1678 
Tff RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
We love Our Page. We read it eagerly every month, and try to improve 
it more and more. 
A Rural School Ej-hibit in Central New York. You Cun Hare One, Too. Try It! 
Nutting 
Come. Robert and Harry, come Lily and May! 
October is here, and our glad holiday. 
With every breath of the keen, frosty breeze, 
Rrown chestnuts are dropping from all the high trees. 
Lome here with your bags and your big baskets quick, 
And Harry’s now jack-knife shall cut a long stick. 
Thou Robert shall climb the old chestnut tree tall. 
And thrash the big boughs till the ripe chestnuts fall. 
So shiny and smooth, and so plump and so brown, 
The handsomest chestnuts that ever fell down ; 
Though stately and proud the old nut tree has stood 
A hundred long years—the king of the wood. 
You dear little squirrel, you look very wise. 
With long bushy tail and bright, shiny, black eyes. 
Pray. sir. do you fancy you own the big tree? 
It’s quite a mistake, sir, between you and me. 
We don't mean to rob you, dear, not in the least. 
Rut we, too, like chestnuts, and long for a feast: 
We know you must gather your snug Winter store, 
Rut after we go you will find plenty more. 
I thought you would enjoy having a 
whole poem this time, instead of just a 
verse or two. Especially such a jolly, 
happy poem as this is! It can be found 
with many others that boys and girls 
will like in a book called “Nature in 
Verse,” which was made a good many 
years ago by Mary I. Lovejoy. This 
poem, ealled “Nutting” has no author 
given, mo I suppose perhaps no one knows 
who wrote the lines that give us so much 
pleasure. Rut we are glad that someone 
did write them once upon a time. 
Who does not love to go nutting! On 
some Saturday we make up a group and 
go to the woods. It is great just to be 
out of doors in “October’s bright blue 
weather.” Probably most of you know 
that delightful poem by Helen Hunt Jack- 
son. Gladys F., a Western New York 
reader, suggested it for Our Page this 
month, but I already bad the other. Thank 
you just the same, Gladys. Who will 
write and tell us about a nutting party 
that really happened this Fall? Tell 
what day you went, what the weather 
was, where your path led you and how 
far. how many were in the party, their 
names and ages, what kind of nuts you 
gathered, something about the tree on 
which they grew, how you got the nuts, 
what you carried them in. what you did 
with them, and everything else about the 
party. That will make interesting read¬ 
ing for all of us. 
Now, before I forget it. 1 want to tell 
you about Our l’age for 
Groce and Her Three Kittens 
—Selected. 
Next Month 
Of course, that, means November, and 
November mean*; Thanksgiving. I think 
probably The Rural New-Yorker will 
reach you just at Thanksgiving time. It 
would be a good idea to have something 
on Our Page about this special holiday, 
don’t you think so? Will you write it? 
Here is what I mean : Let’s have some 
letters on this topic: “M'hy I Am Thank¬ 
ful This Year.” I will agree to publish 
the best letters, one from a boy and one 
from a girl of every different age from 
six to 21. That will mean a lot of let¬ 
ters for us to read if you all write, won’t 
it? Rut I know they will be worth read¬ 
ing. Just take a few minutes to think 
over the things you have for which to 
be thankful. Then sit down and put 
them in the letter. Re sure to give your 
name and .age, and mail the letter to me, 
using the address given at the end of 
the next page. Do not wait or put it 
off. The letter should be mailed within 
a week after you receive this page. For 
you know I have to make Our l’age for 
November early in that month in order 
that you may read it on Thanksgiving 
Day. 
How are your plans coining along for 
The School Fair? 
I hope that you are going to do this 
thing. Look at the exhibit shown at the 
top of this page. Isn’t that fine? Every 
rural school can make one just as good. 
Bring together specimens of the things 
that you grew iu your gardens, or canned, 
or made at home. Include anything that 
has been produced in the district that !s 
fine and good. See that each article is 
labeled clearly, so that everyone can tell 
where it came from and what it means. 
Send out neat invitations that you make 
in your writing or drawing class. Pre¬ 
pare pieces to read or recite. Have two 
or three good songs that you sing, and 
eome that all will sing. Decorate the 
schoolhouse. Work to make the fair a 
success, and you will feel rewarded. I 
have had some letters from older persons 
who like this idea. I know that you 
will find the grown-ups interested if you 
bold a fair at your school this Fall. 
Dorothy L. wrote me from Western 
New York, saying: “We are going to 
have a school Hallowe’en party for our 
fathers and mothers. We are going to 
show them our work, serve cocoa and 
some kind of sandwiches and some of the 
first grade are going to speak.” This is 
good, and just what I mean. There are 
all kinds of different plans you can make. 
Rut don't let the Fall go by without hav¬ 
ing a gathering at the schoolhouse to cele¬ 
brate the harvest season. Make it just 
as interesting and happy a time as you 
can. 
Speaking of 
Hallowe’en 
A great many of you wrote of being 
interested in the party I described last 
time. It was, indeed, a good party, full 
of wholesome fun for everyone. I hope 
that you will have as fine a time this year. 
Let me bear about it. 
But what is the matter? Such a fuss! 
