1272 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
Our Page interests me in my garden, my school work, 
and my play. Every time it comes I get more interested. 
We All Like a Picnic 
Memory Verse 
My schoolroom lies on the meadow wide, 
Where under the clover the sunbeams 
hide, 
Where the long vines cling to the mossy 
bars. 
And the daisies twinkle like fallen stars. 
****** 
O. come! O, come! or we shall be late, 
And Autumn will fasten the golden gate. 
Of all the schoolrooms in east or west, 
The school of Nature I love the best. 
-KATHARINE LEE BATES. 
Lht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
A Fine Letter 
I live on a little island south of Massa¬ 
chusetts. Here is a tradition of how 
the island got its name: 
Once a man had three daughters, Mar¬ 
tha, Elizabeth and Nancy. He gave Eliz¬ 
abeth the group of islands near us—Eliza¬ 
beth Islands. He gave Martha the vine¬ 
yard—thus Martha’s Vineyard. There 
was one island left, so Nancy took it— 
Nantucket. 
I think we boys and girls appreciate 
Our Page more, even if it comes once a 
month. It is something to look forward 
to. I was very interested in the letters 
and stories about flying squirrels, and 
asked my mother if she had ever seen one. 
She said when she was a girl she brought 
four home in a teakettle from the camp 
ground. She kept them for two years. 
Then one morning she found the cage door 
open, the window open, and the squirrels 
gone. She knew someone let them go, 
but never thought it was her mother. She 
thinks it was a punishment for not water¬ 
ing and feeding them sometimes. 
For children loving Nature, I suggest 
reading Burgess’ “Bedtime Stories.” They 
are full of nature. At the beginning of 
each chapter is a little verse referring to 
the chapter. Here is one: 
“No greater joy can one attain 
Than helping ease another’s pain.” 
It was Farmer Brown’s boy that eased 
Bobhy Coon’s broken leg. 
I am making a book from Our Page. 
The next time I write I will tell you 
more about this island. I will close for 
this time. Your friend, adaii N. 
Massachusetts. 
Adah writes the kind of letter we all 
like to have on Our Page. It is inter¬ 
esting. It tells us a little about her part 
of the country. It gives several good sug¬ 
gestions. The point about not caring for 
squirrels properly is something for us all 
to think over. There is much that we can 
learn from pet animals of many kinds, 
and every boy and girls at some time or 
other has a pet. But we must be careful 
not to neglect our pets. If the time 
comes when we do not have enough inter¬ 
est to see that food and water are given 
regularly, and that a dry place to sleep 
is provided, then we would better let our 
pets go, so that they can take care of 
themselves. Don’t you think so? 
The best suggestion in Adah’s letter, I 
think, is the one about making a book 
from Our Page. I had not thought of this 
before, but why couldn’t we all do it? 
Most parts of the paper are for the older 
folks. Often we may want to read over 
some of the past numbers of Our Page. 
It may not be easy to find them in a big 
stack of Rural New-Yorkers. So if 
your parents do not object, neatly cut 
out Our Pages for each mouth. Find 
some large blank book or old book of 
any kind, and paste the pages in it in 
proper order. Let’s all do this now, be¬ 
fore we go any farther. I am going to 
make one, too. This month’s page is the 
tenth one since we began with the issue 
of November 1. 1919. I will take care 
that Our Page is never printed on both 
sides of the same sheet. Then we will 
always be able to paste the whole thing 
flat in our books. This is a fine plan. 
I want to thank Adah for suggesting it. 
We all thank her, I am sure. There will 
be many different ways of making Our 
Page Books. Write about your way. 
The First “One Day” Letter 
You will remember the suggestion made 
a couple of months ago about writing a 
letter describing one day of your life this 
Summer, from the time you get up in the 
morning until you go to bed at night. 
Below is the first letter of this kind that 
I received. Others have come since, but 
I hope that more of you will write about 
“One Day.” 
I have kept the list of what I have done 
on Wednesday, June 10, 1920. . 
First. I got up at five o’clock in the 
morning and dressed. Then went out and 
fed the little chicks for my sister. Then 
A Busy Boy in Michigan 
came in and washed, and ate breakfast 
at 5 :30 with the rest of the family. 
After breakfast I went out in the corn¬ 
field and uncovered corn that the shovel 
harrow had covered, and at the same time 
was hoeing out the weeds until 15 min¬ 
utes of 11 o’clock, and then came from 
the field to help feed the stock before din¬ 
ner. After all were fed, I partook of a 
dinner that felt real good in my empty 
stomach. 
After dinner I did the same work I had 
done all forenoon. I uncovered corn and 
hoed weeds until at 4:30 I came in to 
the house to get a drink of our good 
spring water, and also took a kegful along 
for my father and brother, who were 
shovel-harrowing in the corn. 
I came in from the field again at 5:30 
o’clock and again helped to feed the stock, 
after which we again partook of a meal, 
our third and last for the day, which was 
at 6:30 o’clock. After supper I fetched 
wood and chips to start the fire in the 
morning, and at eight o’clock I went to 
bed. 
That, ends the day for me, a genuine 
farmer boy of 13 Summers. It is not a 
very thrilling account, but was a rather 
hot and tiresome day’s work in a field of 
endless corn rows. SIMON s. 
Pennsylvania. 
Simon’s day may not have .been very 
“thrilling,” as he says, but it was a good 
day just the.same. It is as well that we 
don’t have to “thrill” every day. We 
would soon get tired of it, and wish for 
an ordinary day of honest work and play. 
