1504 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
If we spend a few minutes each month to write to Our 
Page, it will be a bigger success and we will enjoy it more 
A 
v , it-' 
& 
JEBSl 
beth Ganoung, a 13-yea?old New York 
girl. This is the kind of thing that adds 
greatly to the interest and value of Our 
Page. Thank you, Elizabeth. I hope 
others will follow your lead. 
New Year Song 
There’s a New Year coming, coming 
Out of some beautiful sphere. 
His baby-eyes bright 
With hope and delight: 
We welcome you. Happy New Year! 
There’s an Old Year going, going 
Away in the Winter drear; 
His beard is like snow, 
And his footsteps are slow: 
Good-bye to you. weary Old Year! 
There is always a New Year coming. 
There.is always an Old Year to go; 
And never a tear 
Drops the Happy New Year. 
As be scatters his gifts on the snow. 
By LUCY LARCOM. 
it has a big idea in it, and I 
will not be able to forget it 
than I can. 
know you 
any more 
Think of it. my boys and girls, a whole 
new year lies ahead! Day by day it will 
come to us and build into our lives. We 
can make it anything we will. Shall we 
make it a great, good year; a year of 
growth in body, mind and heart: a year 
of kindness and service to others? I feel 
your answer, “We will try our best." 
Come. then, join hands with me about 
our magic fire and listen to a strange 
story that I have to tell. 
Not long ago I chanced to read this 
story, and it stays in my mind. I cannot 
forget it. I am glad not to forget it. 
In a minute you will see why. On 
a certain Thanksgiving Day a man 
moved into a vacant house on a village 
street—just such a street as we have all 
seen many times. A queer day to be 
moving, you will say. Yes. and the man 
was cross and grouchy and said mean 
things to all his workers. But the next 
day he seemed quite different, and soon 
all the neighbors liked him. and the chil¬ 
dren especially loved him. for he let them 
play in his yard, and fixed up a splendid 
playroom for them in his house. Then 
came Christmas Day. and the man was 
suddenly cross again, chased away the 
children, spoke unkindly to all he met. 
and was very, very disagreeable. Yet the 
morning after Christmas he was all right, 
and stayed so the whole year through 
until the next Thanksgiving, when he 
cleaned house and had a terrible, grouchy, 
mean day. Of course his neighbors were 
puzzled. They could not understand. 
They tried many ways of finding out. 
some of them not very kind or consid¬ 
erate ways. And then on Christmas 
night, after an especially bad day. the 
man told his secret at a dinner where all 
the neighbors were gathered. Now what 
do you suppose the secret was? Why. 
he said that he was simply doing the 
opposite from most other people. They 
had two days in the year. Thanksgiving 
and Christmas, on which they were 
specially kind and loving and generous, 
and the rest of the year they did about 
as they pleased, took the best of every¬ 
thing they could get, were quick-tempered, 
cross and sometimes mean, scowled more 
often than they smiled, and were gener¬ 
ally not very pleasant people to live with. 
But he had decided that two days in the 
year ought to be enough to work the 
grouch out of a man. and all the rest of 
the 363 days he was going to live in the 
spirit of Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
So he did. and his neighbors had thought 
he was very queer, but when they under¬ 
stood they were ashamed of their own 
lives and the fact that they only had two 
days to match his 363. 
Now isn’t that a strange story? But 
Such Lots of Letters 
Something has stirred you all up. Not 
since Our Page started, more than two 
years ago, have so many letters come to 
your editor in one month as since the 
November page. And such fine letters 
they are, too, full of good thoughts and 
ideas, some with photographs, some with 
drawings, some with poems or stories or 
nature puzzles or words for the Box, 
some just warm-hearted, friendly letters. 
I have read them all, and though I have 
no way of answering each of you person¬ 
ally, I want you to feel that your efforts 
are indeed worth while. Keep this spirit 
up and you will see the results as the 
months come along, each one bringing a 
new Page. Now I am not going to say 
any more this month, but am going to 
turn the rest of the space over to you. 
I must confess that there is six times too 
much that I want to use, and some will 
have to be left out. Never mind, in or 
out, it is all fine! 
How 
month ? 
Iloberg. 
Drawings 
do you like our heading this 
It was drawn by Harry A. 
a New York State boy. Harry 
didn’t give his age, but the work is good 
for any age. It is neat, artistic and 
exactly suited to the purpose for which 
it was made. Would you believe that 
nearly 20 other boys and girls sent draw- 
(S'yJ yfahsaAxd ': /:S.v/,x<7,' - 
. 