I declare I can hardly think. l r ou all 
know £he nursery rhyme about the four- 
and-twenty 
Blackbirds 
As I have been nitting by my open win¬ 
dow writing to you, suddenly there has 
come the greatest commotion out in the 
woods close by. Not four-and-twenty, 
but four hundred and four-and-twenty 
blackbirds must be there. I’m sure it 
sounds like four thousand and four-and- 
twenty. What are they doing? Where 
have they all come from? How long will 
they stay? Where are they going? Here 
is another one of Nature’s mysterious 
workings. How wonderful it all is! 
Flocking blackbirds are a sign of Fall, 
aren’t they? There are so many other 
signs. Are you watching for them, as 
you did for the signs of Spring? 
Why, where are my blackbirds? Gone 
already! I hear just one lone chirp. 
Letters 
So many good letters have come to me 
in the last two months that I want to 
share a number of them with you. Here 
they are : 
I was very interested in the story about 
the humming bird (Our Page for July). 
Harvest Time in Pennsylvania 
I have never «een a nest, but I have seen 
the bird. There is one around our house 
most every day. It comes to the flowers; 
the flowering bean is its favorite. 
I have three little kittens, and they are 
real cute. I am sending you a picture 
<>f them and myself. My brother took the 
picture, and he cut my head off; but you 
can see the kittens just the same. The 
other picture is my brother Irwin’s ducks 
diving for corn in the bottom of the 
brook. There are nine of them’. Can 
you count them? We have another little 
duck. He runs about with the chickens, 
lie is a real cute little fellow. We have 
four little calves. Every day we let them 
out in the barnyard to get a drink. One 
day they ran away to the neighbor’s. 
Then I had to go get them. 
This is getting pretty long, and you 
get so many others you will not have time 
to read a long one. Rest wishes to you. 
From your 11-year-old friend, 
New Y’ork. . graces. 
Even though the top of your head is 
cut off. Grace, we can still see that you 
are smiling. The kittens are cute. Thank 
you very much for the two pictures. Ah 
you see. they help Our Page a lot. The 
nine ducks make a good puzzle picture. 
October 30, 1920 
Being a reader of the Boys’ and Girls’ 
page, 1 would like to ask you for a bit of 
advice. I’m a boy, 13 years of age; have 
graduated from grade school, but not go¬ 
ing to attend higher schools this year 
While having such a long vacation* I’d 
like to. know if there is any way for a 
boy «»f my age to earn any money through 
spare time. Hoping you can help me 
solve this question, I am, 
Your interested reader, 
Rhode Island. adolpij n 
What shall I say to Adolph? I w ish 
we knew why ho in not going to school, 
how it is he can stay home, and whether 
be lives in a village or the open country. 
School has started, and I like it very 
much. I shouldn’t wonder if every bov or 
girl does. I sit. with a girl whose name 
is Elizabeth. We have a man teacher 
We like him very much. Elizabeth and 
I have a motto, and it is “Study.” I s 
not that a good one? I am 12 years old 
and I am in tin* seventh grade. 
In Our Page. October 2. your storv 
about the Hallowe’en party was very in¬ 
teresting. You must have enjoyed it. [ 
have read of many, but I imagine your 
party would have been more fun. I like 
parties. 
... * 1 . . <uiu NIK; 
is the most wonderful child in the world 
we think. Rut. I guess all people think 
the same of their own. 
I am beginning to think that 
keep a book for all the rhymes 
month. Some girl wrote once, I 
ber. of keeping all the verses in „ 
note book. That is a very nice plan. 
Your friend, 
Pennsylvania. dorotiiy v 
I shall 
of each 
remem- 
a little 
The motto i« a good one. Dorothy 
does not mean that she and Elizabeth arc 
going to study all the time. She means 
that they are going to study hard when 
it is study time. Put your mind on them 
and the lessons are done in half the time, 
and done right. Learn to shut out every¬ 
thing else from your thoughts until the 
thing you have to do is done. Then turn 
to the next thing, whether it be more 
work or play, and do it in the same way. 
There is a big word for this power to 
think steadily of one thing at a time. 
Whe knows the word? 
Dorothy is right about the babies. How 
we love them and work for them! You 
were a baby once, and your family 
thought you were wonderful, and loved 
you and worked for you. Don’t forget 
that. Make them glad every day that 
they have you now. 
I hope that Dorothy’s thought about the 
book of verses will be more than a begin¬ 
ning. Start the book now, Dorothy, and 
the rest of you, too. Put iu it not only 
the verses from Our Page, but any bit 
of poetry or saying that you like and 
want to keep to read again. Don’t forget 
that you are going to make a Page Book, 
too, with all the numbers of Our Page in 
it. This is Number 13. Get as many of 
the back copies as you can and keep the 
book up to date. 
Notes 
You will see on next page a picture of a 
weather record for November, kept by a 
New York rural school several years ago. 
There are many ways of keeping weather 
records, but this is one of the most filter¬ 
ing I ever saw. I am sorry that the pic¬ 
ture does not show the colors of all the 
little figures. This is what the writing 
says: 
Light dresses, light sunbonnets, short 
sleeves, denote fair and warm weather. 
Dark coats, dark sunbonnets, long 
sleeves and mittens denote fair and cold. 
Umbrellas denote rain. 
Closed umbrellas denote cloudy weather. 
Snowflakes on coats and bonnets de¬ 
note snow. 
Flying dresses and sunbonnets denote 
windy weather. 
Are you keeping a weather record in 
your school? 
Can You Count Nine Ducks? 
