1378 Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
] 
Boys and Gir 
By Edward M. Tuttl 
s 
e 
Here we meet once a month to 
other all we can in work 
help each 
and play. 
School Days Will Soon Be Here 
Over in the meadow. 
In the sand, in the sun. 
Lived a mother-toad 
And her little toadie one. 
“Wink!” said the mother: 
“I wink,” said the oue; 
So she winked and she blinked 
In the sand, in the sun. 
All day today these lines have been 
running through my head. You know 
the poem, of course. Twelve verses there 
are, each verse about some mother with 
as many babies as the number of the 
verse. The second is about a “mother- 
fish aud her little fishes two.” The last 
is about a “wise mother-ant and her little 
anties twelve.” Who can tell us what 
the other verses are about? If by some 
chance you have never read this delight¬ 
ful poem, called “Over in the Meadow,” 
written many years ago by Olive A. 
Wadsworth, you have a treat in store. 
I am sure that you will find it in some 
old reader or collection of children’s 
Verses. Once upon a time John Green- 
leaf WhAtier made a book of verses for 
children, puttting in it all the best poems 
he could find. The book is called Child 
Life, and is making many children glad 
long after Whittier has passed away. 
That is where I turn to find “Over in the 
Meadow.” But perhaps you will wonder 
why the poem is in my mind today. It 
is all because of a lot of 
Little Toads 
The ground is covered with them. It 
is hard to walk without stepping on them. 
They seem to have come all at once after 
the rain last night. I can see why people 
used to think toads rained down, before 
they learned to study the habits of the 
wild creatures and to find out how they 
really live. 
It is not hard to remember back to 
the month of May, when the air was full 
of the trill of old toads in a pond not far 
from the house. I walked down there. 
Lillian Loves Asters. That Is Why They 
Grow So Well For Her 
On the way I passed a dozen toads, all 
hurrying toward the water. At first I 
could see nothing in the edge of the pond. 
All noise had stopped near where I was. 
So I kept very still, with my eyes wide 
open. Pretty soon I saw a toad—just 
its head sticking up out of the water; 
then another aud another and another. 
There were really many where a moment 
before I had thought there were none. 
But still I was not satisfied. I wanted 
to see one sing. So I waited longer. 
T’p the pond the toads w'ere singing, and 
nearer and nearer others joined in. Then 
all at once, right under my nose, one sang. 
It was so sudden that I jumped and the 
song stopped. But a minute later an¬ 
other sang, and this time I saw\ Its lit¬ 
tle throat was blown out like a toy bal¬ 
loon. Have you seen it? Then you know. 
For several days and nights the toad 
chorus never stopped. Then one day all 
Was silence again at the pond, except for 
the croak of a frog now and then. I 
went down to look. Near the edge, fas¬ 
tened to water weeds and sticks. I found 
long strings of jelly full of little black 
dots. Toads’ eggs! From then on 
changes were rapid. The eggs hatched 
into little tadpoles that grew and 
changed as tadpoles do, you kuow\ And 
today they have become toads, very tiny 
toads, to be sure, scarcely bigger than 
my little fingernail. Just the same, they 
have left the pond and ai*e now in search 
of adventure on land. 
I imagine, don’t you, that the life of a 
little toad is very full of adventure? It 
has many enemies. Of the hundreds and 
hundreds of toads that are hopping 
around new, how many do you suppose 
will grow up to be big toads? I hope a 
good many, for I like to have them around 
here on the farm. They are very good 
friends. Warts? No such thing! Try 
stroking an old toad on the back and see 
how T he likes it. Make a pet of the toad 
in your garden. It will teach you many 
things. Now, I guess it is time to stop 
and let the toads tell their own story. 
So let’s talk for a minute 
About School 
You won’t mind, I know, for some of 
you have written that you are going to 
be glad to go back. Of course, you are! 
Vacation is fine, but no one would want 
it to last forever. How good it will be 
to see all the other boys aud girls again! 
I wonder what plans you and your 
teachers will make for this Fall. Of 
course, the regular work is first—reading 
and writing and arithmetic and spelling 
and the rest. But let me tell you a secret. 
You can do these things in much less time 
than you think you can if you pitch right 
into them. Then the rest of the time 
can be used for something else. What 
else? Oh, such a lot of things! Here 
are a few of the possible ones: 
1. The school yard can be cleaned up 
and put in perfect shape for Winter. 
2. Many school grounds need shrubs 
and vines or a tree or two. They make 
a great difference. See how beautiful the 
school in the picture looks. You can 
plan to do some planting next Spring. 
Make the places this Fall. Dig the soil 
up deeply and work in. some manure. 
3. You can build a feeding station for 
the birds. Then they will come close to 
the school all Winter. You will find 
them welcome visitors. 
