most experienced
builders without serious damage to the edges. There ought to be four
times as much space at each side."

"I suppose there wasn't quite room enough."

"There was _always_ room enough. There's enough now outside, and would
have been inside, if the house had been well planned," said Jill rather
sharply.

"These are proper, nice, large drawers."

"They are too nice and too large. Even when they are but half full I
have to tumble their contents all over to find any particular thing,
unless it lies on top. Some drawers ought to be large and some small,
but I don't believe there ever was a man," said Jill vehemently, "who
knew enough to arrange the small comforts and conveniences for
housekeeping. Every day I am exasperated by something which Jack never
so much as noticed. When I explain it he laughs and says it is
fortunate we have so good an opportunity for learning what to avoid,
and all the time I am certain he thinks there will be a great many more
faults in the new house. If there are I shall be sorry it is
fire-proof."

[Illustration: "THE OAKS."]

"Why, Jill, my dear, don't be rash! That doesn't sound like you. You
mustn't set your heart on having things exactly to suit you in this
world. I've lived a great many years, and a good many times I find it
easier to bring my mind to things as they are than it is to make
everything come just to my mind. I've seen plenty of women wear
themselves out for want of things to do with, and I've seen other women
break down from having too many; trying to keep up with all the modern
fashions and conveniences, and to manage their houses with the same
kind of regularity--'system' they call it--that men use in carrying on
a manufacturing business."

"Well, why shouldn't they, Aunt 'Rusha?"

"I'll tell you why, my dear. A business man has a certain, single,
definite thing to do or to make. Every day's work is very much like
that of the day before. He may try to improve gradually, but, in the
main, it is the same thing over and over again. Our home life ought not
to be like that. A man ought not to be merely an engine or a cash-book;
a woman ought to be something more than a dummy or a fashion-plate; our
children should not be like so many spools of thread or suits of
clothes, turned in the same lathe, spun to the same yarn, and cut
according to the same pattern and rule. I'm sure I could never have
done my work and brought up six children without some sort of