New Series, January, 1906. ' 373 



be a little girl. Do you not think she enjoyed wearing the new rubber 

 boots as well as any boy would ? 



But it is the country lad that can play at trailing. About the poultry 

 yard comes the marauding skunk, fox, and weasel and every wood path 

 tells a story — if the snow is just right. 



I remember one ]\Iarch morning when a " sap snow " covered the 

 ground and I was on my way through a little wood to a country school, 

 I came across a most remarkable track. It looked just like a tiny baby's 

 foot. The well-defined heel, the slender sole, each dainty separate toe — 

 it was perfect ! It led down to the recently thawed brook. Much puzzled 

 I went on to school and asked my pupils about it. and there was a shout, 

 " 'Twas a coon ! Oh, teacher, coons have waked up ! " 



Through the pastures and brush lots Bunny Cottontail goes ; but look 

 out that you do not trail him backward, for Bunny overreaches and at 

 every jump plants his larger and longer hind feet well in front of the 

 tracks made by his tiny forepaws. 



Squirrels, with the exception of the ground squirrel, are ready to come 

 out every warm spell and search for the nuts they have hidden. And 

 mice! They are everywhere: especially along the edge of a millet field. 

 They do not seem to take winter naps. They make miles of little runways 

 through the grass under the snow, which are uncovered when it melts, 

 and seem to have a social time above it as well, from their numberless 

 tracks. Sometimes you catch sight of a mouse track that is perfect from 

 each tiny claw mark to the knitting-needle scratch of mousie's little tail. 



Do not fail to take walks in winter weather and question the snow. 

 Keep a record of all the different tracks that you find. If you do not 

 know what animal made the tracks, send us drawings of them. Perhaps 

 we can tell you what they are. 



THINGS THAT MAKE PLANTS GROW 

 Herbert Whetzel 



Well, what did the measuring machine tell you ? Did you learn while 

 watching it that water made the plant grow faster and that heat did the 

 same thing? You know how necessary it is that the rain should come 

 in the spring and summer. When there is plenty of it, how fast the corn 

 grows and how tall ! You walk between the rows and look up to see the 

 tassels just peeping out and sometimes even the ears are lifted above 

 your head. But when a dry summer comes, and day after day the sky 

 is clear and the sun is hot, what a difference it makes in the cornfield! 



