1354 
7ht RURAL P 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
• 
We have made this Hallowe’en 
The finest Page you’ve ever seen. 
NEW-YORKER 
Draw » by Norman Ilallock (17 years), Connecticut 
Memory Verse 
OCTOBER 
We should all be feeling sober 
At the coming of October, 
Did not leaves, in bright array, 
Drive our gloomy thoughts away ; 
Leaves of red and leaves of yellow, 
Each one vieing with its fellow 
To see which will look the brightest, 
Romp the hardest, dance the lightest. 
Who would think of being sober 
In the gay month of October, 
When the world’s a blaze of color? 
If one must be sad, a duller 
Month could easily be found, 
In a grayer mantle gowned, 
That would leave more place and room 
For despondency and gloom. 
Let us banish thoughts of sadness, 
And feel only joy and gladness 
That October days are here— 
Brightest month of all the year. 
By Edith M. Thomas. 
—Sent by Helen Waislesky (12 years). 
Connecticut. 
Hallowe'en in the Corn Field—Drawn by 
Raymond Nyce (10 years), New Jersey 
Your editor grew so enthusiastic as he 
was putting our special Hallowe'en page 
together today (October G) that he wrote 
the couplet you have just read in the 
box at the top of this column. I truly 
think this is the finest page we have 
made. Certainly it is the finest of the 
Hallowe’en pages, good as they have been 
in past years. 
The credit for this accomplishment be¬ 
longs to the 90 boys and girls whose 
names appear in the list of contributors 
on page 1363, and to a few others whose 
work has been saved from a year or two 
back and used now. These are the ones 
to whom every reader owes the pleasure 
he or she is taking now in Our Page for 
October. If they had not been interested 
and courageous enough to write there 
could have been no page. After all, this 
seems a very small number of helpers, 
doesn't it, considering all the thousands 
and thousands of boys and girls who look 
forward to the page each month. Why 
don’t more of you share the joy that 
these others take in doing something for 
us all as well as in receiving something 
from us? If the page is good with a 
hundred helpers, who knows what it 
might be with twice or thrice or ten times 
that number ! Once more we repeat what 
we have so often said before: Our Page 
means most to *hore who do most for it. 
Last Hallowe’en 
much to eat for supper. Afterward we 
went into the other room where there was 
a ghost made of paper and a sheet fasten¬ 
ed over the electric light. We opened it 
up and inside there was a stand with 
candies for all of us. Then we tried to 
catch apples on a string and apples in 
the water. We went home after that. 
New York. —Ellen Doolittle. 
This is one of a number of letters that 
came from pupils in Ellen’s school, tell¬ 
ing of different things they have done 
and are doing. It is evidently a wide¬ 
awake school with a teacher who takes 
advantage of every opportunity that 
comes along to give the children new 
knowledge and a wholesome good time. 
Watch Next Week’s Issue 
As this page is being made, the Birth¬ 
day Letters are beginning to come in for 
our Anniversary Page on November 1. 
Before you read this one, that page will 
have been put together too, and will be 
on the printing presses. One week from 
now you will have it. Here are a few 
of the comments that are before me now 
in letters from our readers : “The special 
page for November 1 will be filled, I am 
sure, as every one will want to wish 
Our Page a happy birthday. I will close 
now and write again before October 10.’’ 
* * * “The Birthday Letter is a won¬ 
derful plan. I think I will write next 
week for that page.” * * * “I was 
surprised to learn that the Boys’ and 
Girls’ page is only five years old. It 
couldn’t be better if it had lived through 
a hundred years of experience. What 
other magazine or paper issues pages that 
boys and girls can so truly call their 
own?” 
Hallowe’en ^ 
Tonight the witches will ride, will ride, 
Each on her broomstick astride, astride, 
Silent and swift in mystic flight, 
Upward they’ll go in the cold, black night. 
And the wind will sob, and shriek and 
moan, 
The great trees shudder, and shake and 
groan ; 
The moon will hide in the murky sky, 
In the forest dark the bats will fly. 
! 
I 
And owls will hoot, and wolves will howl, 
And green-eyed £-ats in the shadows 
prowl— 
Tonight the witches will ride, will ride, 
Each on her broomstick astride, astride. 
—Author ?. 
—Sent by Marian Lewis (9 years). 
New York. 
I had such a splendid time last Hallow¬ 
e’en that I must tell you of it. Our teacher 
told us we might have a Hallowe’en party 
and invited us to have it down at her 
house. She asked us to be at her house 
at four o’clock. We played out in the 
barn and out of doors until supper was 
ready. It was after dark when we went 
into the house. We drew cards and 
matched and ate supper with the one 
whose card matched ours. We had very 
HHti 
October 26, 1924 
tie boy. He ate and ate of the good 
things. 
