The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
^ w'*J 
thing else in the eel] with the spiders 
and what happened to them. Probably 
all of us look at these wasp nests many 
times every Summer. But how many of 
us have known all that goes on in them? 
,What wonderful ways the creatures of 
Nature have for living and taking care 
of themselves! 
THE PICTURE STORIES 
The Picture Stories 
The picture of the little boy with his 
calf team interested many of you and 
a large number wrote stories. There 
were all kinds of guesses as to the sec¬ 
tion of country where the picture was 
taken. Really, it was taken in New 
England, in the State of Connecticut. 
In the background there is a big barn 
with a silo. The picture was not as clear 
in the paper as I had hoped, but even so 
the stories were good and interesting. 
Here are some of the best: 
Ned’s Oxen 
Ned is a little boy eight years old. lie 
has a pair of oxen. Their names are Jim 
and Spot. Ned's father gave them to 
him when they were very small. When 
they got big enough he began to break 
them. He broke them to lead and then to 
drive double. 
Ned's father made him a sled with a 
tongue in it. and a yoke, lie now drives 
them all over. He has a box on the sled, 
lie has been drawing wood and is on his 
way home now. It is Winter, for there is 
snow on the ground. 
lie lives on a farm in Central New 
York. His father runs the farm and 
keeps it in good order. He taps the 
maple trees every year, and makes his 
syrup and sugar. The trees you see in 
tile picture are mostly maples. 
New York. carkie p., 14 years. 
1 see a little boy. Bay is his name. I 
think. It is Winter. The little boy has 
a sleigh with a box on it. The little 
boy’s sleigh is drawn by two calves. The 
little boy has a whip in his hand. The 
whip is quite long. The calves are black 
and white. 
Kay is going to get into the sleigh and 
have a ride pretty soon, I think. He is 
having his picture taken now. The trees 
are bare. maiuo.n s. 7 years. 
Massachusetts. 
A Green Mountain Boy 
Tubby Short lives on a farm in Ver¬ 
mont. Tubby has a pair of young steers 
and a sleigh. He goes to the village on 
his sleigh. It is very cold in Vermont 
and there is lots of sleigh-riding. 
The trees seem to be very large, and, 
no doubt, are sugar maples. Tubby can 
have lots of maple syrup aaid sugar this 
month on his buckwheat cakes. 
The farming land of Vermont is quite 
rough in some places. It makes good 
grazing and hay land. It is good land 
to plant to Winter wheat and rye, for 
the snow is a natural blanket for it. 
I envy Tubby and his team. 
New Jersey. Leslie f. 
I see you would like a picture story. 
It is a boy and two oxen. The boy‘s 
name is John. He has two young oxen 
and their names are Tom and Jerry- 
One Saturday John was playing in the 
house. He looked out of the window and 
it was snowing hard. So he ran down¬ 
stairs and asked his mother if he could 
go out and take out Tom and Jerry. So 
he put on his coat and went out to the 
barn, and it had stopped snowing. He 
did not pare. lie went in and put on the 
yoke and hitched them to the sleigh and 
went out into the road. He has the whip 
in his hand. 
There is a fence around his house and 
three or four maple trees, and a house 
down the road. tiilbeut g., 12 years. 
Massachusetts. 
Bobbie and His Bossies 
The bossies’ names are Star and Bright, 
and they are hitched to a sled with a box 
on it. I think the box is full of apples, 
and Bobbie is going to take them to his 
grandma’s. Bobbie is thinking of what 
a good time he will have at grandma’s and 
how pleased she will be with the apples. 
Bobbie is going to empty the apples at 
his grandma’s and is going to make Star 
and Bright haul him home in the box. 
1 think there is a park by the fence 
with large trees growing in it. I think 
I can see a house and I think it is the one 
in which Bobbie lives. And I think 
Bobbie’s father keeps a lot of cattle, 
don’t you? DOROTHY F., 9 years. 
Maine. 
