[to be continued.]
"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD."—Drawn by Sol Eytinge, Jun.
Clearwater, Minnesota.
My home is on a farm a mile and a half from the banks of the Mississippi. In the winter, men go out hunting deer. In spring, there are lots of geese, and there are plenty of wolves too, which come prowling around to catch our hens and chickens. We have forty little chickens. We have had a great many strawberries this summer. My kitten has four perfectly white feet. He is a fine mouser, and catches both mice and squirrels. His name is Major. School closed a week ago. I had two pieces to speak, and two to sing. I am twelve, and my sister is eight years old.
Estella.
Niagara, Ontario, Canada.
I am eleven years old. I have got three rabbits, five ring-doves, and two little white kittens. The Chicora and City of Toronto run two trips each from here to Toronto every day except Sunday.
I have an uncle out in the Rocky Mountains. He is coming home soon.
I like Jimmy Brown's stories very much.
Joseph B. S.
Clifton, Ohio.
I have a large Maltese cat, and his name is Kitty Clover. I am writing this letter with my friend Pearl. I am seven years old, and am reading in the Fourth Reader. I like "The Cruise of the 'Ghost,'" and the "Daisy Cot" was lovely.
Mary Belle B.
Here is Pearl's letter:
I am nine years old. Our school has been closed four weeks. I read in the Fourth Reader too. I have not seen my mamma for a week. I am visiting in the country. I have a little canary, and I call him Dicky. I had a kitty, but it ran away, and mamma fears it was killed. I have two brothers. My little brother cried twice when "Toby Tyler" was ended.
Eva Pearl R.
Tucson, Arizona.
I am away out in Arizona. The place would seem quite a wilderness to some of you. We live a mile out of town, but we have a fine public school to attend. I have two brothers and one sister. We all go to meet papa when he brings Young People home, and whoever gets the paper first has to sew it, after cutting the leaves. I like the "Pinafore Rhymes" best of anything, and "Kitty Kimo" especially. I have a little cunning kitty named Topsy. We went to the show June 16, and saw two large elephants. They waltzed gracefully, and kept time to the music. They looked beautiful when dancing, and when the musicians played mournfully they lay down and pretended that they were dead. There were other animals at the show, as well as a living skeleton, two little brothers only three feet high, one thirty-four and the other thirty-one years old, and a droll couple with square eyes, who came from Madagascar.
Maud F. D.
Batavia, Ohio.
I think "The Cruise of the 'Ghost'" is the best story we have had yet. I have a printing-press with which I can print cards and little papers. I am in favor of the Natural History Society, and I hope it will succeed, as I think a good deal of knowledge can be gained in that way.
P. F. J.
New York City.
This' is my first letter to Young People. I have three sisters and two brothers. My mother once had a canary-bird, but it broke its leg, and then it died, and we missed it very much. I do not go to school, but have a governess who teaches me at home. We have taken Young People from the first number. Good-by.
Grace L.
Spencer, Iowa.
I am nine years old. I attend a large school-house here, and have a very kind teacher, who knows how to draw very beautifully. We are now practicing for the closing summer exercises. A little girl and myself are to speak "Beautiful Snow." My eldest sister teaches school, and my big brother is a clerk in a store. I have St. Nicholas, Wide Awake, and Young People, and I received the latter as a prize for printing very nicely.
Lulu McP.
New London, New Hampshire.
I have a little rabbit with pink eyes. I go to school in winter, and make mud pies in summer. My sister is four years old, and my brother is three. Her name is Carrie, and his is Pagnie. I am eight years old. My grandpa fell on the stones in the brook not long ago, and hurt his leg very badly.
Alice P. Q.
What a pity for grandpa to have had such an accident! Do you ever make your pies in clam-shells or broken dishes, and trim them with parsley? They look very pretty when dressed in that way; and though not good enough to eat, they give the little baker a good appetite for real tarts and turn-overs.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I want to tell you about our cunning little dog. She is a blue Skye, and her name is Gypsy. She follows mamma all over the house. Sometimes she gets behind a table, or lies down with her head on a stool for a pillow. She begs and speaks. Sometimes she walks on her hind-legs. We play hide-and-seek together, and I tell Gypsy to go up stairs while I hide. When I call her, she runs down as fast as she can, gives a little turn at the bottom of the stairs, and then hunts till she finds me. She is very fond of ice-cream. Sometimes I put my coat on her, and mamma puts a dunce cap on her head. She then looks very funny indeed. We have a cat that is pure white. Her hind-legs are paralyzed, so she goes along like a kangaroo.
Lucy.
