Part 4

I am a little boy eight years old. I do not go to school, but I am taught at home. I can read, spell, and cipher very nicely. My mamma and nurse read YOUNG PEOPLE to me. When nurse read Georgie B.'s letter to me, in the Easter number, I could not keep still. I was thinking of him scrambling through Coral Cave. He must write again. Mamma is going to have all the numbers bound at the end of the year. I have three sisters and two brothers, and a father and mother, who love to read your paper. I have no pets. I have two vegetable gardens, one here and one at the plantation, eight miles off, and they keep me busy. Nurse is writing this for me. I love the poetry in YOUNG PEOPLE, and want to hear it all read. My sister reads it for herself, and soon I expect to do so too.

EDWARD E.

* * * * *

KILLEGNEY PARSONAGE, ENNISCORTHY, IRELAND.

I like the paper very much. Our dog Quiz has three pups; we are going to give them away. My pony is being trained; it will soon be tame enough to ride. We are busy at our gardens. I put some primroses in mine yesterday. I am to get a larger garden soon. I like "Talking Leaves." Pappy reads it out to mother and us. Uncle William sends it to me, and _St. Nicholas_ to Godfrey; he is my brother. I have three sisters--May, Ida, and Ella.

IVAN M.

* * * * *

WARRENTON, VIRGINIA.

There are a good many mocking-birds that sing around our house, and imitate all kinds of sounds. One time we thought one of our dogs had taken our play reins, and was shaking them about, making the bells ring. Another time we thought we heard a little chicken peeping, so I ran all over the yard looking for it, until I saw the mocking-bird up in a tree, and he was making the sound, and I believe he did it just for fun, to see me hunt for the little chick. I give names to all our little chickens. I named one Harper's because it was weakly; but it has grown strong now, and I hope next year it will have some little chicks of its own, and then we will call them Harper's Young People. I wish Mrs. California would tell some more about Carlie; he must be so cute.

MARGIE.

* * * * *

WASHINGTON, D. C.

I have four little brothers, named John, Billy, Harry, and Tom.

We have a dog which is very smart. He will turn a somersault backward, and stand on his head. We also have a little donkey three feet high, which we ride; but she will not let anybody else ride her, as she will stand up on her behind legs and jump, _really_. We have a pigeon that will eat meat and sweet-potatoes, and can sing. Don't you think that is queer?

I am seven years old, and I wrote this all by my own self. Please put it in the letter-box.

Your loving little reader,

HIC H. T.

You write so plainly and make such beautiful capital letters that you deserve ten good marks, dear.

* * * * *

Hammer away, Blithe and gay. Work whilst you work, Play whilst you play: And the rust must be moved And the shield kept bright, For the battle of life which we All have to fight.

* * * * *

LOCKPORT, NEW YORK.

I have never seen any letters from this city, so I thought that I would write to you. I like the stories very much, especially "The Little Dolls' Dressmaker." Last evening we tried the game of Anagrams, and found it very amusing. My pet is a great big Newfoundland shepherd dog, and his name is Rob Roy. One day some one rang the front-door bell, and on going to the door we found it to be Rob. He does it quite often now. I am almost thirteen years of age. I send a puzzle to you. Good-by.

ADA M. F.

The puzzle is a clever one, and will duly appear. Thank you.

* * * * *

NORTH ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS.

I live in a small town two miles from North Adams; it is a nice place to live. The north branch of the Hoosac River runs behind my house, and in summer we fish there, and it is fine fun to catch trout and suckers. My father and uncle run a woollen mill, and sometimes I go down to the mill and pack the goods in boxes to be sent off. My sister Amy and I ride to school every morning, and home again every night. We have a nice place to slide in winter, but not a very nice place to skate. I go down on the south branch of the Hoosac, where all the boys of North Adams go.

KELLER B.

The next time you catch a splendid big trout, you must send the Postmistress word. I am glad you work as well as play.

* * * * *

REYNOLDSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA.

I am a little girl nine years old. I have two sisters--Bessie the oldest, Tirzah the youngest. We used to live in Philadelphia, but we came to Reynoldsville last summer. We had no pets in the city, but we have a good many here. Bessie has a canary, Tirzah a cat, and I have a dog. I had a dove, but it flew away. There was a beautiful Maltese cat here when we came, and she has a darling little kitten. My papa is superintendent of a saw-mill, and he often takes us to the mill. We have ten horses, which we ride from the watering-trough to the stable almost every evening. A swing is put up for us in the barn. The other day we went to the woods for wild flowers, and we found violets, anemones, wild phlox, and a flower that looked just like mamma's dyletra, only it was white.

M. LOUISE N.

I think the three little sisters have a merry life. I hope they will study botany, and learn to what classes of plants the beautiful wild flowers they gather belong.

