t hand. But their small
children lack robustness. The parents try everything, careful diet,
adequate hours of sleep and all the other recommendations of
scientific child rearing. Still the little arms and legs continue to
be spindling. Tonics and cod liver oil fail to get rid of that pinched
look, the concomitant of too little sunlight and too many hours
indoors. In desperation such a family betakes itself to the country.
The children weather tan. They respond to the more placid life and
gradually gain the much sought after hardiness. Nature has been the
physician without monthly bills for house or office treatments.

The children are not the only ones who gain. Healthy adults renew
their energy and crave activity. Here opportunity lies close at hand.
It may be swinging a golf club or going fishing. It may be such
unorganized methods of stretching muscles and increasing breathing as
pushing a lawn mower, raking leaves or weeding the delphinium border.
All these sports and homely out-of-door duties and pleasures are
nearby, many of them just the other side of the front door. Those
classed as sports may require a country club membership but even this
is on a more modest scale.

In fact, all potent are the economies made possible by leaving city or
closely built suburb. House and land, either bought or rented, comes
cheaper and is more ample. Along with this basic saving there are a
number of others that help to leave something from the family income
at the end of the year. Clothes last longer in the country and
wardrobe requirements are simpler. Similarly, there is a distinct
decrease in the money spent for amusements. When the nearest moving
picture house is five miles away it is easy to stay at home. Going to
the movies is not a matter of just running around the corner and so
done automatically once or twice a week. Then there are such things as
doctor's bills. While sickness, like taxes, visits every family no
matter where it lives, we have found that we actually have less need
of medical care living in the sticks than we did in town. Also the
charges for competent care by both doctors and dentists are lower.

For the family inclined to delve in the soil, a definite saving can be
accomplished by tending a vegetable garden, raising small fruits and
berries, and even maintaining a hen roost. Some people (I would I
could honestly include myself) have a gift for making things grow and
getting crops that are worth the wo