COLORS.

A, very light yellow-green; B and C, darker shades; a, very light salmon pink; b and c, darker shades; l, light yellow; n, old gold; m, an intermediate shade of yellow.

Every other flower might be worked in old blues.

Fig. 12.

The readers of Young People, whose letters give assurance of the pleasure and instruction they have received from the paper during the past year, will doubtless be glad to put others in the way of sharing in their enjoyment. This they can most easily do by speaking of the paper to their friends and acquaintances, showing them copies of it, and advising them to subscribe for the new volume. By thus extending its circulation they will be working for their own interest; because the larger the list of subscribers is, the better able the publishers will be to increase the beauty and attractiveness of the paper.

The next issue of Harper's Young People will be a beautiful Christmas number. The serial stories and the Post-office Box will be omitted, and the entire contents will be suited to the holiday season. There will be a charming Christmas story, entitled "How It All Happened," by Miss Alcott, with illustrations by Jessie Curtis Shepherd; "When the Clock Struck Twelve," a play for Christmas-eve, by Edgar Fawcett; a beautiful double-page Christmas picture by Thomas Nast; music; and other pretty things to please our young readers. The number will be inclosed in a special cover, designed by W. A. Rogers, and printed in dark red ink.

We must again call the attention of our correspondents to the fact that the Post-office Box can not be made a medium for buying or selling curiosities, stamps, or articles of any kind. Neither can we print requests for the address of any correspondent.

The requests for exchange should be made as short as possible. We can not publish lists of eggs, stamps, minerals, and other things; but would advise boys and girls to make out a neat list of the articles they have to exchange, and those they desire in return, and have copies always ready to send in answer to the letters they receive.

Requests for exchange are often accompanied by lengthy conditions, but we can not make room to print them, and shall invariably leave them for the exchangers to settle among themselves. In sending specimens great care should always be taken to mark them distinctly, and to state the locality from whence they came, otherwise the recipient may become the possessor of some valuable curiosity, and be unaware of its character.

Our puzzle contributors will please remember that a puzzle, in order to be accepted, must be not only good, but must have a solution not already used in Young People, and contain no slang, and no obsolete words. Read over your contributions and correct them carefully before sending them to Young People, as the misuse of a single letter spoils an otherwise excellent puzzle.

Montreal, Canada.

I am a little boy nine years old. I have been ill in bed for ten weeks, but now I am getting better.

I had a little dog named Bogey, but he bit a policeman, and we had to send him away.

We have lots of snow here now, and the sleigh-bells are tinkling all day. I wish I was well enough to have a snow-ball fight with the other boys. Now they have plenty of coasting and snow-shoeing and tobogganing, and it is great fun.

I can read all of Young People myself. I wish it would come oftener.

Bertie G.

New York City.

I want to tell the readers of Young People how to make a bran pudding for the Christmas dinner. It is the nicest kind of pudding. Select some little gifts, pretty or ridiculous, for each person expected. Wrap them neatly, and write upon each the name, and a few lines appropriate to the present and the receiver. Place them in a large tin pan, and cover them with dry clean bran. After all the other good things have been served, have this placed before papa, and he will take out each package with a spoon, and read the name and verse aloud. Shouts of laughter and expressions of delight greet each one as the parcels are opened. If mamma or aunty will help write the verses, they can be made very funny, and be a jolly ending to a Christmas dinner. It is a dessert very much better than plum-pudding for little folks.

Bessie Guyton.

Glasgow, Scotland.

I get Young People every week, and I am so pleased when it comes! I liked "The Moral Pirates" very much.

I have a brother a year younger than I am, and we each have a pet cat. His is all black except its paws, which are white, so we call it White Socks. Mine is all gray, and its name is Jenny. We have a very pretty little collie dog named Tyne.

I have four dolls, and a black doll for their nurse. I have never been to school. We have a governess. I like to read the letters in the Post-office Box very much, and I should like to know if I am the first little girl who has sent a letter from Scotland.

Peggie M.

The Post-office Box has received numbers of letters from Scottish lads and lassies.

Medford, Massachusetts.

