860 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 25, 1921 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
This is Our Page. Do the best you can 
for Our Page and make us all proud of it 
Tiro Dahlia Maids 
Memory Verse 
Great is the sun. and wide he goes 
Through empty heaven without repose; 
And in the blue and glowing days 
More thick than rain In 1 showers his rays 
:Jc $ *5* *St # * 
Above the hills, along tin' blue. 
Round the bright air, with footing true, 
To please the child, to paint the rose. 
The gardener of the World, he goes. 
From “Summer Sun,” 
by R. L. Stevenson. 
Perhaps you already know this poem. 
There are three other verses. If you 
don’t know it, find it and learn it by 
heart. 1 want every one of you to have 
it a part of your lives. 
This, my boys and girls, is the great 
growing time of the year. Have you no¬ 
ticed how in the past few weeks the whole 
earth seems covered with a new dress? 
The tree leaves are fully out: and the 
shade in wood and pasture and orchard is 
deep and cool. What were bare fields 
not long ago are now green with crops. 
Every day makes a change to one who 
watches closely. Leave it for a week and 
even the most unwatcliful will see the dif¬ 
ference on his return. It is the miracle 
of Nature, giving her bounty to man. 
What is the power that brings this 
miracle about? Where is the great force 
without which none of these things would 
be? You have the answer in the poem 
above. The sun is “the gardener of the 
World,” making it to bloom in beauty 
and to bear rich fruit. I know a great 
nature student and nature lover who was 
once asked this question : “If you could 
teach boys and girls only one thing about 
Nature, what would it be?” 11 is answer 
came quickly : “I would teach them how 
plants respond to sunlight.” 
On my desk is a young plant that has 
grown in a curve, bending toward the 
window. Why did it do that? I have 
just turned it round. What will happen 
now? Have you ever watched beans 
climb the poles in the garden? Which 
way do they go? Is there any reason for 
it? Be on the watch for every sign of the 
sun -ga rdener’s work. 
If, then, you will promise to keep that 
in mind during the next month, we will 
now see what we have in the way of 
Interesting Letters 
This is my third letter to The R. X.-Y. 
I am a boy eight years of age. I go to 
school. It is about one-half a mile. 
There are 25 pupils in our school. I am 
in the third grade. 
When 1 go to school in the morning I 
pass these trees: Pear, cherry, peach, 
apple, walnut, wild cherry, horse chest¬ 
nut. locust, maple, plum, quince and 
apricot. 
I planted a garden last Spring, plant¬ 
ed onions, peas, cucumbers, and T will 
again. My father is a trucker and farm¬ 
er, like you, Mr. Tuttle. So you see why 
1 pass so many fruit trees. 
My sister has a camera. I am going 
to send you some pictures soon. 
My father has a greenhouse where lie 
raises a lot. of vegetables during the Win¬ 
ter. He raises cabbage and tomato and 
pepper plants. 
Good-by and good luck. From your 
friend, cart. b. 
When an eight-year-old boy can -write 
as good a letter as this and has written 
three letters, it is an example for ns all, 
don’t you think so? 
I am a busy farmerette. I am 14 years 
old. I milk the cow in the evening and 
morning. I have a pet calf. I can ride 
horseback pretty well. I have a Texas 
pony. I have much fun with the pony. 
Her name is “Babe.” She can stand on 
her hind legs, jump a rope and race with 
me. 
I had f!0 rabbits. I sold 23 and have 
seven left. I sold the 23 rabbits for 
$11.50 and T made $1.50 doing side-work 
for my neighbors. I have $13 now, and 
want to make .$2 more so I can buy my¬ 
self some glasses. 
I have a strawberry patch and a large 
potato patch which I planted and cared 
for. I help mother with everything. 
Mother says I’m an expert baker. I do 
all the baking at home. When it is any¬ 
body’s birthday they come to me to bake a 
cake. I do most of the canning. I have 
raised chickens, ducks and geese. I have 
two sisters and four brothers. I am still 
going to school and like school well. Good- 
by, I.OUISE C. 
Louise is indeed a busy girl, and will 
grow into, a capable woman. She has 
out-of-door work and out-of-door pleas¬ 
ures, and indoor work which she takes 
pride in doing well. Iler school life keeps 
her growing steadily in knowledge of the 
things that are best and most worth 
while. All this means happiness. 
I have been reading Our Page for some 
time. I enjoy it very much. It is very 
interesting. So I thought. I would write 
a few lines. This is the first time I have 
written for Our Page, and I hope it. is not 
the last time. 
In the May issue you asked us how our 
gardens grow. Well, I will tell about 
mine. April 28 I planted three rows of 
onions, two rows of lettuce and one row 
of lettuce seed. May 10 I planted one 
row of red beet seed. May 13 I planted 
one row of onion seed. May 10 I planted 
another row of onion seed and one row of 
Elizabeth J\fakes Hay 
red beet seed. May 10 I planted two 
rows of radish seed. May 20 1 planted 
one row of pansy seed. My garden is 12 
by 9 ft. Everything is up nicely and 
growing fine, and everything looks green 
and hearty. This is the first, year 1 ever 
had a garden. I am going to have one 
next year, too. 
I told you what my gardens grow; 
1 have watched them and 1 know. 
1 spend a little time each day, 
To keep the ugly weeds away. 
Soon there’ll be good things to eat. 
That I raised ; my, what a treat! 
