amused by some one who made it his profession.  A tramp through the woods in the fall when there is a tang of frost in the air; the satisfaction of a long-planned flower bed in full bloom; a winter evening with a log fire blazing on the living-room hearth; are simple but as genuine as any of the pleasures known to city folk.  Better yet, they are not exhausting.  “Few people are strong enough to enjoy their pleasures,” a friend once wisely observed.  In the main, however, those of the country are less taxing and leave one refreshed which, after all, is the true purpose of recreation.

Against these gains of country living the costs must also be reckoned.  These, as stated earlier, will hardly be felt if the individual really likes the country in its smiling moods as well as its frowning ones.  One which the family recently separated from city ways may find hardest to accept is a demand for self-reliance.  If the furnace will not burn, a water pipe springs a leak, a mid-winter blizzard deposits a snowdrift that all but blocks the front door, father or some one else must rise to the situation.

The country home has no janitor.  The nearest plumber is two or five miles away.  No gang of snow shovelers knocks at the door with offers to attack the mislocated snow at a price, albeit the highest they think the traffic will bear.  Pioneer-like, some or all of the family must turn to and cope with such situations.  Doing so, whether temporary like closing a pipe valve to stop the cascading water until the plumber arrives, or permanent like mastering the idiosyncrasies of the furnace, has its reward.  From oldest to youngest, after a year or so there comes a sense of ability to cope with the unforeseen rather than to stand meekly by waiting for George to do it.

Again, it is not always smiling June with gentle breezes.  There are also January, February and March, the months winter really settles to his task and delivers, as he will, snow storms, or spells of abnormally cold weather that make the house hard to heat and may freeze pipes.  There are also rainy spells of two or three days’ duration that come any time, spring, summer or fall.  It is fun to be in the country when the sun shines.  There are so many things to do and see out-of-doors.  It is totally different when it rains and rains and still keeps on until everything outside is dripping and sodden.  Then comes the testing time.  Child or grown-up must accept such bad weather and make light of its restrictions, or country living is hard indeed.  But did you ever put on boots and oilskins and go for a long walk in the rain just for the pure joy of it?  Try it some time.  You will see fields and bushes with different eyes and hear that most musical of all country sounds, the rush of tiny brooks in full flood.  Even the birds have their rainy day manners and ways.

[Illustration:  THE OGDEN HOUSE, FAIRFIELD, CONN.  BUILT BEFORE 1705, IT HAS BEEN RESTORED TO PRESERVE THE ORIGINAL DETAILS