CHILDREN AT TEA.
BY S. B.
I am very anxious, children dear,
That you should quiet be,
And take care to behave quite well
While I pour out the tea.
Matilda Jane, I need not scold,
For you behave so well;
You sit so straight, and try your best
To please me, I can tell.
But oh, Belinda, what a sight!
See how she sits awry;
I can not make that child obey,
No matter how I try.
Her hair is always in a furze;
Her dress and sash untied;
She drops her shoes, turns in her toes,
I know not what beside.
But now for once, Belinda dear,
I trust you will behave;
Not spill the milk, nor spoil your dress—
My trouble try to save.
And then you both shall have a cup
Of most delicious tea,
A piece of cake, perhaps some jam,
And then go out with me.
A WISE DOG.
OUR POST-OFFICE BOX
St. John, New Brunswick.
I wish to tell the little readers of the Post-office Box about our pony. He is a dear little fellow, and just like a playful kitten. Sometimes Dexter—the pony—will not go the way you want him to. The other day I was going for Eddie, my brother, and down at our gate Dexter wanted to go one way, and I the other. As he is very hard on the mouth, he turned round to go home again. In doing so he upset the little sleigh, and the box came off, and away went Dexter up the drive and into the carriage-house.
When mamma saw it all through the window, she thought I was hurt, and she sent the man down to the gate. When he got there, all he could see was a heap of buffalo-robes, cushions, seats, and other things, with a pair of legs sticking out from under them. I was not hurt, and as soon as I could get up I went to the house to be brushed off. I am twelve years old.
Freddie L. T.
Troy, New York.
I can hardly wait until I get Young People. I think the story of "Toby Tyler and Mr. Stubbs" is just splendid. One wet day two little friends came to play with me. Bertha was the fat woman, and I was Toby. I wish you could have seen Allie as our Living Skeleton. We found out that Mr. Treat knew what he was talking about when he said it was much easier to get a fat woman than a skeleton. We had great fun playing tableaux.
Morton B.
The following letter is not written in Chinese, nor in Sanskrit, nor in any other uncommon language, but is simply a "Baby Letter," written by little four-year-old Bertha S., to Our Post-office Box. Bertha's mother writes that the little girl is sure her letter will be printed, and that the circle in the lower left-hand corner is a kiss for the editor. After that, it wouldn't do to disappoint her, would it?
Montgomery, Alabama.
My father brings me Young People every week. I keep my papers in my wall-pocket that grandma gave me Christmas. I got a beautiful doll for a present, too.
Christmas week we had snow here, and we had a fine time sleigh-riding and snow-balling.
I am going to New Orleans with papa and mamma for mardi gras.
Nellie O.
Newport, Rhode Island.
I have already received a sufficient supply of German stamps, and have sent away all my Swedish and Swiss stamps in exchange, and have no more to give.
I will try to answer all the letters I have received, but there are so many it will take me some time.
I think Young People is lovely, and I would not like to be without it.
Alice V. Smith.
Buffalo, New York.
Mamma takes Young People for me, and I like it very much, especially the story of "Toby Tyler." Poor little fellow, I feel so sorry for him!
I have a mud-turtle that I like about as well as Toby did Mr. Stubbs. I brought it from the country last August. Its shell is about as large as a silver half-dollar. We keep it in a glass dish of water, with sand and pretty stones at the bottom, and a piece of quartz for it to sun itself on. It has refused food ever since last October, until yesterday, when we gave it some raw beefsteak, and it ate it greedily. In the summer we feed it on wiggles and flies. I have named it Topsy, and it is very tame. It has slept a good deal of the time this winter.
Carrie O.
Sacramento, California.
Dear Young People,—The Sacramento River has broken the levee entirely. I am five years old, and mamma has taken me away from school because I am sick, and I have forgotten how to read.
In Sacramento there are lots of flowers. Only one rose-bush is in bloom in the back yard. There are little fingers on the bushes that make them hold to the lattice.
I went down to see the big river with my papa. I stood on a steamboat. I thought the boat was moving, but it was only the big drift and the water passing us. I saw the great, enormous chains that the anchors are fastened to. They made me think of the great, enormous squids that pull down the boats to the bottom of the ocean. That's all. [The above was written by Ottie's mamma from dictation, without change of a word.]
Henry Oscar B.
If any of the readers of Harper's Young People will send me a collection of United States postage stamps, I will send in return a collection of Java postage stamps.
A. Van Heel,
Samarang, Java.
