the basement and fix the soup and sot the 
tables for the children and teachers. On 
Fridays we bring extra money to get a 
cup of cocoa and a frankfurter and roll. 
New Jersey. sophie m. 
It Was a Muskrat 
Most of you guessed right. Some few 
thought it was a beaver. But a beaver 
is much larger than a “rabbit,” isn’t it, 
and its tail is shorter and thicker than 
the muskrat’s, and is flattened top and 
bottom instead of “on the sides.” The 
list of those who sent correct answers up 
to the time this page was written is as 
follows: 
Horace. F.. Ann W., Katharine T., 
Gladys F., Frederick, Gladys II., Mar¬ 
garet DeL.. Anna W., Mildred II.. Mary 
D„ and Mildred R., all of New York 
State. 
Theodora W. and Carl B. of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 
Beatrice I. and Valeria I., of Massa¬ 
chusetts. 
Alpheus J. and Evelyn R. of Maine. 
Margaret P. and Margaret W. of Mich¬ 
igan. 
Julia W. of Virginia. 
Robert A. of Ohio. 
Paul A. (State not given). 
Now’ here is another 
Nature Puzzle 
You will find it in the following letter, 
and it is a good one. I hope that many 
of you who know the answer will send it 
in and tell something interesting about 
the tree. And I hope that those who do 
not know the answer now will try to find 
out. If this tree grows anywhere in your 
locality you should make its acquaintance. 
I can see many of them from my window 
as I write. 
But here is the whole letter, which I 
give because it has other interesting things 
in it besides the nature puzzle: 
I am a very interested reader of the 
Boys’ and Girls’ Page in the R. N.-Y., 
and am sure it is the nicest and most in¬ 
teresting one I have ever seen. I. too, 
think we should all join together to have 
a better page for the coming year, and I 
am going to try to help all I can. 
I am 14 years old, and live on a 160- 
acre farm, and have always lived on it 
all my life. I have never been in a city, 
but I am sure I would not like to live 
there as well as on the farm. 
I passed the eighth grade nearly two 
years ago. but have never been to high 
school yet. because my mother has tuber¬ 
culosis and I am doing the housework. 
But as soon as she is well I intend to go. 
While we are speaking of meteorites I 
must not forget to tell you the experience 
I had with one once. It was on the 
Wednesday night before Thanksgiving in 
1919. I was on my way home fx-om a 
Have a Bile 
neighbor’s house when all at once every¬ 
thing was lit up all around me. When I 
turned I expected to see an automobile 
coming, but instead I saw what seemed to 
be a great ball of red fire with a long 
streak of fire after it falling slantingly 
toward the ground. Of course it fell so 
fast that I had only a glimpse of it and 
everything was dark again. It scared me 
so that I ran all the rest of the way home, 
but when I described it to my father lie 
said it must have been a meteorite. A few 
days afterward we read in the daily paper 
that it fell into Lake Michigan, and that 
it put many electrical plants in nearby 
cities out of order. 
I think the answer to Carrie P.’s na¬ 
ture puzzle is a muskrat. There are a 
great many around here, and my brother 
has caught some and sold their fur. 
I am sending a nature puzzle: 
WHAT IS IT ? 
It is a tree about as tall as a maple 
shade tree. The. trunk is usually quite 
slender, only about 14 to 86 inches 
around at the bottom and tapering gradu¬ 
ally to the top. where it is but a little 
twig The branches are all quite small, 
and do not branch out much except into 
little twigs. The leaflets are small and 
W* RURAL N 
oval shaped and are dark green. Around 
the first of June the tree is covered with 
pure white blossoms that are very frag¬ 
rant. But when picking anyone has to 
be careful or he will get pricked with 
some sharp thorns which grow all over 
the tree here and there. At this time of 
year (Winter) the tree is all bare, and 
little, long pods are hanging from every 
little twig and branch. Ever your friend. 
Michigan. Margaret p. 
The Tree Lists 
A number of you gave lists of trees 
passed on your way to school. I am glad 
that you know so many trees by name, 
and hope that you will all be studying 
Inspecting a Muskrat's Home 
the trees this Winter. Their shapes 
against the sky, the twigs and Winter 
buds, and the heavy trunk bark—all 
these differ in the different trees, and 
can be learned with a little careful ob¬ 
servation. Here are two of the lists: 
I have a mile and a half to go to 
school. On the way I pass these trees: 
Pine, fir. hemlock, beech, bii'ch, spruce, 
witch hazel, elm, maple, wild cherry, oak, 
peach, pear, plum, apple, mulberry, pop¬ 
lar, ash, hox-se chestnut, and black alder. 
