ame 340.00
Insurance 80.00
Fuel and light 250.00
Wages for one man and three women 1200.00
Street sprinkling, watchman, etc. 90.00
Food, including water, ice, etc. 1550.00
________
Making a total of $5210.00

It cost me $100 a week to shelter and feed my family in the city. This,
of course, took no account of personal expenses,--travel, sight-seeing,
clothing, books, gifts, or the thousand and one things which enter more
or less prominently into the everyday life of the family.

If the farm was to furnish food and shelter for us in the future, it
would be no more than fair to credit it with some portion of this
expenditure, which was to cease when we left the city home. What portion
of it could be justly credited to the farm was to be decided by
comparative comforts after a year of experience. I did not plan our
exodus for the sake of economy, or because I found it necessary to
retrench; our rate of living was no higher than we were willing and able
to afford. Our object was to change occupation and mode of life without
financial loss, and without moulting a single comfort. We wished to end
our days close to the land, and we hoped to prove that this could be
done with both grace and profit. I had no desire to lose touch with the
city, and there was no necessity for doing so. Four Oaks is less than an
hour from the heart of town. I could leave it, spend two or three hours
in town, and be back in time for luncheon without special effort; and
Polly would think nothing of a shopping trip and friends home with her
to dinner. The people of Exeter were nearly all city people who were so
fortunate as not to be slaves to long hours. They were rich by work or
by inheritance, and they gracefully accepted the _otium cum dignitate_
which this condition permitted. Social life was at its best in Exeter,
and many of its people were old acquaintances of ours. A noted country
club spread its broad acres within two miles of our door, and I had been
favorably posted for membership. It did not look as though we should be
thrust entirely upon our own resources in the country; but at the worst
we had resources within our own walls and fences that would fend off all
but the most violent attacks of ennui.

We were both keenly interested in the ex