Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It is so nice to have a new Young People every week. My papa is an artist, and I am going to be one too. I draw a picture from Young People almost every day, and I read about Rosa Bonheur, and Miss Thompson, and all the great painters.
I have been to the Zoological Gardens. I rode the donkeys and the elephant, and I have made their pictures. I have a little Zoo in our back yard. I have a nice cat, two rabbits named Jack and Jill, and a turtle, and a fish in an aquarium that eats flies from my hands. My bird died, and papa painted its portrait. I called the picture "The Burial of the Dead Bird."
M. Electa F.
Ottawa, Ohio.
I am nine years old, and for my birthday present mamma gave me one year's subscription to Young People, beginning with the first number. I like "The Moral Pirates" very much, and I was just wishing for a serial with girls in it, and the very next paper had the beginning of "Miss Van Winkle's Nap." I was delighted with it. I think the stories about Mr. Martin and Miss Pamela Plumstone's piano are so funny.
As Fourth of July came on Sunday this year, we had no public celebration, but some of the children in our neighborhood got up a celebration of their own at our house. Mamma made the oration, and played the national airs on the piano, after which we had a parade. We all had paper caps, and we had a flag and a drummer-boy. My little two-year-old cousin Gordon brought up the rear of the procession, with a paper cap on, and as gay as any of us.
Bertha K.