Evening star., 1940-08-25
School Boys During Summer
Just
| Between
Yourselves
BY PHILIP H. LOVE,
Junior Star Editor.

An interesting picture Of life
among Great Britain's boys and girls
in wartime came to The Junior Star
last week. 1t was in the form Of
letter from an English girl Of II, or
thereabout, to Miss Josephine Cobb
of Springfield, Va. In forwarding it
to the j. s., Miss Cobb said she hoped
some of the boys and girls who read
it would like to write to her British
friend. "A Scent stamp will carry
a letter and much happiness" she
pointed out.
The letter, dated July % and
stamped Opened by Examiner No.
AGO." was from Bessie Whitehead,
North Newton, Somerset, England.
1t said:
"Only three weeks more and then
I shall be leaving school, for I am
going to work at the vicarage at
North Newton. I am only going
daily because am not very fond
of sleeping away from home.
DhSSohe ARtVSiOhSs
II think that the present situation
is very serious. Some of the Lon
don children are evacuated here. We
have not experienced any air raids
yet, but we have heard the explos-
ions at distance, and have also
heard the German planes lowering
above and have noticed the different
sound of their engines. The evacuees
occupy the village hall for their
school. They are much interested in
the canal, where there are swans and
cygnets. Also, the canal is used for
the bigger boys to 60 swimming. The
London evacuees are really very nice
and quite clean.
"A number of men are digging a
trench from Taunton to Bridge
water for the soldiers, so I think that
the war is getting nearer and nearer
to us. The soldiers are very busy
taking down bridges across the
canal. They have taken down three
in this village. and the brick bridge
is guarded. There are planks by
which one can cross, but they are
not very safe. I expect this is done
in case Of German invasion. They
are making preparations on the
moor also.
when War Is Over
'In school, I am very fond of
history and geography. but not so
fond of arithmetic. My favorite
study is geography. I like map
reading and hunting for towns and
cities in the atlas, and hearing
stories of different countries and
lands. I often think that when the
war is over, I should like to travel
to these strange lands, and if I had
enough money, perhaps I should be
able to pay visit to you in
All our summer flowers are In
bloom now-the clarkias, London
pride, yarrow. my lady's bedstraw.
wild carrot and many others. My
friends, Constance Bartlett and
Hazel Cowlin, and I know where
there is a moorhen'S nest and there
are six brown eggs in it. If the
moorhen hears us coming. she will
dive off the nest and go underneath
the water. Do you have the moor
hen in America?
THANK you for your kind thoughts
of us in these trying times. We hope,
like you, that brighter days are just
around the corner"
Hornets Chase Boys.
Out for a bicycle ride in Sligo
Park, Silver Spring. Md, Tommy
Stout. 10, Takoma School, and a
friend discovered "a section of a
hill on fire" The blaze had been
started, Tommy and his friend
learned, by four children in an ef-
fort to burn out hornets nest.
Tommy and his friend beat out
the flames with green sticks with
a lot of green leaves on them" he
writes, adding: Then we got too
close to the hornets nest. My friend
got stung, so he jumped in the creek.
He lay there while and then
crawled out, soaking wet. Then he
and ran at the hornets nest, picked
it up and threw it in the creek. He
jumped in again, but I ran"