I live near where the celebrated David Crockett once lived. His old house is still standing on our place. The logs are full of auger-holes, where I suppose he had wooden pins to support shelves, or to hang clothes and household things on. When my grandpa was a little boy he knew David Crockett very well.
Ella B.
David Crockett was a famous hunter, who was born in Tennessee in 1786. He was a political friend of General Jackson, and was several times elected to Congress. He was a great humorist, and very eccentric in his habits. When the people of Texas revolted against the government of Mexico, he enlisted in the Texan army, and lost his life in the terrible massacre at Fort Alamo, in 1836, when the Mexicans, in violation of the rules of war, slaughtered all their prisoners.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I am a little boy five years old. I take Harper's Young People, and mamma and auntie read me all the pretty stories and all the little letters in the Post-office Box.
I have a little brother three years old. We each have a bank in which we keep our pennies. George's bank is a great big cross-looking bull-dog. He has a flat place on his nose. If we put a penny on it, and then pull his tail, he will open his mouth and swallow the penny. My bank is a soldier who is standing in front of the trunk of a tree. He has a gun in his hand, with which he points at a hole in the tree. When I put a penny on the end of the gun, and touch the soldier's foot, he fires off the gun, and the penny goes into the hole. Papa gives us each a penny every day we are good; but every day we are naughty we have to give him one. I have fifty-one pennies in my bank. George has not quite so many, but I am the oldest, and I ought to be the best boy.
I would like to write about some of our playthings, but I am afraid my letter would be too long.
John I. McK.
New York City.
I would like to tell Young People what kind friends I have. I am a poor little girl, and my mamma has to go out to work. I go to the public school, but I am not very strong, and the noise and close air sometimes make me sick. Once I had to stay from school a long time; and there was a little girl who had a private teacher come every day, and she let me go and study with her. She used to pay my car fare out of her own spending money. It cost her sixty cents a week. And she made me a present of all my school-books, and a great many other handsome books. I do not think there are many little girls so kind.
There is another little girl who made me a Christmas present of Young People, and I will have it all the year. She, too, is very kind to me. I like Young People very much. I think "Mildred's Bargain," "Phil's 'Fairies," and especially poor "Toby Tyler," are splendid stories.