7hr RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1355 
“You bet he would like that to hap¬ 
pen.” said Robert, “but do you think we 
are going to do all that without getting 
paid ?” 
“We don’t need any pay. Mr. Jones 
didn’t get paid for what he had to do 
when he straightened things up after we 
were there, did he? And besides, don't 
you think it would be fun to see him 
laugh when he sees what we have done 
for him,” Jack replied. 
Then Tom gave a suggestion: “To¬ 
morrow night is corn night. That’s the 
night to husk the corn. And tonight is 
cabbage night, so let’s haul his cabbage 
up to his cellar. Then on Hallowe’en 
night we can pick some apples and put 
his pumpkins by the cellar door.” 
They all agreed to Tom’s plan, and the 
next morning Mr. Jones w T as very much 
surprised to find the nicest heads of his 
cabbage placed in neat little rows by the 
cellar door. Then again the following 
morning when Mr. Jones, awoke he saw 
a pile of corn in his field and wondered 
if someone had been trying to steal his 
corn. Rut when he went to the field he 
found that by several shocks there was 
corn and to his estimation of the amount 
of corn he had expected it was all there. 
On Hallowe’en night the seven boys 
The Magic Hallowe'en—Drawn by Mary 
II oldrwms (16 years), New Jersey 
carried pumpkins to the cellar door, but 
they did not know that all the while Mr. 
Jones was not far away watching them 
with great interest. They had about IS 
pumpkins and two bushels of nice rosy 
apples placed by the cellar door when 
they finally decided to quit and go home. 
They agreed that they had had great 
fun and it even seemed better than when 
they had turned things upside down. 
The next newspaper that came to town 
had a short column in it saying: 
"I wish to thank the seven good boys 
who picked my apples and husked my 
corn for me; also carried my cabbages 
and pumpkins to my cellar door. I saw 
you but did not know who you were. I 
thank you just the same and think this 
is the nicest Hallowe’en I’ve had in many 
years. Thank you very much boys, and 
I think it would be nice if all people 
would do like that on Hallowe’en instead 
of topsy-turvying everything, 
Your friend, Mr. Jones.” 
The boys were more than tickled at 
the news and were thankful that they 
had helped to work for Mr. Jones rather 
than make more work for him. 
Ohio. —Hazel Francisco. 
Hazel has put into an interesting story 
the suggestion made on Our Page last 
Hallowe’en. Your editor hopes that this 
idea will appeal to many of our readers 
who will find more pleasure in doing 
such things as they can do w r ell to help 
people whose burdens need lightening, 
than in thoughtlessly adding to the work 
and worry of their friends and neighbors. 
Make people glad, not mad! 
What Is the Old Witch Brewing? 
Drawn by Rebecca Spencer (14 years), 
Maine 
Drawn by Esther Herr 
An Interesting Letter 
I am writing again because I enjoy 
writing to Our Page and also enjoy read¬ 
ing it. 
We have had a few parties at our house 
on Hallowe’en. Last year we had a love¬ 
ly time. We had the room trimmed in 
yellow and black. My sisters and I did 
the decorating. We put cornstalks in the 
corners tf the room and hung pumpkin 
lanterns and black cats (cut from heavy 
black paper) in different parts of the 
room. The party started at 7:30 and 
lasted until nearly 12 o’clock. First we 
played games. A good game to play is 
to have a large apple covered with a 
coating of sticky syrup hung on a cord 
in the middle of the room. Every per¬ 
son tries to take a bite out of the apple 
without using his hand. It is lots of 
fun to see them and quite hard to ac¬ 
complish because you get your face all 
sticky and the apple moves all. over. A 
prize can be given to the winner. 
We played other games also. About 
10 o’clock some one knocked at the door. 
A little girl ran and opened the door. She 
gave a scream and ran back into the room 
looking quite frightened. After her 
walked an old witch. We surely were 
frightened. She gave us all small pieces 
of paper and walked out again. Mine 
read: “Under the vase on the shelf.” I 
looked there and found a piece of paper 
reading: “In the corner back of the 
couch.” There I found a note: “In the 
kitchen cabinet.” There I found a bag 
of goodies. Everyone else had the same 
trouble finding theirs. We had a swell 
time. 
The answer to the Nature Puzzle Of 
last month is the cotton plant. Tae usual 
height of the cotton plant is " - om three 
to five feet. It grows in regions free 
from severe frost. It is an annual plant. 
The most important part of the plant is 
the fruit or “boll” which is a pear-shaped 
seed vessel which opens along several 
lines, showing a mass of cotton, each piece 
attached to a seed. The cotton is usually 
planted in April. The picking starts in 
August and continues during the Fall. 
(15 years), Pennsylvania 
glaring eyes of yellow and black set in a 
face streaked with yellow and white. Its 
body plumage is black, brown, dull yel¬ 
low and white all streaked in together. 