I have taken Young People only a little while, and I like it so much I would be very sorry not to have it now. When my papa brings it home I take it to school, and my teacher reads it to the scholars. There are fifty in our school.

Howard L.

Hutchinson, Kansas.

We had a present of a pair of white mice. They had four little ones, but my sister killed one of them. The mice have red eyes and pink feet. The mother mouse is very kind to the little ones. She picks them up in her mouth as a cat does her kittens. They are not large enough to eat yet, but the big ones eat cookies and apples, and drink milk. We have a tin cage to keep them in.

I do not go to school. Mamma teaches my sister and me at home. I am eight years old.

Mary B. M.

Ottawa, Canada.

There are some very fine buildings in this city. The Parliament House and Departmental Buildings are situated on a beautiful hill about two hundred feet high. All three are built of marble. The ground, which is tastefully laid out with lawns and flower beds, is in the form of a square, with the Parliament House in the centre, and a Departmental Building on either side. From the rear of the Parliament House there is a fine view of the Chaudière Falls and the surrounding country.

A bridge joining the provinces of Quebec and Ontario has just been completed, which is the second largest bridge in the world.

Edward L.

Danville, Illinois.

I want to tell the Post-office Box of the fun I had this afternoon. We met at two o'clock, and went to the river. We coasted a long while on the large hills, then we went on the ice. The river is frozen hard, and the skaters took some of us riding on the ice. We had a splendid time. Afterward we went back to the hills, and built a large bonfire. The flames were about eight feet high, and we hurrahed and shouted. We went home about five o'clock.

I can not express in words how much I like Young People. The stories and pictures are elegant.

Will you please tell me which was the first railroad in the United States?

Colmore S.

The first railway in the United States was constructed in 1826 from the quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. The cars were drawn by horses. The second American railroad was laid in 1827, from the coal mines of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to the Lehigh River. With branches and turn-outs it was thirteen miles long. It was operated by gravity. Mules were used for drawing back the empty cars. The first passenger railway was the Baltimore and Ohio, fifteen miles of which were opened in 1830. During the first year the cars were drawn by horses, but in 1831 the first locomotive built in America was put on the track. It had an upright instead of a horizontal boiler. On its trial trip it drew an open car at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills. The next passenger line built was the Mohawk and Hudson, from Albany to Schenectady.

Fort Warren, Boston, Massachusetts.

I have taken Harper's Young People ever since No. 9, and I like it very much. I think "The Moral Pirates" and "Old Times in the Colonies" are the best stories.

We have a pet cat named Frisky, and she wears a very large ruffle around her neck, like Queen Elizabeth. We had two dogs, but we sent them away because there were too many about the Fort. Army posts are so dull, that we like to get all the pets we can.

Will you please tell me who first discovered the Antarctic Continent?

Chester Maxwell W.

The Antarctic Continent was discovered in January, 1840, by Captain Wilkes, of the United States navy, who was commander of an exploring expedition toward the south pole. He traced the coast for some distance, but was prevented from landing by the great masses of ice along the shore. In 1841, Sir James Ross, who commanded a British expedition, penetrated still farther south, and discovered Mount Erebus, which is the most southern volcano, so far as known, and which at the time of its discovery was throwing out smoke and flame. He also discovered Mount Terror, which is in appearance an extinct volcano.

Saratoga Springs, New York.

I shall be twelve years old next February. Willie W. and I got up a company of soldiers, and had a big parade in November. The Drum-Major was a boy very oddly dressed. The newspaper here said our parade made a smile on more faces than one. We do not expect to parade again until next summer; then, when all the city boys are up here, we will show them our regiment.

Nash R.

Newman, Georgia.

My uncle sends me Young People from Macon, and I like it so much! I am eight years old, but I have never been to school. My little cousin and I recite our lessons at home. I have a little pony named Dolly.

Freddie B.

Herman, Minnesota.

I have received so many letters from parties wishing to exchange for my petrified buffalo's tooth that I hardly know what to do. I only had two specimens. But I have sent a number that were not petrified. I hope the correspondents will see this letter, and know why they did not receive just what they expected. I can not answer all the letters I have received now, but will do so as soon as possible.

Theodore H. Patchen.

New Orleans, Louisiana.

