284 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 25, 1922 
] 
Boys and Gir 
By Edward M. Tuttl 
is 
e 
Our Page brings joy and happiness 
To those who help make it a success 
When all the world is white with snow, 
And up and down the great winds go, 
With heart of joy abroad he fares 
To run and wrestle with the gale. 
—From “The Hoy and the Storm,” 
By HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD 
Hello! my boys and girls! Here we 
are again, with two whole pages waiting 
to be filled. I promised you last time 
that this month we would have mostly 
letters from you, instead of much writing 
by your editor. I will keep my promise, 
and it is easy to do it, because such a hit 
of fine letters have come in the last few 
days. "How many letters do you receive 
a month?” one boy asks. Usually be¬ 
tween '200 and 300. They make a pretty 
big pile when you see them all together, 
and open and read each one. But of 
course they are not many when you re¬ 
member the thousands and thousands of 
boys and girls who read Onr I’age. I 
certainly want to thank those who are 
helping with letters and drawings and 
photographs and puzzles and everything 
else. The words in the box this month 
give the idea that those who help to make 
it a success find the greatest joy and 
pleasure in Our Page. That is true. 
Margaret Van Yliet. a New Jersey read¬ 
er, sent these words. 
Now, let’s look at the letters. First, 
we will take those iti answer to the sug¬ 
gestions made last nioulb. 
Our Magic Fire 
Draw r close. Outside the wind is howl¬ 
ing and the snow dashes against the win¬ 
dows, Our fire is burning brightly. It is 
warm and cheerful and friendly. What 
have some of you to say about 
The Qualities of Friendship 
As 1 was reading Our Page something 
seemed to glisten and shine forth from 
the cheery sheet. The golden words were 
these: "The Qualities of Friendship.” 
Somehow just the word “friendship” 
thrilled me. VVhat does the word mean? 
What did a great man think in a general 
way that the qualities of friendship were? 
So I took the«big hook, and this is what 
Webster said: “Friendship: kindness, 
amity, or mutual affection cherished by 
two people of congenial minds.” You 
see. he put kindness or love as the main 
factor, so let us take that as our keynote. 
Love people, and be interested in them. 
Love is the required solvent for all bit¬ 
terness. For a minute think of the Great 
War and of the millions who gave their 
lives. Take, fur example, the courageous 
work of the nurses. Do you think if they 
had not cherished a love of mankind in 
their hearts they could have walked into 
the battlefields of death to give their ser¬ 
vice for others? A selfish person would 
probably have given some excuse and re¬ 
mained comfortably at home. 
The second quality which takes us into 
the realm of friendship is “self-forgetful¬ 
ness.” Have no selfish wishes to be ful¬ 
filled. It lias been said that the world 
is at the feet of the man who doesn’t 
want it. Say to yourself, “My mind is 
going to he a tower mind which overlooks 
the faults of others. And then hear no 
evil, think no evil, and speak no evil, will 
be my password.” 
Think what quality you would like in 
a friend, and then apply it to yourself. 
We will choose “sympathy." Be sympa¬ 
thetic. Many a stray human being has 
been started on the straight path by the 
kindly advice of some understanding per¬ 
son. 
Now we come to the most difficult qual¬ 
ity to fulfill, "tactfulness.” Be tactful, 
aim to repress careless or cutting re¬ 
marks whim may hurt more than we real¬ 
ize. Whenever it is possible t<> pass on a 
cheerful word, or a word of praise to 
some friend, lot us do so. 
Above all. do not lose “courage.” 
Ofttimes a person is aided by some kind 
deed or word more than one can ever 
know. 1 have these words on a piece of 
paper. I do not know the author: 
“He who loses wealth loses much, 
lie who loses a friend loses more, but 
He who loses courage loses all.” 
In closing, let us take for our motto, 
“Love and live,” and first we know friend¬ 
ship will come knocking at our doors. Let 
the friendliness which binds Our Page 
together influence onr entire lives. 1 am 
your new friend, lucille carrier. 
Massachusetts. 