A big field of corn or any other crop does 
seem endless, But it never is so if wo keep 
plugging at our job. Hill by hill and row 
by row it is finished. The part before us 
grows smaller; the part behind us grows 
larger. On some day we reach the end, 
and it is with real pride and pleasure 
that we can look at our work. Every¬ 
thing that, we do well to help growing 
plants and animals shows clearly in their 
better growth. Also, when we fail to 
do something, that shows, too. Nature 
never lies! 
From an Older Boy 
It has been fine to hear from so many 
of the older boys and girls in answer to 
Our Page last month. I wish that every 
one of the letters could be printed, for 
each is interesting and has some good 
points. But. of course, that is not pos¬ 
sible. as you know, so I have chosen the 
one given below because it brings up some 
things I want to talk about: 
I am a reader of The R. N.-Y., and 
having read so many interesting letters 
on Our Page, thought I would write one', 
too. I am a farmer’s son, 15 years of 
age, and like farming very much. I go 
to school, and am ready for high school. 
My teacher wants me to go to an agricul¬ 
tural school, but. I don’t think that I will. 
I like to trap very much. Last season 
I caught $30.25 worth of furs. I have 
bought $50 worth of War Savings Stamps 
with the money I earned last year in 
haying. I got $1.50 a day through hay¬ 
ing and harvest. 
Do you think that I ought to go to an 
agricultural school? There is one thing 
that interests me more than farming, and 
that is nature study. I would like to 
become a naturalist. I have joined a bird 
club, and have earned several dollars 
worth of prizes. I am also a member Of 
the “Boy Scouts of America.” 
Like most farm boys, I have several 
pets. One of these is a crow, named 
Billy. He can fly well, and got away 
from me the other day. Two kingbirds 
got after him, and one got on his back and 
picked him. I soon caught him and shut 
him up. Another pet is a young hawk, 
who is the terror of all the hens and 
chickens. He likes to pick the meat, from 
old bones. What do you think would be a 
good name for him? 
I think the Farm Bureau is a great 
help to all. One farmer is trying an ex¬ 
periment on a grain orop. Part of his 
field he does not fertilize, and on the other 
parts he uses phosphate, manure or lime. 
I will let you know the result of the ex¬ 
periment. This letter is long, but I 
thought you would like to read it just the 
same. I will close, wishing the best of 
luck and health to all. Your friend. 
New York. vernon it. 
Vernon is up against the problem that 
every one of us faces at some time in our 
teens. What is he to" become? What 
shall he do to fit himself for the work he 
chooses? I am very glad of one thing— 
Vernon is not going to drop out of school. 
I know that too often there is a tempta¬ 
tion to leave school as soon as possible. 
It is hard to see that school is really 
helping ns to get anywhere. But every 
person who leaves school before he lias 
to is sorry after it is too late to go back. 
He finds that the world places a value on 
education. Even with no more real abil¬ 
ity, the high-school graduate has an ad¬ 
vantage over the one who has only been 
through the grades. The college graduate 
has a better chance still, other things be¬ 
ing equal. 
Vernon would like to become a natural¬ 
ist. He has the best chance in the world 
—the chance of every country boy. But 
I wonder whether he has any very clear 
idea of what a naturalist does—of how 
he earns a living, for, I suppose, Vernon 
is going to have to earn his living. I 
know of naturalists who are teachers. I 
know of sjme who are .writers. I know 
of many who are farmers. A great 
teacher that I once had used to say : “All 
agriculture is nature study.” Of course, 
there is a good deal of nature study that 
is not agriculture, but every true farmer 
is interested in the wild life of his farm 
as well as in his cultivated crops and ani¬ 
mals. 
It would not be right for me to say 
that I think Vernon should go to an agri¬ 
cultural school any more than to some 
July 31, 1920 
other kind of school. I do not know him 
personally. I do not know how he is 
situated. But I can help him and others 
among you to think things out clearly for 
yourselves. Don’t ever stop with one 
side of a question, even if it is the side 
you agree with. Always try to see every 
side. Do not be afraid to reason things 
out for yourselves. Get all the advice 
and suggestion you can, then put it to¬ 
gether and see what the result is. We 
will be interested to know what Vernon 
decides. 
Another part of the letter speaks of the 
Farm Bureau. I hope that everyone of 
you older boys feels as Vernon does. This 
Working For a Living 
is an organization that you will have to 
deal with as long as you stay in country 
districts. It is the farmers’ own organi¬ 
zation. Every farmer and farmer’s son 
should believe in it and stand by it. I 
hope that we shall hear how the fertilizer 
experiment with the grain crop comes out. 
I hope that there will be other letters tell¬ 
ing of things being done by the Farm Bu¬ 
reaus. And there are Home Bureaus, 
too, aren’t there, girls? What about 
them? 
A True Bird Story 
Not long ago a friend told me of an 
experience he once had with a mother 
humming-bird and her nest. IIow many 
of you have ever seen a humming-bird’s 
nest in its natural place? It is one of 
the rare things to find. 
The mother humming-bird in the story 
built her nest in a low apple tree, just 
outside my friend’s window. He could 
look right into it. It was such a tiny 
nest of plant down, cobwebs, and lichens, 
and so nearly the color of the branch on 
which it nested that it was hard to see, 
even when one knew just where to look. 
Soon there were two small white eggs in 
the nest. They hatched into tiny, help¬ 
less baby birds, that at once began to cat 
and grow. The mother had a very curious 
way of feeding her little ones. She would 
fly away in search of food—sweet nectar 
Con ncciicut Chums 
from her favorite flowers in garden an 1 
orchard, and a host of tiny insect* 
Those she swallowed. Back she would 
come to the nest, and, putting her bill 
into that of one young bird, would raise 
some of the food from her own crop an< 
so give the baby its meal. Then it would 
be the other’s turn. 
J 
