MY FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY.

I've grown to be a great, great girl,
I'm eight years old to-day.
Ted says I'm only a baby,
And have too much to say.
Brother Ted don't know everything,
If he is twelve years old;
He thinks he's nearly a man now,
'Cause his watch is real gold.
I'm going to have a party,
We'll have ice-cream and cake;
There is no end to the nice things
My dear mamma did bake.
Then we shall have nice music,
Uncle John is going to play;
He sent me a wreath of flowers,
Just like the Queen of May.
And we shall play all kind of games,
And maybe I'll catch some beaux,
For sister Kate always says that
When to parties she goes.
There goes the bell, some one has come;
No—a large box for me;
Why, it's just the sweetest wax doll
That ever I did see.
J. V.

New York City.

If Georgie G. S., of Dubuque, Iowa, will put a handful of clean white pebbles and five or six clean sea-shells in her globe, the gold-fish are more likely to keep healthy. The water should be changed every day.

Vanderbilt O.

Champion, New York.

I like Young People very much, especially the stories of "The Moral Pirates," and "Who was Paul Grayson?" I have no pets except a little dog I call Watch. We have had a snow-storm here (October 24). I am thirteen years old.

Warren B.

I am eleven years old, and I have fourteen dolls. I have a little kitten for a pet. I call it Bob Short because it is a rabbit kitten, and hasn't any tail.

My cousin sent Young People to my brother Warren and myself as a present for two years, and we think she is very kind.

Eva E. B.

Platte City, Missouri.

I wish to notify my little friends that I can not send them any more samples of crochet trimming. I have no time now to make it, as I am going to school and taking music lessons. I have received a great many requests, and I can not possibly get time to crochet enough to answer them all.

Gracie Meads.

I like Young People very much. I think it is a very useful paper. I live on Big Sandy Creek near the railroad, six miles from any neighbor. There are antelopes, buffaloes, wolves, wild-cats, rabbits, owls, and eagles here. There are also some splendid specimens. I have some bullion out of a mine at Leadville, also some petrified wood, topaz, moss-agate, and other things. I sent "Wee Tot" some specimens of wild flowers and grasses, and if she will send me some ocean curiosities I will be much pleased, and will send her some of my specimens. I will also exchange some of them with any little girl or boy for ocean curiosities.

Clara F. R. Swift,
Aroya Station, Colorado, K. P. R. R.

I can never thank my grandfather too much for subscribing for this delightful little paper for me.

Here is a recipe for keeping barberries and mountain ash for Christmas decorations. Fill a large jar with a strong solution of salt and water—cooking salt is best. Put the berries in the brine, and cork it. It need not be air-tight.

I have three hundred and sixty-four postage stamps, and have exchanged successfully with many of the boys and a few of the girls. I have now some white moss which came from Muskosh Mills, a little village on an island in the Muskoka River, which I would gladly exchange for curiosities from the ocean or the far South.

W. C. V. Chadwick,
44 St. George Street, Toronto, Canada.

The correspondents you inquire about have probably sent you sufficient address, and you would better try the experiment of answering them. If they do not receive the letters, it will not be from any fault of yours.

I would like to exchange foreign and United States postage stamps and postmarks with any of the readers of Young People.

Alfred C. P. Opdyke, Hotel Bristol,
Corner Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue,
New York City.

I would like to exchange minerals for stamps, postmarks, seeds, shells, stones, or any other thing worth putting in a museum. I wish to get a collection of flints from every State and from Canada, and I will send a stone from Virginia in exchange. I will also exchange postmarks for others. I have some from England, Canada, and nearly every State.

H. H. Tucker, Box 75, Richmond, Virginia.

I have a small collection of stamps, and would like to exchange. I will also exchange a stone from Pennsylvania or from Caen, France, for others from different States.

Alfred W. Stockett,
P. O. Box 119, Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.

I am collecting curiosities, and would be happy to exchange with any correspondent. I have about one hundred and fifty varieties of birds' eggs. I would be glad to supply any one with a list of the eggs of Canada.

J. F. Wells,
Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

I would like to exchange postmarks, minerals, fossils, birds' eggs, or coins with any of the readers of Young People for minerals, fossils, coins, birds' eggs, or shells. I very much desire to obtain specimens from foreign countries.

Frank H. Lattin,
Gaines, Orleans County, New York.

I have a large number of stamps and rare postmarks, and would like very much to exchange with readers of this paper.

A. W. Morse, Cheltenham Academy,
P. O. Shoemakertown, Pennsylvania.

I want to tell you about my collection. It consists of an Indian mortar, an Indian axe and hatchet, a large number of arrow-heads, a nail from "Old Fort Massac," a French bullet weighing an ounce, and a piece of a French sword. I have also a fine collection of minerals, and I would like to exchange some specimens of purple spar for copper ore, crystallized quartz, or shells.

Willie B. Morris,
Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Illinois.

I would like to exchange postage stamps for birds' eggs. Correspondents will please state the kind of eggs they have to exchange, and the varieties of stamps they wish in return. I have over one thousand stamps in my collection.

Frank Madison, 206 Stockton Street,
San Francisco, California.

We are making a collection of postmarks and stamps, wood, minerals, pressed leaves and ferns, and the soil of different States and countries, and will exchange any of these things with other boys or girls. We will also exchange flower seeds or slips for ocean curiosities or Indian relics.

Mary, Lewis, Minnie,
Care of E. M. Frazier, Lock Box No. 12,
Caldwell, Noble County, Ohio.

