Part 4

My brother and myself have a little pony that is real cunning. I was riding the other day, and a boy threw a snow-ball at her, and she ran after him just as fast as she could go, and he had to jump over a fence. The pony throws me off every time she gets a chance. I put my arm out of joint a few months ago, and it is not strong yet. I have a trapeze and some parallel rings. I can perform a great many tricks. The water is nearly as high now as it was in the spring. I was in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, and I saw the place where Matthew Carpenter was buried, but did not go near it. I tried to ride the bicycle that my brother rides, and I don't want to try again. I have a collection of 950 stamps, and I will exchange rare stamps, such as New Zealand, Servia, etc., for rare stamps and coins.

C. B. BIRD, Jefferson, Wis.

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APOLLO, PENNSYLVANIA.

I am a boy just twelve years old. My brother takes YOUNG PEOPLE for Blanche and me, on condition that we shall not read novels. We are having a new iron bridge, which will be free, built across the river at this place. They have four piers built, and still have one more, besides the two abutments, to finish. We used to pay toll across the old bridge, which was carried away when the ice came down the river last spring.

We have good coasting here in winter, as this is only a little country town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants. Our school re-opened in September, and will be in session six months.

I have three sisters and four brothers. Paul, the youngest, is a chubby little fellow of two.

A. LINCOLN C.

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COLFAX, CALIFORNIA.

In YOUNG PEOPLE No. 103 I saw a letter from Augusta C., South Glastenbury, Connecticut. This young lady says she hates cats. I should judge that she never had any. I disagree with her entirely. Almost any cat, if fed well and petted, will make as affectionate a little pet as one can desire. I have had a great many cats. When I was a little girl, about five or six years old, I had a very nice pussy, which I named Rose. She was exceedingly good and gentle, and would allow me to dress her in my doll's clothes, and rock her in my toy cradle. I have a very pretty kitten now. She is black, with dainty white paws, and great sleepy yellow eyes. She is very gentle and loving, and purrs loudly whenever I fondle her. I have named her Niketa. I hope Miss Augusta will see that she is mistaken in saying that _all_ cats are treacherous, and "care for nothing but their own comfort." I know of many cases where cats have displayed their love for human beings.

JEANNIE K. P.

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EMMETSBURG, IOWA.

My little brother is off with papa in the country, and I hope you will publish my letter so that I can surprise him, as I am going to keep it secret. I am almost seven, and can ride nicely. We have a pony named Bonny, and I have been riding all day; three of us little ones ride at the same time, and sometimes four, but not far. I had a cat named Fannie, and we had to have her killed this morning, for she had an awful spasm. We had three pet lambs, Gypsy, Topsy, and Flirt, but we have sent them to the farm for the winter. Mamma is writing for me. "Good-night, and pleasant dreams."

DAISY O.

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NEENAH, WISCONSIN.

I am a little boy seven years old. I have a dog named Rover. I go to school to my auntie. I have no sister nor brother here, but I have two little sisters in heaven. My mamma gave me an express wagon. I am going to take YOUNG PEOPLE until I am a big man.

ALLIE HARWOOD L.

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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

I go to the public school, and take advantage of all that my teacher tells us. We have a very good teacher; her name is Miss H. The boys and girls saved their pennies and bought pictures, etc., to decorate our room. Do you not think that it is nice to see that your room is the nicest room in the school? When we are through our lessons we can go to a table, which is called the reading-table. Here you can find story-books of all kinds, and among these is HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. On the same table you can also find cubes, scales, measures, weights, etc. We are all the time saying, If we only could see something about our school! and I hope that you will print this in the Post-office Box. We will visit HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE one of these days.

Is this written plain enough?

C. F. K.

Written so plainly that tired eyes were rested when they read it. It is a splendid idea to have that reading-table in your class-room.

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ATHENS, GEORGIA.

I am nine years of age. I have a pet cat, and her name is Beauty, and I have a dog whose name is Rex. I have a sister older than myself; she is ten years of age. I go to school to Miss Fannie A. I like her very well, although she sometimes scolds. I have an uncle who sends us the YOUNG PEOPLE. I liked "All-Hallow-eve" very much. My sister Hallie has a pet dog, whose name is Flirt. She is so timid that if you go in the yard with a stick, and make believe that you are going to whip her, she will get down on her stomach, and keep right still until you go away. I think this is long enough, so good-by.

Your friend,

ANNIE H.

