December 1928

The Spirit of the Child

Along the Garden Path

JUST as the busiest man in the world has time for Christmas joys, so may the tiniest dooryard yield a spot large enough for a living Christmas tree, a shining symbol which says to the holiday throng, "Here is a family that loves the spirit of Christmas and wants to share its Christmas happiness with you. our neighbor."

ARCADON

FOR three days I traveled toward Arcadon, and after the third day, when evening came, I stopped to rest upon the ridge of the mountain, for I was weary and could go no farther.

Are Children People?

IT sometimes seems as if the American nation keeps its balance by seesawing violently from one extreme to the other extreme! We do this in politics, as we do it in literature, and we certainly do it in our ideas of education, which are changing so rapidly and so enormously at the present moment.

Rock Garden Revelations

OF all kinds of gardening, none is more popular today than the rock garden. Families all over the country are building them, from large ones on estates to little ones but a few yards square in the rear garden of a city lot. The far corners of the earth are being searched for plants suitable for these gardens and hundreds of varieties which only four or five years ago were unknown except to the botanist are now listed in the catalogs of nurserymen.

SOMETHING TO SHOW FOR CHRISTMAS

NOT that I want to bring up anything unpleasant, tho Christmas with its annual recurrence of anxieties, savings (I should say "spendings"), plannings, shopping-orgies, bundle-wrappings, Christmas-card hunts, and letter-writings, has become to many persons a thing to be dreaded rather than welcomed, but since Christmas is coming anyhow, and very soon, let me rise to inquire, "What have you to show for all the Christmases you have celebrated, except memories?

What You May Have For Five Minutes More

OUR homes are becoming, more and more, the most vital part of our lives in spite of the fact, or perhaps because of the fact, that our lives are becoming more busy, more cluttered and crowded. If we have less leisure, it is all the more important that it be pleasant; if the superstructure of our lives is more complicated, it is more necessary that the foundations be simple and solid. Most of us are daily thrown in contact with so many persons that we want privacy in our homes; most of us spend many hours in the narrow confines of an office, so in and about our homes we want space; most of us look so many hours a day on brick walls and pavement that at home we want trees, clean air, sunshine and gardens, with their healing quiet and beauty.

Planning Next Year's Vegetable Garden

CONTRARY to popular belief, anyone can plan a vegetable garden. It is much easier, yet far more important, than to plan the ornamental parts of a property. In general, these parts should embellish the house area and screen off the more utilitarian parts, such as the laundry yard and the vegetable areas, tho even such parts may be embellished by plantings of dwarf fruit trees, berry bushes, and grape vines.

Beyond the Garden Gate

GARDEN paths are usually thought of by most persons as mere mechanical accessories to the garden, as mere meansof affording travel in wet weather with the least possible damage to one's shoes. But they really are a vital part of the garden and they have the very necessary duties of extending hospitality to the stranger (a phase of path design too little thought of), and of conducting him thru the garden in such a fashion that the joys of the garden are brought in a subtle yet forcible way to his attention.

What to Give

Garden Irrigation in the Southwest

LAST winter our cousins from the East oil their first visit to southern California, marveled at the variety of fresh vegetables on our Christmas table and were still more impressed when I proudly showed them my winter garden. Tomatoes, carefully trained to a protected wall of the garage, still bore a creditable crop of fruits; cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, peas, and all root crops were represented in my diminutive truck-farm which encompasses but 30 to 50 feet of space in our back yard.

A Group of Garden Pools

Clever Things That Are Quickly Made

TO give or not to give will be the question that wrenches your heart-- that is if your versions of these last-minute Christmas suggestions look anything like the originals. And certainly there is no reason why they should not. A hobby which we ride most persistently thru this series is that the merest novice can really follow the suggestions offered.

For the Days After Christmas

IN spite of the attempts of humanitarians to make Christmas safe for the children, the day still has a heavy casualty list, both in dispositions and toys. But it is a good sign that many persons have asked for suggestions as to the right things to give to the children for Christmas.

It's Time for Christmas Candies

WHEN holly wreaths hang in front windows, you don't need a calendar to know it is time to make the Christmas candies. It is fine fun to spend an afternoon in the kitchen beating sugary sirups, melting chocolate and chopping nuts.

Electrical Gifts for Everyone

IT seems that the electrical industry has the entire family impartially in mind, for it provides comforts and conveniences for each and every member. From the baby up to the grandmother, there is the just-right electrical Christmas gift. Frequently the uses overlap, and Baby must share the immersion heater given him in order that he might have warm milk on demand, with Dad, who needs hot water for shaving early in the morning.

Pioneers in American Music

NO music in all the world appeals to the human emotions like that made by a song, for a song Appeals as deeply to the emotions of strong men as it does to women and children. Songs have always had a serious use in the momentous struggles of the world, and they have produced grave changes even in the destinies of powerful nations.

Come to the Garden Clinic

I AM making use of my spare time by making up garden labels for next season. What type of label do you recommend for general use?

Practical Hints on Acreage

TO those of us who still finger in the grip of the apartment, the duplex, and the city lot up to 200-foot frontage, a few practical hints on how to make this flight into paradise may not come amiss.

Outside Christmas Tree Lighting

THE flicker of the Christmas-tree candles among the green boughs of the Christmas tree is a beautiful sight, but so many lives have been lost thru fires caused by the candles igniting the trees that electric tree-lighting has become a universal practice and it is well to substitute other Christmas-tree ornaments for the candles.

A Few Tips for the Handy Man

MAKE a terrarium by cutting four pieces of glass, fastening them together with special aquarium cement. Mrs. Margaret Steel Smith, an authority on arranging terrariums, says that on your next Sunday automobile trip to the woods, collect partridge berries, mosses and pine seedlings, plant them in your terrarium, keep them watered and covered, and you will have a beautiful setting for your fish-bowl and an indoor garden for your children all winter.

The Children's Pleasure Chest

NORMAN LANE lives down in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Last year for Christmas he got a little saw and hammer and you should see the nice things he makes with them. In the first picture on this page, you see Norman working on his specialty-- corner shelves.

ACROSS EDITOR'S DESK

NO two persons see the same rainbow. This is a scientific truth based upon the fact that the rainbow is the result of the action of a light ray passing from the sun to the raindrop and back to the individual observer's eye. This truth has a profound spiritual aspect as well. We all seek happiness, but what each individual sees is a different picture. Each has a different ambition, each a different taste, as expressed in a home, in a garden, or in some other wholesome joy.