For my winter sport I go to my uncle's sugar plantation, and see them make sugar. I have a pony and a colt up there, and have lots of fun.

Monroe V.

I would like to exchange a few Hot Springs diamonds, and also some seeds of the cotton-plant, for ocean curiosities, shells, or Indian relics. My pa procured these diamonds at the Hot Springs of Arkansas last summer.

Pa has a jug which was taken from a mound thirty feet high. There were trees growing on the mound three feet in diameter. I asked pa how old the jug was, and he said the Mound-Builders put it there four thousand years ago, more or less.

Annie Sidney Duffie,
Princeton, Arkansas.

My grandpa sends us Harper's Weekly and Young People, and papa says, "It is the best reading we could have for our little ones." We children hope never to miss a number of our dear Young People. We keep them all nice, and some time we will have them bound.

If all the little folks who read this paper could come out here, we could get them plenty of curiosities. The winters here are very quiet, but in the summer the town is full of strangers.

I have some pressed ferns and leaves I will send to any little folks who would like them.

Agnes, P. O. Box 19,
Forest Lake, Washington County, Minnesota.

The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:

United States internal revenue stamps for United States and foreign postage stamps.

Charles E. Barbour,
150 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Flower seeds.

Gerty M. Lothrop,
Topsfield, Washington County, Maine.

Sea-shells and minerals.

Byron Huff,
P. O. Box 171, Newton Centre, Massachusetts.

Birds' eggs.

W. K. Post,
21 North Washington Square, New York City.

Brazilian, Canadian, and Cuban stamps for a solid piece of flint the size of an egg.

William Naldrett,
501 East Eleventh Street, New York City.

Postage stamps.

Tommie Samuels,
Care of G. W. Newman & Co.,
Emporia, Kansas.

Pressed ferns for autumn leaves or moss.

H. P. G., P. O. Box 1138,
Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minnesota.

Minerals and stamps for minerals and feathers.

Hallie Crenshaw,
Care of Postmaster, Marengo, Iowa County, Iowa.

French and English coins.

W. B. Shober, Cumberland, Maryland.

Postage stamps.

H. C. Pearson,
Fishersville, Merrimac Co., New Hampshire.

Postage stamps.

F. W. Treadway,
169 Jennings Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Postage stamps and postmarks.

Charles Carter,
P. O. Box 1167, Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Shells and quartz for minerals.

Maggie Creswick,
2912 Clark Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri.

United States postmarks and pieces of the Washington Monument for foreign stamps, shells, coins, minerals, or relics.

Mabel A. J. Cornish,
310 First Street, S. E., Washington, D. C.

A piece of rhinoceros skin for iron, lead, silver, or gold ore, or for petrifactions.

George L. Osgood, Jun.,
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Postage stamps and specimens of petrified wood for stamps. Old issues of United States and South American stamps especially desired.

J. R. Bedford,
5 Spencer Place, Fourth Avenue, New York City.

Postmarks for minerals, Indian relics, or curiosities of any kind.

William Bryant,
171 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

Postage stamps, stamped envelopes, and postal cards, especially with readers of Young People in foreign countries.

Edwin T. Cole,
804 Mahantongo Street, Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

Any natural product of Western New York for rice and cotton as taken from the field, or for the moss found on trees in the Southern States.

Clifton B. Gates,
Ellington, Chautauqua County, New York.

Sea-shells, postage stamps, and curiosities.

Peter Welch,
276 Bridge Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Rare stamps or minerals for foreign coins.

Sidonia Stien,
125 East Sixty-ninth Street, New York City.

Rare foreign and United States stamps for ocean curiosities and Indian relics.

John A. Muno,
Lock Box 68, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois.

United States War Department and foreign stamps for birds' eggs.

Joseph R. Haskin,
Fort Preble, Portland, Maine.

Fossils, gold, silver, and iron ore, and cocoons of the Atticus cecropia, for minerals, coins, fossils, Indian relics, or skulls of birds or animals.

Fletcher M. Noe,
165 N. Ala. Street, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Twenty-five foreign stamps or minerals for fossils and minerals.

Thomas W. Gilbert,
23 Park Row (Room 37), New York City.

