48 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Deer Park, Wis. 
Dear Wayside': 
One day as I was going out into the 
woods with two other boys I saw two glisten¬ 
ing eyes in a hollow tree. First I thought it 
was a squirrel, but then we went and hid and 
the animal came out. It was brown on its 
back and white all over under. It had a short 
tail with a white tip on the end of it. Its body 
was about six inches long and about one inch 
through. Its legs were short and brown with 
white toes. It had long teethe and kept its 
mouth open and looked very fierce and ugly. 
Then we came back and set our trap. We 
waited about a half an hour hidden in the 
brush, but it did not come out. Then we went 
home for dinner and in about an hour came 
back to the hollow tree where the animal was. 
When Ave came near we heard a squeaking and 
the rattling of a chain. When we came up to 
the tree we saw the animal caught in the trap. 
Then we loosened the trap from the tree and 
started for home. But it bit at the trap and 
gnashed its teeth so Ave had to kill it. We 
Avere afraid it Avould bite us. After we killed 
it Ave met a man and we asked him what it 
AA T as and he said it was a weasel. 
Weasels kill chickens by catching hold of 
their necks with their sharp teeth, and suck¬ 
ing all the blood out of it. 
Aged 13. Harold Hanson. 
Necedah, Wis., March 30, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
I suav about a hundred robins this year. I 
have seen two flocks of ducks. Juneau County 
is about full of crows and I have seen about 
six chicken-hawks. When there Avas snoAV on 
the ground the chickadees used to stay 
aiound the house. The chickadees Avould pick 
Avorms out of the Avood. But_now the chicka¬ 
dees are gone. 
Aged 13. Anna Frederika Williams. 
Durand, Wis. 
Dear Wayside: 
I thought I would write a toad story. The 
toads are good to kill bugs and other insects 
that would do more harm than they do, but 
I Avould not like to keep one. 
Some people keeps a toad to destroy bugs in 
the garden. I haA’e seen a toad; they are mud¬ 
dy brown color; they have big eyes, they have 
a big mouth, they have lumps all over their 
back. Some people say if you pick up a toad 
it will make warts on your hand, but I don’t 
believe it. I am a bird lover too. 
Aged 7. Jannette Johnston. 
Spring Creek, Wis., Nov. 29, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: 
This summer Avhen there was no school I 
Avatched the birds. I saAV many kinds of birds. 
I found th’e robins are thickest in August. 
Five Aveeks ago I saAV four flocks of bob- 
Avhites. Three or four days ago I heard a 
beautiful sound. I looked out of the window 
and I saAV a bird on a large oak tree. It Avas 
a chickadee. He Avasn’t singing “chickadee,” 
he Avas singing “chickday.” He was a very 
small bird with black on the breast. Dear 
Wayside, I love the birds and Avant to protect 
them. Yours truly, 
Aged 11. Mary Yarrington. 
Send a year’s subscription to By the Way- 
side to some young friend for a Christmas gift. 
“They are the Avinged wardens of your farms, 
Who from the corn-fields drive the insidious foe 
And from your harvest keep a hundred harms.” 
-^-Longfellow, “The Birds of Killingworth.” 
Loss to crops annually caused by insects and 
rodents, $200,000,000.—Wm. Dutcher, Treasur¬ 
er American Ornithologists’ Union. $400,000,- 
000, estimate of M. V. Slingerland, Assistant 
Professor of Entomology, Cornell University. 
Letters have been received from Mabel Walk¬ 
er, Westfield; Ralph Warner, Janette John¬ 
ston, John Mace, Mary Yarrington, Durand. 