4t,l Z*&'' 
<6*04/ ^4^0' Get#/* 
Ccz/us aJbujfc -» 
y***" -^2^ a/ , 
f> Vi. 
ings for the December heading? Your 
editor is very much pleased. It is only 
right that these readers should have 
credit for their work, so here are the 
names of “our artists” : 
New York State — Roy Bergman, 
Corinna Ball, Mildred S.. Gladys Eggles¬ 
ton. Hazel E. Duntz, Helen F. Carr, 
Elizabeth Ganoung, Lyle Campbell. Mar¬ 
ian Phillips, Ellie Lnoma. John W. Shea. 
New Jersey — Magnus Nelson, Julia 
A mi son. 
Massachusetts—Etta Christiansen. 
Maryland—Margaret Halter. 
Virginia—Christine Bowman. 
Rhode Island—Arthur F. Noren. 
Michigan—Thelma Ingersoll. 
Now who will set to work and send in 
a drawing to head Our Page for January? 
The Pictures 
I am going to tell you what fun I have 
playing with my two collie dogs. Bessie 
was a little puppy when I was two years 
old. She is nearly nine years old now, 
and I have her son Rover. lie watches 
out for me to come home from school in 
the bus. When he sees me get. out he 
comes running to meet me. lie helps me 
carry dead brush to the pile to be burned 
Then we all play hide and seek. They 
always find me. When there is snow or 
ice on the ground I get on my sled, one 
gets on the sled with me. the other takes 
the rope in his mouth and pulls the sled. 
Sometimes I have to roll off. or I would 
bump into a tree. I am sending a pic¬ 
ture of my dog Bessie and myself. 
New Jersey. MELVA s. 
Melva and her four-footed friends have 
good times together, don’t they? We are 
glad to see the picture she sent. Melva 
wanted her picture back, but did not giv n 
her last name or her postoffice. All of 
you should be careful on this point when 
you write. 
Isn’t it fine that we can see such a 
good picture of a porcupine, about which 
we had a nature puzzle a few months 
ago? Mr. Roy O. Dawes, a New York 
State friend, was kind enough to send it. 
lie said that it was taken in Northern 
M isconsin, where he used to live, and 
shows the porcupine in the top of a white 
birch tree getting its noon-day meal of 
buds and bark. It was Winter time, but 
even on the coldest days the porcupines 
are out. lie added that “they are often 
a nuisance in the more sparsely settled 
parts of Northern Wisconsin, as they will 
gnaw ax handles, the sides of barns and 
houses, harnesses and anything that gives 
them a taste of salt.” I know you will 
all join me in thanking Mr. Dawes for 
helping us to have a better idea of this 
interesting American animal. 
The picture of the four happy young¬ 
sters with their sled was sent by their 
father, Mr. George L. Cooper, a Western 
New York fruit farmer. It is full of the 
spirit of Winter that is running in all our 
veins this very minute, and just after the 
picture was taken we can imagine the 
rush and thrill of this little group as they 
sped down the hill on bright steel run¬ 
ners. Sleds or skates, or skiis or build¬ 
ing things with snow, what fun it all is! 
Hurrah for Winter! 
The only things I am going to tell you 
now about the last picture are that the 
boy’s name is Lawrence and that he lives 
in Northern New York. You are to tell 
me how he came to have the chickens, 
how he cares for them, what he expects 
to do with them and anything else the 
picture brings to your mind. In short, 
here we are back to the picture story 
again. Now don’t let me surprise you 
as I did last time when only one or two 
answered with stories. Remember what 
fine stories we had last year, when dozens 
and dozens came in on each picture. I 
am waiting, we are all waiting, for these. 
Send them early. The time is short this 
month. 
You will see on this page a little illus¬ 
trated poem, written and drawn by Eliza- 
Last Month’s Puzzle 
“Bat, bat, come in the house. 
And tell us if you’re bird or mouse.” 
So runs the old nursery rhyme. Such 
a number of you wrote to tell me that 
you knew the answer to Ward Konkle’s 
nature puzzle that it is going to take a 
lot of room to give all the names. How¬ 
ever, here they are: 
New York State : E. Katharine Trench, 
Helen Messemer, Sophie Meier, Mary Cor¬ 
coran. Philip Ryder. Lueelia E. Sweet, 
Helen I.. Iloke, Marie Hansen, Ellie Lu¬ 
nina. Margaret Mackenzie, Ruth A. 