Danish stamps and Chinese coin for any other foreign stamps or coin.

George C. Codding,
Petaluma, Sonoma County, California.

Postage stamps from Brazil, Hong-Kong, or Japan, for minerals.

E. G. Lathers,
P. O. Box 29, Pelhamville, New York.

Olive W. H.—We do not know. You would better write to some of our exchanges, or to some dealer in stamps.

Arthur N.—Write and ask your question of the correspondent herself. Her address was given in Young People No. 53.

Marguerite.—If you wish the cover, title-page, and index to Harper's Young People, Volume I., sent to you by mail, you must send forty-eight cents to the publishers. The amount will be received in clean, unused United States postage stamps of any denomination.

J. M.—A translation of the hieroglyphs on the New York Obelisk is given in the London Athenæum of March 13, 1880, which you will find at any of the large reading-rooms. The same translation is reprinted in a volume entitled The Obelisk and Freemasonry, published by J. W. Bouton, 706 Broadway, New York city.

"Subscriber," Radnor, Ohio.—All of Willson's School Readers are published by Messrs. Harper & Brothers. There are eight in the series. They run in regular order from the First to the Fifth, and there are besides three Intermediate Readers. We do not know to which one you refer.—We can not print your request for exchange, as you give no address.

O. W. S.—We can give you no information in regard to the offer you inquire about, as we never heard of it.

Fred W.—The subscription price of Harper's Monthly, Weekly, and Young People, to one address, for one year, is eight dollars and fifty cents.

F. F.—We can not tell you what to buy for your mother's Christmas present, for we do not know as well as you, who are near her, what kind of a present would please her the best. But we would advise you to think very carefully, and if you can remember any pretty thing she has expressed a wish for, or any little comfort which you suspect she has gone without in order that she might get something for you, try to give her that. Do not spend your money for a trinket, but get something pretty and useful at the same time, like a handsome work-basket or a soft worsted breakfast shawl, and every time mamma uses it she will be sure to remember her little girl's loving thoughtfulness much more tenderly than if you give her vases or other parlor ornaments which will be stood away on the mantel-piece.

W. S. Hutchinson, William L. Betton, G. A. J., and Others.—You can get a very good illustrated catalogue of postage stamps by sending twenty-five cents to Scott & Co., 146 Fulton Street, New York city.

Hattie Kerr.—If you keep your crabs well fed with bits of raw beef or raw fish, never allowing them to get hungry, they will be more likely to leave the other inhabitants of your aquarium in peace.

Helen E. V.—Parrakeets will eat all kinds of seeds. They like orange seeds very much. They will also eat fruit of all kinds, and sometimes will bite a bit of cracker like a parrot. You can also give them English walnuts for variety. In Cuba large flocks of parrakeets, ninety or a hundred birds together, often settle on the orange-trees, and make sad havoc with the ripe fruit, which they tear to pieces to find the seeds. They are especially fond of the Cuban sour orange, a fruit which is rarely brought to this country, and large numbers of these beautiful little birds may always be found around the wild orange-trees in the Cuban forests.

H. N.—The ribs of a canoe should lie parallel to the moulds.—A drawing or design may be enlarged by using a pantograph. It requires, however, some practice to make a neat drawing with one of these instruments.

Favors are acknowledged from May and Fannie Fairlamb, Harry Woolcott, Eugenia McGarrah, E. C. S., Anna Brown, Sadie D., Harry MacC., Mettie F., Kinney Offutt, Edith C., Theodore F. Bayles, Boyd Ramsey, Aimee Ruggles, Hattie F. Holcroft, Jennie Hughes, L. M. and E. Smith, Eddie Beeson, Fannie V. Cross, DuBois Carpenter, Tillie Strang, Fred, Mamie E. Thornton, Lucia C. Daniels, Marie R., Walter P. Hiles, Gerald M. Bliss, Lillie E. Brewster, George B. Donnelly, J. H. Shaw, Maggie Poindexter, Lillian A. Atkins, J. F. W.

Correct answers to puzzles are received from Annie M. W., Cal I. Forny, C. H. McB., Howard B. Lent.

COLORS.

PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

HALF-SQUARE—(To Zelotes).