We were at Avon Springs last summer, and while there we found some petrified shells and other fossils. We dug them from under a stratum of rock five or six feet below the surface of the earth, where they had lain for ages. I will exchange some of them for any kind of ore, sea-shells, or other curiosities.
Emma Hunt,
59 South Ninth Street, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.
I want to tell you what a nice time I had one day in January. It was a very stormy Monday. I went to school; and although it is a very large school, only about one hundred scholars came, and in my room there were only eight. We did not have any classes, but spent the time in guessing words; that is, the letters of a word were given out all mixed up, and we had to guess the word they would spell. One easy one was oobk, which spells book. This is a very nice game.
I will exchange fifteen Connecticut postmarks (no duplicates), for fifteen of any other State except Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Jersey.
Willie E. Hill,
32 Pratt Street, Hartford, Conn.
A few days ago we went into a beautiful cave that is on the farm of one of our neighbors, and got a great many nice stalactites and stalagmites. One of the stalactites is almost transparent, and in all of them there are beautiful crystals. We saw some stalagmites over twelve inches high. In one place the roof of the cave is covered with fossil shells. We tried to break some off, but could not get any whole ones.
We have a large collection of curiosities, and would be glad to exchange with any of the readers of Young People for relics, minerals, or curiosities of any kind.
Harry R. Bartlett and Brother,
P. O. Box 8, Greensburg, Green County, Ky.
I am trying to make a scrap quilt, and I would like to have scraps from different parts of the United States. If any little boy or girl will send me a nice package of silk scraps, I will send in return Texas mosses, grasses, forest curiosities, six different kinds of acorns, or snail-shells.
Ninon G. Hare,
Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
I am trying to get a collection of postage stamps. I have a scroll saw, and can make many pretty things. If any one will send me twenty-five foreign stamps, I will send in return two easels I have made.
E. M. Wright,
Bremen, Marshall County, Ind.
I have some postmarks, some silver ore, some shells from Florida, and a pretty stone—I do not know where it came from—which I would like to exchange for coins.
Frederick Pfans,
11 Beaver Street, Newark, N. J.
I have a few Greek newspapers which I would like to exchange for Indian arrow-heads and relics.
Charles Warren,
1577 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
I live three miles from nine Indian mounds, and I have a great many arrow-heads, and twenty-seven spear-heads. I will exchange a rock from Missouri for one from any other State, and my brother will exchange an Indian stone hatchet for six stone arrow-heads or spear-heads.
William Reel,
Baden P. O., St. Louis, Mo.
I have just been reading Young People. A friend of mine and I take it together. We live near each other, and often go to the beach to gather shells and mosses. In the spring we have a great variety of wild flowers. I would like to exchange pressed wild flowers, sea-mosses, and shells from the Pacific coast for a moss-agate, a bunch of cotton just as it is picked with the seeds in it, or any other curiosity from the Central or Southern States, or the Atlantic coast.
Caroline Baldwin, Santa Cruz, Cal.
The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:
German postage stamps, for minerals, fossils, or ores.
P. C. Hennighausen,
143 Sharp Street, Baltimore, Md.
Foreign postage stamps, for Chinese and South American stamps, or for coins.
Kearny Mason,
2119 Pine Street, St. Louis, Mo.
Twenty-five foreign postage stamps (no duplicates), for ten United States department stamps.
W. W. Braden,
445 East One-hundred-and-eighteenth Street,
New York City.
Foreign postage stamps, for curiosities.
Lewis Pierson,
57 Third Place, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Postage stamps, for minerals. Correspondents are requested to label all specimens.
R. T. Andrews,
214 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Cowries, scallops, cockle-shells, Chinese coins, stamps, and postmarks, for quartz crystals, gypsum, hematite, copper, lead, or graphite. Correspondents will please label specimens.
E. V. Sheerar,
Wellsville, Allegany County, N. Y.
Stamps, for minerals, ores, Indian relics, or old and rare American coins.
John E. Hodges,
153 South Paca Street, Baltimore, Md.
Stamps from Egypt, Iceland, Ceylon, St. Helena, Persia, Ecuador, and other foreign countries, for United States stamps.
John L. Caspar,
P. O. Box 8, China Grove, Rowan County, N. C.
Stuffed birds.
Harry Greene,
8 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass.
Two Cape of Good Hope stamps, for two Mexican stamps.
Emma K. Griffin,
Fond du Lac, Wis.
A stone from Massachusetts or New Jersey, for one from any other State except Missouri; soil of New Jersey, for soil of any other State; or specimens of mica, for any kind of ore.