Poor puss! How sorry we are for her! Gypsy must be very droll; and we think Gypsy's little mistress is very kind and patient, or else she could never have taught her pet so many tricks. It is not fair to let her wear a dunce cap. She ought to have a little hat and feather.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I am very much in favor of the Natural History plan, and think Gracie B——'s suggestion of having it in a separate department is very nice. I want to know whether single persons may send in reports. I am going away soon, and I will get a good many curious things. I have also a very nice book called The Child's Book of Nature, which is in three parts—Plants, Animals, and Light, Heat, etc. I am ten years old.
Mary B. B.
Of course individuals may send reports.
Chicago, Illinois.
I shall become a member of the first Natural History Society formed in Chicago. I think the first meeting should be devoted to games, and to letting the members become acquainted with each other.
William R. E.
The way to start a thing is to start it by setting about it at once. Many of our boys simply intend to join when societies shall be formed, and so we are afraid they will lose the benefit the society would be to them. Can you not begin by asking the boy next door to join you in looking for something interesting close by—say, for instance, in the garden, or on your first walk together? Then invite some others. We would advise you not to devote your meetings to play.
Petoskey, Michigan.
"The Cruise of the 'Ghost'" and "Toby Tyler" have been splendid. I read Our Post-office Box, and especially enjoy hearing the boys and girls tell about their pets, and the nice times they have at home and school.
I want to tell you about my dear little brother. He was a year old on the 22d of June. He was very weak, and we had to be very careful of him. The doctor said he must be out a great deal, and mamma used to let me take him out. On the 1st of July he was as well as ever, and I had him out a good while. At tea-time I placed him in his little chair at the table, but in a little while he had a spasm, and soon he died. This is the third brother I have lost in four years.
Walter M. C.
It is no doubt a comfort to you to remember that you took good care of the little one while you had him with you, and that you sometimes gave up a game with the other boys that you might assist your mother by taking the delicate baby out in the fresh air.
Greenville, Ohio.
I thought I would write and tell you that I live in Greenville, on the site where Wayne made his treaty with the Indians, November, 1812. My sister and I have four pets—two canaries, one pony, and a dog. Every time we let the canaries out of the cage, they hop over to the rocking-chair, and get on the rockers for us to rock them. I love your paper very much, and would not do without it. I am twelve years old.
Pearl L. M.
P. S.—Please tell Mr. Otis to write a sequel to "Toby Tyler," and delight hundreds and thousands of children.
In this number Mr. Otis begins "Tim and Tip," which will probably please you as well as "Toby Tyler" did.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Do you think Mrs. Richardson, of North Carolina, would like any picture cards with printing on, or back numbers of Young People? I can send them if you think she would. I have two or three books also.
That No. 4 puzzle in No. 89 is just about true. Every Tuesday night, when I come home, I shout, "Has Young People come?" and last week I had fidgets from Monday till Thursday. I always get the fidgets on Monday, and sometimes on the Thursday after it has come, I like it so much. The Post-office Box is my favorite; then comes Jimmy Brown, and then "The Cruise of the 'Ghost.'" I collect postal cards only, because they are samples of the printing done in different countries and times. I send cards I printed myself at father's office. I have sold 125 kites this month.
T. W. S.
The cards are beautifully printed, and you are quite a man of business in the kite line. But about those "fidgets," what do mother and sisters think of them? You must try to keep cool. By all means, send Mrs. Richardson some picture cards or nicely printed reward cards, with any back numbers of Young People you can spare, and the books you mention. She will find a use for them.
Marysville, Ohio.
I like all the stories in Young People so much that I can not make a choice. I have a little sister whose name is Flora. She is four years old, and I am eleven. We each have a swing. Hers is in the grape arbor, and mine is under a large apple-tree. I had a pet kitten about two years ago, and called it Daisy. Sometimes when we were eating, and I moved my head, she would jump upon my back, and pull and bite away at my hair as if she were going to pull it off; and as that was not polite, I always made her jump down. One morning when papa went out to feed Bill, the horse, he found her dead before the barn door.
Helen N. C.
Menomonee, Wisconsin.
I am afraid my last wiggle was too late for the paper, as I sent it only a few days before the paper came, but I hope I will have better luck with this one. Mamma says she is sure mine would have been published had it been in time, as it was so nearly like the artist's idea. Papa has gone back to Arizona, and I shall coax him to write for Young People a story all about centipeds and spiders and other poisonous things, as he sees them there every day.
Mamma says when the Natural History Club is formed, Young People will be perfect.
Lottie G. N.
Little correspondents must send wiggles, etc., very promptly if they wish them to appear.