There are several outstanding charac¬ 
teristics which a person should have in 
A Mighty Ocean Touches Shore 
order to be u good friend. I think. The 
most important is sympathy. One must 
“laugh when the world laughs, and weep 
when the world weeps.” Friend might be 
substituted for world in this case. An¬ 
other essential is thoughtfulness. Often 
we inconvenience our friends through 
thoughtlessness, when we have liu selfish 
motive whatever, and yet it appears sel¬ 
fish. Then we must be cheerful. Xu one 
likes a person who is continually finding 
fault. Sometimes we cause misunder¬ 
standing when we tell others the peculiar¬ 
ities of a friend. Though we do not 
mean ill. by the time it comes lb this 
friend through gossip it is entirely differ¬ 
ent from when we first told it. Your 
friend, RUTH ANDREWS. 
New York. 
I think a true friend is, first, one who 
will stand by you in all trouble, and, sec¬ 
ond. one who is always kind, generous 
and cheerful in the face of all obstacles. 
Connecticut. ANNA HEKING. 
These girls have spoken well and truly. 
There is much more that may be said. 
Who will speak before Our Fire next 
month? Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: 
“So long as we love we serve ; so long as 
we are loved by others 1 would say that 
we are indispeusnble: and no man is use¬ 
less while lie has a friend,” You will 
find literature and poetry full of the 
thought of the great men of all time that 
the best thing life has to give is strong, 
enduring friendship. But we must never 
lose sight, of the fact that to have friends 
we ourselves must be truly friendly. 
Many of you spoke of enjoying I he poem, 
“Cheering Someone On.” Before we leave 
the circle of Our Magic Fireside let me 
give yon another, by the poet Edgar A. 
Guest, entitled: 
WHAT SORT OF A FRIEND ARE YOU? 
Wlmt sort of a friend are you? 
Do you stick by a brother's side. 
As you know you’d want him to do 
If you were as sternly tried? 
Is (here ever a pleasure rare 
That you willingly go without 
To share another's care. 
And smilingly help him out? 
What sort of a friend are you? 
.lust one of the fair day kind, 
A smile when the skies are blue, 
Ahead when he falls behind? 
Do you put yourself out at all, 
Do you pass up a joy that’s nigh 
To answer a brother’s call, 
Or selfishly hurry by? 
Do you stick when his days are glum, 
As you did when his days were fair? 
When he wishes that you would come, 
Do you eagerly burry there? 
Or do you think of yourself 
Each minute the whole day through, 
Of comfort, of fame and.pelf, 
What sort of a friend are you? 
Raising Chickens 
You remember that we wanted some 
letters giving directions for starting in 
the poultry business ibis Spring. Several 
came in, and I ain printing two of them. 
One. as you will see. is a picture story 
that arrived too late to use last month, 
hut the diieetions are so good that I print 
the story now. I am surprised that no 
bo.vs have written about raising chickens. 
Really, I think the hoys ought to feel a 
little ashamed at the way they let the 
girls do most of the work for Our Page. 
Boys, •here’s a chance to do something 
worth while. A great many of our read¬ 
ers would like to start little flocks of 
their own this Spring. If you have had 
some experience raising chickens, think 
of the things a person ought to know who 
is just starting in, and then sit down and 
put them in a letter. Next month will be 
the last chance to print directions for 
work this Spring. 
The object of this letter is to give a 
little help to those who are expecting to 
start in the poultry business. I live on a 
200-acre farm which is devoted exclusive¬ 
ly to orchards and poultry. I am very 
sorry that I can’t advise on how to set a 
hen. as we use incubators. But this 
much I can say: if you expect to start 
early and on a large scale, be sure to keep 
the chicks warm enough. This is most 
important, as they will crowd to keep 
warm, and suffocate each other. Do not 
overfeed. Our chicks are fed lightly 
about every two hours, alternating mash 
and grain. But this is hardly necessary 
for those who expect to leave the mother 
hen with them. If any of yon have a lit¬ 
tle surplus milk, it is an excellent plan 
to sour it thoroughly and feed it to the 
chicks. This not only fattens them, but 
keeps the chicks healthy. On onr farm 
sour milk is even fed to the laying hens. 