I will be very glad to exchange foreign postage stamps with any readers of Young People. Correspondents will please send a list of their stamps for exchange.

O. L. Welch,
40 Bank Street, New York City.

I live on the San Jacinto River. My papa has a plantation on the Trinity. He has a plum orchard, and we go up there and eat plums. Mamma is going up there to preserve some. I am collecting snail shells. I have about four hundred.

I would like to exchange birds' eggs or postage stamps with any little boy or girl. I am nine years old.

Pearl A. Hare,
Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.

I have stamps from Venezuela and Curaçao I wish to exchange for others.

Charles De Sola, care of B. De Sola,
23 William Street, New York City.

I will exchange twenty-five kinds of postmarks from Georgia for twenty-five kinds from any other State. I will also exchange foreign stamps for their equivalent value in birds' eggs, shells, minerals, curiosities of all kinds, or for other stamps.

Louis J. Brumly,
P. O. Box 126, Athens, Georgia.

I will exchange postmarks and French stamps for any American and European stamps except English and Canadian. To any one who will send me ten stamps, all different, I will send by return mail twenty postmarks.

Willie Gurnett,
Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

I live near Niagara Falls. I have a white pony. She is very gentle, and can do a great many tricks. She will lie down and let me get on her back.

I take Young People, and like it so much I can hardly wait from one week till the next for it. I would like to exchange specimens of rock from Niagara Falls for shells or sea-weed. I would also like to exchange coins. I am eleven years of age.

Harry Symmes,
The Grove, Drummondville,
Near Niagara Falls, Canada.

E. McGarrah.—It is said that Robert Burns, when a youth of nineteen, became acquainted with Douglas Grahame, an honest farmer who lived at Shanter, and who afterward figured as Tam o' Shanter in the wonderful poem of that name. A merry story told of Grahame by his friends served as the material which Burns long afterward turned to such good account. The original story was as follows: Grahame had a friend named John Davidson, the Souter Johnnie of the poem, with whom he often made merry when in town on market-day, frequently lingering so late at night as to cause severe displeasure to the good dame waiting at home. It happened once, when returning later than usual, on a very dark, stormy night, Grahame had the misfortune to lose his "bonnet," or cap, in which was all the money he had made that day at the market. Fearing the scolding which he knew awaited him, he took advantage of his wife's superstition and credulity, and invented a terrible story of a band of witches which had appeared to him at Alloway Kirk, and from which he had barely escaped with his life. The dame was satisfied with his explanation, and gave thanks for the miraculous preservation of her husband. Honest Douglas Grahame, however, quietly returned by daylight to Carrick Hill, where he was fortunate enough to find his "bonnet" and money safe in the bushes near the Bridge of Doon. Grahame and Davidson, the originals of Tam o' Shanter and Souter Johnnie, are buried in the church-yard at Kirkoswald.

Mansfield.—In earliest times skins, cattle, corn, and other articles were used as money. According to Homer, certain numbers of oxen were paid for the armor of warriors; and even our modern word pecuniary, the etymology of which is traced directly to the Latin word pecus; signifying cattle, is a convincing proof that those beasts were used as money by the ancient Romans.

Precious metals were also given and taken in payment at a very early age. Abraham is represented in Genesis as coming up out of Egypt "very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold," and payments made in so many pieces or shekels of silver are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. It is supposed that at this period the precious metal was in the form of lumps of different weights, but bore no stamp. Wrought jewels are also mentioned as serving for money.

The first coined money is supposed to have been used by the Lydians about 700 or 800 b.c. Greek coins appeared at a little later period, the earliest being those of Ægina. The first coins were very rough in appearance, a rude device being stamped from a die on a lump of metal of a certain weight by a blow of a hammer. The early Lydian coins bore a lion's head, and the Æginetan a tortoise on the obverse, the other side being marked only by an indentation caused by the blow.

The oldest extant Jewish coins, specimens of which may be seen in the British Museum, are the shekel and half-shekel of Simon Maccabæus, "the priest and prince of the Jews," to whom Antiochus VII., the son of Demetrius I., granted the right of coining money about 139 b.c. The silver shekel and half-shekel had for their devices on one side the almond rod with buds (Numbers, xvii. 8, 10), with the legend, "Jerusalem the Holy"; and on the other the pot of manna (Exodus, xvi. 33), and the legend, "Shekel of Israel," or "Half-Shekel." This early coinage never bore a head, as that would have violated the law forbidding idolatry. The value of the Maccabæus silver shekel may be estimated at 2s. 6d. sterling, or 60 cents.

Lyman C.—You can buy the cover for Young People of Harper & Brothers for thirty-five cents, or forty-eight cents if sent by mail, but they can not bind your copies for you.

Newman G.—In Young People No. 36, in the story entitled "The Mohawk Bowmen," you will find directions for making bows and arrows, and in the Post-office Box of No. 51 the process of feathering arrows is described. In the Post-office Box of No. 19 are instructions for making a kite.

PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

BOTANICAL CONUNDRUMS.

1.Plant a youthful Virginian before it can walk, and what comes up?
2.Plant a piece of bunting, and what comes up?
3.Plant a wise man, and what comes up?
4.Plant a large, inclosed basin, and what comes up?
5.Plant a ruminant's lips, and what comes up?
6.Plant an egg, and what comes up?
7.Plant a color, and what comes up?
8.Plant a sea-shore, and what comes up?
9.Plant yourself, and what comes up?
10.Plant a muff, and what comes up?

A. and T. J.