F. L. Foster,
Fairmount Avenue, Elizabeth, N. J.
Postmarks and stamps, for stamps.
William M. Whitfield,
235 West Thirty-fourth Street, New York City.
Old issues of United States postage stamps and postmarks, for foreign stamps.
Edith L. Smith,
Glenburn, Lackawanna County, Penn.
Foreign postage stamps, shells, and other curiosities, for others.
G. H. Smith,
Care of Mr. J. B. Wright,
Columbus, Muscogee County, Ga.
Stones from Missouri, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, for stones from any Southern or Western State excepting Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, and Minnesota.
Fred P. Hall,
238 Warren Street, Jersey City, N. J.
Rare Indian relics, for minerals and stamps.
Nellie Sugden,
49 West Fifty-third Street, New York City.
United States and foreign postmarks, for stamps.
Samuel J. Lutz,
Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio.
Twenty-five postmarks, for two foreign postage stamps.
Frank Riggs,
P. O. Box 107, Watseka, Iroquois County, Ill.
United States revenue stamps and postmarks, for foreign stamps; or a stone from Kentucky, for one from any other State.
Harry Pulliam,
275 West Broadway, Louisville, Ky.
A printing outfit, for a scroll saw or a good printing-press.
Frank Rawie,
Canton, Stark County, Ohio.
Postage stamps.
Stafford R. Southwick,
131 East Seventy-ninth Street, New York City.
Foreign postage stamps and foreign and United States revenue stamps, for old United States or rare foreign stamps.
Bryant Willard,
Newport Barracks, Newport, Ky.
Fifteen Michigan postmarks and eight of other States, for one Chinese postage stamp.
Arthur K. Willyoung,
147 Park Street, Detroit, Mich.
Two specimens of California wood, for every set of twenty-five postmarks.
H. M. H.,
60 West Rutland Square, Boston, Mass.
Postage stamps. Swedish and Danish stamps especially desired.
Willard Francis,
258 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal.
Asbestos and United States internal revenue stamps, for fossil fern and gold ore.
Lyman Newell,
Slater National Bank, Pawtucket, R. I.
Sandwich Island or Canadian stamps, for other foreign stamps.
M. D. Austin,
1199 Main Street, Buffalo, N. Y.
Stamps of British Guinea, Newfoundland, France, Norway, and Hong-Kong, for stamps of Honduras, Peru, Persia, Brazil, and Mexico.
Frank H. Nichols,
341 East Indiana Street, Chicago, Ill.
Minerals, forest woods, stamps, and sea-shells, for new specimens of the same. Minerals preferred.
Charles R. Fletcher,
144 Cambridge Street, East Cambridge, Mass.
Postmarks and foreign postage stamps.
Lillie W. House,
85 Whitney Place, Buffalo, N. Y.
Postage stamps.
Charles Uhler,
Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Penn.
United States postmarks, for stamps.
Eddie Earl,
P. O. Box 714, Leominster, Mass.
Ocean curiosities, for soil from any State excepting Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Harry Lewis, care of J. W. Barton,
Northwest Corner of Front and Market Streets,
Philadelphia, Penn.
Stones from the Great Lakes, for foreign postage stamps.
Wat H. T. Mayo,
Hague, Westmoreland County, Va.
Ten rare foreign stamps, for ten Brazilian stamps. No duplicates.
Ike Hammond and Fred Crose,
Lock Box 152, Greencastle, Putnam Co., Ind.
Old United postage stamps, for foreign stamps, Indian arrow-heads, or other curiosities.
Elbert E. Hurd,
Lempster, Sullivan County, N. H.
Foreign stamps, old United States copper one-cent and half-cent coins, for foreign coins, postmarks, and curiosities.
Charles Gruner,
79 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Soil from Massachusetts, for soil of Ohio.
Everett Crane,
Weymouth, Norfolk County, Mass.
Foreign postage stamps, for minerals and Indian relics.
Garry B. Post, care of George R. Post,
New Britain, Hartford County, Conn.
Minerals, for sea-shells, agates, and curiosities of all kinds; or lichens, moss, pressed ferns and flowers from Illinois, for moss, ferns, and flowers from other States and Canada.
Mary Lowry,
Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Ill.
Spar, fossils, stamps, and postmarks, for ocean curiosities. Thirty varieties of foreign stamps, or twenty stamps and twelve foreign postmarks, for a box of sea-shells and a star-fish.
Oscar Rauchfuss,
Golconda, Pope County, Ill.
American copper coins.
