The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Johnny  went  outdoors,  to  play 
One  chilly,  windy,  wild  March  day. 
Off  went  his  hat,  away  flew  his  kite  ; 
Now  draw  him  in  his  awful  plight. 
Amos  Hostetter  (11)  of  Virginia,  and 
Clarice  George  (13)  of  Wisconsin.  It 
is  clear  that  you  enjoy  the  drawing  work 
as  much  as  anything  we  do.  Keep  think¬ 
ing  ahead  to  the  coming  months  and  send 
me  things  suited  to  the  season.  Then 
there  will  always  be  good  material  on 
hand  whenever  it  comes  time  to  make  a 
page. 
A  New  Rhyme  to  Draw 
Without  question  the  choice  of  the 
rhyme  on  poultry  goes  to  Elmer  Upson, 
an  11-year-old  New  York  reader,  who 
■gives  us  a  dandy : 
<  Md  Biddy  had  a  downy  brood, 
'Twas  Betty’s  turn  to  give  them  food. 
<  >ue  chick  escaped  and  ran  away. 
And  Spot,  the  pup,  pursued  in  play.  r 
If  we  don’t  have  a  wonderful  gallery 
of  pictures  from  that,  then  I'm  much  mis¬ 
taken.  It  is  suggested  that  a  set  of 
drawings  with  a  rope  swing  in  them  ought 
to  bo  fine.  Who  will  send  a  rhyme  for 
that? 
Rip  Van  Winkle 
By  WASHINGTON  IRVING 
This  is  the  answer  to  the  February 
book  puzzle,  and  many  were  the  readers 
who  knew  it,  as  you  will  discover  by 
looking  at  the  names  on  page  5 20  followed 
by  the  letter  “1.”  Some  of  the  replies 
contained  interesting  comments,  and 
about  a  dozen  included  good  sketches  of 
the  life  of  Washington  Irving. 
I  live  only  a  few  miles  from  the  place 
where  Rip  Van  Winkle  was  supposed  to 
have  slept.  Sometimes  we  take  our  lunch 
and  spend  the  day  on  the  ledge  by  the 
Mountain  House  overlooking  the.  beauti¬ 
ful  Hudson  Valley.  I  wish  the  editor 
and  the  boys  and  girls  of  Our  Page  could 
take  a  ride  with  me  down  the  new  Rip 
Van  Winkle  trail,  which  winds  down  the 
mountain,  dorotiiy  mackey  (15  years). 
New  York. 
Rip  Van  Winkle  is  a  story  whose  moral 
shows  to  what  an  idle,  lazy  life  leads. 
The  story  also  shows  that  we  all  should 
have  a  duty  of  some  kind  to  perform. 
New  York.  rutii  king  (It  years). 
From  our  place  we  can  see  the  Cats- 
kill  Mountains.  On  the  top  is  an  outline 
said  to  be  Rip  Van  Winkle  when  he  was 
asleep.  It  looks  very  much  like  a  man 
asleep  on  his  back  with  his  knees  drawn 
up.  GENEVIEVE  HARVEY  (13  years). 
New  York. 
I  have  read  Rip  Van  Winkle  so  many 
times  that  it  seems  I  could  read  it  with 
my  eyes  shut.  I  like  all  Washington 
Irving’s  books,  because  they  are  queer, 
and  they  end  in  the  most  unexpected 
ways.  Mildred  timond  (12  years). 
Massachusetts. 
The  story  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  was  pub¬ 
lished  in  1819  in  “The  Sketch  Book.’’ 
The  men  whom  Rip  meets  aie  supposed 
to  be  Henry  Hudson  and  his  crew  in  the 
forests  of  the  Catskills.  The  change  in 
the  town  was  due  to  the  fa.t  that  Rip 
had  slept  during  the  20  years  when  New 
York  changed  from  a  colony  of  England 
to  a  part  of  the  United  States. 
GLADYS  FELDBERG  (12  years). 
New  York. 
Washington  Irving  was  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  entertaining  of  all  Amer¬ 
ican  writers.  He  was  born  in  New  York 
April  3,  17S3,  and  died  November  28, 
1859,  at  “Sunn.vside  on  the  Hudson.” 
