The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
j  1573 
two  readers  last  month.  The  following 
extracts  from  letters  speak  for  them¬ 
selves  : 
I  think  the  answer  to  the  Nature  Puz¬ 
zle  is  water.  Water  not  only  is  used  to 
water  animals  and  for  us  to  drink,  too, 
but  it  waters  the  earth.  The  ground 
would  be  bare  if  it  wasn’t  for  the  water. 
There  would  be  no  moisture  to  form  the 
rain  clouds.  There  would  be  no  fish. 
The  water  made  some  of  our  valleys.  It 
shaped  the  bills  and  valleys  in  lots  of 
places.  I  think  that  water  is  so  neces¬ 
sary  for  so  many  things  we  ought  to 
learn  more  about  it. 
ELIZABETH  TURCK 
New  York.  ( 11  years) . 
Water  is  a  very  necessary  thing;  peo¬ 
ple,  animals  and  plants  cannot  live  with 
out  it.  The  23d  of  this  month  (Novem¬ 
ber)  we  had  about  three  inches  of  it  in 
the  form  of  flakes.  For  several  weeks 
we  have  seen  it  in  a  form  that  is  called 
ice.  It  sometimes  comes  in  a  more  solid 
form  than  flakes,  called  hail.  Dew  is  wa¬ 
ter,  and  when  it  becomes  frozen  it  is 
called  frost.  Clouds  are  made  up  of 
water  in  a  form  that  is  sometimes  called 
fog  or  mist.  Another  form  of  water  is 
rain  which  falls  in  drops.  Steam  is  a 
vapor  formed  from  water  by  heat.  Water 
is  drawn  up  into  the  sky  by  the  sun  from 
streams,  rivers,  lakes,  ponds,  seas,  etc., 
in  an  invisible  form  called  moisture. 
There  it  becomes  rain  clouds  from  whence 
it  falls  to  earth  again. 
PAULINE  BURGESS 
New  York.  (13  years). 
Drawn  by  Lois  Smith  (10  Years), 
Connecticut 
Water  is  not  only  on  the  surface  and 
in  the  atmosphere,  but  in  rocks  as  well. 
Water  is  a  large  part  of  all  plants  and 
animals,  as  well  as  our  food.  A  small 
amount  of  water  looks  without  color,  but 
in  a  large  amount  it  looks  blue.  Drink¬ 
ing  water  has  taste  because  of  substances 
dissolved  in  it.  The  boiling  point  of  wa¬ 
ter  is  100°  Centigrade  (212°  Fahren¬ 
heit).  The  freezing  point  is  0°  C.  (32° 
F.).  A  cubic  foot  of  water  weighs  about 
621/2  lbS.  JOSEPHINE  DAVIS 
Connecticut.  ( 15  years ) . 
Water,  a  very  necessary  substance,  is 
formed  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  two 
parts  of  the  former  to  one  part  of  the 
latter.  Our  class  in  biology  once  proved 
this  when  we  were  generating  hydrogen 
gas.  We  had  a  small  amount  of  hydro¬ 
gen  in  a  bottle  and  set  it  afire.  Then  we 
placed  a  glass  over  the  mouth  of  the  bot¬ 
tle.  When  we  removed  it,  there  were 
two  or  three  drops  of  water  on  the  glass. 
The  oxygen  used  in  the  burning  had  com¬ 
bined  with  the  hydrogen  to  form  water. 
Doubtless  some  of  our  other  readers  have 
performed  this  interesting  experiment. 
Water  can  almost  be  said  to  be  the 
basis  of  all  life.  Whole  countries  often 
depend  on  water  for  their  development. 
Draicn  by  Esther  Herr  (14  Years), 
Pennsylvania 
When  people  are  moving  to  a  different 
region  they  first  stop  to  see  whether  they 
can  get  water.  Marion  nichols 
New  York.  ( 15  years) . 
I  have  heard  many  people  speak  of 
lakes  and  rivers  and  oceans  as  vast 
wastes  of  water,  but  without  them  how 
would  we  be  able  to  ships  goods  and  con¬ 
vey  passengers,  as  we  now  do  by  boats? 
Surely  it  would  be  more  costly  to  send 
them  by  land  !  ellen  rickard 
New  York.  ( 16  years) . 
Water  is  used  for  a  good  many  things. 
Without  it  we  could  not  cook,  wash  or 
take  baths.  We  need  it  to  drink.  With¬ 
out  it  we  would  die.  Cows,  horses  and 
poultry  need  it.  We  need  it  to  water 
Draicm  by  Elizabeth  Ganoung  (13  Years),  New  York 
plants.  Even  the  driest  cracker  has  wa¬ 
ter  in  it.  BEATRICE  JOHNSON 
New  York.  (11  years). 
Sometimes  water  is  a  damage  to  plants 
and  man  when  it  comes  in  too  large  quan¬ 
tities  and  floods  the  land.  Many  times 
water  floods  out  railroad  (racks  and 
highways,  causing  many  hundreds  of  dol¬ 
lars  damages.  Alice  britt 
New  York.  (14  years). 