Jersey City, New Jersey.
I think "The Cruise of the 'Ghost'" is splendid. I have only taken the paper a little while, but a lady gave me many of the earlier numbers. Please explain whether there is a charge for advertising exchanges.
I am going to the Catskill Mountains, and expect to see a great deal that is new and wonderful.
George T.
There is no charge for printing exchanges.
Baraboo, Wisconsin.
I have seen so many letters in Our Post-office Box, and thought them so interesting, that I have resolved to try to write one myself. I will tell you of an experiment I tried this morning. Unlike most other girls, I can never find anything very interesting to do. After awhile I remembered a picture I had seen in a magazine, and I set to work to see if I could do what a little boy in the picture was doing. I first took two or three pea pods, and began to make a boat. I first opened the side of a pod, and took out the peas, and then I stuck a pin through the end that I had split open, putting the head downward. I then took a little piece of a stick, and stuck it in the pea pod for a seat. It made a very pretty boat.
Blanche P.
We all have our lazy days, little Blanche, when it seems as if there is nothing we particularly care to do; and when such days come, it is wise to try your plan, and see whether or not there is some entertaining little experiment which we can make. You might try to solve the puzzles in this paper the next time you feel that you don't know what to do next.
Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California.
I wish some of the correspondents, or the editor himself, would inform me how to make a squirrel trap, for we are perfectly infested with squirrels, and also with rats and mice. I live on a little farm in a pretty little village called Menlo Park, and I am sure that I would not be happy at all if I were in the city of San Francisco. I am also sure that Master Robert C. W. would find that he is very much mistaken in his wish to be there, could he make the trial. I make visits once in a while to the city, and I am sure that my little brothers and sister and I enjoy it much more than if we were to live there.
Frederick H. H.
Although squirrels are cunning little fellows, and in most cases it would be a shame to kill them or to disturb them in any way, they do sometimes appear in such numbers as to become pests. In this case simple box or figure-four traps, such as every boy knows how to make, may be used with success to catch them. Better still is the small-sized steel-trap known as the Rat-Trap, arranged with bait hung above it.
Brooklyn, New York.
I am twelve years old. My brother and I take Young People, and wish it would come twice a week instead of once. I think the stories in it are very interesting. My brother likes "Toby Tyler" and "Phil's Fairies" the best. I think Jimmy Brown is a very peculiar boy, and I like his stories, and wish he would relate another of his sad incidents soon. This is my first letter to Young People.
Orpha A. H.
Brooklin, Ontario, Canada.
I would like to start a Natural History Society, but there are no boys or girls around here who take any interest in such things.
I have quite a collection of stamps now. I very much like the stories Jimmy Brown writes, and wish he would write about some of the good times he has at home. My father owns quite a large farm, and he is very busy now, as harvest-time is here. We have for pets four cats and seven kittens.
I have lost the address of one of the correspondents who wished for postmarks, and can not find it. The correspondent will oblige me by sending his address to
Annie Dryden.
The boy who answered my letter, and sent me a stamp from the Cape of Good Hope, did not send me his address, and I do not know how to find him.
Willie R. Watson.
112 Smithfield St., Pittsburgh, Penn.
Little correspondents who are as careless as the boy referred to, will wonder why they receive no equivalent for what they send. You should always write your full address in every letter you send, and to every person.
The following exchanges are offered by correspondents:
Soil and sand from Cayuga Lake, Pennsylvania iron ore, petrified wood, white gypsum, and white coral, for red coral, or other than Pennsylvania and Lake Superior iron ores, or for insects and curiosities.
Please tell me if I may join the Young People's Natural History Society alone, for I can not form any society here. I am thirteen years old.
Do American cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests? If not, please describe nests and eggs for me.
H. L. Willard, Cayuga, Cayuga Co., N. Y.
Join it by yourself, of course, and write us a letter whenever you have anything worth telling.
The American cuckoo does not adopt the indolent and dishonest ways of the European cuckoo about its nest. It lives in thick woods, and builds a nest of sticks and grass on the branch of some low tree. Its eggs are bright green, and it lays four or five. We are sorry to say that while its food is chiefly insects, snails, and berries, it sometimes steals and sucks the eggs of other birds. There are three kinds of cuckoo in the United States. The commonest has a yellow bill about an inch long, is greenish-brown above, and grayish below. One of the world's great poets, Wordsworth, wrote some beautiful stanzas addressed to this bird, in which he asked whether it were really a bird or only a wandering voice. It is very shy and solitary, but its note is cheery in the spring and summer.
Ingersoll's patent rubber family font, price $1, for the first volume of Young People, or a three-draw spy-glass. Send postal before exchange.
