840 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 31, 1924 
] 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
March, April, May or 
Our Page Makes Us Feel 
June 
n Tune 
In the Woods in Maytime is a Happy Place to Be—Sent by Sarah Smith 
(12 years), Ohio 
Memory Verse 
MAY 
May should make the world anew ; 
Golden sun and silver dew, 
Money minted in the sky, 
Shall the earth’s new garments buy. 
May shall make the orchards bloom ; 
And the blossoms’ fine perfume 
Shall set all the honey bees 
Murmuring among the trees. 
May shall make the bud appear 
Like a jewel, crystal clear, 
Mid the leaves upon the limb 
Where the robin lilts hie hymn. 
May shall make the wild flowers tell 
Where the shining snowflakes fell, 
Just as though each snowflake’s heart, 
By some secret, magic art, 
Were transmitted to a flower 
In the sunlight and the shower. 
Is there such another, pray, 
Wonder-making month as May? 
—Frank Dempster Sherman. 
This charming poem was chosen for a 
memory verse by Olga Springer (16) and 
Eleanor Myer (15), both New York read¬ 
ers. I think you will all want to read it 
over and over, and perhaps learn it by 
heart for the music of its lines and the 
beauty of the pictures it calls to mind. 
Mr. Sherman was an American poet, a 
native of New York State. He died jxi 
1016, but many of his verses have a liv¬ 
ing quality that will make them loved al¬ 
ways by those who find them. 
A Fine Page 
As you will see from the list of con¬ 
tributors on page 844, not nearly so many 
readers wrote in this month as usual. 
This is probably because there was no 
drawing work to. send, and because the 
last Nature and Book Puzzles were a lit¬ 
tle harder than sometimes. But enough 
did help out to make this a most attrac¬ 
tive and interesting page, you will agree. 
The pictures show such a variety of 
things that our boys and girls are doing, 
and the letters and poems are every one 
worth reading. I know you will enjoy 
Our Page for May from start to finish. 
In June We Draw Again 
We shall need a good heading drawing, 
of course, and perhaps one or two related 
My Idea of Springtime Sport—Sent by 
Margaret Minerley (13 years), 
New York 
to the new puzzles or anything else of 
special interest, besides those that pic¬ 
ture the following rhyme, which Evelyn 
Hay, a Pennsylvania reader, and your 
editor, have worked out together for your 
delight: 
Mary and Martha one Summer day 
Went out on the lawn to play croquet— 
Please draw their picture without delay. 
We want your own original drawings 
on this rhyme, and the best eight or 10 
will be published. Try your hand at it, 
anyway. The practice is worth a lot to 
you, and who knows but you may be one 
of the lucky ones? 
The Month of May 
Happy is the month of May 
With its flowers all astray ; 
Laughing children everywhere, 
Picking flowers here and there; 
Pretty birds are on the bowers, 
Little bees are smelling flowers. 
New York. —Edith Rethore. 
An Essay 
THE COMMUNITY AND CITIZENSHIP 
A community is a body of people as¬ 
sembling together and having a common 
interest. These people are called the cit¬ 
izens of the community. Every citizen 
should take part in boosting his or her 
Among the Cherry Blossoms—Sent by 
Boy Bergman (13 years), Neic York 
community. It does not always mean by 
contributing money, but by first making 
your property look respectable. This is 
one of the best ways to help a commu¬ 
nity. If every citizen would do this, 
every home would be neat and the result 
would be a good community. 
In every town there are found proper¬ 
ties occupied by tenants or persons who 
pay rent to the property owners. These 
people often think it is not their place to 
keep up the property. To a certain ex¬ 
tent it isn’t, but in other respects it is. 
No sensible person will expect a tenant 
to paint the house, build more rooms or 
porches and other additions, but it is his 
place to mow the grass, keep paths neat 
and not to distribute garbage around. 
These things are the duties of the ten¬ 
ants, and it shows their attitude toward 
the community when they fail to do their 
duty. 
In passing from town to town you can 
see many different properties. You can 
also see at once whether they are neat or 
disorderly. The citizen who owns that 
house or lives in it is having his charac¬ 
ter judged by the passersby according to 
the outside appearance of the property. 
Think the matter over and see what you 
yourself can do to boost your community 
New Jersey. laura lucas 
(14 years). 
Two Readers Talk Chickens 
I am a 14-year-old farmer boy, and 
thought I would write a letter to Our 
Page for the first time. I am quite inter¬ 
ested in farming and help my father all I 
can. My father built me r. chicken coop 
(10x12) last Spring, and I have 58 pure¬ 
bred Rhode Island Red chicks of my own, 
of which I am very proud. I like to feed 
and take care of them very much. I ex¬ 
pect to have a larger coop and also a 
larger flock next year. I hope other read¬ 
ers of Our Page who are interested in 
chickens will try to encourage their par¬ 
ents to help them get a start. It not 
only means pleasure, but profit as well. 
Ohio. LUTHER PETERS 
(14 years). 
I have over 60 hens, and they are lay¬ 
ing well. I enjoy taking care of them 
very much. They are very tame. One I 
call "Trixy” can do some tricks I have 
taught her. Some people think White 
Leghorns are a nuisance because they get 
into things so much and are so easily 
scared, but I don’t. Mine do get into 
things sometimes, but I suppose they like 
to get into grain just as much as I like to 
examine the cookie jar. So I don’t blame 
them much. Well this hen will lie flat 
on her back on my head and eat grain I 
feed her from my hand. Also she will lie 
in the same position on the ground. When 
I go outdoors in the Summer time she 
jumps up on my shoulder or head. The 
rest of my hens are tame, too. Some are 
more tame than others. 