I  am  a  new  reader  of  the  Boys’  and 
Girls’  page  in  The  Rural  New-Yorker, 
and  I  like  it  very  much.  We  have  taken 
the  paper  a  long  time,  but  I  never 
thought  that  it  had  a  children’s  page  in 
it.  I  always  thought  it  was  a  man’s 
paper. 
Just  before  the  Thanksgiving  issue 
came  out.  a  girl  who  also  gets  The 
Rural  New-Yorker  asked  me  why  I 
never  read  the  children’s  page,  and  I  said 
I  didn’t  know  there  wras  any  in  it.  She 
told  me  to  look  in  the  Thanksgiving  issue 
and  see  the  children’s  page.  So  when  it 
came  I  looked  and  I  saw  the  page,  and 
Draicn  by  Ruth  Watts  (16  Years), 
New  York 
that  is  why  I  am  going  to  try  to  answer 
some  of  the  puzzles  in  last  month’s  issue 
now.  Some  day  I  will  write  a  letter  to 
you  and  tell  you  all  about  my  grandma’s 
farm. 
I  think  the  answer  to  the  Nature  Puz¬ 
zle  is  water.  Some  things  that  water  is 
used  for  are :  To  quench  fires,  to  drink, 
to  wash  with,  to  w7ater  plants,  to  cool 
things  off,  to  mix  in  food  when  making 
piecrust  or  cake,  and  many  other  things. 
It  is  a  wonderful  element. 
Eunice  main  (13  years). 
Conectieut. 
This  last  letter  is  also  interesting  be¬ 
cause  it  shows  how  Our  Page  attracts 
new  readers.  I  wonder  how  many  homes 
it  goes  into  where  the  boys  and  girls  have 
not  yet  found  it.  Surely  a  word  or  two 
from  father  or  mother  would  bring  it  to 
their  notice,  then  we  will  do  the  rest. 
A  New  Nature  Puzzle 
Your  editor  would  like  to  receive  a  lot 
more  Nature  Puzzles.  We  have  had  so 
many  other  interesting  things  to  do  lately 
that  not  many  new  puzzles  have  come  in 
and  the  supply  of  good  ones  is  running 
rather  low.  For  the  benefit  of  new  read¬ 
ers  we  will  explain  again  that  the  idea  is 
to  describe  clearly  and  in  an  interesting 
way  some  object  in  Nature  without  re¬ 
vealing  its  name.  The  puzzle  which  fol¬ 
lows  is  a  very  good  example: 
V/HAT  IS  IT? 
I  grow  annually.  I  am  one  of  the  first 
wild  plants  that  comes  up  in  the  Spring. 
You  can  find  me  in  most  any  uncultivat¬ 
ed  lot.  I  attain  the  height  of  about  three 
feet,  more  or  less.  I  have  little,  round, 
yellow  blossoms  in  the  Summer.  In  the 
Fall  I  have  triangular  shaped  seeds  with 
two  little  needles  sticking  from  the  top 
of  each.  I  ca.tch  them  into  animals’  fur 
or  people’s  clothing.  I  scratch  them  so 
they  soon  stop  and  pick  me  off  from  their 
coats  and  drop  me  on  the  ground.  The 
next  year  I  grow  up  again.  What  kind 
of  a  plant  am  I?  hazel  FRANCISCO. 
Ohio. 
Heidi 
BY  JOHANNA  SPYRI 
An  extraordinary  amount  of  interest 
was  shown  in  this  Book  Puzzle,  which 
surely  proves  how  fine  a  book  “Heidi”  is 
Draicn  by  Hazel  Stone,  Rhode  Island 
for  boys  and  girls.  Because  of  the  fact 
that  the  author  was  a  foreign  lady  with  a 
hard  name  to  remember,  and  because  sev¬ 
eral  persons  have  translated  the  story 
into  English  and  thus  connected  their 
names  with  the  book,  your  editor  decided 
to  make  an  exception  this  month  and  to 
give  full  credit  on  the  list  of  contribu¬ 
tors  wherever  the  title  of  the  book  was 
given  correctly.  But  a  majority  were 
also  able  to  give  the  author’s  name,  and 
a  good  many  told  something  about  her. 
Several  letters  are  printed  below,  and 
also  you  will  see  on  this  page  three  inter¬ 
esting  drawings  illustrating  the  story. 
On  Our  Page  for  November  I  noticed 
a  description  of  a  book.  I  became  great¬ 
ly  interested  as  I  read  this  description, 
and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  am 
reading  this  book  at  present.  The  book 
is  called  “Heidi,”  written  by  Johanna 
Spyri.  It  is  the  most  interesting  book  I 
The  Aim-Uncle  Hut  and  Heidi 
Draicn  in  Pencil  by  Ruth  Dudley  (15 
Y ears ) ,  Connecticut 
have  ever  read,  and  I  can  add  a  great 
deal  more  to  the  description. 
To  continue  the  story  from  where  it 
was  left  off  in  the  puzzle :  Klara’s  grand¬ 
mother  did  not  know  that  Klara  was  able 
to  walk  again.  She  went  to  visit  Klara 
and  was  delighted  and  amazed  to  see  that 
Klara  could  walk.  She  quickly  sent  a 
telegram  to  Klara’s  father  and  he  came 
to  see  her.  He  saw  her  standing  there 
and  did  not  know  her  at  first,  because  he 
had  always  seen  her  in  her  wheel  chair. 