Fred Williams,
Box 80, Rockland P. O., Ontonagon, Mich.
Mexican garnets, and jasper stones from York Beach, Maine, for ores, fossils, and agates; or ocean curiosities, and pressed ferns and leaves, for minerals, petrifactions, and pressed sea-weeds; also two ounces of colored sand from York Beach, Maine, for the same from other localities. Please label specimens.
S. and L., Box 62, South Berwick, Me.
Acacia or cotton seed, specimens of Texas rock or soil, for Indian relics.
C. H. Dobbs, Jun.,
Robinson, Texas.
A steel hand bracket-saw, frame in good condition, with six blades, and fifty designs, including Swiss clock design, for an international stamp album in good condition and a small collection of good stamps, or the flags, coats of arms, or rulers of the countries. Thirty different stamps, for a moss or Superior agate, any kind of ore, a perfect arrow-head, or a garnet.
T. P. Morgan,
Garnett, Kan.
One button of silver as it comes from the assayer of the Contention Mine, Tombstone, for S. W. Durbin's Stamp Catalogue of 1879 in good condition. Write before sending.
T. D. W., Jun.,
Box 550, Delaware, Ohio.
Buttons with shanks, for minerals and other curiosities. Correspondents will please write before sending.
Sara J. Coatsworth, Galena, Ill.
Lead, zinc, and copper ores, hematite iron ore, iron pyrites, serpentine volcanic rock, scoriæ, cannel and peacock coal, mica, cotton seed, razor-shells, crystals of tourmaline, corundum, flint, asbestos, Chinese coins, old American copper coins, tripoli, woods, also a large number of ocean shells and fossil shells and plants, any and all of which I will exchange for fossil shells, plants, and animals. A trilobite especially desired, also Indian relics and arrow-heads.
E. V. Sheerar,
Wellsville, Allegany Co., N. Y.
[For other exchanges, see third page of cover.]
Freddie W. Shelley and Ernest F. Taylor withdraw from our exchange list, their supplies being exhausted.
Louie S.—Pressing Moss, and Scents.—Mosses, like ferns and flowers, should be gathered when in fine condition. Lay them smoothly between large sheets of newspaper, and cover them with a heavy weight, changing the paper once in three or four days. Some varieties of moss may be best preserved by simply shaking out in the air and drying.
The most delicate liquid perfume for the handkerchief is cologne, which is made by distilling balm, mint, lavender, rose leaves, and other sweet things in alcohol. The best cologne is imported, and bears the name of Jean Maria Farina, but it is expensive, and very good cologne indeed is made by many of our druggists at a less cost. The nicest sachet powder for clothing, note-paper, and other uses is pulverized orris root. This smells like violets; and if you make little bags, fill them with orris powder, and keep them in your bureau drawers and boxes, you will be sure to have a faint flower-like fragrance about you wherever you go.
Minnie K.—You may write to Our Post-office Box as often as you please, and we will enjoy reading your letters, but we can print one only once in a while.
Eva G.—We do not know that stamps have anything which can be called a language, like the language of flowers. They are conveniences invented to help the correspondence of the world along. At a glance you perceive that it would not be possible for all the people who write letters to pay money for them, because that would cause a great deal of delay. We place a stamp on the corner of the letter, and that represents the money which was spent for the stamp. The money goes to the government to pay the expenses of the postal service.
As to your little verse, we could easily translate it for you, but prefer to let you do it for yourself, partly because, if you are studying French, it will be a pleasant exercise, and partly, too, because this Post-office Box is meant for young people who read English, and we have not room for any other language in its crowded columns. Now haven't we "taken notice of your little letter"?
Eddy A.—The Barometer.—About two hundred years ago an Italian named Torricelli was making some experiments to find out why fluids would rise up in tubes when the air was drawn out. He filled a glass tube thirty-three inches long, and open at one end, with mercury, and then he put his finger over it to keep the mercury in, turned it bottom upward into a bowl of mercury, and took away his finger. As mercury is very heavy, it would seem as though it would have run out of the tube into the bowl, but it did not; it fell a little way, and remained stationary in the tube. He found that it rose and fell with the changes of the weather, being affected by the pressure of the outside air. All the barometers that have been made since Torricelli have been on his plan. It may give you a hint for the one you think of making.
E. C.—Washington's Salary.—General Washington received no salary either as Commander-in-Chief or as President of the United States. But he kept a very careful account of all his expenses, and they were paid by Congress.
Inquirer.—Secretary Blaine and the other cabinet officers receive a salary of $8000 per year.