1677 
‘The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The box was sent by Phylis R., Now 
Jersey, who also furnished this month’s 
“What Is It?" She has certainly done 
her share to help. 
The picture of the boy and his yoke 
of little steers was sent to Our Fnge by 
his sister, Mildred S., a Connecticut girl, 
who says it was taken two years ago. 
They must be fine animals now. 
The picture of the dog and cat were 
sent by Gilbert Iv., a Central New York 
hoy. 
A Pennsylvania farmer sent the pic¬ 
ture of his little son on the heap of fine 
corn. 
Instead of picture stories next month 
we will have the Thanksgiving letters. 
For the month after that I have a fine 
story picture. 
I was pleased to receive a story about 
the pony cart from a lady in Connecticut. 
A Well Mulched Team 
Of course, the space on Our Page must 
he given to you boys and girls; but I 
want to thank this older friend for her 
interest in us. 
In school you study history. It is 
mostly the history of the past. Do you 
realize, I wonder, what great history is 
being made right now? Some day your 
children will be studying the events of 
1020. Then you should be able to tell 
together, send the letter just as soon as 
you can. 
But I have not told you yet the name 
of the bird. It was a 
Cedar Waxwing 
Oother names are cedar bird and cherry 
bird. Dorothy W. said in her letter: 
“The first time that I noticed the cedar 
bird it was on the clothes post. I wanted 
to see if it would turn around so that 1 
could see its back. I did not have to 
wait long, for it flew and lit on the clothes 
line, where the line had been tied. It 
tugged at the loose ends. Taking all it 
could get in its bill, it flew away.” 
level from the trunk, while you know 
that most tree branches grow upward and 
some droop down. The leaves are of 
different sizes, but mostly small, as 
Phylis says. It is said that they turn 
a more fiery red than any other tree. 
Often one can find'fruits on the trees in 
Autumn—small, dark blue, berry-like 
fruits. They are sour, but the birds like 
them. Now who will send the name? 
The Picture Stories 
Many of you wrote stories about the 
pony cart, and I expect others will come 
too late. Try to send your stories and 
you climb up the tree and shake it. and 
David, throw your stick higher and hit 
that big bunch. So Bernice and Alma 
will be kept busy shelling them while I 
put them in big heaps,” said Donald. 
‘‘Now we have plenty for this time, for 
we must hurry home, so we can put the 
saddle on Dick and each have a turn 
riding him.” 
“Come. Cute." said Alma; “we are 
ready. Dorcas is so tired she will go to 
sleep before we reach home. So now 
hurry, boys. You go across the fields and 
we will see who will reach home first. 
Go on, Dick, we want to reach home 
ahead of the boys.” 
“Hurrah, we are here first!” cried Roy. 
New York. Beatrice b., 10 years.' 
Leonard IV. writes: “The cedar wax¬ 
wing tried to pick mamma's clothes line, 
and we thought that they would build a 
nest near here. One night I looked in an 
apple tree and there were four little 
birds, and the father and mother wax- 
wings were watching them.” 
So it seems that the waxwings like 
clothes lines. Which tact ought to tell 
us that we can help them by putting out 
bits of string for them to use in nest¬ 
building. Do you suppose we can re¬ 
member this until next year? 
If you have never seen a cedar wax¬ 
wing to know it for sure, try to do so 
next Spring. It is one of the most inter¬ 
esting birds we have, and a very useful 
one as well. 
So far we have had for our puzzle a 
weed, an insect, and a bird. This month 
the puzzle is something else. It cornea 
from Phylis R., of New Jersey, who asks 
us: 
What Is It? 
When I go to school I pass a lot of 
trees, described thus: They have stiff- 
looking branches and small leaves, about 
one and one-half inches long. They are 
all red now (October (5, as they turn red 
very early.) The trees grow mostly in 
the lowlands or where it is wet. 
Anyone very familiar with these trees 
would recognize them from what Phylis 
has said. But I am sure that she will 
not mind if I add a point or two to make 
the description a little more complete. 
Then we shall expect a lot of you to 
name the trees. The trunks of these 
trees grow in a straight line from the 
ground to the top of the tree. The 
branches seem stiff because they stand out 
letters early each time. The real - scene 
of this picture is in New Jersey. The 
girl who owns the cart has five cousins 
and two pets. Most of you did not find 
the second pets. But here are some of 
your own stories: 
In this picture is a pony and cart. 
There are trees in the picture. There 
are children in the cart. The trees are 
bare, and the grass is brown. It is Fall 
in the picture. They are going out for a 
ride. They stopped in the woods to get 
some nuts. dorotiiy c., 7 years. 
New Jersey. 
An Autumn Day 
This is in the Fall. The trees are bare. 
The grass is brown. The boys and girls 
are taking a ride in the fields with their 
pony. I think they are going after hick- 
orynuts. There are three girls in the 
cart and three boys walking. Their 
names are John, James, Robert, Florence, 
Lucile, and Geraldine. The pony’s name 
is Prince. morton a, 9 years. 
Pennsylvania. 
The boys are Roy, David and Donald. 
