The St. Nicholas League
“A Heading for January.” By John Andrew Ross, age 16. (Honor member.)
THE ST. NICHOLAS LEAGUE.
“My Playmate.” By Ella E. Preston, age 16. (Gold badge.)
The contributions for January have been somewhat unusual in the proportions of the different sorts received. Usually we have far more prose offerings than verse, sometimes more than of all the other kinds. This month we have fewer prose contributions than verse and more of drawings than of any other sort. This is probably due to the nature of the subjects recently given. Young people find it rather hard to write of historical things, especially of such countries as Russia and Japan, whose histories have not been generally taught in our schools. Yet these two countries and all matters relating to them have been of great interest during the past year, and such contributions as we have received from League members have been most attractive to League readers, and of course we must consider these as well as the competitors. This time, however, we will depart from the historical for the fireside, and our young writers may tell us the adventures and deeds of their favorite cats, or cats of their acquaintance, or that have belonged to friends and families. The editor is sure that there are not many League members who do not know at least one interesting cat story, and of course it is only the very interesting ones that should be sent in. Don’t think it worth while to send any little incident of every-day cat life, the first that pops into your mind, but some striking episode, something that you will remember, yourself, as long as you live. It may be of any sort, grave, gay, pathetic, even tragic, but it should be unusual, and told in a clear, simple manner. Such stories are the ones which command attention and win the prizes.
The League editor is a confiding and trustful person, and there are a great many things which he does not know. This has been proved more than once by his acceptance of work which was not original (even when so indorsed), but was copied from something which almost every one in the world but he seemed to know about. Yet there are a few stray bits of knowledge which be has picked up along the path of years, and one of these is the ability to tell a photograph that has been taken from a print instead of from an object. He does not boast of this knowledge. Almost any child has
it, and the wonder is that any League member, even a very