The Obedient Team 
1 ’he picture is like many scenes in th 
-North Country where I live. The stor; 
ot this little boy and his calves probabl; 
happened in this way: As Billy’s fathe 
eaine into the house, he said': “Billy 
there is a surprise out to the barn fo 
y°!l- Come out and see what it is!” 
Billy hurried to get on his hat and coa 
and ran out to the bam as fast as hi 
legs could go. When he got there he wa 
I’Prised to see little twin calves 
n. father!” he said in a pleased voice 
Aren t they pretty?” Tliev were IIol 
stein calves. 
BiHy named them Daisy and Dolly 
illy asked his father if he could hav 
hem for his own. “Yes. you can hav 
them, Billy,” said his father, “Can ’ 
Notes from the Montana Schoolroom 
train and have them to drive on my sled 
this Winter?” asked Billy. “His father 
said that Billy was too small to train the 
calves himself, but that he would train 
them, and he would r ake a harness for 
them. 
Billy is eight years old. He goes to 
school, and is in the third grade. He 
lives in Northern New York on a dairy 
farm. It is good fanning around where 
he lives. There are a lot of maple trees. 
TIis father makes sugar from them. The 
farm of Billy’s father is up-to-date. There 
is a telephone line passing his house, so 
they must have a telephone. 
New York. ruth b., 13 years. 
About a Number of Things 
You will not find a story picture this 
month. Here are two reasons for leaving 
it out: One is that next month I want 
to use the space the stories would take 
to print your lists of the signs of Spring. 
The other reason is that I think it will 
be wise to skip a few months, perhaps, 
before we have another. We do not want 
to overdo a good idea, you know. 
I have been doing quite a lot of trim¬ 
ming and cleaning up about the farm 
this Spring. One old apple tree that we 
cut down had several hollow limbs. These 
I sawed up into proper lengths and made 
them into bird houses. The inside needed 
to be enlarged a little sometimes; an 
opening had to be bored at the right place, 
and a top and bottom nailed on. Then 
the houses were complete—two for wrens, 
two for bluebirds and one for flickers. 
They are up, and I am eagerly waiting 
for the birds to rent them. All I ask for 
pay is that they will live in the houses, 
raise large families, and feed them all the 
bugs and other insects they can find. 
How are your bird houses? 
This is the season of many wild flow¬ 
ers. and it is a delight to find them on our 
trips to the woods. Every boy and girl 
who is a nature lover, and I hope that 
all the readers of Our Page are such, 
knows that care must be taken not to 
destroy the roots of the plants in picking 
the flowers. In many parts of the coun- 
tr.v certain flowers, like arbutus and lady’s 
slippers, have been entirely wiped out 
because of careless and thoughtless pick¬ 
ing. 
I want to thank a number of you who 
have written letters about making maple 
sugar, as I suggested last month. These 
I am keeping till next year, when they 
will be in season. For now the maple 
sugar work is over, and we have so many 
other things to fill Our Page. 
It is due the boys to say that they are 
taking hold in fine shape now. The girls 
seemed to be quicker to catch the idea of 
Our Page. Perhaps the boys though slow 
are sure. At any rate, many interesting 
letters are reaching me now from boys. 
Jenning B., New York, asks: “How 
many boys have waterwheels? I have 
one, and it’s running all the time the 
creeks are full.” Tell us more about it, 
Jenning. 
James M., New ^ ork. says: “I wish 
Our Page would tell us how to make a 
kite.” So do I. Now who will help us 
out with some plans and descriptions? 
Perhaps we eau arrauge a kite-flying day 
for next Spring. 
Mildred I... New Jersey, asks: “Is 
there any certain amount of letters we 
can write?” Of course not. Write as 
many letters as you want to. Write just 
what you feel and think and do. Remem¬ 
ber that this is Our Page. No one else 
has anything to do with it unless we want 
him to. I hope you will grow to feel that 
you may be perfectly free in your letters 
to me; that you may trust me. Every 
letter reaches me and is read with inter¬ 
est. If it has something helpful in it for 
Our Page, it is used. I understand the 
effort it takes for a boy or girl to write 
a letter. But it is worth while to do it, 
and Our Page will grow to mean more 
and more to us as the months go by. 