He  was  educated  for  the  legal  profession, 
but  his  tastes  were  more  literary,  and  he 
early  began  to  write  for  the  New  York 
Morning  Chronicle.  He  went  to  Europe 
for  his  health  and  did  not  return  until 
180(5,  and  it  was  while  he  was  in  Europe 
that  he  gathered  material  for  his  later 
books.  He  was  very  clever  in  portraying 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the -Dutch 
settlers  in  New  York,  and  to  these  he 
devoted  a  book  called  “The  Knickerbocker 
History  of  New  York,”  which  was  re¬ 
ceived  with  much  admiration  by  the  pub¬ 
lic.  After  a  business  venture,  in  which 
he  joined  his  brother,  failed,  he  decided 
to  follow  a  literary  career.  Irving  spent 
much  time  in  Europe,  and  also  in  the 
western  part  of  our  own  country.  In 
1849  he  returned  to  his  country  seat  at 
Sunnyside,  where  he  spent  the  remaining 
years  of  his  life,  writing  “The  Biography 
<>f  Oliver  Goldsmith”  and  “The  Life  of 
Washington.”  Other  books  by  Washing¬ 
ton  Irving  are  “Tales  of  the  Alhambra,” 
“The  Conquest  of  Granada,”  “Legends 
of  the  Conquest  of  Spain.”  and  besides 
these  he  wrote  many  which  are  well 
known  to  everyone. 
New  Jersey.  Edward lang  (10  years). 
Mr.  Irving  was  named  after  George 
Washington,  as  Jie  was  born  soon  after 
the  Revolution.  When  he  was  six  years 
old  he  saw  the  great  man  for  the  first 
time.  Washington  Irving  was  not  a  very 
healthy  child,  and  traveled  with  his  par¬ 
ents.  hoping  to  become  stronger.  He 
loved  to  hear  the  quaint  old  Dutch  legends 
and  rewrote  them  in  some  of  his  books. 
“The  Sketch  Book”  contains  the  inter¬ 
esting  stories  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  and  of 
“The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow,”  which 
tells  about  Ichabod  Crane.  Washington 
Irving  liked  Spain  very  much.  He  wrote 
Dr^wn  by  Eugene  Garand  (11  Years) 
New  Jersey 
Drawn  by  Collins  Johnson  ( Hi  Years) 
New  Jersey 
Drawn  in  Pencil  by  Gladys  Bloomer  (12 
Years).  New  Jersey 
Drawn  in  Pencil  by  Myles  Barry  (11 
Drawn  in  Pencil  by  Helen  Robinson  (IS 
Years),  Maine 
Drawn  in  Pencil  by  Margaret  Keith  (9 
521 
many  articles  and  stories  about  it.  For 
a  time  he  was  United  States  Ambassador 
to  Spain.  BERTA  GRIFFITHS  (13  years). 
Connecticut. 
The  character  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  was 
made  famous  by  one  of  the  best-known 
and  best-loved  American  actors.  Mr. 
Joseph  Jefferson.  Beginning  in  180(1  he 
played  in  “Rip  Van  Winkle”  for  nearly 
forty  years,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
many  of  your  fathers  and  mothers,  or 
grandfathers  and  grandmothers,  may 
have  seen  him  and  will  tell  you  about  it. 
It.  was  in  1902  that  your  editor,  then  a 
boy  in  his  early  teens,  was  taken  by  his 
father  to  see  this  play.  In  those  days 
there  were  no  movies,  and  to  go  to  the. 
theater  was  a  rare  treat.  I  have  often 
thought  since  how  much  better  it  is  to 
see  one  fine,  strong  play  like  this  than 
a  hundred  cheat)  and  trashy  ones.  Only 
a  few  impressions  of  that  experience  re¬ 
main  with  me,  but  these  I  shall  never 
forget.  I  have  but  t<>  close  my  eyes  to 
see  Rip  as  he  woke  from  his  long  sleep, 
dazed  at  first,  more,  and  more  bewildered 
to  find  his  hair  and  beard  grown  long  and 
white,  his  clothes  hanging  in  rags  and 
his  dog  gone.  When  he  stooped  to  pick 
op  his  gun  it  fell  in  a  dozen  pieces,  and 
only  the.  metal  barrel  was  left  in  his 
hand.  With  this  he  tottered  down  to  the 
village,  only  to  find,  as  you  know,  that 
it  had  changed,  too,  and  that  all  the 
faces  were  strange. 