4. It is interesting to make a collection 
of weed seeds, putting each kind in a lit¬ 
tle bottle, properly named. Look at the 
seeds through a magnifying glass. Learn 
to know each kind. Is the weed a bad 
one? What can be done to control it? 
5. All boys and girls like to gather the 
leaves of trees, press them, and mount 
them, giving each its right name. It is 
well to know the trees and how they are 
valuable to man. 
0. If you want to see a beautiful sight, 
find a milkweed caterpillar, keep it on 
a milkweed stalk, and watch what hap¬ 
pens. 
7. How pleasant it will make the 
schoolroom if you take turns providing a 
bouquet—a fresh one each day as long as 
flowers last, either cultivated flowers or 
wild flowers. 
S. It is a good part of your education 
to know your own community. The 
school can keep a record of what the 
farmers in the district are doing. Watch 
the harvests. Find out the yields. Learn 
what is done with the crops. 
0. Sometimes, when the day’s work has 
been done quickly and well, it may be pos¬ 
sible to take an afternoon trip together. 
There is a lot of pleasure and profit, in 
this, if you are earnest about it. Visit 
each other’s gardens. Visit fields, woods, 
orchards, poultry farms, dairy farms, any 
place that is interesting and worth study. 
10. Whatever else you do, try to have 
a “School Fair” some time this Fall. 
Have a program and an exhibit. Make 
it a harvest festival. 'Invite your parents 
and neighbors. Everyone enjoys a school 
fair. 
These are not new things that I am 
telling you. Many schools do them now. 
What good times they have! And in 
such schools the regular studies are done 
better than in the schools that do nothing 
else. I think you can see why. Read¬ 
ing and arithmetic and the other studies 
are the tools you need if you are going 
to get anywhere in the world. You can¬ 
not get along without them. And the 
better your set of tools, the more you can 
do with them. Remember that whenever 
the drill work seems hard. Stick to it 
until you have made it yours. 
But tools are of no use except to do 
things with. The more you do, the better 
you learn to use the tools. Then you 
can do still bigger things, and so on and 
on. It used to be the idea that the right 
way was to have boys and girls spend 
all of their time in school just getting 
the tools, but never using them at all. 
Now we see that you will learn faster if 
you do things with the tools as you go 
along. That seems sensible, doesn't it? 
To do well the things I have mentioned 
above, you will be needing reading and 
writing aud figuring and spelling and the 
other tools. You need them, too, with 
everything you do outside of school. That 
is life. Schools ought to be places where 
you learn to live full lives, good lives, 
useful lives, happy lives. Is your school 
like that? You can help to make it so. 
Let me hear a'bout your plans. Tell 
mo of the things you do. If you have dif¬ 
ficulty working something out, write 
August 28, 1920 
about it. No doubt some one of our 
many readers will have a suggestion for 
you. Remember that here on Our Page 
we are “to help each other all we can in 
work and play.” 
But I have written enough for once. 
You will ,want to read some letters. They 
are fine ! Here is one : 
From Arizona 
[Mother and I were reading the page 
for boys and girls, and I liked what you 
said about the rainy day. It hardly ever 
rains in this country, so the farmers have 
to irrigate. They can get the water 
every week, if they want it. 
I am going to tell you about the State 
of Arizona. Arizona is a hot country. 
When I am not helping mother or daddy 
I am playing outdoors with my little 
brother, named William. He is five years 
old. I am nine years old. I can make 
kites and fly them. I made one about a 
week ago, and it flew fine. 
Arizona. Emerson t. 
Rainy days are scarce where Emerson 
lives. Probably he wishes for a real good 
one sometimes. Irrigation will grow the 
crops, but a gentle, steady rain, such as 
we had here last night, does something 
that irrigation can never do. It wets the 
earth all over, washes the leaves, cleans 
the air. and brings that fresh, sweet smell 
we love. It had been dry, bright weather 
for nearly two weeks. The fields were 
very dusty. The crops drooped in the 
heat of noonday. Now the change has 
come. What a blessing is the rain ! 
Emerson speaks of flying kites. That 
reminds me of something I have been 
meaning to say for several months. Ia 
the April number of Our Page I asked 
for plans and descriptions of kites. Sev¬ 
eral boys have sent good letters and draw¬ 
ings telling how to make kites that will 
fly These I will try to publish some 
month before long, as soon as 'I can get 
them into shape and have the pictures 
made. Would it be a good idea to choose 
some day next Spring, when we will all 
go out aud fly our kites? What is the 
best time for kite-flying? What do you 
suggest? 
Next we will read about 
Raising Plants to Sell 
I have been wanting to write to you for 
some time, but I have just been putting 
it off. 
One reason why I have been putting it 
off is that my brother and I have been 
selling tomato, cabbage and pepper plants, 
Oliver Helps Grandpa Harvest the Big 
Onion Crop 
A Beautiful Rural School. Plan to Improve Your School Grounds This Year 
