Nature Study Club
of the
WOMAN'S
HOME COMPANION

Conducted by
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES

Beaver Lodge
STONEHAM . . .
MASSACHUSETTS

Jan.3rd, 1904.

My dear little niece,

This seems to be about the first chance I have had to thank you for the useful Christmas present you so kindly sent me. I am very glad to have it, as it saves me a little time whenever I start to shave. Before, I was obliged to hunt up a corner of a newspaper, the fly leaf of a book or an old envelope, but now I have a swell supply of tonsorial stationary always ready for use.

I went for a long walk this morning, and I wish that you could have gone with me. But it was very cold--10 degrees below zero--and the snow was six or seven inches deep, and in places had drifted as high as my waist. I went onto Bear Hill first of all, to carry some apples and bread to the wild rabbits and squirrels, which have a hard time of it in such weather as this. I found their little footpaths everywhere, and saw where the bunnies had been eating the twigs of the bushes. And I found holes in the deep snow, where the ruffed grouse had plunged in to spend the night, and other holes where they had come out in the morning. And I saw a robin too; I wonder what he was doing here at this time of year, when all his fellows had gone to the warm southern states. And there were the tracks of deer little mice, as fine as lace, winding in and out of the bushes. Please give my love to Mother, and to Babs and Ted and to yourself, and wish the whole family a very, very, Happy New Year, from

Your affectionate uncle, Harold.