1586 
Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 27, 1924 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
Hans and Gretel worked hard to help 
their mother because they were left pen¬ 
niless when their father was hurt. Hans 
went to school in the Winter. Their 
home was called the “idiot's cottage'’ and 
they were called the little “ragpickers.” 
They had one true friend whose name 
was Annie Bouman. There was also a 
girl named Hilda Van Greek who was 
very kind to the poor children. At last 
came the race, which Hans and Gretel 
had entered, and Gretel won the silver 
skates. At this time a kind surgeon had 
cured Raff Brinker. Hans and his father 
helped to find Lauren, the son of this 
surgeon, whose watch was given to Raff 
Brinker the morning he was hurt. 
Lauren had run away because of an ac¬ 
cident which he had not intended to do, 
and had given Raff the watch to give to 
his father. It had the initials L. B. 
Han’s father was showing the watch to 
the surgeon, who was overjoyed because 
he said the watch belonged to his missing 
son. Hans studied to be a doctor and 
became famous . He married Annie Bou¬ 
man. Raff Brinker worked in the office 
for the surgeon. Gretel lived with her 
folks. Laurens became a merchant and 
had a store of his own. It is a very in¬ 
teresting story. 
Edith Secord (13 years). 
New York. 
Mary Mapes Dodge was born in New 
York City in 1838. “Hans Brinker, or 
The Silver Skates” was a very popular 
book, and gave her quite a reputation as 
a writer of stories. It was afterwards 
published in England and France. She 
also wrote many magazine articles and 
a book called “Rhymes and Jingles.” 
Two of her other books are “Donald and 
Dorothy” and a collection of poems 
called “Along the Way.” For a time she 
was editor of Hearth and Home but be¬ 
came the editor of St. Nicholas, a posi¬ 
tion she held until her death on August 
21, 1905. 
I have known “Hans Brinker” well 
because I have the book in my library. 
It was given to me by my aunt and uncle 
for Christmas a couple of years ago. 
Rodger Orem (11 years). 
Connecticut. 
A Request Answered 
Last month we were at a loss for in¬ 
formation regarding the life of L. M. 
Montgomery, author of “Anne of Green 
Gables,” and hoped that some one could 
send it to us. One girl reader and three 
older persons did so, and should receive 
our thanks. The most complete account 
is as follows: 
In private life Lucy Maud Montgom¬ 
ery is the wife of the Rev. Ewan Mac¬ 
donald, whom she married in 1911. She 
makes her home at “The Manse,” Leask- 
dale, Province of Ontario, Canada. Miss 
Montgomery was born in Clifton, Prince 
Edward Island, Canada, in 1874; daugh¬ 
ter of Hugh John Montgomery and 
Clara Woolmer Macneill. She was edu¬ 
cated at Prince of Wales College and 
Dalhousie College. She lived all her life 
on a Prince Edward Island farm. She 
taught school three years, then moved 
to Ontario in 1911. She wrote for peri¬ 
odicals and publications for several years. 
Books: “Anne of Green Gables” (1909) ; 
“Anne of Avonlea“Anne of the Is¬ 
land ;” “Anne’s House of Dreams 
“Chronicals of Avonlea"Rilmenv of 
the Orchard;” “The Story Girl;” “The 
Golden Rod“Rainbow Valley“The 
Watchman” (poems) ; “Rilla of Ingle- 
side.” 
A New Plan 
Although interest in the Book Puzzles 
is still keen, your editor feels that we 
might well let them rest for a time and 
try something else which may give more 
readers a chance. The interest shown 
.in writing Christmas stories has sug¬ 
gested that we try our hands at story¬ 
writing during the coming year. We 
can have short, complete stories, and we 
can have continued stories in three or 
four installments, each by a different 
reader. That would be fun! You have 
probably played the game where one per¬ 
son begins a story, carries it to some ex¬ 
citing point, and then tells another per¬ 
son to continue. We can do that on Our 
Page. I suggest that for January you 
try writing the first installment of a 
three-part story. You can choose any 
title you wish. Describe your charac¬ 
ters. get them into action and leave them 
at some critical point. From the stories 
sent in your editor will choose one to 
print, and this you will all use as a 
basis for writing the second installment 
for February. Then we will have a third 
and final installment in March. Is this 
clear? You may have up to 750 words 
for the first installment; not over that. 
Now let’s see what you can do! Of 
course, it goes without saying that the 
stories must be your own original ideas. 
