24 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
Yorkville, Ill. 
Dear Wayside: 
As I was going to school one morning 
I noticed a little pile of chips under a 
maple tree and I stood and wondered 
quite a little while before I thought what 
it could be. I looked up in the tree 
where I noticed a hole in one of the limbs. 
In a woodpecker came and flew into the 
hole. It has black jacket, white on its 
back, white breast, black on top of his 
tail and white underside. I like to watch 
the birds because they are so cheerful. 
Yours truly, 
A. F, Parkhurst, 
Oswego, Ill., April 17, 1907. 
Dear Wayside: 
Up in a pine tree in our front yard last 
summer a bluebird built her nest and 
laid some pretty speckled eggs. They 
hatched and were very near ready to fly, 
when a hard wind came and blew the 
little birds, nest and all to the ground. 
Mamma and I found them. There were 
two of them. We caught them as they 
were fluttering about the yard. We put 
the nest by the tree and put the little 
birds into it. Finally the mother-bird 
came and by coaxing them she got them 
to fly up into the snowball bush near by. 
It was getting late so I came into the 
house. But I hope those dear little 
birds lived and grew to be nice big birds. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 6. Olga Payne. 
Maple Tree Tapping. 
Were you ever tapping maple trees? 
Two years ago my cousin and I gathered 
sap to make some syrup. We had over 
seventy trees tapped and we had to solder 
seventy of the pails. The first few days 
the sap didn’t run very well, but after a 
while it ran fine. We had a great time 
finding and making the spiles. After we 
had everything ready, we went out and 
tapped the trees and drove in the spiles 
and hung up the buckets. One time 
when I was getting the syrup I spilled 
about a quart of it. 
We made a fire every day and roasted 
potatoes and had a tent where we slept 
and ate. We cut down a large tree and 
burned it up in a day. We didn’t pre¬ 
pare the syrup ourselves. The house 
was a little ways away so whenever we 
got a pot full of sap we carried it to the 
house where our mothers prepared it. 
It was good when it came out of the tree, 
but it was a great deal better after it had 
boiled some. 
Our sisters were out there some of the 
time and were anxious to cook for us, so 
they did part of the time. First one 
would cook and then the other, and so 
they took turns. When we were through 
we had thirty quarts of syrup. 
Aged 12. William Van Wvk. 
Continued from page 20. 
inside the cabin. They must not escape 
to lay more eggs which would produce 
more larvae to eat more willows. But 
they were such beauties! So we, or 
rather, they, for I did not have the heart 
to do it,—killed them, mercifully, and 
they lav limp with folded wings, showing 
only their dull, protective colors, mourn¬ 
ing their own untimely deaths for the 
sins of their youth. A happy thought 
came to me; I gathered up the poor, 
limp beauties and spread out their wings. 
When they were dry, I pinned them to 
the walls of the cabin as though they 
were in flight. Here was a wall decora¬ 
tion few could have, real butterflies, fra¬ 
gile yet durable. And here I found them 
on nly return this summer in their un¬ 
ending flight; for they and their progeny 
will invade the willow ramparts of our 
island camp no more. 
Ruth Marshall. 
Since our last issue the following Au¬ 
dubon societies have been formed : Falwn, 
44, Miss Gustaveson; Valley Junction, 
33, Miss Dunning; Genoa Junction, 34; 
Weblake, 11, Miss Marsh. 
