rk that has gone into them.
Likewise there is such a thing as possessing a knack with that
unresponsive and perverse creature, the hen. Possibly good gardening
and an egg-producing hen-yard are the result of willingness to take
infinite pains but, out of my disappointments and half successes, I am
more inclined to hold that it is luck and predestination. So, I have
reduced agricultural activities sharply, but I do know families where
each fall finds cellar shelves groaning under cans of fruits and
vegetables, products of the garden, and foretelling distinct economies
in purchases of canned goods or fresh vegetables.

One of the largest single savings that country life makes possible is
elimination of private school tuition. Theoretically city public
schools are good enough for anybody's children. Actually most good
neighborhoods have an undesirable slum just around the corner and the
public school is for the children of both. So, many city-dwelling
families, not from snobbishness but because they do not want their
young hopefuls to acquire slum manners and traits, dig deep into their
bank accounts and send their children to private schools.

Seldom is this necessary in the country, especially if the educational
system is investigated beforehand. Instead, the children start in a
good consolidated graded school, proceed through the local high
school, and are prepared for college with all the cost of tuition
included in the tax bill that must be paid anyway. The children are
none the worse for this less guarded education. They are, in fact,
benefited for they have a democratic background that makes later life
easier.

Besides these creature comforts and financial gains, there are the
intangibles. Chief of these is that indescribable something, country
peace. All the family responds to it. It is impossible to maintain the
highly-keyed, nervous tension that characterizes city life when the
domestic scene is surrounded by open fields or an occasional bit of
woodland. The placid calm soothes frayed nerves and works wonders in
restoring balance and perspective toward family and business problems.
The harassed come to realize the inner truth of "God's in his heaven,
all's right with the world."

Along with this, the family transplanted from the city gradually comes
to know the genuine joys of much simpler pleasures. Separated from
the professional recreations that beckon so engagingly in cities and
the larger towns, adults