may lie and
take his ease, and forget everything but the fact that it is sometimes
a pleasant thing to be lazy--frankly, unblushingly lazy. It is a healthy
indication in our American life when so many persons go in for getting
all the comfort they can from outdoors in summer. Every home whose
grounds are large enough to accommodate them ought to have benches here
and there, made for comfort, rather than looks, garden-seats,
summer-houses--all suggestive of rest and relaxation. In this chapter I
propose to briefly describe a few such home-made features, hoping that
the man or boy who has the "knack" of using tools to advantage, actuated
by a desire to make home-environments pleasant, may be led to copy some
of them.

Let me say, right here, that the work demanded in the construction of
rustic features about the home is just the kind of work I would
encourage boys to undertake. It will be found so enjoyable that it will
seem more like play than labor. There is the pleasure of planning
it--the sense of responsibility and importance which comes to the lad
who sets out to do something "all by himself," and the delightful
consciousness that what is done may result in making home more
home-like, and add to the comfort and pleasure of those whose love and
companionship go to make home the best place on earth.

[Illustration: SUMMER HOUSE]

In constructing summer-houses, bridges, and other rustic work, there
should be a careful plan made before the work is begun. Never work "by
guess." Go at the undertaking precisely as the mechanic sets about the
construction of a house. Draw a diagram of what the structure is to be.
A rough diagram will answer quite as well as any, provided it covers all
particulars.

Figure out just how much material the plan calls for. Get this on the
ground before anything else is done. The material required will be poles
of different sizes and lengths, large and substantial nails, a few
planks for floors and benches--possibly tables--and shingles for
covering such structures as need roofing in, unless bark is used for
this purpose. Of course bark gives more of a "rustic" look to a roof,
but it is not an easy matter to obtain a good quality of it, and
shingles, stained a mossy-green or dark brown, will harmonize charmingly
with the rest of the building, and furnish a much more substantial roof
than it is possible to secure with even the best kind of bark.

If possible, use cedar poles in preference t