~~ HE WAY WE BOUGHT OUR<br > house in the country would have<br >i turned the blood of any expert in<br > home-buying to glacial ice. We had<br > read some dozen books of advice<br > and hundreds of pamphlets， it is<br > true， and we did know that a place<br > advertised as having deep maple<br > shade had no plumbing. Old colo-<br >nial with five fireplaces， Dutch oven， old hardware， usually<br >meant the roof was falling in and dry rot eating the bones<br >of the timbers. Trout stream indicated half of the yard was<br >a SWalTip.<br > Jill had warned me against being too impulsive， a house<br >once bought was solid and tangible as asset or as liability.<br >It also involved mortgages. All I knew of mortgages was<br >that in stories they were always about to be foreclosed and<br >the hero stepped in and saved them.<br > Jill spoke of upkeep too， in hushed tones. And taxes.<br > But we went on dreaming. At the time our family con-<br >sisted of Bob， my husband， Cicely， my daughter， Jill， my<br >sister， and Jill s two children， Don and Dorothy. And Star，<br >Sister， and Rip， the three first family cockers. And one large<br >tank of tropical fish. The children were little， Don being<br >the baby of the family.<br > We had apartments in New York， and Bob and Jill<br >worked while I was what we always called an idle house-<br >wife. Looking back on that period it seems to me I was al-<br >ways standing at the corner by Riverside Church waiting<br >for Don to emerge in his blue bunny suit to be escorted to<br >his home， or standing at the corner of West 108th waiting<br >for Cicely to emerge in her red coat from P.S. 165， or stand-<br > [9]<br >