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WOODSIDE, NEAR LINCOLNTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

I wish again, my dear young friends, to thank you for the books, papers, and the box of things for the Christmas tree that have come since I wrote to you last. I am so glad you keep sending them, for I find so many who need them, and to whom they will do so much good. We have some money, and will begin having the lumber for the school-house hauled to the mill to be sawed very soon now--as soon as the men sow their wheat and get in their corn. The parcels I have received have been from Miss Emma Joiner, Easton, Md.; Miss Julia Langden, Elmira, N. Y.; Rev. David Strang, Lincoln, Tenn.; Mrs. E. A. Clark, Battle Creek, Mich.; Miss Maria McRene Suydam, Newark, N. J.; Miss Mary O'Neil, Miss Clara Copeland, Miss Harper, Miss Millie Glover, Miss Hattie Burgess, Miss Cora Cote, Miss Livia Mandeville, Miss Grace Webb, Miss Etta Coulter, and Miss Hattie Plinney, Rochester, N. Y.; Miss Mary Harkell, Weathersfield, Vt.; Master Charles Graff, Harlem, New York City; Miss Carrie Yardley, Lockhaven, Penn.; Mrs. Harrison, Walnut Creek, Col.; Mrs. P. A. Harrison, Dewbury, Barry County, Mich.; Miss McFarland and Mrs. Snyder, Paxton, Ill.; Miss Miriam Oliver, Milwaukee, Wis.; Master Paul Krughoff, Nashville, Ill.; Master N. B. Blunt, Lexington Avenue, New York City; Miss Annie Wetzell, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Master George R. Hitchcock, Champlain, N. Y.; Miss Helen Woodworth, 268 Ryerson Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Master Walter Anderson, Nashville, Ill.; Mrs. S. B. Bortwick, South Amboy, N. J.; Miss Ethel and Master Vivian Ketchum, Augusta, Ill.; Miss Minna Mandeville, Kinderhook, N. Y.: Miss M. D. L., Madison, N. J.; Miss Corinne Redden, Master Bertie Ellis, and Miss Winnie Needles, Nashville, Ill.; Miss Slack, Bristol, Penn.

Our school keeps growing, and now numbers fifty-six. They are learning very well indeed. They are now learning on Saturday afternoons a carol to sing at Christmas! Not many can read; they have to learn the words orally. They catch the tune very quickly. They are looking forward with so much pleasure to the expected tree at Christmas. I wish I could tell you what a happy time it will be for them all, and how often I wish that you could all spend a Sunday with us, and see how pleased they are to be learning. We do--all of us who teach them--thank you so much for your kind and generous help! I will write you all about the tree after Christmas. Truly your grateful friend,

MRS. RICHARDSON.

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JACKSONVILLE, ILLINOIS.

The Editor said that we little girls must write about our dolls, so I thought I would. I have not seen any letters from this place. I must begin to write about my dolls. I have seven baby dolls--Lillie (a wax one), Daisy, Phoebe (she is wax too), Mattie, Ludie, Boneby, and last a little doll, not an inch long, called Neil. I had four birds, and they all died; three doves and five cats, and they all ran away or were killed. I now have a white and black cat. Mamma drives a spirited horse, and we all make a great pet of him.

GRACE A. M.

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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

I am a little girl six years old. My brother takes HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, but I love to read it, and I read it all myself. I like to read the letters best. I have been reading since I was four years old, and we have had YOUNG PEOPLE from the first, and on rainy days we get the numbers out and look them all over. We have two dogs named Beaut and Snooze. Snooze has a "bobtail." I have a black cat, with a few white spots, named Harry, and when I take him up he puts his two paws around my neck, as though he wanted to love me. He never scratches or acts ugly to me. I have three dolls, named Fannie, Bessie, and Nellie. I have a cousin Anna, just my size, and we play together often. I go to Sunday-school every Sunday, and learn the Golden Text; then I get a pink ticket for saying it, and when I have four pink tickets, I get a pretty floral card for them. I study at home with mamma. I can read, spell, and cipher, and now I am learning to write. I hope to see my letter in YOUNG PEOPLE. Mamma is writing this letter for me, but I told her what to write. Your friend,

HATTIE C.

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WEYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS.

I have a hen-house of my own, and I am going to keep hens this winter. I have fifteen brown Leghorns and a rooster. I have made a silo, and filled it with sorrel for them to eat in the winter. If any of the boys who read YOUNG PEOPLE keep hens, I would like to hear from them. I have a cat that weighs thirteen pounds. I am eleven years old.

H. EVERETT C.

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FAIRVIEW, LOUISIANA.

I am a little Southern girl nine years old. My grandpa has taken Harper's publications as long as my mamma can remember, and has taken YOUNG PEOPLE for me ever since it came out. I have never been to a school, as there is none near us. I said my lessons to a Northern lady who was visiting her sister last year for four months, and she taught me all I know about writing. I say my lessons to mamma now. I think YOUNG PEOPLE is splendid. I live on a plantation about a mile from the Mississippi River. When it is high, we can read the names of the boats. It seems so strange to read about snow up North, when we have not had a frost. We have geraniums growing in the yard, and plenty of roses in bloom. We have nine pecan-trees; they are full of pecans. I have four dolls, and lots of play-things. Bob, Buddy, and I have a play-house under the grape-vine. I like to play with dolls very much.

