A Wonderful Day

Dear friends,

Hello! How has the beginning of summer been for all of you? It has been QUITE muggy and hot over here, so there have been several visits to the pool. I’ve also spent a good amount of time both writing and reading murder mysteries and working on everything St Nicholas related.

In this week’s post of the St Nicholas League, I’m including two stories which were originally published in June 1923 St Nicholas Magazine. These stories are extra fun because they were written by kids who lived a hundred years ago, both of them submitting their work to the assignments section of the St Nicholas League. The original St Nicholas Magazine had prompts for stories, poems, and artwork in each number and the kids would send in their submission based off that prompt. Today, I’m including two kids’ interpretations of the story prompt A Wonderful Day. Isn’t it fun to see how two people can interpret the same prompt so differently?

My new St Nicholas still has these optional assignments! For the summer 2026 number of St Nicholas Magazine, these are the assignments:

Write a story with the title 'A Test of Friendship'
Write a poem with the title 'Over the Hills'
Draw a picture with the title 'Going Away'
Take a photo with the title 'My Most Artistic Photograph'

I would love to see how you guys interpret these! If you would like to submit, just email me with your submission at stnicholasmag@gmail.com, and I will consider it for publication in the next number of St Nicholas Magazine!

Without further ado, here are two charming little stories about A Wonderful Day, one of them by twelve-year-old Bettina A Bush, the other by Nate White, who is the same age. I hope you like them! And remember, if you want to share them with your kids or print them out for morning time, use the pdf version I made!

Love,

Fiona