the man who really knows the beauties of the four sea¬ 
sons—knows them by intimate association with their moods, a 
choice between them is difficult. And yet it does seem to us that 
Summer is the least inspiring of the cycle, that the sweetly 
melancholy days of Autumn, with a tang of burning brush in 
the air, are more satisfying than the impatient, hot-headed Spring 
and that the vast silence of nature’s Winter sleep in the woods, 
when the snow lies deep and unbelievably spotless, is, after all, 
the year’s most glorious season. 
Around the r I 'HERE is a very humble institution 
Chip-Block ^at is in danger of extinction in 
modern life, and that is the wood pile. 
Perhaps you are one of those erring ones who would with perfect 
equanamity see it relegated to an honorable past, provided only 
that there is a goodly supply of coal or gas or steam in sight. It 
is fortunate then that there is yet time in which to convince you of 
your error. A great limb of one of the lawn maples has lain on 
the lawn out there for a month or more. To the uninitiated it 
has a potential value for fuel, but that is all. If, however, you 
will take an axe and investigate the matter you will find that it 
has a potential value that is far greater. Mark the log off into 
lengths of a convenient size for your fireplace and swing away at 
it with your axe. With the flying of the thick chips from beside 
its keen edge there will come an appreciation of several things. 
There will come back to you a sub-conscious knowledge of hew¬ 
ing wood that comes from your pioneer ancestors. There will 
come also a keen relish for accomplishment that is not dulled by 
aching muscles and a tired back. There will come an appetite for 
food that may cost far more to satisfy than the value of the 
hewn timber, but no matter, you will have gained in health and in 
the knowledge that the wood pile is one of man's most cherishable 
possessions. 
The Woman’s 
Opportunity 
Y OU surely don't intend to stay 
out there all winter!” This 
was in reply to Mrs. Field’s statement 
that her home in the country would be ready for occupation late 
in the fall. Her affirmation brought a flood of criticism that ended 
up with the remark that such a course would be suicidal. Her 
visitor claimed she would die of ennui, would become cramped of 
vision and narrowed in mind away from the city’s culture and 
opportunity for intercourse. Those whose life fortunately is 
spent in the open can afford to smile with the wider knowledge 
that refutes such ignorance. But there is something in the ques¬ 
tion which demands our attention. 
Out of the tourney of suffrage arguments, among broken 
weapons of discussion, we find the claim that the mother woman 
is the domestic drudge under present conditions; that she must 
of necessity be so for she has no incentive or opportunity to be 
otherwise. Let us leave the question to the combatants; we have 
rashly approached too near. It gives us a thought for the country 
woman, however, and an answer to Mrs. Field’s uncomprehending 
friend. 
The matter is summed up so well in Prof. L. H. Bailey’s book, 
“The Country Life Movement,” that we give it direct: 
“It is as necessary to the woman as to the man that her mind be 
open to the facts, phenomena and objects that are everywhere 
about her, as the winds and weather, the plants and the birds, the 
fields and streams and woods. It is one of the best resources in 
life to be able to distinguish the songs and voices of the common 
fields, and it should be part of the education of every person, and 
particularly every country person, to have this respite. The mak¬ 
ing of a garden is much more than the growing of radishes, 
strawberries and petunias. It is the experiences in the out-of- 
doors, the contact with realities, the personal joy of seeing things 
germinate and grow and reproduce their kind.” 
We personally feel that the woman, much more than the man,, 
is appreciative of this and that perhaps the first sentence should' 
be ‘It is as necessary for the man as for the woman.’ But at any 
rate it is so, and the country woman has the God-given oppor¬ 
tunity. The change of seasons, the wonderful alchemy of Nature 
which, when we throw back that of her bounty which we have 
used and destroyed, turns it to use again to give sustenance to a 
new crop — all this is far from narrowing; is big in importance for 
us. The greater chance to enjoy it is the woman’s, and most of 
all, of course, the country woman’s. Wouldn’t it be well to 
cultivate this attitude to strike a companionship with birds and' 
beasts and plants ? The country would then have a sweeter song 
and brighter message. This is not a poet's dream; it is truth. 
(394) 
