Rural School Leaflet '^2'j 



LETTER TO BOYS AND GIRLS 



Dear Boys and Girls of the Open Country: 



Sometimes the longing to be a boy again and to be out in the coiintry 

 comes to me very strongly. Of course that is not possible, so the next 

 best thing is to write to country boys and country girls. That is why I 

 am writing to you to-night. You look upon me as a stranger now, but 

 during this year I hope we shall become great friends. You in your farm 

 homes and I in this busy office where I am in touch with hundreds of boys 

 and girls, should have much to tell each other that will be interesting and 

 helpful. 



When you read this letter Old Winter will be here. If you are the young 

 folk I think you are, you do not mind it. You love the snow and the cold. 

 What fun to slide and skate and build forts and have battles! Then, 

 when twilight comes, how good it is to go into your homes leaving behind 

 the great white world, and entering a room in which fathers and mothers 

 and sisters and brothers and friends are sitting around a great open fire. 

 Have you ever heard the message of the fire? What boy or girl has not 

 lain in a half-doze, watching through dreamy eyes the flames as they leap 

 and dance, and building — oh, such wonderful plans? Let us, you and I, 

 imagine ourselves watching the flames and planning things for you to do 

 during these winter days. How many have a good start because they did 

 something this summer? You remember the many suggestions made in 

 the April-May Children's Leaflet last spring? Are you keeping a note- 

 book for out-of-door records as suggested? Have you some one finished 

 piece of work to yoiu- credit? If you have, write and tell me about it. 



I hope you are studying about the out-of-door world in your school this 

 year. Let each one try to make a special study of at least one thing. 

 One may choose birds, another poultry, another trees, another fruit, still 

 another grains. Speaking of grain, is your school planning to have a Corn 

 Day this year? January 27 is the day, and, though there were a large 

 number of schools in which Com Day was celebrated last year, we want 

 twice as many this year. Your school will be one, I know. 



Let me tell you just a bit of the history of com, or maize as it is some- 

 times called. It was first grown by the Indians. When the white men 

 came to America from England, the Indians taught them how to raise 

 com. Fishes were used for manure. Sometimes pumpkins and melons 

 were planted with the com. The Indians used to store their corn in " corn- 

 barns," made by digging a basin-like hole in the ground and lining it with 

 clay. The sides were a foot or so higher than the siu-face of the ground, 

 so that the water could not get in, and the roof was made of logs, limbs, 

 brush, and sod. So you see com was grown a long time ago, and by a 

 people whom we seldom think of as doing much farming. 



