WOOD FOR FUEL 



OW THAT the 

 kiddies are enjoy- 

 ing the coolness 

 of the swimming 

 pool under the 

 waterfall, it may 

 not seem to be a 

 good time to talk 

 about wood for 

 burning. Yet Mr. 

 Hoover and Mr. Pack are doing their 

 best to make us look into the needs of 

 the days to come ; and some good per- 

 sons we know are sitting in the draft 

 of an electric fan this very minute mak- 

 ing Christmas presents. 



I am reminded that Everett took a 

 dollar away from his father on the 

 strength of having the courage and 

 skill to swim all the way across the 

 pool; and Toto is thinking up some 

 way that he, also, can drag a dollar 

 from the old man's jeans. All the rest 

 have earned a whole dollar at once 

 within the past six months, and they 

 think that they are "putting it all over" 

 their father. Eleanor got him to offer 

 a dollar as a prize for making a good 

 loaf of bread. She earned it fairly, but 

 it must be confessed that she hasn't 

 made another loaf since; and a dollar 

 a loaf is a rather high price, even in 

 war times. Gertrude arranged for a 

 dollar reward when she was able to 

 recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 

 without an error. She made a great 

 many attempts, but each time she left 

 out a word or got some of them 

 twisted, until at last she said: 



"Father, I have just got to learn that 

 speech and earn that dollar, because I 

 have borrowed against it from Mother 

 and the rest until there's only ten cents 

 coming to me." 



That night she was letter-perfect on 

 the Address, and paid up all her debts. 

 She could not help feeling that she had 

 done a lot of work and had got only 

 ten cents from it, after all. She wanted 

 to eat her cake and have it too. 



T HAT is what is the matter with the 

 * American people. We have eaten 



our cake, in the form of forests, and 

 gas wells, and oil wells, and the rich- 

 ness of our soils, until now we are be- 

 ginning to find out that we can not use 

 them and waste them, and still have 

 them. Bismarck, the great man of the 

 great nation which we are fighting, 

 said in 1868, or a half-century ago, that 

 the real test of the American form of 

 government would come when we be- 

 gan to feel the pinch; that any nation 

 could go forward and do big things as 

 long as it was rich and there was plen- 

 ty for all, but that it would fail when 

 a good living no longer "came easy." 

 Some folks say that we are beginning 

 to feel the pinch already, and many 

 there are who hope that the awful war 

 will bring in its train at least the good 

 idea that all must think and act to 

 make it a kind and safe place where 

 men may live, instead of a bitter place 

 where men must die. It is already 

 teaching us wise thoughts and good 

 deeds that we had not thought worth 

 the thinking or doing. 



i^NE of these thoughts and deeds is 

 ^"^ to save the waste. Looking for- 

 ward to next winter, one of the wastes 

 we can save is the waste of fuel, and 

 particularly the waste of coal. And a 

 way to save coal is to burn wood. 

 Wood grows again and again; coal 

 once gone is gone forever. More than 

 that, wood is a good fuel, is a cheap 

 fuel, and can be found almost any- 

 where. 



/^NLY a few days ago the whole 

 ^^ family went fishing. Before we 

 caught any fish we made a fire-place of 

 stones and laid over that an old grill 

 which we keep for just such uses. But 

 no one was asked to gather any wood. 



"I know," said one, "Father doesn't 

 want to put any hoodoo on the fishing 

 by getting so much ready beforehand 

 that the fish won't bite. It's like carry- 

 ing an umbrella to keep away the rain, 

 or not cleaning up the house when you 

 want company to come." 



However, each one caught some fish, 

 clear down to little Toto. After the 



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