Address your letters to me in care of 
The Rural New-Yorker, 333 West 30th 
street, New York City. 
Good-bye till next month! 
The Old Cow Country. —May I add 
my bit to these interesting letters that are 
appearing from time to time in our good 
It. N.-Y. and tell of how I spend my days 
while teaching school* in one of the rural 
districts of Eastern Montana? This is 
the portion of the State that was for half 
a century known to cattlemen as the 
“Old Cow Country,” and was during that 
time considered tit only for ranching. 
About 15 years ago the tide of Western 
immigration reached here, and the hun 
yock (dry-land farmer) took the grazing 
lands and plowed and planted them. The 
result was abundant crops of wheat and 
flax for several years, and the new man 
prospered while the cattlemen were driven 
back into the hills and the sheepmen re¬ 
tired, and then there came a change. 
The Long Drought. —The last four 
Summers it has almost “forgot” to rain, 
and each succeeding year has been drier 
than the preceding one. The past was 
said to be the driest known by any “old- 
timer” in the country. The drought and 
hot winds began early in May and a great 
deal of high-priced seed never sprouted 
and the fields were black when snow fell. 
The grain was not the only loss, for there 
were no gardens (not even spuds); 
neither was there any native grass in the 
hills for the stock to feed upon, so tin* 
farmer was compelled to dispose of his 
cattle and buy feed for his horses’, If 
he did not have funds to do t liis. he went 
away to work (mostly to the Wyoming 
oil fields). Some took their families, 
while others stayed to take care of the 
place and may be a few head of stock. 
Of course, after this drought everything 
the farmer has to sell is cheap, and what 
he buys is high. Just now hay made in 
South Dakota is bringing .$30 [>er ton, 
corn $3 per cwt., oats $2 and potatoes $0. 
and other eats about the same as other 
places. 
A Long Winter. —Eastern Montana i 
usually spoken of as the “Land of Sun¬ 
shine.” but this Winter has been very 
long and severe, with few nice days. Our 
first blizzard came October' 9, and since 
then it has been just one storm after an¬ 
other, until the snow was piled in huge 
drifts, some [daces eight feet high. Part 
of the time the roads have been impas¬ 
sable. esicept with the faithful saddle- 
horse. which is the stand-by in this coun¬ 
try. My school is 35 miles from the near¬ 
est town, and the road part of the way 
is very rough and uneven, or what is 
usually termed “trail” in this country. 
Our mail comes to an inland postoffice 
three times a week (when it does not bli«- 
zard and the roads are passable), and 
the neighbors have a club, each going ii, 
his turn to the office, which is six miles 
away. 
My School Building is new and well 
built, facing the east, and getting the 
bright sunshine from the south. The 
heating and ventilating system are excel¬ 
lent; the district furnishes the text books 
as well as all the extras, like paper, 
paints, crayons, etc., that 1 ask for. and 
we have a fair-sized library of both refer¬ 
ence and story books, so that I have every¬ 
thing necessary to do good work, except¬ 
ing the greatest requisite of all—regu¬ 
larity of attendance. My enrollment was 
20 at the beginning of the year, and dur¬ 
ing the first six weeks my attendance was 
almost perfect, and then came that early 
blizzard, and some of the children I have 
not seen since, and others have done as 
well as weather conditions would permit. 
The children come from ranches that are 
all the way from one to four miles dis¬ 
tant. and to reach here some must come 
cross lots or follow indistinct trails. 
Many days I have been alone, and then 
on other days my attendance will vary 
from one to 15 ambitious boys and girls 
who are willing to work extra time to 
make up what they missed. They are 
also anxious to make a good exhibit at 
the annual round-up, and take much pains 
to do neat work. They enjoy the hot 
lunches we have been serving this year. 