Maekay, Delia Alden. Hazel Cook, Hazel 
Knack. Dorothy Mackey, Henry Plum¬ 
mer. Anna Fessenden, Carrie Phillips. 
Sylvia E. Randall, Lyle Campbell. Irene 
Miller. Thelma Dalrymple. Madeline 
Plunkett. Louise Cousins, Mildred S.. Roy 
Bergman, Harold T., Gladys Eggleston, 
Inez Ilertel. Anna Hoch, Doris Chamber- 
lain. Alice L. Phair. Dorothy Lee, Hazel 
E. Duntz. Mary Zalomis, Wilda Granz, 
Helen F, Carr. Grace Salton, Gladys A. 
Baxter. Gladys Feldberg. 
New Jersey : Lueile T.. Mary Emble- 
ton. Eva Goldblatt. Dorothy Courter. El¬ 
len H. Haines, Magnus Nelson, Vera 
Hosier. Dorothy Adams. 
Pennsvlvania : S. R. Snyder. Doris J. 
December 31, 192i 
Boyd. Anna Smith. Helen Myers, Walter 
Smith. Winifred Crum, Eva Kissel, 
Franklin S. Kohler. Genevieve Bock. 
Massachusetts: Gladys Zwicker, Paul 
R. Andrews, Dorothy I. Rider, Ethel B. 
Hart. Eleanor W. Hart, Etta Christian¬ 
sen. Stanley Phelps, John Taylor. 
Connecticut: Muriel S.. Ruth John¬ 
son. Daphne Luce, Katherine Ohmen. 
Ruth Bryden, Alice I. J. 
Vermont: Thomas Foster, T.innea 
Hill. Donald J. Laurence. 
Rhode Island: Louise Judge, Arthur 
F. Noren. 
Virginia: Wilda Godlove. Christine 
Bowman. 
Ohio: Meta Tradel. 
Delaware: Gwendolyn Marshall. 
Alabama: Rose Foerster. 
Ontario, Canada: Matilda Peltier. 
A good many also told of personal ex¬ 
periences with bats, and these were very 
interesting. There is space for two of 
them, as follows: 
This Summer, after supper, and when 
it was (piiet. a bat would come in the 
house and catch flies. If we made the 
least bit of noise he would fly away, but 
soon returned for more flies. 
Pennsylvania. Winifred crum. 
One day we heard a noise in a blind on 
our house. AVhen we opened the blind 
we found two bats. They were about the 
color of a common mouse, with a reddish 
tinge. Their ears were short and pointed, 
and their eyes were very small. Some 
think that they have the power to find 
their way without the use of their eyes, 
because they have been known to * fly 
about in a darkened room without touch¬ 
ing the walls. 
Have you ever noticed how their wings 
are made? There is a fine thin skin on 
a framework of bones, and they can fold 
up like an umbrella whenever it is not 
flying. When it is on the ground it is 
awkward in its movements. As soon as 
it gets on tire ground it cannot get a start 
to fly again, so it pushes itself along with 
its hind feet, at the same time pulling by 
the hooks on its wings, which it puts for¬ 
ward. first one and then the other, hook¬ 
ing them into the ground. 
During the day these animals lie hid¬ 
den in the hollow of decayed trees, or 
hang themselves head downwards from 
the branches by their claws. Toward the 
close of the evening they come flying 
Melva and Bessie 
around. We have seen them in great 
numbers on warm Summer nights. 
New York. janee. myer. 
Bats are queer-looking creatures, but 
after all they are quite harmless and very 
beneficial. You will hear it said that 
bats carry bedbugs, and this is true, but 
they are not the kind of bedbugs that 
attack human beings, and there is no dan¬ 
ger from them. So if you catch a bat in 
your house, do not harm it, but take a 
good look at it and let it go. 
If you read the list of names given 
above you will find that only 15 boys 
answered the nature puzzle, as compared 
with OS girls. What’s the matter, boys? 
Don’t forget that Our Page is for both 
boys and girls. We even give the boys 
first place in the heading, but so far they 
haven’t been first in interest and support. 
I hope more of you will take hold 
strongly. If you don’t find what you 
want in the Page, ask for it, suggest it, 
send it or help us in some way to get it. 
Our Page is for us all; we make it what 
we like. 