New York. edna tullar 
(16 years). 
May 
To show how they love her, their own 
darling May, 
’Tis with blushes as pink as the dawn of 
the day 
That each apple tree turns to a blooming 
bouquet. —Author? 
Sent by Samuel Gadd 
Massachusetts. (0 years). 
The Kingbird 
The bird described in the April Nature 
Puzzle is a kingbird. Kingbirds are a 
great help to farmers, as th-ey kill many 
insects. The kingbird is very interesting 
to study, because he will sit on the top 
branch of a tall tree and wait for insects 
to fly near him. As soon as an insect 
gets quite close he will dive after it and 
then go back to his branch again. 
New York. eileen goll. 
Kingbirds arrive with us in May and 
leave us in August. They are very noisy 
birds. They are victorious in whatever 
they undertake. They hate crows and 
drive them out of the neighborhood, vig¬ 
orously dashing at them and picking them 
and follow them a great distance. They 
perch on a dead branch, fence post or a 
tall stalk in the field to watch for insects. 
Their note is a series of shrill, harsh 
sounds like “thsee, thsee.” 
Pennsylvania. aaron ebling 
(13 years). 
The answer to the Nature Puzzle I 
think is the kingbird. We have a great 
many around our farm. One day I was 
watching one that was perched on the 
telephone wire. A fly was circling near 
the bird. All of a sudden the kingbird 
flew off his perch and opened his mouth 
and the fly disappeared. The kingbirds 
drive away the hawks. They dart around 
the hawk and pick at him. Most always 
the kingbirds fly above the hawks. 
Connecticut. Mildred pierce 
(12 years). 
If any of our readers are not acquaint¬ 
ed with the kingbird, these letters, to¬ 
gether with the description given in the 
Nature Puzzle last month, will introduce 
it. This is one of the easy birds to rec¬ 
ognize, both by its appearance and its ac¬ 
tions, and should be on the list of bird 
friends known to every boy and girl in 
the country. 
A New Nature Puzzle 
This creature lives among plants in 
the fields and woods and is very common 
in Summer time. It has very long lege 
A Tea Party—Sent by Mrs. M. P. 
Townsend, New Hampshire 
and a small body. It moves very rapidly 
and lightly. It lives on plant juices and 
small insects. To escape it can shed one 
or more of its legs and then grow new 
ones. It has an unpleasant odor. The 
young are very tiny when first hatched 
from the eggs in the Spring. When the 
mother lays her eggs in the Fall she dies 
soon after. What is it? 
DOROTHY AND ELOISE SKINNER. 
New York. 
Now here is a chance for some good 
letters. There are many interesting 
things about this animal besides those 
Dorothy and Eloise mention, and few 
creatures are such fun to watch and 
study. Tell us what you know of its life 
and habits. 
May 
Merry, rollicking, frolicking May, 
Into the woods came skipping one day ; 
She teased the brook till he laughed out¬ 
right, 
And gurgled and scolded with all his 
might; 
She chirped to the birds and bade them 
sing 
A chorus of welcome to Lady Spring; 
And the bees and the butterflies she set 
To waking flowers that were sleeping 
yet; 
She shook the trees till the buds looked 
out 
To see what the trouble was all about, 
Springtime I .s Chick Time—Sent by Har¬ 
riet Pischel (13 years), New York 
And nothing in Nature escaped tha^. day 
The touch of the life-giving, bright, young 
May. —Author? 
Ohio. Sent by Muriel Smith 
(12 years). 
If any reader, young or old, knows the 
name of the author of this happy little 
poem please tell us, so that we can give 
credit next time. 
In Place of Group Games 
You remember it was suggested last 
month that it would be good to have 
some, descriptions of things that boys and 
girls could play or work at alone or in 
groups of two or three during vacation 
A number of letters came in reply to this, 
and I think you will be especially inter¬ 
ested in those that are given below : 
There are four of us children in our 
family, and plenty of neighbor children 
near, but our folks think everyone should 
All Abourd the Coat Express—Sent by 
Herbert Harris, New York 
know how to have a good time all alone. 
They let us have plenty of fun and games 
together sometimes, but not all the time. 
We have learned to amusei ourselves 
alone. 
I have a coping saw that cost 10 
cents. We can get them here at the 10- 
eent store, and a dozen blades for the 
same amount. New blades can be put in 
when the others are broken, but a dozen 
go a long way when used carefully. I 
have made bird houses, pencil boxes, 
whisk broom holders, bracket shelves, and 
I am working on a violin. This Summer 
I am going to saw out of thin wood some 
of my Christmas gifts and valentines. 
Hearts cut out of the thin wood and 
stained red make good valentines. Wood¬ 
en circles, bells or holly leaves, stained, 
and with a calendar pad on them and a 
ribbon to hang them up with are nice for 
Christmas gifts. One with a piece of 
sandpaper on it makes a good match 
scratcher, or two put together with a 
piece of felt or flannel between them 
make a good needle book or penwiper. 
Sometimes I put a magnifying or reading 
glass between the board and the sun and 
burn simple designs on it. 
This morning I planted some water¬ 
melon and muskmelon seeds. Because 
our soil is heavy and black I will have to 
work harder to raise melons than they do 
along the Mississippi, where the soil is 