I hope that this letter will be useful to 
someone. EDITH SALINGER. 
Lawrence’s mother gave Inin 15 eggs 
and a hen to set. lie got a *box and put 
some straw in it, and dusted the lien with 
lice powder. lie placed the eggs under 
her and put the box in a dark place where 
the other hens wouldn’t bother her. He 
let her off morning and night to get some 
food and water. In three weeks there 
appeared 10 little Huffy chicks. For the 
first 24 hours they received no food. After 
that he fed them crumbs, pinhead oatmeal 
and water. Then he took a box and 
nailed some slats on one end and put the 
old lien and the chicks in. He greased 
the tops of the chicks’ heads and tinder 
their wings with lard. lie fed them 
baby chielt feed and grit five times a day. 
As the chicks grew older he made a yard 
for them to run in so they could get 
green grass. One day the old lieu left 
her chicks to lay. so the little ones had 
no mot her. As they grew older he fed 
them mixed grain. By Fall they were 
big chickens. The pullets were ready to 
lay and tlm roosters to he sold. 
New York. Christina scitmidt. 
What the Tree Was 
It was a pleasure to have so many of 
you name the tree that Helen Bashore 
described in last month’s Nature Puzzle. 
Its name is sycamore. Other names that 
are also correct are buttonwood, button- 
ball and American plane tree. It is real¬ 
ly a very striking tree and one that every 
boy and girl should call by name. It 
grows in nearly all parts of the country, 
being found most commonly along 
streams. Besides shedding its bark and 
bearing the round seed balls, the syca¬ 
more has a very peculiar and interesting 
way of protecting the new leaf buds that 
form during the growing season. Who 
knows how it does this? If you live near 
a sycamore tree, make a point of watch¬ 
ing it closely through the year. You will 
learn a good many things that you never 
knew before. 
The names of those who sent correct 
answer in time to publish are: 
New York State : Clara Russell, Fan¬ 
ny Ingersoll, Ethel Palmer, Mary Bull, 
Daniel Feeds His Flock 
Orvilla Oudt. Sarah Bull. Elinor Bull. 
Ruth Andrews, Marian Devoe. Edna 
Hunter. Helen Messemer. Marian Phil¬ 
lips, Carrie Phillips, Gertrude Schrader. 
Dorothy Mackey. Lester Denning. R. A. 
B., Ida Lyes, Elizabeth Shetlin, Alice ‘H., 
Olive Daley, Wen del Bloomer, Ronald 
Bunting, Dorothy S.. Isabel Henry, Mar¬ 
garet Malone, Gladys Feld berg, Inez Ber¬ 
tel, 
Connecticut: Albert Kirk. Sophia 
Blodgett. Anna Bering, Katherine Oil¬ 
men. Daphne Luce. 
New Jersey: Margaret Van Yliet. Dor¬ 
othy Adams, Celia Ayurs, August Mul¬ 
ler, Annie Carter. 
Pennsylvania: Richard Clark, Mar¬ 
garet Beach, William Garrett, Blanche 
Guyer. David Leigh, Martha Hanley. 
Delaware: Elsie Grasselly, 
Maryland: Helen Brown, Rachel 
Kauffman. 
Missouri: Alice Hniineman. 
Virginia: Ethel Smoot. 
What Is It? 
In the same mail I received two Na¬ 
ture Puzzles describing the same thing, 
They came from girls in widely different 
parts of New York State. The tiling de¬ 
scribed is something I have wanted to 
talk about on Our Page for a long time, 
so I hope.that when you send your an¬ 
swer you- will write a story about some 
that you know. 
Remember, the same answer fits both 
these puzzles. Emma Keidel says: “It 
winds, runs, sometimes jumps and falls, 
never walks, and as a rule is long and 
narrow. Things live iu and on it and 
even walk on it at times. How we love 
to live near it!” Elinor Bull describes 
it this way: “It starts on high; if it 
gets too high it is very destructive, but it 
stops In low. It uses no gas. People 
just love to ride on it, for it runs very 
silently. It *has no steering gear, but 
Out for Exercise 
