Lucy P. W.
What a droll little scholar! She must make the class quite merry.
Waterloo, Iowa.
I have taken Young People from the first number, and have read the letters in the Post-office Box with great interest, but have never before ventured to write one myself; but now I thought I would write and tell you about my trip on the Fourth of July across Iowa. Monday evening I went alone to Cedar Rapids, and in the morning papa took me in his mail-car, and I rode with him to Council Bluffs over the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. It is a beautiful prairie country, with occasional belts of timber on the streams. We everywhere saw splendid farms, with fine houses and barns and large herds. We passed through an Indian reservation near Tama City. The Indian men were out with their fish-poles and guns, and their squaws were hoeing in the fields, while the boys, like true American boys, were playing with fire-crackers. We passed, near Ames, the State Agricultural College and Farm. Marshalltown and Boone are thriving towns on this route. At Boone we came to Iowa's vast coal field, and we passed several mines; it is "soft" coal. Near Moingona I saw the little house where Kate Shelley lives, and crossed the long bridge that she crept over at night and in a terrible storm to warn a coming train of danger. The last twenty miles of our trip are the most interesting. On the right are the "bottom" lands of the Missouri, with the highlands of Nebraska in the distance. On our left are the "bluffs," rising perhaps two hundred feet, and taking many curious shapes. Once we came in sight of the great river, and I can now understand why it is called the "Big Muddy." At nearly every station on the route the people were out to celebrate the Fourth; flags were flying, bands playing, and the small boys and fire-crackers were everywhere. I hope they all had a pleasant, time; I know I did. As I have never seen a letter in the Young People from Waterloo, I hope you will like mine well enough to print it.
Mary F. M.
We are all glad when our correspondents describe their pleasant trips, and tell what they have seen when away from home. I think Mary's letter shows that she took notice of what was worth looking at in her Fourth-of-July journey across Iowa.
Brecksville, Ohio.
I was ten years old December 20, 1881, and live in Cleveland, but I am staying here for my vacation. It is a very pretty country village. I like very much to ride on the hay wagon, but the hay is damp to-day, and can not be taken in. I am in the Fourth Reader at school. I would have been in the Fifth, only, when I came from Brooklyn, New York, I was put back on account of the difference in the schools. I like the West better than the East. I am getting stouter every day. I have a brother seven years old, named Sumner.