Cross-word Enigma 
Many of you discovered quite easily 
that what "we have on Thanksgiving 
Day,” expressed by a word having eleven 
letters, was c-r-a-n-b-e-r-r-i-e-s. You 
seem to enjoy these enigmas, and new 
ones keep coming in every month. In 
fact, this month three different readers 
sent enigmas on the very same topic, and 
all were good. They were from Ruth 
Eaton (10 years) of Massachusetts, and 
Robert Cowler (13) and Alice Belt (14) 
of Ohio. Because Ruth was youngest 
hers is used, and thanks are extended to 
the others. This is exactly as Ruth 
wrote it except for one change in the 
last line: 
My first is in best, but not in good. 
My second in coal, but not in wood, 
My third is in pan. but not in dish, 
My fourth in think, but not in wish, 
My fifth is in an, but not in it, 
My sixth in cat, but not in kit, 
My seventh is in laugh, but not in shout, 
My eighth in salmon, but not in trout, 
My ninth is in lug, but not in carry, 
My tenth is in single, but not in marry, 
My whole is someone we wish would 
tarry. 
Interesting Notes and Comments 
The couplet in the Box this month was 
suggested by Ruth Hollenbeck, a 15-year- 
old New York reader, and helped out a 
bit by your editor. It is true that those 
who take pains to make friends with Our 
Page find that it becomes more dear to 
them with each passing month and year. 
Work for the January page should be 
sent to reach your editor by January 10. 
This give you two weeks for it, and we 
shall expect a splendid lot of material, 
including the new stories and the rhyme 
drawings. 
In regard to the Memory Verse pub¬ 
lished this month your editor feels that 
we ought to be able to establish the au¬ 
thorship and give proper credit. Surely 
some reader will know. The poem seems 
a familiar one. In fact, Mildred Wilcox, 
who sent it, said that it was written by 
Eugene Field, but your editor has a re¬ 
cent edition of Field’s complete works 
published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
and cannot find this poem in that, so hes¬ 
itates to use his name without being sure. 
But it may be right nevertheless, for the 
poem sounds like much that Field wrote. 
Who will give us definite information on 
this question? 
In looking back at the work of Our 
Page during the year of 1924 it may in¬ 
terest you to know that your editor has 
received 2,490 letters from boys and 
girls in that time, an average of over 200 
each month. Actually there was consid¬ 
erable monthly variation from the high¬ 
est number, 414 in April, to the lowest, 
64 in June, when you were all busy 
closing up school work. In the same 
period of one year there have been 
printed on Our Page 415 items of one 
kind and another (letters, drawings, puz¬ 
zles, etc.) contributed by readers, an 
average of about 34 each month. 
Doris Ives, who wrote the original 
Book Puzzle on “Pollyanna,” published 
on Our Page for September, and which 
was commented on by Gladys Feldberg 
last month as being inaccurate in places, 
writes that, she took her outline from the 
movie picture rather than from the book. 
This explains the matter and shows how 
much a book is sometimes changed in 
making a movie of it. Too often a good 
book is spoiled that way for those who 
know the real story. 
Norman Halloek of Connecticut 
writes: “I hope the readers enjoy my pic¬ 
tures as much as I enjoy making them. 
You will have to thank them for me and 
tell them I haven’t as yet given up the 
ship.” Norman sends something good 
nearly every month, but of course it can¬ 
not always be used, because others should 
have a chance. We use a good many 
though, and certainly appreciate the in¬ 
terest this boy reader takes in Our Page 
ind the help he gives. 
Several readers answered last month’s 
inquiry about Mark Twain and the Im- 
nortal Alice. Here is one from Marion 
Nichols (16) New York: 
Mark Twain was one of the most fa¬ 
mous of American novelists. His real 
name was Samuel Clemens. His pen 
name. “Mark Twain.” he adopted from 
a call used in taking soundings on the 
(Continued on page 1594) 
Shipping Poultry. —Here it is half 
past eight in the evening and the Parson 
has just come in from picking a fine big 
rooster to send down tomorrow to the 
people where George is staying and go¬ 
ing to school in Washington. We sent 
one down two weeks ago but it was not 
good when it arrived. The weather was 
pretty warm and we did not mark 
“Perishable, Rush” on the box. A wo¬ 
man down country lost one in just send¬ 
ing it to New York City. Last week, 
however, we sent down a duck with the 
package marked this way, and it was in 
perfect condition. It is cooler tonight, 
and the Parson hopes this bird will go 
through all right. He is a fine big Red 
and looks almost like a turkey. How we 
are all looking forward to George's com¬ 
ing home for Christmas. He is getting 
along fine in his studies down there. The 
Parson expects to go down that way 
again in January on a speaking trip, 
for he seems to have about six dates ar¬ 
ranged already. 