Maine. Gladys c., 9 years. 
Every month when I read the Boys' 
and Girls’ Page I get more interested, 
and this mouth I am going to send you a 
list of the trees on my way to school. 
I am 11 years old and am in the sev¬ 
enth grade. It is about 1)4 miles to my 
school. When I start away from the 
house the first tree is a big willow tree. 
An oak tree is not far from it. I come 
to a woods, mostly all pines and hem¬ 
locks. There are a few chestnuts in it 
also, and around September I pick up 
the ripe chestnuts. 
At this time of year the pine and hem¬ 
lock ti’ees look beautiful. The snow 
hangs on their branches and bends them 
’way down ; sometimes they nearly touch 
the ground. 
When I get out of the woods I come 
to a row of chestnut trees and hiekorynut 
trees, and there, too. I pick up the chest¬ 
nuts and hickorynuts. Now thei-e are 
woodcutters in the woods destroying it 
all. MARY w. 
Pennsylvania. 
The Picture Stories 
The following letter explains how I 
came to have the story picture for you 
last month gives the true story of the 
ducks: 
I am sending you a picture of my ducks 
that I raised last Summer. I raised 89 
but there are only 86 in the picture. The 
other three were only two or three days 
old. They would not come in the pic¬ 
ture. 1 sold 28 of them before they were 
10 weeks old and received $81.50, at 45 
cents per pound. We sold the rest to cus¬ 
tomers. 
I like to read the Boys’ and Girls’ Page. 
I read it every month. I am 10 years old 
and in the fifth grade in school. Your 
friend. marie van w. 
New York. 
It was a good picture for stories. Won’t 
Marie be interested when she reads what 
some of you have written? Won’t you 
all be interested? Who would have be¬ 
lieved there were 86 ducks in the picture? 
Some of you thought they were geese, but 
a goose picture would be quite different, 
wouldn’t it? (See Our Page for Decem¬ 
ber). 
However, here are some of the stories: 
ON TIIE )•’ARM 
This little -girl’s name is Mary. She 
lives on a farm in New Jersey. It is 
Summer time. The trees are green and 
there is a pond just back of the little 
house. When Mary awoke early in the 
morning she heard the ducks making lots 
of noise. Her mamma was busy, so she 
took two dishes of corn and called them 
around her. The ducks are brown and 
white. Mary is counting them to see if 
any are lost. There are 20 of them. 
None of them are lost. She is happy. 
New Jersey. DOROTHY c., 7 years. 
JEANNETTE AND HER DUCKS 
Once upon a time a little girl named 
Jeannette lived on a farm. She had IS 
E W-YO RKER 
ducks. One day Jeannette heard a big 
noise in the yard and she ran out to see 
what, it was. There were her ducks 
quacking loudly. Then she ran into the 
house and got some pieces of bread and 
gave it to them. harvey e.. 
New York. 7 yeai-s. 
bertha and her ducks 
It was drawing near Bertha’s birth¬ 
day. Her parents were trying to decide 
what to give her for a birthday present. 
They noticed that she liked to work 
around the poultry, especially the ducks. 
So they decided to give her some ducks. 
They gave her five ducks. In a few 
weeks the ducks had laid enough eggs so 
that she could set three of them. She set 
the three and in four weeks had about 25 
nice little ducks. She fed the ducks and 
took care of them and not one of them 
died. “One day as she was feeding them 
one of the neighbors came along with a 
camera and took her picture. 
New York. Horace f., 12 years. 
WHY CITY GIRLS LOVE THE COUNTRY 
Katherine and her parents live in tin- 
city about IS miles from her aunt, win- 
lives on a farm. Coming home from visit¬ 
ing a friend. Katherine was told she had 
received an invitation to the country. She 
asked who it was from. Being told it was 
from her aunt, she asked if ,<ue might 
accept. Her mother and father told her 
she might. Katherine then was busy 
packing. 
On Thursday Katherine arrived at her 
aunt’s. Her aunt kept, many chickens 
and ducks. Katherine liked the ducks 
best, and she asked if she might take care 
of them. Her aunt told her she might. 
One day her aunt was out with her 
camera and saw Katherine standing 
among the ducks with the feed pan in her 
hands. Her long auburn curls were 
caught with a bright blue ribbon. Her 
aunt snapped her picture. 