By and by it was time to go home. He 
went right to bed and went to sleep. Sud¬ 
denly his eyes popped open wide, for he 
saw two big fat wieners standing beside 
him. They grabbed him by the arms and 
hurried him through the air. Finally he 
The Hallowe’en Party 
A STORY 
Clara was all excitement Hallowe’en 
morning, for she had received an invita¬ 
tion to a Hallowe’en party. She was go¬ 
ing to wear an orange crepe-paper dress, 
with a black sash and pumpkins, witches 
and cats pasted on it. She also had an 
orange mask, and was going to carry a 
jack o’ lantern. She could hardly wait 
until night, but at last it came. She put 
her costume over her head, and drawing 
her thick coat over her face, she took up 
her jack o’ lautern and went down the 
street. She reached the house, ten min- 
“Hello Jack!”—Drawn by Ellen Rickard 
(16 years), Neic York 
saw a great big bonfire, bigger than he 
had ever seen before. The wieners came 
to a halt before this fire. He saw the 
queerest company. There were great big 
wieners with pillow cases on and there 
w T as one person with a chocolate body 
and marshmallow head. They all said: 
“Here he is.” One large fat one came 
at him with a big fork and said: “Come 
on, let’s hurry up and begin.” But Tom¬ 
my jumped over the heads of them all 
and landed on the rug beside his own bed. 
“My,” said Tommy, scrambling back 
into bed, “it’s a good thing for me I 
waked up or they would have eaten me 
sure.” —Dorothy Rich. 
New r York. 
My Hallowe'en Costume—Picture sent 
bhj Barbara Morse (10 years), New York 
utes before the party. The kitchen door 
was shut, and a sign hung on the knob, 
“Keep Out.” 
At last the door was flung open, and 
what a sight! There were apples hang¬ 
ing from the ceiling on strings, gay-col¬ 
ored apples bobbing in pans of water, 
chestnuts on the hearth, large pansful, 
to be roasted. 
A large horn was taken from the hook, 
and blown, to bring all the children to¬ 
gether. There were witches, hobgoblins, 
and ghosts everywhere. Many of the 
children guessed who the others were. 
Each child placed his jack o’ lantern on 
a long shelf, and when they were all 
placed there, it was an amusing sight 
to behold. 
They played games, told ghost stories, 
and roasted chestnuts. They bobbed for 
the apples, each of which contained a 
penny or a nickel. After a while they 
had some more games, and then the horn 
was blown again. They rushed into the 
kitchen, where each was given his jack 
o’ lautern, and they all went out, with 
their lanterns, some gayly trimmed with 
bits of crepe paper, and different col¬ 
ored candles inside. They had a fine 
time, and I wish I had been there, don’t 
you ? 
It was half past eleven when the last 
child departed, tired but happy. Many 
of those same children told their grand¬ 
children of that Hallowe’en party, many 
years afterward. 
-—Edith Beardslee (11 years). 
New York. 
Jack’s New Hallowe’en 
A STORY 
“Hey .Tim and Jake, come here. I 
want to tell you something.” said Jack as 
he crossed the school yard where two 
other boys were playing. “You remem¬ 
ber how we put all Mr. Jones’ pumpkins 
on his front porch last year at Hal¬ 
lowe'en, don’t you?” he asked. 
“You bet we do,” they answered to¬ 
gether. “And how mad he got about it, 
too. Oh, boy! bet he was mad, wasn't 
he, Jack?” said Jim. 
Jack answered him by saying, “Well 
yes, he was, but I have thought of a new 
plan this year. It is something different, 
and I don’t know whether you will agree 
to it.” 
A Hallowe’en Dream 
Tommy went to a Hallowe’en party. 
He had a very good time. The boys and 
girls had a parade in pillow cases and 
sheets. They had a big bonfire over 
which they roasted marshmallows and 
wieners. Tommy was a very greedy'lit- 
The Masquerade Party I Had Last Hallowe'en—Picture sent by Helen Scott 
(10 years), Pennsylvania 
The Black Cat Keeps Posted—Drawn by 
Beatrice Booth (13 years), New York 
“^Tell us your new plan. It must be 
good for they always are.” interrupted 
Jake. 
“Are you boys ready to do as I say 
even before I tell you my new plan?” 
asked Jack. 
“Of course we are,” answered Jim. 
“Anything we can do we will.” 
Jack stood for a moment thinking, 
then suddenly asked: “Who were the 
other boys with us last year?” 
“Let me see,” said Jake, “there were 
we three, Bob, Tom, Robert and Tony. 
I guess that’s all.” 
“Are those boys at school yet this 
morning I wonder?” said Jack. 
“Yes,” answered Jake. “Let’s call 
them now.” 
“That’s just what I was going to say,” 
said Jack. 
They went to find the other boys. They 
found them and they were talking of 
Hallowe’en also. 
“You boys remember how we turned 
things upside down for Mr. Jones last 
year at Hallowe’en, don’t you?” Jack had 
begun to question them. 
“Yes,” they answered. 
“He sure was angry, wasn’t he?” said 
Tom. 
“I’ll tell the world he was,” answered 
Toney. 
“Well then,” said Jack, “I’ve got a new 
plan for this year. How would it be if 
this year instead of piling his pumpkins 
on his porch let’s put them by the cellar 
door. And let’s not run his buggy down 
hill or put a chair in a tree, but let’s 
pick some apples and husk some corn for 
him. Now don’t you think he would like 
that?” 