The girls are Bernice and Alma. The 
baby is Bernice’s baby sister, and her 
name is Dorcas. 
The pony is Dick, and as it looks like a 
white dog sitting on the pony’s back. I 
will call him Cute, as lie surely looks the 
part. 
Alma and Bernice each have a basket, 
and the boys each a stick. Although we 
do not see them in the picture, I know 
they have them, for they are going to 
gather hickorynuts. 
Now they are by the hickory trees, so 
they let Dick eat grass, and Cute will play 
around, and if he happens to see a gray 
squirrel, how he will make it scamper up 
a tree. 
"My, how many there are here. Roy, 
In the picture there are three boys and 
three girls. The boys’ names are John, 
Bill and Harry. The girls’ names are 
Betty, Dorothy, and Edith. They are 
in a wagon drawn by a pony. The pony’s 
name is Jerry. Jerry likes the children 
because they treat him well. Sometimes 
they go for rides and go after chestnuts, 
and let Jerry eat grass. There are seven 
Watchful Waiting. A Good Picture of 
Animal Life 
big chestnut trees. There is a garden or 
something over back. Sometimes the chil¬ 
dren have a fight, but they soon get over 
it. They have good times together. 
Massachusetts, hilbert g., 12 years. 
them how it seemed to you to live through 
this period. This is the first year that 
women can vote in every part of the 
United States. That is a great event. 
And this is the year that we are deciding 
whether the United States is to do its 
share in the world as an honored, re¬ 
spected, generous nation, or whether we 
are going to quit and pull out as a sep¬ 
arate. selfish nation. It is one of the big¬ 
gest questions in all our history. We 
shall soon know the answer. 
Willie T.. a Virginia boy, writes: “I 
took a week off this Summer to go to 
the Northeastern Boys' Short Course of 
Virginia. I had a delightful time, as 
well as getting many points on farming, 
stock raising, poultry raising, feeding, etc. 
1 would advise any boy who is interested 
in farming to go. if he can. Every State 
has short courses of one kind and another 
for farm boys and girls. Most of them 
are in the Winter, and many begin early 
in November. If you are sixteen or more 
and are interested, write to your State 
College of Agriculture for information. 
If you cannot go this year, make your 
plans for next year.” 
The Nature Puzzles 
Each month we are doing better with 
the nature puzzles. Last tiuie. you re¬ 
member. Dorothy J. gave us a bird to 
name. It was not one of the most com¬ 
mon birds, but her description was very 
clear and good. I was pleased to have 
correct answers from a number of hoys 
and girls in several different States. Their 
names are as follows: Eleanor S., 
Maine; Harold II., Pennsylvania; Dor¬ 
othy I... New York; Dorothy W., Massa¬ 
chusetts. and Leonard W„ Vermont. 1 
suppose that after T send this page to 
the printer I will receive more answers. 
This is one thing we must look out for. 
Try to remember that there is only a 
week or 10 days usually between the time 
you read one page and the time 1 have 
to write another. So if you are going to 
write to me about the nature puzzle or 
the story picture, or the box, or some of 
the other interesting things we are doing 
The Farmers’ Picnic 
It was drawing near the day for the 
farmers’ picnic to be held. Mabel and 
Elsie were two young girls. John was 
their oldest brother. They had two other 
brothers of nine and ten. and a small 
sister of three, named Betty. They had 
a dear little white poodle dog named 
Snowflake, which they all loved very 
dearly. The.v also had a nice, big, strong 
pony named Black Beauty. 
Mabel and Elsie were walking home 
from town when Elsie started to talk 
about the farmers’ picnic. 
“It would be nice,” she said, “if we all 
could go.” 
“Well,” said Mabel, “let’s try to go 
then.” 
When they got home they talked about 
it to their brother. John. It was soon 
decided that they should go. 
The day soon came. Mabel and Elsie 
were busy making nice things to eat. 
When they were finished they put up a 
nice lunch. Then the boys went out and 
cleaned Black Beauty and washed the 
cart in which they were to go. Then they 
called Snowflake and gave him a hath, 
which made him look like snow. Then 
Mabel took a pretty pink bow and tied 
it around his neck. Then she held him 
up and looked at him and hugged him, 
which Snowflake liked. 
Soon they were dressed and got into the 
cart and drove off. with Snowflake sitting 
on Black Beauty’s back. As they were 
riding along and were going through a 
woods the boys got out to give the pony 
a rest. 
Then they started off again, and in less 
than an hour they were at the picnic. 
The first thing they all wanted was their 
dinner, for they were hungry. When 
they had finished they gave some to Snow¬ 
flake, too. Then they gave Black Beauty 
his also. And at last they started to 
walk about the gi'ouuds. 
The children had many rides on the 
merry -go-round and in the swings. By 
this time it was getting dark, and they 
started for home. Wheu they got home 
they had their supper and went to bed, for 
they were tired out. ki th c. 
New Jersey, 
So you have the stories, and it is time 
to stop. Address your letters to Edward 
M. Tuttle. V ot»t *10th street, New 
York City, care The Ruuai, New- 
Yorker. 
Goodbye till next month. 