What  Book  Is  This? 
Among  a  group  of  lofty  mountains 
there  was  a  valley  that  contained  many 
inhabitants.  They  were  simple  people, 
who  lived  for  the  most  part  on  farms. 
There  was  a  certain  face  that  had  been 
formed  from  rocks  thousands  of  years 
ago.  If  one  got  too  near  it  he  lost  the 
outline  and  could  see  only  a  heap  of 
rocks,  however.  There  was  a  legend 
about  this  face  that  had  been  told  to  the 
people  years  ago,  saying  that  one  day  it 
should  come  to  pass  that  a  man  exactly 
like  this  face  would  be  discovered,  and  he 
should  become  the  noblest  and  greatest 
man  of  his  time.  A  little  boy  named 
Ernest  once  heard  his  mother  tell  this 
legend,  and  afterwards  always  cherished 
a.  hope  that  he  might  see  the  man.  When 
he  was  grown  he  heard  that  a  man  was 
found  that  resembled  this  face.  But 
when  he  saw  him,  Ernest  did  not  think 
so,  and  after  a.  while  the  people  decided 
that  this  man  did  not  really  look  like 
i  he  rock  face.  After  this  another  man 
came,  but  the  same  thing  happened  to 
him.  Then  came  a  third,  but  all  in  vain. 
Now  Ernest  became  an  aged  man.  All  his 
life  lie  had  been  good  and  kind  to  his 
neighbors.  Through  the  help  of  a  won¬ 
derful  poet  Ernest  himself  was  finally 
proven  to  have  the  long-for  resemblance. 
Rhode  Island.  LOUISE  judge. 
You  know  what  to  do  with  this.  Send 
the  names  of  the  title  and  the  author, 
and  tell  anything  of  interest  you  know 
about  either  one. 
Notes 
Pauline  Miller,  an  Ohio  reader,  wrote 
the  couplet  in  the  box  this  month.  She 
certainly  goes  right  to  the  point,  and 
ought  to  stir  everyone  up  to  do  his  or  her 
best. 
It  is  noticeable  in  the  list  of  contribu¬ 
tors  on  page  520  that  the  boys  are  tak¬ 
ing  a  greater  interest  than  they  did. 
All  work  for  the  April  page  should 
reach  your  editor  not  later  than  April  7. 
Riddles:  The  answer  to  the  January 
riddle  got  left  out  last  month.  Of  course, 
the  doormat  is  a.  step-father  (farther) 
as  related  to  the  doorstep.  As  for  the 
February  riddle,  the  best  material  for 
kites  is  flypaper,  to  be  sure.  Now  try 
this  one,  sent  by  Walter  Miller,  a  nine- 
year-old  New  York  reader :  Why  is  an 
egg  like  a  colt? 
Irmgard  Wentzel  of  New  York  writes: 
“I  think  it  would  be  a  good  idea  if  some¬ 
one  would  send  in  a  garden  plan.  Many 
children  are  going  to  have  a  garden,  and 
a  plan  would  be  accepted  gladly.”  It 
surely  would. 
One  reader  sent  a  description  of  a 
game  to  play,  and  I  have  added  the  letter 
“g”  to  the  list  of  contribution  symbols. 
If  any  others  want  to  tell  us  about  some 
good  games,  there  will  be  a  chance  to 
print  one  now  and  then. 
Now  good-bye  again.  Let  me  hear  about 
all  your  Spring  plans.  Address  Edward 
M.  Tuttle,  in  care  The  Rural  Nfw- 
Yorker,  333  West  30th  street,  New  York 
City. 
Years),  New  York 
Years),  New  York 