Katherine’s vacation had drawn to a 
close and she was home in the city when 
one evening she came home and found a 
letter from her aunt and the picture 
which we see. I think she liked it i\s 
much as she was surprised to receive it. 
But now we must leave her for the pres¬ 
ent. MARGARET M’C.. 
New York. 12 years. 
olivene’s Ducks 
Olivene was living with her father in 
the city. Olivene was eight years old in 
March. So her father took her out in tin- 
country for the Summer. They camped 
.in a little hut out in a clearing of the 
woods. and Olivene’s father got her a 
flock of ducks to take care of while they 
were there. So every day she would feed 
them. She raised more and soon had 
quite a flock to sell. They shipped them 
away, all except a few. They brought 
quite a sum of money. She raised more 
and got the feathers from them. One day 
before they went back to their home in 
the city she was out feeding her flock <> r 
ducks when her father took the picture 
of her and the ducks as you see. 
Kansas. Roberta h. 
Helen’s birthday present 
Helen was ,rix years old. She lived with 
her grandmother in a pleasant farmhouse. 
Helen’s father lived a great way off. 
On her birthday a large box came, and 
what do you suppose it was! A box full 
of the nicest ducklings you ever saw. 
Helen was delighted with such a nice 
present. 
When the duckling grew larger they 
would go to the pond to swim. When 
they came back they would hear Helen’s 
voice calling them. They would run to 
her and she would feed them and tuck 
them away in their box. But they soon 
grew too big for this. BLANCHE G., 
Ohio. 10 years. 
Mildred’s ducks 
Mildred is a little girl eight years old. 
She is staying at her aunt’s. Her aunt 
had a lot of ducks, so she gave Mildred a 
flock of about 17 and told her to feed 
them every day and water them too. 
Mildred was delighted and she thanked 
her aunt many times. The ducks liked 
Mildred very much, and they would cat 
out of her hand. 
Her ducks laid a lot of eggs and Mild¬ 
red sold them. Mildred sold her ducks 
after she had kept them a year and sin- 
got $25 for them. She put the money iu 
the bank and was well pleased with it. 
333 
Mildred’s aunt took a lot of pictures of 
the ducks, and this is one of them. Don’t 
you think Mildred’s ducks were very 
pretty? dorothy f. 
Maine. 
Notes 
This month’s Box comes from Marie S., 
a 16-year-old New York girl. If Our 
Rage is making you boys and girls feel as 
if you “really knew each othei-,” then 
your editor believes the page is worth 
while. We are one big happy family, 
aren’t we? 
As to the pictures, several you know 
about already from the letters. The base¬ 
ball scene was sent by a teacher iu Cen¬ 
tral New York; “Have a Bite” came from 
Vermont: “Who Are You?” is from Dela¬ 
ware. and the muskrat house I have had 
so long I don’t know where it came from. 
5 on will learn about the two girls and 
their horse next month. 
James f\. New York, writes : “I have 
two pet white rats. 1 have heard of 
Albino rats. I would like to know the 
difference between the two varieties of 
rats.” There is no difference, James. Al¬ 
bino rats are white rats. There are Al¬ 
bino. or white, forms of many different 
animals, of flowers, and even of the hu¬ 
man race. It is a strange condition of 
lack of any dark coloring matter in the 
body. 
A “BIG” QUESTION 
Ruth W., a New York girl, sends this 
question: “Can the expression ‘bigger 
than the biggest’ be used? I think it 
makes sense in this sentence: ‘This rock 
Who Are You? 
is bigger than the biggest rock in our 
meadow.’ ” Perhaps Ruth has been hav¬ 
ing trouble in school to think this out 
clearly. I am not an expert in English 
grammar, but this is the way it seems to 
me: If *he rock you are talking about is 
outside the meadow then the sentence is 
correct. But if this rock is in the mead¬ 
ow, too, then it would be the biggest one 
there and it could not be bigger than 
itself. There must be a comparison be¬ 
tween things iu different places or be¬ 
tween different kinds of things, as “This 
apple is bigger than the biggest orange.” 
If this is not right will someone help us 
out? 
So ,ve close for another month. Our 
faces are (<et toward March, the month of 
winds, the beginning of the Springtime. 
Watch for the signs. Keep a list of them, 
as some of you did last year. Feel the 
earth stir with life once more. Feel new 
life inside yourselves, happy, eager, joy¬ 
ous life. Write to me. On the envelope 
put Edward M. Tuttle, in care The 
Rural New-Yorker, 333 West 30th St., 
New York City. 
Write a Story About This Picture 
