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OME” is the word which stirs, in the hearts of most people, the sweetest of memories, feelings of honest pride, joy d satisfaction, and dreams of gracious living. 'w word, “rural,” transposes most minds to i- Ids “in Nature’s bounty rich," for “God made i country and man made the town.” Will u give your mind permission to visit one of e rural homes of Canada? Our home is about sixty rods from a busy ovincial highway passing through an area '5 ich, in a year or two, may be annexed to city. The house is quite noticeable from the ad. for it sits on the top of a high bank. The J ge, round, white pillars of the verandah, the pie trees on the slope of the hill, and the n sheltering spruce and locust trees have lped for some years now to point out this me to passersâ€"by. The house was built by a Scottish pioneer -' ily in 1844. For ten years the family lived - the log house built by the man who had rted to clear a few acres of this farm in e forest of Upper Canada. Likely the Scot- h family as they cleared more and more earned of the house they wanted to build. uey chose stone for the walls, drawing fairly iform slabs of limestone from a riverside arry. Layer upon layer of these flat, gray ,cks give houses built of limestone a strati- d appearance, quite different from the cked appearance of stone houses made of _ri-coloured granite rock split by strong stone sons in the early days. It was the new ird" of this farm who was most anxious to ild a lovely home. He insisted that the attic ,ndow be fan shaped, like the window above e front door, even if it meant the chimney 'd to be divided to encircle it. The “guid” man of that day often told her family the ry when certain fireplaces did not draw to uit her, The verandah was built much later in lQlOâ€"when sheds at the rear were torn wn and replaced by a two-story cement ck structure. As the farm activities had in- cased, frame buildings had been added to the -'- building. , the living room, dining room, den, throom, front and back halls are on the , ound floor of the original house. Its base- nt DFDVides room for the hot air furnace, el, electric motor, hard water tank, and a g o :1 a: s4 ‘. second floor; the attic is floored and easily ched by a good stairway from one of the v rooms. f all the rooms in the original house, the ing room is the one best loved by the pres- N'I'ER 1954 The Rural Home Mrs. Thos. D. Cowan First Prize Ontario Essay in ACWW Competition ent family. This room has three windows, two looking out on the verandah, and one to the south. English ivy. from pots on the wide sills, climbs the walls of these deeply recessed win~ dows. On the sill of the south window, a hobby collection of vinegar bottles, of spiral hob- nail, thumb print and headed glass, is to be seen. At the present time, a couple of old lustre-ware, live mugs are on the sill of one of the west windows; the other usually has a few potted plants or a bouquet of cut flowers. Most of the furniture in this room is walnut, bought in the early Victorian age. The lines of the Chesterfield, rocking chair, grandfather chair, drop leaf table and pedestal Bible table are very simple. The corner what-not is a favourite piece, for it has a cupboard at the bottom, with a circular door. In another corn ner stands the grandfather clock, carefully brought across the Atlantic, packed with bed- clothes. It continues to serve this generation as faithfully as it served in the past. One of the other chairs was brought from Scotland about fifty years ago from the old farm home. Above the fireplace on the south side, hangs a small modern painting of the first Chatelaine. On the opposite wall there is a much larger old pen engraving of her husband, one of the shepâ€" herds from the Lowlands, who (lid well in farming, politics and church life in this new i' i: * * ‘k * fir 'k LITTLE THINGS By Orrick Johns There's nothing very beautiful and nothing very gay Ahnui [hc rush of faces in a town by day; But a light {an cow in a pale green mead, That is very beautiful. beautiful indeed. And the soft March wind and the low March mist Arc better than kisses in a dark strccl kissed. Thc fragrance of (he lure-u when it WllkL‘h .11 dawn, The fragrance of a trim green village lawn, The hearing of (he murmur of the rain :11 playâ€" These things arc beautiful, beautiful as day! And i shan't stand waiting for love or scorn \thn the feast is laid for a day new-horn. Oh. bcucr let the little things I loved when little Return when the heart finds the great things briule: And hem-r is .1 lcmplc made of bark and thong Than a [all stone temple that may stand IOU lung. 1' ‘k ‘k i' ‘k ‘k ‘k i 13