886 Rural School Leaflet. 



and help you to find out some of the things in Hfe that will make 

 firesides dear to you in all the years to come; starlight nights more 

 wonderful ; and every Christmas full of new meaning. 



We will ask you to do one special thing for us in the celebration of 



Christmas time at school. Have a Xature-Study Christmas tree during 



the month of December. On this tree let each pupil place something 



during the month that he finds in tlie out-of-doors. It may be a bird's 



nest, a brown bouquet of teazels, strange but interesting plants that rise 



above the snow, a spray of scarlet berries, a little basket of some of the 



different wood plants that keep green during the winter, an ear of corn 



good in form and color that you have found in the corn crib, a bird 



feather dropped by a bird in its flight, and many other things that I 



would probably never think of. 



Then the present should be hung on the tree, each one bearing the 

 name of one of the pupils in the school. During some Nature-Study 

 lesson ask your teacher to let each pupil receive his present and write 

 to us about it. There is not a thing that you can find in the out-of 

 door world for these presents that will not have a most interesting his- 

 tory for y(ju if you begin to think about it. The best description of a 

 present taken from a Nature- Study Christmas tree will be published in 

 the March issue. 



We hope you will all have a very happy Christmas and that you 

 will make some one else happy during the holiday season. Tell us in 

 your letters what presents you have made in your own family. We 

 will care more to know about the presents you made with your own hands 

 than about things you bought. Tell us about your playtime during the 

 holidays. We want you to go coasting and skating so that when night 

 falls you will come home with the rosiest of rosy cheeks, the reddest 

 of red noses, and the brighest of bright eyes. Then you will sit by the 

 fire and read some good book for a while and after that you will go off 

 to your own rooms and fall asleep with the music of the great winds 

 all about. It is lots of fun to be a boy or girl. 



Sincerely your friend, 



Alice G. McCloskey 



CORN DAY, JANUARY 28th 



Last year Mr. M. P. Jones started a Corn Day for the public school 



children of New York State. We want to make this an annual event. 



It will be an occasion on which the subject of corn, one of the most 



valuable farm crops, may be discussed in your community. If boys 



