f houses can be afforded only by those having the higher limit of
income, $3000 to $5000 a year, _unless_ the person has a permanent
position or a business of great security, and in these days who can be
_sure_ of anything?

When the land-scheme promoter advertises homes on the instalment plan,
beware of the trap!

Let no one buy in the suburbs from a sense of duty and then hate the life.

Comfort in living is far more in the brains than in the back.

It is so easy for a man or woman with one set of ideals to do that which
another would consider impossible drudgery.

My final advice is that the sensible young couple both of whom agree about
essentials, and who are willing and glad to work together for a common
end, and who love nature and gardening and believe in family life so
strongly as not to miss the crowd and theatres, may safely start a home in
the country with a garden, and pets for the children, if they have a
reasonable prospect of ten years in one spot. Let them make the place
attractive for some family, even if they have to leave it.

The women of this group will, I believe, have the qualities Mr. Wells
predicts: not only intelligence and education, but a reasonableness and
reliability not always found to-day.

Unless a reasonable prospect of ten years' occupancy is assured, then
begin life in a rented house, not necessarily in a flat. Begin with a few
things of your own some which have been yours for years, some which you
have bought together and which have a meaning for one of you and are not
irritating to the other.

Devote a part of your leisure to a critical study of the house you would
like, draw plans, make sketches in color, study color effects, learn about
fabrics, collect them for the future. You will find an amusing and
instructive occupation.

The essential point is to begin this life on two thirds of what you have
reason to expect as the year's income; keep the rest invested or in the
bank. There are to-day many temptations to spend for things attractive in
themselves but not necessary to the effective life. If friends are so
silly as to rally you on living in an unfashionable quarter, ask them in
to see your sketches and plans, and talk them into enthusiasm over the
idea. Do missionary work with them rather than be ridiculed out of your
convictions. It sometimes seems as if young people had no convictions, as
if they drifted with the wind of newspaper suggestion. So do not allow
your