H. M. S.

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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

I have three tame turtles. I put them all in a row to see which one can go the fastest. But the two big ones have now made their way into the ground, and left the little one behind, and so I have helped the little one to make its way into the ground with the others. I have a lot of pigeons, and I have some chickens. We were going out to the woods to-day to get some autumn leaves and moss, but it rained, so I thought I would write a letter to you.

JESSE W. P.

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MODIE G.--Your friend who thinks the Editor of YOUNG PEOPLE writes the letters in Our Post-office Box is mistaken. If she could only see what a budget awaits the Editor every morning, she would open her eyes quite wide with amazement. We are glad you learn to recite the pretty poems which are printed in YOUNG PEOPLE.

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Some of you are now and then puzzled and disappointed because your paper suddenly ceases to come to you on its usual day; you wonder what has happened to it. Let us tell you how to make such a provoking experience impossible. On the left-hand corner of the cover, just after the number of the volume, you will observe the number of the paper for the current week. Now look at the little printed label which bears your name, and on the right of your name you will perceive certain figures; they tell you the number of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE with which your subscription will expire. Within a few weeks of that number's arrival, ask papa to please renew the paper for you, and it will then go on without an interruption.

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WILLIE AND OTHERS.--Mud-turtles are managed during the winter just as land-turtles are; that is, given a tub of wet sand, and allowed to burrow there and go to sleep, as they do in the marshes where they live in freedom. You will find paragraphs about turtles in the Post-office Box of Nos. 5, 28, and 51, Vol. I.

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C. Y. P. R. U.

So far as she can, the Postmistress answers questions and publishes letters in the order of their reception. Nobody need feel slighted if attention to him or her is deferred. The turn of each will come in time.

And now to reply to some of the inquiries which are winking their inquisitive eyes like animated interrogation points while the Postmistress puts on her thinking-cap:

What were the original Seven Wonders of the World? They were these: 1. The Pyramids of Egypt. 2. The Mausoleum built for Mausolus, King of Caria, by his queen Artemisia. 3. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus. 4. The Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon. 5. The vast brazen image of the sun at Rhodes, called the Colossus. 6. The ivory and gold statue of Jupiter Olympus, at Olympia. 7. The Pharos, or Watch-tower, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria. You will find it an interesting and profitable pursuit for the long winter evenings to read something about these Wonders in the pages of ancient history. These Wonders were given in the Post-Office Box of No. 61, Vol. II., but we repeat them for the benefit of the C. Y. P. R. U.

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I am asked why the capital of France was called Paris. It derives its name from the Parish, a tribe of aborigines whom Cæsar met and defeated in his conquest of Gaul. This tribe occupied the island in the Seine on which the famous Cathedral of Notre Dame stands.

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DEAR POSTMISTRESS,--Can I do anything toward beautifying our ugly, old-fashioned parlor? It is covered with a horrid red and green Brussels carpet, an abomination to artistic eyes. The family photographs, in lozenge-shaped frames, adorn the walls, and the furniture is hopelessly hideous. Can you suggest anything? Don't mention Japanese fans or banners; mother wouldn't tolerate them. Don't speak of unbleached muslin curtains; they wouldn't be given house room. But do tell me how I can make the room look _livable_, for that is just what it does not look at present. An old school-mate is coming to visit me next month, and I blush to own it, but I am ashamed to have her see our dreadful parlor.

HARRIET L.

The carpet and pictures, as you describe them, are discouraging. But people must do the best they can under the circumstances which are theirs. One of the pleasantest parlors I ever saw had a rag-carpet on the floor, and a map of the United States, bordered by the heads of the successive Presidents, on the wall. In the first place, keep your parlor resplendently clean; don't permit the suspicion of dust or the trail of stray shreds and thread on the too brilliant carpet. Admit the sunshine and air every day. Fill the windows with plants--blooming plants, if possible, but green, growing ones at all events. Fill a glass globe with sprays of tradiscanthia, which grows rapidly in water, and set that on the middle of the table. Bring your choicest books, and put them where visitors can read them. "Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book, and the family must be poor indeed which, once in their lives, can not for such multipliable barley loaves pay their baker's bill." I do not know why I think so, but I am very sure that you have some books in your house; and believe me, nothing furnishes a room more beautifully than a few books. I do not admire fans and screens very much myself, and I am no friend to curtains and tidies and such things, unless one has plenty of time to care for them. But you have doubtless a large, old-fashioned sofa. Make a generous-looking pillow to invite the weary head, and put it at one end of the sofa, and at the other lay a gay patchwork quilt. Study harmony, and even in an ugly room harmony will evolve a certain degree of beauty. Every parlor should aim at some high effect. The key-note of your aim should be comfort, and comfort carried to its ultimate superlative is luxury.

