ly pour steaming but not boiling water on the pipe from a
teakettle. Stop after a minute or two to let the applied heat become
effective. If necessary, repeat several times. For stubborn cases, an
electric heater directed at the frozen spot can be used effectively.

When hunting for the seat of trouble look at the spot where the pipe
comes through the floor. A crack between flooring and baseboard may be
the air leak that has caused the trouble. Next examine the pipe along
an exterior wall or in the direct range of a window. Frozen pipes
concealed in partition walls, unless they are accessible through a
panel of removable woodwork, are not for the amateur. They are for a
plumber who will know how to reach the trouble without doing other
damage.

Many are the expedients that life in the country and friendly chats
with your own handy man can teach you. Some of them you will discover
for yourself, for necessity, the mother of invention and country
living, often presents minor emergencies that the house owner must
meet and conquer for himself. That is part of the fun of living in the
country. You have escaped the stereotyped city where such things are
the concern of apartment house superintendents. In the country it is
each man for himself.

WORKING WITH NATURE

[Illustration]

_CHAPTER XVII_

WORKING WITH NATURE

In the home owner's dream of country life, green lawns, rose gardens,
and shady terraces have loomed large; but in the actual fulfillment,
his house has of necessity come first. Beyond a sketchy clearing up of
the most obvious debris, he may well come to the end of his first
summer with practically nothing done to the grounds themselves. This
is not entirely a disadvantage. It has been shown how too much may be
done to a house in the first fervor of remodeling or restoration. It
is the same with the land surrounding it.

The old adage, "Begin as you can hold out," is an excellent rule to
follow. One of the advantages gained by living in an area just beyond
the suburban fringe is that one's two, five, or ten acres may be
developed as much or as little as one desires or can pay for. This
holds whether you have built a new house in the middle of a former
pasture or have restored an old one with grounds well developed but
long neglected.

[Illustration: SKILLFUL PLANTING OF TREES, SHRUBS, AND FLOWERS MAKE
THE SETTING

_Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho_. _Robertson Ward, architect_]

Of course,