A Barn That Served as a Summer Home 
HOW A MOTHER SUCCEEDED IN GIVING HER CHILDREN A TASTE OF COUNTRY LIVING—THE 
BARN THAT SUFFICED TILL THEIR HOUSE WAS BUILT—THE WAY THEY PLANNED THEIR PLACE 
by Mary Louise Hunter 
Photographs by the Author 
I T was hot and noisy in the little city where we lived. The 
wagons rumbled over the pavements; the autos tooted and 
tore along the streets; the bakers and milkmen clanged their 
gongs, and the whole neighborhood was astir with children. We 
had three baby boys, aged one, three and five, robust little fellows 
in good health, and brimful of activity. Our home was a half of 
a two-family house with a fair sized yard, and two large trees. 
One shaded a sand pile, and the other would have shaded any¬ 
one who sat under it, but there was a procession of big black ants 
that continually traveled up and down biting whoever came near. 
However, we lived outdoors; I spent my time racing from the 
gate to the back fence, calling one boy out of the street, another 
from the peak of the woodshed roof and disentangling the third 
from a hole in the fence. Accidents were common; I bought 
peroxide in large quantities. What distressed me most was the 
necessity of curbing all their noise and adventures, and my in¬ 
ability to provide wholesome fun in return. 
Large and small children played together, the small, gathering- 
many wrong ideas from their idols, the big boys. There was 
much quarreling and it was very hard to interfere. 
I flew kites, made whistles, and gave up in despair over ever 
raising healthy, wholesome boys in the city. 
One day we went out to see some property on the edge of 
town. It was on a hill some two blocks from the street cars and 
the road leading to it was hardly a path. The country rolled 
away to the north and west, there were hills, valleys, trees, 
water — all the things I had missed before. 
1 hated to leave the spot, and from that minute I knew I had 
become a lover of the country. 
We bought the property which comprised about two acres of 
excellent pasture land. All the winter we planned our home and 
its surroundings, until it seemed to us that we could not wait for 
the time to come when we might live there. 
Sunday afternoons a procession could 
be seen winding- 
up the hill; a 
man carrying a 
rosy cheeked 
> '-A 
Living on the ground gave an excellent opportunity to oversee the building work and made us appreciate 
the house still more for our early acquaintance with it 
boy and a mother with two other small lads far in the rear. 
After one of these excursions we decided that in April we 
would build a barn, 
and would move 
there for the sum¬ 
mer. The barn was 
started and in the 
balmy spring after¬ 
noons we put in our 
early vegetables, and 
towards dusk went 
reluctantly home. 
The birds were com¬ 
ing and we never had 
enjoyed them so 
much. 
The first of May 
we moved our house- 
hold. I remember 
that night we ate on a 
large trunk; and 
everything was in 
terrible confusion 
about us, but we were 
so happy. Do you 
know how it feels to 
love the very soil it¬ 
self. and to say over 
and over it is all your 
own ? 
Our barn was very 
cozy and has made us a comfortable home for two summers. 
There is a living-room with two windows at the north, two bed¬ 
rooms on the south, each with two windows, and a kitchen, well 
lighted and provided with plenty of cupboard room. The front 
porch at the east is screened and opens into the living-room with 
a large barn door, on rollers, which is open except during severe 
storms or chilly weather. This porch is our dining¬ 
room, and oh, how good the things from the garden 
taste, out in the open, screened from all in¬ 
sects. My husband and I have slept out 
there every night; of course when it pours 
we move the bed indoors, but out it comes 
as soon as the downpour lessens. 
Then we have a screened porch at the 
back for the ice box and laun¬ 
dry utensils. Above the living- 
room is the hay loft, every inch 
of which is used in storing our 
surplus furniture. 
Our floors are pine, stained 
dark green and oiled, the walls 
are whitewashed and all the 
ledges made in building the 
barn are used in holding candle¬ 
sticks and various bric-a-brac. 
The south side of the porch is 
The garden was two seasons old before the 
house was completed 
(36) 