The Icehouse. —The Parson has been 
having quite a job on the icehouse and 
just got it finished up tonight. When he 
first fixed it up some 10 years ago, we 
just put down some old ties there were 
on the place and about a foot or more of 
sawdust. But this sawdust has become 
so rotten and packed so solid that the 
drainage was poor. To be sure it did not 
keep so bad as we threw away old ice 
when we cleaned the place out in Decem¬ 
ber. As the bottom of the lining boards 
were getting poor, it seemed a good idea 
to let them serve as the form for a con¬ 
crete wall inside. So the Parson laid 
a rough stone “dry” wall about six 
inches from these boards all the way 
round, filling in the middle with stones, 
and filling in this six-inch space with 
good concrete. We brought up the con¬ 
crete a little higher than the stone and 
the wall, and then filled it all up l,evel 
with gravel. It is all well drained with 
a tile leading out on the north side. The 
Parson is not sure whether to put any 
sawdust at all on this gravel before put¬ 
ting in the ice or not. Who has tried 
this plan? Let everyone try to put up 
ice this Winter. With plenty of saw¬ 
dust down where the sawmill stood there 
is no excuse. What a help and comfort 
next Summer. And then have ice cream 
every few days. Ice cream and bread 
and butter for supper? What could be 
better and cheaper on a farm? And it 
is wonderful how willing the children 
will be to turn the freezer. 
Such Beefsteak. —The Parson and 
Mrs. Parson were coming home from a 
day’s trip down country the other night. 
It was certainly cold and dark and the 
Parson admits he was hungry. We 
pulled up at a house where some of our 
good Bohemian people live. It must 
have been about half past six. and evi¬ 
dently the people were just through then- 
supper. But such hospitality . The good 
little woman says: “I make you steak.” 
She moved out and set the table and had 
that steak cooking in almost no time. 
My, but that supper tasted good. That 
steak was tender like chicken. It had 
been got at neighbor’s. “The cow was 
only 14 years old,” said the man. It 
seems incredible—and meat like that. But 
it appeared she had not given milk for 
more than a year, and had been heavily 
grained. But even at that how could 
meat be so tender and juicy from a cow 
of that age? 
Changing Weather. -— Here it is, 
some two weeks since the Parson wrote 
the above. It didn't pay for Shelley and 
Clossie to work in that rai.n on the pond. 
Clossie got a bad cold, and it seemed to 
the Parson as though it was about as 
much work to clean up the harness and 
oil it so it was fit to go anywhere with 
as it would have been to do the work. To 
be sure it did freeze up right afterwards, 
but now everything is all thawed out 
here (December 7), and one could plow 
nicely, save as one farmer said today, 
“It was too hot for the horses.” It has 
rained here all day and is raining to¬ 
night-and every drop is greatly needed. 
The rains so far have not got down into 
the wells at all. Our brook and pond 
is fed by a big reservoir, so that the 
brook never gets very low. While our 
well gets low and sometimes we have 
to shut off the electric pump, as it is 
getting nothing but air, yet there is al¬ 
ways wate- by the next morning, and 
with a little care, there is always enough. 
The bottom of the well is below the bot¬ 
tom of the brook, and that is perhaps 
why it never gets dry. Dig down any¬ 
where around the house lot or down in 
the swamp and one soon comes to clear 
sand and gravel. 
Cellar Celery. —How hard it seems 
for the Parson to get into the habit of 
raising things that his father did not 
raise before him. and that he never 
worked upon as a boy! We never raised 
any celery on the old farm in Vermont. 
In fact we never had any. I doubt if it 
was to be had in the stores in those days 
way up in Vermont. This year in Au¬ 
gust the Parson got a hundred plants and 
set them out. He made quite a ditch 
for them, but it was so terribly dry that 
with all his lugging water, about half 
of them died. When they did come on 
it was so late in the season that he never 
banked them up at all to try to blanch 
them. But he read somewhere that you 
could put celery in the cellar and by 
leaving quite a lot of dirt on the roots 
and packing it tight together it would 
blanch out there. We had some tonight 
for supper, and certainly it was great. 