Early in the Fall we gave an entertain¬ 
ment to get funds for this purpose. Ail 
the children drink coffee in their homes, 
and enjoy it as well as anything I could 
prepare, so we often have just a cup of 
coffee (using canned milk and loaf sugar) 
with their lunches they bring from home. 
Then on other days we will have potato 
soup, meat broth and one day when only 
three were present I made waffles, crisp 
and brown, with syrup, and they surely 
enjoyed them. 
Living Conditions. —My school, like 
many others throughout this portion of 
the State, has a teacherage, where I board 
myself, the idea being the outgrowth of 
living in the schoolhouse, as many teaeh- 
ers were forced to do a few years ago 
in districts where a boarding place was 
an impossibility, and this method has led 
up to the building of either a suite of 
rooms to one side of the school building 
or of a separate building a short distance 
away. The former are far more con¬ 
venient for the teacher. Especially is 
this true in the serving of hot lunches, 
and then she can give the fire the last bit 
of attention at night and an early shake 
in the morning without going out into the 
cold. 
Teacherages throughout this portion 
of Montana are very popular and a con¬ 
venience to both patron and teacher. 
Here, as in most new countries, the hones 
are small, and they do not have the room, 
even if they do have the inclination, and 
the wife has time to “bother.” Then the 
teacher is always on the job, regardless 
of weather, and think how exasperating 
it would be to walk at least a mile when 
the .thermometer was hugging 30 degrees 
below, and probably the wind would be 
blowing, and then not have a pupil. 
Furnishing the Teacherage. —These 
homes are furnished by the district, and 
all the teacher needs to bring Is trunk, 
food and what pictures, cushions, fancy 
dishes, etc., that she desires for decora¬ 
tion. The furnishings usually consist of 
a sanitary couch, with a neat cover, 
dresser, rug, chairs, heater, kerosene stove 
for cooking, cooking utensils, dishes and 
all the other necessities that must be in 
(‘very household in order to keep house. 
My food is brought from town by the 
patrons. I have to do a lot of planning 
and use considerable forethought so as to 
have an adequate supply before Winter 
sets in. as there is often several weeks 
at a time that there is no opportunity to 
get anything from town except by parcel 
post. Then, how would I get it from the 
office if it was heavier than crochet cotton 
or something that could be brought with 
the saddle horse? During the automobile 
mouths there is seldom a Saturday but 
what I have an opportunity to go to town 
and do my own buying, and how I do 
enjoy it after these months of isolation. 
Cooking and Housework make extra 
work, to be sure, and require quite a bit 
of planning, but it is a change from the 
real work of the day. and I find it quite 
interesting and enjoyable to be able to 
cook just what I want. On Saturday the 
menu for tile entire week must be planned 
or I am liable to find myself supperless 
when I am most awfully hungry. By 
having my own home I can invite in my 
friends at any time and 1 have spreads or 
fudge parties and bring back the niom- 
ories of my college days. By living in 
this way we save ourselves exposure, long 
walks, eat what we please, sleep as long 
as we like, and then find it is 50 per cent 
cheaper than hoarding. Loneliness would 
he our first impression, but after being 
in the schoolroom all day I think most 
teachers enjoy a Mv hours of quiet, when 
they may read, write, sew or do anything 
they wish. Tn a great many districts 
there are ant to he pupils living too far 
away to walk, and if their teacher desires 
company, she can get one of these chil¬ 
dren to stay with her. and the parents 
are more tbnu glad to furnish part of 
the eats. I’he neighbors often spend an 
evening with me. and on Sundays take 
me to church. The West is a sociable 
place; crowds of people will go in sleighs 
for miles to spend an eveuing with their 
triends, and we will have a most enjoy¬ 
able time and plenty of good things to eat 
The Teachers.— In this part of Moo- 
tana. at least, there are very few resident 
(uuiiuirriod) touchers. T T ntil two yours 
ago these schools were taught mostly by 
girls coming from the Eastern States, 
but with the raise, of wages in those 
(Continued on Page S51.) 
