d conditions will not always
let you. Besides, what is the hurry? Allow twenty or thirty minutes
instead of fifteen for a normal run of twelve miles and have peace of
mind. That gives you an hour and ten or fifteen minutes between your
house and the city. Add the time needed to get from the train to your
office and you know what is before you. We mention this station trip
of twelve miles as about the maximum for the hardy commuter although
there are a few who take more punishment than that. Of course if the
perfect place can be found only four to six miles from the station
that is all the better.

Transportation is an all important consideration both as regards time
and expense. There are beautiful countrysides fairly near large
centers that are so hampered by poor train service as to be almost out
of the question for the everyday commuter. Of course, there may be an
adequate service or it may be practical to drive to and from business.
The latter is not at all uncommon with the country areas near the
smaller industrial centers. Here the fortunate commuter is free from
exacting train schedules; a five or ten minutes' drive sees him
outside the city limits, and another twenty or thirty may find him
rolling into his own driveway. Smooth sailing between office and home
depend only on a reliable car and good roads.

One should make sure the latter are passable in the winter at all
times. For instance, are the Town Fathers liberal with the snow plow?
Can its cheery hum be heard even at midnight if a heavy fall of snow
makes it necessary? Does it come down the little dirt road where your
modest acres are located? These are questions all commuters should ask
whether their journey cityward is made entirely by automobile or
partly by train. Further, whatever means of transportation are used,
the monthly cost should be reckoned carefully. It is one of the
largest single items involved in this scheme of living in the country
and working in the city.

There is also the question of food and other household supplies.
Granted one no longer expects to run around the corner for a loaf of
bread or a dozen eggs that may have been left off the morning shopping
lists, just how far away is the nearest grocer? Is he at all receptive
to the idea of making an occasional delivery in the outlying
districts? How about the rubbish collector, if any; the milkman; the
purveyors of ice, coal and wood? Are there a lighting system in the
vicinity, t