You must be sure to water it about once 
a week or else it will all wilt down. We 
could eat 10 times as much if we had it. 
and the Parson will certainly plan to 
put a lot in the cellar next year. He has 
also learned that when you pour sand 
over turnips and carrots to keep them 
from shrinking, and nice and brittle as 
when you dug them, the sand must be 
real moist, and if it dries out badly you 
must moisten it again. 
Deceaiber 13.—Well, here it’s Satur¬ 
day night and late at that, and the Par¬ 
son must finish this letter and get it off 
tomorrow. It is raining again and the 
roads are very muddy, and for the first 
time since last Spring he will go down 
with Jim instead of the car. The wagon 
is pretty well loaded already, and he will 
finish loading it up in the morning very 
early, for he ought to leave here by day¬ 
light. There are two big kettles of 
boiled beans on the stove, and six loaves 
of bread already, packed up, and we will 
have a good time down in the old church. 
The Parson has sent word that we will 
trim up the place for Christmas in the 
afternoon, after the Sunday School is 
over. How we do love to trim the church. 
All the boys and girls will help. The 
Parson and Clossie sharpened two axes 
today ready for the fray. The Parson 
may gather in some likely cedars on the 
way down in the morning. He may stay 
down that way all night, and stop at a 
sehoolhouse or two on the way back Mon¬ 
day. He got 3 lbs. of “all hots” up¬ 
town today to roast, with the children, in 
the old box stove in the sehoolhouse after 
having the pictures with the stereopticon. 
He went down to two schoolhouses Fri¬ 
day. It was a dark, dreary day and the 
teachers as well as the children were glad 
enough to see him. At one place the 
teacher had the Parson take the whole 
afternoon. So many pictures we had. 
and then we danced the Virginia reel, 
and the children danced some folk 
dances, and the Parson taught them 
some quadrille figures. It was an after¬ 
noon long to be remembered. 
Christmas Time. — Two weeks from 
tomorrow- we shall have our Christmas 
Sunday. It w-ill be an all-day affair v-ith 
the tree in the afternoon. The children 
will speak their pieces and the grown- 
ups make their pledges for the coming 
year. Some money came this very day 
from good friends who read The R. N.-Y. 
and who have been down to see all our 
country children, and there w-ill be some 
good warm rubbers and mittens among 
the other things. Again this year we w-ill 
hear “How Christmas came to our house 
and never went away,” and again we will 
try to keep the Christmas spirit all the 
year round. We tried to do that this 
year and on the whole, the Parson thinks 
w-e have done pretty well. It. seemed to 
be the best Thanksgiving w-e ever had. 
We had about 60 on the Sunday after 
Thanksgiving. The Parson sat at a 
table with 15 other (?) boys. What with 
roast goose and roast guinea hen and 
roast rooster and all the fixin’s that go 
w-ith them, it w-as a wonderful day. The 
domestic science worker of the Farm Bu¬ 
reau was dow-n at the church all day and 
spoke to us all in the afternoon,' and 
formed a club of the ladies. 
The Home Time .— 1 The Christmas sea¬ 
son is here, for the Christmas tree is al¬ 
ready standing out by the corner of the 
house! Today, Clossie and Sit and the 
Parson spent quite a long time among 
the stores uptow-n. The two have had 
many secret conversations with the Far- 
son. especially about w-hat to get for 
“Ma.” So round w-e went together, find¬ 
ing what little things we wanted. Clos- 
sie’s desk upstairs is said to have been 
locked for some time now;. And Sit, too, 
has a place that no one knows of. What 
a blessed time it is. Ta has written 
Santa to bring him a new sled, and it 
seems quite likely from the w-ay the at¬ 
tic door is kept shut with a very high 
button, most up to the top, that the sled 
will be forthcoming. 
Cleaning a Well 
Over 30 years ago my husband dug a 
well and concreted it to a height of about 
five feet, all above being loose stone to 
the top, and covered it with a flagstone. 
The water had a bad odor in a short 
time. We opened it and drew the water 
out, put a laddel- down and found black 
lizards, angleworms and crickets that 
were decayed. They evidently could not 
crawl up the concrete and had died. We 
finally made it solid'concrete to the top, 
then cemented the stone cover. This well 
was scrubbed and lined; the water is 
piped to the house. Once since the freez¬ 
ing loosened the cover and we had the 
same trouble, but cleaned it and cement¬ 
ed the stone in place and haven’t had 
any more trouble. I feel sure this must 
be.the trouble w-ith the tile well one in¬ 
quirer writes about. mrs. s. w. ti. 