* * * * *

OSWEGO, NEW YORK.

I live in Oswego, which is on Lake Ontario, and in summer I go fishing on the Oswego River, and catch lots of fish. My papa has a yacht and row-boats, and is teaching me to row. I have a stamp album with over two thousand stamps. Last summer I went to the Thousand Islands, and had a lovely time. We reached Cape Vincent about six o'clock; there took a steamer to Alexandria Bay. The islands were beautifully illuminated. I went to the Indian camp, and saw them make canoes and baskets. I have two canary-birds, and a dog named Fritz. I have a large garden, with all kinds of flowers. I liked "Toby Tyler" and "Tim and Tip," and am glad Mr. Otis is going to write another story. I have been to New York twice, and like to ride on the elevated railroad.

L. W. M.

I do not wonder you enjoy riding on the elevated railroad. Sometimes, as I sit in one of the cars, and am whisked along so fast past the windows and over the roofs, I think of the old fairy stories. The enchanted carpet used to transport its owner from place to place in a moment; and these railroads, so high in the air, are very much like enchanted carpets in their effect; only the power which moves them is steam, and we might never have known the wonderful things steam can do if a bright-eyed boy named James Watt had not long ago sat and watched the spout of his mother's tea-kettle.

* * * * *

SOUTH SCITGATE, RHODE ISLAND.

I am a little girl nine years old. I live with my grandpa and grandma in the country. They are over seventy years old. I try and help grandma about the house. My papa and mamma live in Providence, which is thirteen miles from here. My papa is a photographer. I had a great many pretty things Christmas, but I think the most of my doll. Her name is Flossie. She has very light hair, and her eyes will shut. She is dressed in baby clothes, like a real live baby. I have six other dolls, but they are old ones. I had a canary-bird named Topsy, but the cat killed it one day. I put it in a box, and buried it in the yard. I have a stone at the head of the grave, and I keep it decorated with flowers.

Mamma has come out to see me, and is writing this letter for me. I can write some, but I live a mile from school, and only go in the summer. I have no brothers or sisters, so I have to get along with pets. I have two bantam hens; they lay little eggs, and I eat them all. Grandpa has a large farm, and we have hens, geese, cows, and a horse named Dan. I have been out to-day, and got a large bunch of trailing arbutus for mamma to take to the city with her. Mamma has sent me HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE over a year. I think "Toby Tyler," "Tim and Tip," and "Cruise of the 'Ghost'" are splendid, but the letters in Our Post-office Box from the little boys and girls I do love so much! I don't see many from Rhode Island, and I do hope our dear Postmistress will publish mine. I hope it is not too long. Good-by.

EVA T. P.

How glad I am that the dear old people have a bright little granddaughter to live with them, and be their sunbeam!

* * * * *

ROCHELLE, ILLINOIS.

I am a little girl ten years old. I have a piano, and I take music lessons. I like "Mr. Stubbs's Brother." I always read the Post-office Box, and enjoy it. I have a large box full of advertising cards. I see that some of the children tell about their pets, so I will tell you about my cat. I keep his catnip in the table drawer, and when he wants it he goes on top of the table and smells in the drawer, so some one opens it for him, and he gets in, takes the catnip in his paws, jumps out, and goes over on the lounge and eats it.

I hope you will publish this, because I wrote one before, and it was not published. I have been in the grove, and I found some bloodroots and other flowers.

GRACE G.

What a sensible cat! Do you take medicine as willingly as he does? But then a little girl who goes to the grove and gathers wild flowers, and lives out-doors in the fresh air as much as she can, does not often need catnip or any other herb.

* * * * *

I am a little girl eleven years old. I live in the city of Buffalo, which is on Lake Erie. There is a fort near the lake, and sometimes in summer I go out there and to the parks with some of my playmates, and have a nice time. There is a large hill at the fort too, and I think it is fun to run down it. I go to school, and am in the Third Reader, and study intellectual and practical arithmetic, spelling, geography, language lessons, and German. Can the editor speak German? If he can, and will write me a letter, I will answer it. My grandma sends me HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, and I think it is a very nice paper for children, and my mamma and papa think so too. For pets we have a dog, a cat, and three little kittens, which are now trying to get out of the basket and run around. I am collecting picture cards, and have over nine hundred. If any little boy or girl would like to exchange with me, please address,

HELEN M. SISSON, 183 Maryland St., Buffalo, N. Y.

Helen has so much more time than the editor of YOUNG PEOPLE, that the better way will be for her to send her German letter, and let us see how well she can write in that language, which we are very glad she is studying. What a number of lessons our little nine, ten, and eleven year old friends have to learn, to be sure! And the queerest thing about it, dears, is that, no matter how old we may grow, we shall still have lessons to learn, and some of them harder than those you find in your Third Readers and language lessons.

