Page:The New Arcadia (Tucker).djvu/86

76 cottages, some already finished. All were of the same style of architecture, with high gables, projecting eaves, and trellised verandahs. Before each house a couple of acres had been ploughed. In many instances vegetables, vines, or fruit-trees had already been planted. At the corner of each garden a poplar had been placed, while a mere path separated each allotment from the adjoining one. Already the water had been laid on; in some parts a clear stream was flowing along the top of each garden farm. Along two great avenues, that ran cross-wise, trees were planted, and a little tram-line was being constructed.

"What is the tramway for?" inquired Larry.

"To bring once a week supplies of wood and provisions to each cottage, and to bear produce, etc. into the stores."

"What is your motive power? Do the youngsters shove the trucks along?"

"Our methods are not quite so primitive, as we shall see later on."

"But you have no fences."

"Are they so beautiful? Our people, unlike the 'Cockies' of whom you complain, have something other to do than spend their first year in fencing themselves off from their kind. Their Aryan forefathers knew better than that."

"What are those low brick-walls you are running one above the other, on the hill-side?"

"That is our open-air 'hot-house.'"

"A rather big one. What on earth do you mean?"

"Those bricks that our men have made, will catch and store the heat of the sun's rays. The vines on the top of each wall, the strawberries at foot, with currants