Ed Sweet,
Wellsville, Allegany County, N. Y.
Postage stamps, for stamps, curiosities, and Indian relics.
Francis B. Wheaton,
55 Park Street, Providence, R. I.
Asbestos and mica, for foreign stamps, especially from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland.
Willie Bogardus,
1455 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
A stone from Illinois, for a stone from any other State or Territory.
Blythe Henderson,
101 Third Street, Peoria, Ill.
Foreign and United States War Department stamps, for rare and old coins, a ten-cent piece of 1879, stamps, shells, copper or zinc ore, or stones and soil from any State except Wisconsin.
Clare B. Bird,
Jefferson, Jefferson County, Wis.
United States postage stamps, for the same or foreign stamps.
Clinton F. Hicks,
Pine River, Waushara County, Wis.
Twenty-five rare and old postmarks, for twelve foreign stamps.
Baker Bros,
P. O. Box 5, Comstocks, N. Y.
Soil of Ohio, for that of any other State.
Harry Laurimore,
Lock Box 6, Greenville, Darke County, Ohio.
Carrie E.—The book you inquire about is not contained in the "Franklin Square Library." The only answer possible to your other question was given in Harper's Young People No. 15, February 10, 1880.
T. H. P.—The line, "Tall oaks from little acorns grow," occurs in a poem entitled "The School-boy's Address," which is given in old Readers. The following paragraph in reference to the authorship of this poem has been kindly written by Mr. Benson J. Lossing, with whose name the readers of Young People are familiar:
"'The School-boy's Address,' in Bingham's Columbian Orator, beginning, 'You'd scarce expect one of my age,' was written by David Everett, principal of the New Ipswich (New Hampshire) Academy, in the winter of 1791, previous to his entrance to Dartmouth College. It was written for a favorite pupil, Ephraim Hartwell Farrer, and was spoken at a school exhibition at the academy that same winter.
"At the centennial celebration of the founding of New Ipswich, in 1850, Mr. Farrer, then a white-haired man sixty-six years of age, was called upon to respond to the toast, 'Rev. Stephen Farrer, the first pastor of New Ipswich: The memory of the just is blessed.' Mr. E. H. Farrer was a son of the venerable pastor. When he arose to respond, his first words were,
"'You'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage.'"These words he had spoken just fifty-nine years before."
Alice B.—You will find a description of a very simple way to make snow-shoes in a letter from May C. T. in the Post-office Box of Harper's Young People No. 65. The best snow-shoes are a light frame-work covered with a netting of stout thongs, but these would be difficult for you to obtain, and you could not make them yourself.
F. S. K.—The poet Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, on February 27, 1807. He studied at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, graduating in 1825. Nathaniel Hawthorne, John S. C. Abbott, and some others who afterward became distinguished literary men, were his classmates. After leaving college he spent several years in Europe, and on his return, in 1829, became Professor of Modern Languages at Bowdoin College. In 1835 he again visited Europe, and one year later became Professor of Modern Languages and Literature at Harvard University. He made his home in the historic Cragie House, once Washington's head-quarters, which he soon purchased. Longfellow resigned his position at Harvard in 1854, but still continues to reside in the historic mansion in Cambridge. Honorary degrees have been conferred upon him by the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and his name is dear to the heart of every American.
I. Chase.—The letter from your Prince Edward Island correspondent published in the Post-office Box of Young People No. 62 probably explains your trouble.
C. U.—A five-kreutzer German stamp is worth about two cents, United States currency.
Correct answers to puzzles have been received from Jimmie F. Burns, Lila Baker, A. E. Cressingham, Richard Owen C., C. D. Chipman, W. K. Crithens, R. H. Davidson, Linda and Susie Egbert, Philip S. Gillis, Jesse S. Godine, Carrie and George Hall, Frank H. H., Charles Jefferson, Norman D. Lippincott, William A. Lewis, Andrew E. P., "Red Lion," "Starry Flag," Louis K. Sayre, "L. U. Stral," I. W. Trotter, "The Dawley Boys," Eva J. Turner, Howard J. Van Doren, Bennie C. Woodward, Edith M. Wetmore, J. Anthony Walker, Willie F. Woolard, "Young Solver."
PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
No. 1.
ENIGMA.
My first in old, but not in new.
My second in toll, not in curfew.
My third in enemy, not in foe.
My fourth in pack, but not in stow.
My fifth in quarrel, not in fight.
My sixth in heavy, not in light.
I am renowned in ancient song
For something most absurdly long.
T. H.