I have three bird boxes, but only two 
are rented. Early in the Spring a chick¬ 
adee started to build in one. But when 
the wrens came they drove the chickadee 
out and the wrens built in it. Then an¬ 
other wren came and built in another 
house. I like to hear them singing and 
watch them picking lice and bugs from 
the rose bushes. There is a robin build¬ 
ing in the tree that one family of the 
wren is in. I can hear them singing as I 
write. 
Well, I must stop for this time. From 
a reader of The R. N.-Y„ ira v. 
Pennsylvania, 
This is a good garden report. I wish 
we could have more of them as the season 
goes on. Now is the time to take special 
care of your gardens. The days are hot. 
and the weeds grow fast. But give the 
vegetables and flowers a chance and they 
will grow fast. too. Send me a picture of 
your garden as it looks now. 
Several Letters About Schools 
I am taking the liberty of adding my 
name to the list of writers to the Boys’ 
and Girls’ Page. Our family has just 
subscribed for The R. N.-Y. I became 
interested immediately in the Boys’ and 
Girls’ Page. I am in the eighth grade at. 
school. We are preparing to enter a new 
school which is nearly finished. It con¬ 
tains eight large, comfortable rooms, two 
large halls which are as long as the school 
is wide, a sick room, a library and a prin¬ 
cipal’s office. I am 14 years of age. I 
Old Ironsides 
Three readers sent answers to the 
question asked last month about this 
famous ship. Two of them are given be¬ 
low. The third was from Eric T. of New 
Jersey. 
I was reading the Boys’ and Girls’ 
Page today (May 29) when I came across 
a question which read as follows: “Can 
you tell where Old Ironsides is?” I have 
had the pleasure of going aboard her with¬ 
in six months. She is in Boston Harbor. 
The ship is painted black and white and 
the deck is worn and covered with tar. 
There are several old cannon on board, 
too. and it is very interesting. 
The real name is the “Constitution” 
and it. was noted for its usefulness in the 
War of 1812. One of tin* most famous 
battles was the one with the ship “Guer- 
riere.” paui, a. 
Massachusetts. 
Of course we all know “Old Ironsides” 
is a very old battleship used during the 
War of 1812. After the war the people 
This Young Reader and His 
'nope lo enter high school next year. Your 
friend, .joiin w. 
Pennsylvania. 
I am very much interested in the Boys’ 
and Girls’ Page and especially in regard 
to good schools. 
I have always gone to school in rural 
districts and our district was at one time 
transferred to a nearby rural school, but 
at present we are having school in our 
own school district, which is by far the 
better. 
I do not think it is always the fault of 
boys and girls that they leave school be¬ 
fore they have finished their education. 
If they are brought up at home to know 
that a good education is one of the main 
tilings of life, they will be more anxious 
to get one. 
I am planning to go to high school as 
soon as I have completed the elementary 
course. 
I wish that every boy and girl might be 
interested in a good education. 
New York. ESTELL a. 
Last year I stayed home from school 
because of ill health. It does seem so good 
lo be back again this year fthis letter was 
written last Winter] at my studies and 
with the girls and boys once more. The 
principal thing that I live for now is for 
my school work, for I know that if I ever 
amount to anything very great when I am 
a woman, it will depend largely upon my 
education. We can’t say too much about 
the importance of a good education and 
boys and girls should obtain all they can 
while they have a chance. Many older 
people regret the opportunity they let slip 
past when they were younger. 
When T was a little girl going to a dis¬ 
trict school in New York State I can re¬ 
member reading your articles in the “Cor¬ 
nell Rural School Leaflet” of which you 
were one of the editors. 
My two sisters and I go to a centralized 
school which has both grades and high 
school. It is in the midst of a farming 
community and practically everyone drives 
or comes in a “kid-hack.” There is a barn 
on the grounds to keep the horses in. This 
is the same school building that President 
James A. Garfield attended. They always 
maintain an extra good school here for a 
rural community. 
I live near the city and go there some, 
but the country is the place that I love. 
One has more friends and a better time on 
the farm, I sincerely believe. 
My father has taken The R. N.-Y. for 
years, and none of us would want to be 
without it. I like to read the “Pastoral 
Parson” and the “Hope Farm Notes.” I 
think s.uch men are doing wonderfully good 
work. I am glad we now have a page of 
our own. Yours truly, estiierg, 
Ohio. 
This is only the beginning of our talks 
about schools. Vacation is a good time 
to think over what your school is doing 
for you. What more do you wish it 
would do to fit you for a successful and 
happy life? 
Gentle Team Handle the Hay Fork 
thought they would send it out to sea 
and let it sink, and some poet, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, I think, wrote a very 
noted poem about it. In it he told the 
people to “tear her tattered ensign down” 
and s-ink the ship, for it was no good at 
all. He was very sarcastic. After the. 
people read and heard his poem they 
thought it would be rather cruel to des¬ 
troy the ship, so they fixed it up and 
saved it. Now it is in the Charlestown 
Navy Yard, Boston, moored to a wharf. 
Its decks have been roofed over like a 
house, and it is used as a training ship 
for young sailors in the navy. I have 
never seen it or been on it. although I 
hope I may some day, as history is my 
favorite subject. MILDRED T5. 
Connecticut. 
To be sure, what Simon S. found in 
the old, hollow apple tree was a 
Screech Owl 
Those of you who knew it and said so 
are— 
Eunice Iv., Floyd C., Warren W., and 
Dorothy M., of New York State; Doro¬ 
thy R. of Massachusetts; Dorothy De W., 
of Michigan ; Dorothy C., of New Jersey ; 
Ralph and Jumbo Celebrate 
