23 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
little robin built his nest near our home. One 
From the Laurel Avenue School, 5th grade, 
Chicago, comes an interesting bundle of let¬ 
ters, accompanied by • a letter of encourage¬ 
ment from the teacher, Miss Mabel A. Clapp. 
One of the letters is published, and the names 
of the writers of the others, who, unfortun¬ 
ately, forgot that the secretary wishes them 
to write on one side only of the paper. They 
are Sherman Hathaway, Lydia Dosselman, 
Emil Christensen, Charles Wurzburg, Oliver 
Anderson, Homer Roth, Arthur Hory, Oscar 
Fisen, Gladys Uden, Ellen Dahlman, Edna 
Winch. 
; 
. 
The other day as I was rambling through 
the woods, I came across a ground sparrow’s 
nest, beneath some over-hanging branches. 
It contained one wee little bird and one egg. 
I was able to get just about three feet from 
the nest, and when the mother bird did go 
away, it with with a sort of a flying hop. It 
would go only about one rod from the nest 
which was situated at the foot of a basswood 
tree. The mother bird would call in short 
chirps and.hop around as if very much excited. 
I pay this nest a visit every day and feed it 
occasionally with cracker crumbs. This lit¬ 
tle bird seems ever hungry. It is a wonder 
to me that a nest on the ground would not get 
washed away by some of the drenching rains 
which frequent Marshfield- My home is situ¬ 
ated near a grove and I have a chance to see 
so many pretty birds, in which I am daily in¬ 
terested. Glen V. Krause. 
Marshfield, Wis., June, 1904. 
Chicago, May 26, 1904. 
Dear Wayside. 
I go to the Laurel Ave. School And 
coming home from school the other day, I saw 
a redheaded woodpecker. 
He had a red head and a black and white 
back. It had more black on its back than 
white. And had a white breast. He is a very 
handsome little bird. 
When the red headed woodpecker climbs up 
a tree or a pole he uses his tail to hold him 
up if he did not he might fall. 
4th grade Ruth Larson. 
Dear Wayside: 
I will try to write a story about birdies too* 
I live in a city where there are not many 
birds. Two or three years ago there was a 
I -I 
day as we were playing near it we looked 
into the nest and there were four t-inv e^^s 
. . * ©& 
m it. A few days after there were four bird¬ 
ies in it. One day not long after as my sis¬ 
ter and I went to look in the nest we found 
it empty. I felt very sorry for 1 never have 
seen any bird’s nest after this. 
Henrietta Hansen, 
Age 8. Nelson Dewey School, Superior, Wis. 
A LITTLE GIRL’S FIRST IMPRESSION OF 
A MEADOW-LARK. 
A hen Little Marie was scarcely three years 
old, she was out in tile vard one dav with her 
auntie whose attention was attracted to a 
meadow-lark that had just perched on a fence- 
post in a pasture across the way singing with 
all his might. Auntie exclaimed, “Hear that 
meadow-lark! There he is in the pasture.” 
Marie listened and looked for a moment 
with great surprise in her little face. Sud¬ 
denly, she turned and went for the house as 
fast as her little feet could carry her, ex¬ 
claiming that she was afraid. 
1 he next day while Marie was busy playing 
with her toys, the meadow-lark again trilled 
forth his merry notes of spring. 
Marie left her toys on the floor, ran to the 
window and saw, grazing in the pasture, the 
old white horse that was there the day be¬ 
fore. She exclaimed, “Oh, mamma, come and 
see the meadow-lark!” He v mamma came and 
Marie pointed to the old horse and insisted that 
it was the meadow-lark. 
Since then, Marie has not only learned to 
recognize the song of the meadow-lark, but 
know the bird with its brown dress, spotted 
yellow apron and black bib. S. 
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BEAN. 
My name is Bean. I was once a white seed 
about as big as the end of your little finger. 
I used to live in a tin box until a little girl 
took me and some of my friends and put 
us between two blotters, saturated with 
water. There was some wheat there, too, 
and the next day some corn joined us. 
Soon I began to swell and a little shoot 
began to push upward. Then my skin broke 
and the shoot came through the broken place. 
It grew and grew and sucked in the water. 
This little shoot is my root. 
At the other end of the shoot are two very 
