The drives on the home lot were slightly rounded with ploughs and scraper, and then covered with gravel.  The open slope intended for the lawn was now to be treated.  It comprised about ten acres, irregular in form and surface, and would require a good deal of work to whip it into shape.  A lawn need not be perfectly graded,—­in fact, natural inequalities with dips and rises are much more attractive; but we had to take out the asperities.  We ploughed it thoroughly, removed all stumps and stones, levelled and sloped it as much as pleased Polly, harrowed it twice a week until late August, sowed it heavily to grass seed, rolled it, and left it.

Polly had the house in her mind’s eye.  She held repeated conversations with Nelson, and was as full of plans and secrets as she could hold.  By agreement, she was to have a free hand to the extent of $15,000 for the house and the carriage barn.  I never really examined the plans, though I saw the blue prints of what appeared to be a large house with a driving entrance on the east and a great wide porch along the whole south side.  I did not know until it was nearly finished how large, convenient, and comfortable it was to be.  A hall, a great living-room, the dining room, a small reception room, and an office, bedroom, and bath for me, were all on the ground floor, besides a huge wing for the kitchen and other useful offices.

Above stairs there was room for the family and a goodly number of friends.  We had agreed that the house should be simple in all ways, with no hard wood except floors, and no ornamentation except paint and paper.  It must be larger than our needs, for we looked forward to delightful visits from many friends.  We were to have more leisure than ever before for social life, and we desired to make the most of our opportunities.

A country house is by all odds the finest place to entertain friends and to be entertained by them.  They come on invitation, not as a matter of form, and they stay long enough to put by questions of weather, clothes, and servant-girls, and to get right down to good old-fashioned visiting.  Real heart-to-heart talks are everyday occurrences in country visits, while they are exceptional in city calls.  We meant to make much of our friends at Four Oaks, and to have them make much of us.  We have discovered new values even in old friends, since we began to live with them, weeks at a time, under the same roof.  Their interests are ours, and our plans are warmly taken up by them.  There is nothing like it among the turmoils and interruptions of town life, and the older we grow the more we need this sort of rest among our friends.  The guest book at the farm will show very few weeks, in the past six years, when friends haven’t been with us, and Polly and I feel that the pleasure we have received from this source ought to be placed on the credit side of the farm ledger.

Another reason for a company house was that Jack and Jane would shortly be out of school.  It was not at all in accord with our plan that they should miss any pleasure by our change.  Indeed, we hoped that the change would be to their liking and to their advantage.