* * * * *

AWAY FROM HOME.--Children, how would you like to have been passengers on the British steamer _Glamorgan_, which arrived in Boston Harbor on the morning of the 1st of May? She reported that on April 25, latitude 46 deg. 20', longitude 42 deg. 30', she passed an iceberg fully five hundred feet high. On the iceberg were a number of polar bears. Now please take your maps, and trace the route by which these travellers must have come from the arctic seas to reach the part of the Atlantic where the _Glamorgan_'s passengers saw them. Where is latitude 46 deg. 20', and longitude 42 deg. 30'? Whose little finger will point to it first? But the GLAMORGAN's adventures were not ended. On April 26 she ran into a field of ice, and steaming along its southern edge, she passed one hundred large icebergs, on which were polar bears and seals, taking their ease quite comfortably. I wonder what the polar bears thought of the strange world into which they were drifting southward, poor things?

* * * * *

C. Y. P. R. U.

OUR LITTLE POETS' CORNER.--We group together several bits of verse received from little poets. The first is written by a dear child who has only seen eight summers:

SUMMER.

Summer is near, O summer is near; Winter leaves with a good-by cheer; The grasses sprout, And the trees bloom out-- Summer is near, O summer is near.

The birdies do sing, O the birdies do sing! And so loud the merry bells ring! For summer brings Such beautiful things; Summer is near, O summer is near!

DAISY SEVERANCE, Middlebury, Vt.

The author of "Thistle-Down" is only eleven, and her little poem is very sweet too:

THISTLE-DOWN.

Over the fields of waving corn, Over the hill-tops brown. Sailing along in fairy grace, Floateth the thistle-down.

Flying past the meadows bare, Catching on grasses brown, Like airy films from cobwebs torn, Floateth the thistle-down.

Drifting past the old oak-tree, Drifting past the town; Further than any eye can see, Floateth the thistle-down.

On the blue of the sky afloat, A dainty craft is this seedling brown, Manned by the loveliest fairy crew, Guiding the thistle-down.

Fairy forms in sunbeams dressed, With rainbow hues caught down. Sailing away in their elfin glee. They guide the thistle-down.

ELIZABETH MORTON BOYCE, Chicago, Ill.

Dora, whose rhyme about the streamlet is quite merry and musical, is also eleven:

THE STREAMLET.

How lovely is the little stream That babbles on and on Through many a field and woodland too This little stream has gone.

There by the stream the sun looks down, And the many sunbeams play, Oh, happy are the breezy woods On that sweet summer day!

And just before it joins the lake-- Nor does it miss it ever-- This little stream another meets, And they go on together.

In its mossy bed the streamlet Glides on through valleys low, In sweet contentment flowing Where the lovely flowers blow.

The glowing sun fades out of sight, The moon and stars appear, All is silent now, and quiet, For the shades of night are near.

But the stream is onward gliding, Never does it pause to rest, Gliding onward, onward swiftly, To seek the lake's deep breast.

DORA CUMMING, Newport, Ky.

* * * * *

Who would like to perform this amusing trick, which is called Water Bewitched?

Take an ordinary dinner plate, and fill it with water; then produce a small empty phial, and assure the company that you are wizard enough to pour water through the solid bottom. Having declared that the phial must be _perfectly_ dry when the experiment is performed (if you are asked why, you may say to open the pores of the glass), thrust a stick into it, and hold it to the fire until it is very hot--too hot to hold. Then stand it, without delay, mouth downward in the plate of water. Then pour a tea-spoonful of water on the bottom of the phial, as if you meant to fill it that way, and every time you do this the phial will become more and more filled with water; and as this apparently takes place every time you pour water on the bottom, it will have every appearance of having passed through the solid glass. Of course the water really rises from the plate by what is called capillary attraction.

* * * * *

We would call the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. this week to "Some Diamond Stories," and to the account of Commander De Long and his terrible death among the ice-fields of the North, as told by Sherwood Ryse under the title of "The Victims of the Arctic Seas." Then Aunt Marjorie Precept has some wise advice to give about "Picnics."

* * * * *

PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

CONUNDRUMS.

1. Why is the letter J like the end of spring? 2. What is the most useful letter to a deaf old lady? 3. When may a chair be said to dislike you? 4. When is a window like a star? 5. Why is corn like a rose-bush? 6. Why is an egg like a colt?

* * * * *

No. 2.

CHARADE.

When sharp and blustering is my first, And all are under cover, Before the cheerful fireside sit My second and her lover.

EMPIRE CITY.

* * * * *

No. 3.

FOUR DIAMONDS.