Distinct small black horizontal bars cross 
the breast. This bird is strong and 
fierce. It feeds upon birds, rabbits, poul¬ 
try and young skunks. What bird is it? 
New York. —Mabel Bassler. 
There were very few correct answers 
to last month’s Book Puzzle, which was 
“Pollyanna,” by Eleanor II. Porter. 
It is a story which girls especially en¬ 
joy, and I hope that those of you who 
have not read the book will make note of 
it as one to read when you find the op¬ 
portunity. Several who knew the title 
said it was written by Gene Stratton 
Porter. Do not confuse these two au¬ 
thors. 
Here is a new Book Puzzle that ought 
to be one which many of you will know : 
WHAT BOOK IS THIS? 
Plans Ahead 
For November, of course, we want a 
heading and poems and stories and pic¬ 
tures appropriate to the Thanksgiving 
season of rejoicing. In addition we will 
also have another drawing match on the 
following rhyme, sent by Evan Beers, a 
12-year-old Pennsylvania reader: 
Mary bad a little pig. 
It was the cutest thing, 
And everywhere that Mary went 
She led it with a string. 
This gives a subject for some interest¬ 
ing sketches and will help our artists (in¬ 
cluding every reader who wants to try) 
to keep their hands in. It is two months 
since we had rhyme drawings and we 
will not have them in December, so this 
is your one chance this Fall. Make the 
most of it. For December let’s make a 
beautiful Christmas page. You can be 
thinking about it even now, and next 
month we will give a few suggestions. 
Cross-word Enigma 
It was not very difficult, as many of 
you discovered, to find out that the hid¬ 
den word in last month’s enigma was 
s-c-h-o-o-1. Here is another one that 
will be almost as easy, but you will en¬ 
joy seeking the answer and reporting to 
your editor on it: 
My first is in cat, but not in dog, 
It Is Such Fun to Make Jack 
o’ Lanterns!—Picture se>it by Jane Townsend, 
New York 
Book Puzzles 
A New Nature Puzzle 
This large bird is sometimes 20 to 24 
inches in length. It has large round- 
topped “horns” made of feathers and 
like cat’s ears in shape. It has fierce 
Seen on the Back Fence on Hallowe'en—Drawn by Annie Oaljouw, Virginia 
My Halio ween Costume—Pict ure sent by 
Gladys Mitcheltree, New York 
The lint is separated from the seed by 
a process of ginning. After ginning Jhe 
cotton is pressed into bales of about 500 
lbs. It is then ready for transportation 
and marketing. I would like to see cot¬ 
ton grow. It seems so interesting to read 
about it that I would like to see it. I 
am sending a drawing which I made 
from some bolls we have in a showcase at 
school. 
Best of luck to all our readers. I re¬ 
main a good friend to you all. 
—Bernard Kopaskie (12 years). 
New York. 
It is always a pleasure to your editor 
to receive a letter like this which shows 
such genuine interest in Our Page and 
takes so much pains to help. Bernard 
answers last month’s Nature Puzzle in a 
most satisfactory way. Many readers 
recognized the description of cotton, 
though of course few have ever seen it 
growing. I wish some one of our south¬ 
ern friends had sent us a real good story 
of how the crop is grown. If there had 
been room I should have used the little 
drawing which Bernard made first-hand 
from the specimen in his school, but Hal¬ 
lowe’en pictures have first place this 
month. 
An elderly brother and sister live on a 
large farm on Prince Edward Island. 
They decide they will get a boy from the 
orphan asylum to help Mathew (the 
brother). lie sends for the boy. When 
he goes to the depot to bring him home 
there is a girl instead. He takes her 
home but Marilla (the sister) does not 
want to keep her. But she finally lets 
her stay. The girl is an odd child. She 
has red hair which she detests. She uses 
very large words and gives everything a 
very romantic name. 
She has never had much training and 
does some awful things at first at school 
and at home. She is eleven when she is 
adopted. She makes friends easily. Near 
the end of the book she goes away to pre¬ 
pare to be a teacher. She becomes a 
great help to the old maid when the 
brother dies. She has an imagination 
which sometimes runs away with her. 
She is sixteen when the book ends. 
This description is a combination of 
those sent by two readers. The first part 
is by Norma Burlingame (14) and the 
second by Isabelle Raitt (14) both of 
New York. Alice Cray (14) of Maine 
also sent a description of this same book 
which seems to be a popular one. In 
answering, give the correct title of the 
book and the author’s name, as well as 
anything you can tell about either that 
will be interesting to our readers. 
A Spoolcie Road—Drawn h'y Esther Herr 
(15 years), Pennsylvania 
My second is sausage, but not in hog. 
My third is in rats, but not in mice, 
My fourth is in kind, but not in nice, 
My fifth is in me, but not in you. 
My sixth in yellow, but not in blue. 
My whole is something we like to chew. 
Massachusetts. —Mildred Gillfether. 
Notes 
All material for the November page 
should be sent to reach your editor not 
later than November 8. 
(Continued on page 1363) 