The only way I know of to make a room look _livable_ is to live in it. Sit in your parlor every day. Gather the household there every evening. Don't be ashamed of the friendly, familiar faces on the walls, nor, indeed, suffer in yourself any shame of any honest thing that belongs to you or yours, your home or your environment. So advises the Postmistress.

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We are indebted to the Rev. A. B. Russell, of Cumberland Furnace, Dickson County, Tennessee, for the following interesting item illustrating the reasoning power of animals. Necessity is the parent of invention, and even a hog, it seems, can do something which resembles thinking:

We passed a full-grown hog with a cob usually in its mouth, especially when lying down, to enable it to breathe well, it having had its nose torn off at the extremity, some months ago, by a ferocious dog, to which I was witness. An instance of the reasoning of animal mind.

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TO BRONZE PLASTER OR SOAPSTONE FIGURES.--Give them a sizing of glue; rub them down with a piece of flannel. Take equal parts of Prussian blue, spruce ochre, and verditer, and mix with water, oil, or turpentine, each separately; then mix together so as to produce the shade desired. Apply with a small brush.

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L. M. E.--There are several excellent agricultural colleges in the Eastern States. Among them are the State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, at Orono, Maine; the Massachusetts Agricultural College, at Amherst; New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, at Hanover; College of Agriculture, in connection with Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York; Pennsylvania State College, Centre County, Pennsylvania; and State Agricultural College, at Burlington, Vermont. At any of these a student may be sure of the conditions which you mention.

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The members of the C. Y. P. R. U. will find in this number the conclusion of "The Wreck of the _Grosvenor_" to which we called their attention last week, and an article of great interest on the "Piano-forte," by Mrs. John Lillie.

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PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

DOUBLE ENIGMA.

In barter, not in sale. In liquor, not in juice. In umbrella, not in veil. In either, not in choose. In binding, not in wedge. In island, not in ledge. In rosy, not in pale. In drooping, not in frail. My whole are two favorite song-birds.

ELSIE FAY.

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No. 2.

A GEOGRAPHICAL PUZZLE.

My first is the initial letter of a river in England. My second is that of a city in Pennsylvania. My third is that of a river in South America. My fourth, of an island off the coast of Labrador. My fifth is that of one of the States. My sixth, that of a noted summer resort. My seventh, that of a lake in Switzerland. My eighth, of a lake in Minnesota. My ninth, of a city in Austria. My tenth, of one of the British isles. My eleventh, of a branch of the Amazon. My twelfth, of a city in Italy. My whole is something you have lately enjoyed.

KATIE.

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No. 3.

AN EASY ENIGMA.

My first is in mouse, but not in rat. My second in kitten, but not in cat. My third in stag, but not in deer. My fourth is in milk, but not in beer. My fifth is in stone, but not in sand. And my whole is something that can not stand.

KATIE M.

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No. 4.

EASY WORD SQUARE.

1. A girl's name. 2. Death. 3. A token. 4. A mountain.

PHIL I. PENE.

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No. 5.

BEHEADINGS.

Behead a story, and leave a beverage. A boy's nickname, and leave a verb. Behead to annoy, and leave metal in its rough state. Behead a part of a tree, and leave the edge of a wall. Behead an animal, and leave a personal pronoun. The first letters of the beheaded words spell an indispensable article of furniture.

MAUD B.

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ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 106.

No. 1.

Burlington. Gentian.

No. 2.

Fox-hound.

No. 3.

A M E N D M A N O R E N S U E N O U N S D R E S S

No. 4.

C H A R D H I D E R I R E N E M E L T S B R A S S

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Correct answers to puzzles have been received from Jonas D. Cooper, Bertie Wheeler, Arthur Zinn, Nathan Glucksman, Belle Walrath, Maggie Cushing, William A. Lewis, "Lodestar."

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The following are the names of the little folks who have succeeded in reproducing our artist's idea of Wiggle No. 22. We shall be glad if each will send us his or her address:

W. M. Duff, George Strauss, "Scamp," H. Hull, Sadie E. Lyon, Bessie S. Brown, L. H. Gibbs, "Tip," J. R., Peter B. Havenagh, J. A. H., Wilfred Hostetter, E. S. C. (aged six years), Arthur Beames, Carl Woodruff, and Gertie Davis.

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[_For Exchanges, see third page of cover._]

WHAT AM I?