1.--1. A letter. 2. Fiery. 3. Virtuous. 4. To brown. 5. A letter.

2.--1. A letter. 2. Evening. 3. A happening. 4. Conclusion. 5. A letter.

3.--1. In pitch. 2. An adverb. 3. Ability. 4. A number. 5. In run.

XYZ.

4.--1. In salt. 2. To rise above. 3. Strength-giving. 4. A hollow. 5. In custard.

HELEN S. H.

* * * * *

No. 4.

TWO WORD SQUARES.

1.--1. An arrow. 2. To respect. 3. A part of the body. 4. Sheep-pens. 5. A ringlet.

EMPIRE CITY.

2.--1. A bird. 2. A bird. 3. To turn from. 4. Part of the body. 5. To come in.

HELEN S. H.

* * * * *

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 131.

No. 1.

L U X E M B U R G S I B E R I A S A L E M O B I O B U G F A R O E R O A N O K E T E N N E S S E E

U C A I A R Y M O C H A L E E L T A Y C O N G O C O R D O V A

No. 2.

Boston. Rhododendron. Nightingale.

No. 3.

C M A R T M A Y C R E A M M A Y O R T A R Y O U M R

* * * * *

Correct answers to puzzles have been received from Annie J. Thomas, "Columbia," "American," Helen S. Herzig, Walter Morell, W. C., Frank Smith, Rogers Campe, Elsie O., Lulu Beck, Emily Dean, Maggie Walker, Florence Meserole, Jennie Strong, Claude Ramsay, McVey Grove, Kitty and Josie, E. H. D., Charles Morrison, Nelson Metcalf, Bessie T., "Lodestar," George P. Taggart, Florence H. Chambers, Florence, Mabel, and Annie, B. J. Lautz, Florence Cox, Willie Jones, Mary H. Hobart, William A. Lewis, and Edgar Seeman.

* * * * *

[_For Exchanges, see 2d and 3d pages of cover._]

CHARACTERS; OR, WHO AM I?

Somebody once said, "There is no royal road to knowledge." We will admit the fact as a general proposition, but now and then affairs can be so arranged that a bit of information can be fixed in the mind, and a fair amount of fun be had through the same means.

The following game is admirably adapted to a party of school-fellows who have been reading and studying from the same books. It could be made to answer all the purposes of the review of certain branches, and it is not at all impossible that teachers of good judgment could be found who would approve of giving a little time to it during school-hours.

One of the party is sent out of the room; some well-known hero, or equally well-known character from a book, like Dickens's novels or Shakspeare's plays, is selected, and when the absentee returns to the assembly, he or she is greeted as the person fixed upon, and he must reply in such a manner as to bring out more information as to the character he has unconsciously assumed.

Suppose the game has commenced, and when the player enters the room he is thus accosted:

"Your military ardor must have been very great, and you had a very adventurous spirit, when you left your home in England, and set out with a determination of fighting the Turks."

"Yes, I was always very fond of adventures."

"Well, you had plenty of them; and when you were taken prisoner, and sold to the Bashaw, your mistress, to whom he presented you, felt so much sympathy and affection for you that you were sent to her brother, but he not being so well pleased with you, treated you cruelly."

"He did; and although I suffered much from his treatment, I suffered more in the idea of being a slave."

"The thought must have been terrible to you," remarks another of the players, "or you would not have killed your master, hid his body, clothed yourself in his attire, mounted his horse, and galloped to the desert, where you wandered about for many days, until at last you reached the Russian garrison, where you were safe."

"And well pleased was I to reach there in safety; but was I then content with my travels?"

"For a while; but the spirit of enterprise, so great within you, caused you to set sail for the English colony of Virginia, when you were taken a prisoner again, this time by the Indians, and your head placed upon a large stone, in order to have your brains beaten out with clubs."

"What a dreadful situation I was in, with only enemies around me!"

"But there was one who proved a friend. A young and beautiful princess, finding that her entreaties for your life were useless, rushed forward, laid her head upon yours, and thus resolved to share your fate or save your life."

"I am deeply grateful to Pocahontas for her noble act, and I am also glad to find myself so renowned a person as Captain John Smith."

* * * * *

ENIGMA.

My first is black, or brown, or white; Of mechanism exquisite; Our earliest help, our latest need; The first to greet, the last to speed; Our constant help in daily tasks; The gift th' impatient lover asks; The forger's bane; the poor man's good, Procuring him his children's food.

My next is often seen in fur, Yet oft as light as gossamer; Sometimes the school-boy gets his share, And lamentation fills the air. My whole are polished, hard, and strong, To hardened natures they belong; And when my first my next bestows, 'Tis time my whole should interpose.

HOUSE-HUNTING.

End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, May 23, 1882, by Various