They  were  all  so  grateful  to  Heidi  and 
her  grandfather  for  their  goodness  to 
Klara.  Klara’s  father  promised  Heidi’s 
grandfather  that  if  he  should  pass  away 
he  wTould  take  care  of  Heidi,  so  that  she 
would  not  have  to  earn  her  bread  among 
strangers.  ivy  pfeifer  ( 15  years) . 
New  York. 
“Heidi”  is  certainly  a  wonderful  book. 
I  read  it  twice.  My  mother  read  this 
book  in  Germany  20  years  ago,  and  was 
glad  to  see  this  lovely  book  translated 
into  English  in  a  store  at  New  York.  I 
received  this  book  as  a  birthday  present. 
My  mother  also  read  the  book  over  again 
with  great  joy.  wai  ter  wittman. 
New  Jersey. 
Frau  Johanna  Spyri  wrote  “Heidi.” 
Johanna  Heusser  was  born  the  12th  of 
June,  1829,  in  Switzerland.  In  1852  she 
married  Bernhard  Spyri,  her  former 
schoolmate.  He  died  December,  1884, 
and  she  published  a  tribute  to  his  mem¬ 
ory.  She  has  been  recognized  as  one  of 
the  favorite  writer’s  for  children.  Her 
stories  have  been  translated  into  various 
languages.  Some  of  her  books  have  been 
printed  in  raised  letters  for  the  blind.  .T. 
V.  Wademann,  president  of  the  Commis¬ 
sion  for  Children’s  Literature,  wrote  an 
article  declaring  Frau  Spyri  to  be  one  of 
the  best  contemporary  women  writers  for 
the  young,  and  that  he  knew  of  no  man 
to  be  compared  with  her. 
DOROTHY  CLAUS 
New  York.  (11  years). 
A  New  Book  Puzzle 
Your  editor  was  surprised  and  pleased 
at  the  number  who  answered  his  question 
about  keeping  on  with  the  Book  Puzzles 
for  another  year.  Dozens  wrote  that  the 
puzzles  should  be  continued,  that  they 
were  interesting  as  well  as  instructive, 
that  they  increased  our  knowledge  of 
books,  that  they  created  a  desire  to  read 
more  good  books,  and  so  on  and  so  on. 
So  we  will  keep  them  going,  provided 
(and  this  is  very  important)  that  you 
supply  them.  I  have  quite  a  collection 
still,  but  many  of  them  could  be  a  little 
better,  more  complete,  more  vividly  told. 
You  can  use  up  to  250  words  to  describe 
your  book  or  poem,  and  that  ought  to  be 
enough  to  give  the  full  outline  of  the 
story.  It  would  be  a  good  plan  when¬ 
ever  you  read  a  book  to  sit  down  and 
Draicn  by  Anna  Graham  (14  Years), 
Illinois 
write  out  a  puzzle  while  the  story  is  fresh 
in  your  mind  and  send  it  in  to  Our  Page. 
This  is  a  case  where  the  more  your  editor 
has  to  choose  from  the  better  the  selec¬ 
tions  will  be. 
Try  this  one  for  next  time,  and  be  sure 
to  give  the  full  title  and  author’s  name 
when  you  answer : 
WHAT  BOOK  IS  THIS? 
A  girl  in  an  orphan  asylum  was  sent  to 
college  and  educated  by  an  unknown  man. 
He  was  an  uncle  to  her  schoolmate  (but 
of  course  she  did  not  know  it),  and  in  the 
end  he  married  her.  On  her  vacations 
she  used  to  go  on  a  farm  where  this  man 
had  been  brought  up.  He  came  back  to 
visit,  but  of  course  she  never  knew  who 
it  was  and  was  writing  letters  to  the  man 
who  wished  to  be  called  “John  Smith,” 
while  all  the  time  he  was  right  with  her., 
MONICA  STARKWEATHER 
New  York.  (11  years). 
Plans  Ahead 
Without  exception  those  who  wrote 
your  editor  about  plans  for  the  coming 
months  wanted  to  go  back  to  the  drawing 
contests  very  soon.  But  it  was  also 
agreed  by  nearly  everyone  that  a  page  of 
photograph#  once  every  four  (or  five 
months  would  be  an  interesting  change, 
and  perhaps  offer  a  better  chance  for 
some  who  could  not  draw  so  well.  We 
will  plan,  then,  to  have  one  of  these  pho¬ 
tograph  pages  in  January,  and  if  any  of 
you  have  good  pictures  of  Winter  scenes 
send  them  in.  One  reader  waaats  to  know 
whether  photographs  can  be  returned 
afted  use  or  if  not  used.  Yes,  provided 
you  include  return  postage  when  sending 
them  in.  Do  not  be  impatient,  though, 
if  there  is  some  delay  in  getting  them 
back  to  you,  because  it  takes  time  to 
make  selection  and  have  the  engravings 
(Continued  on  Page  1582) 
