Katie R.
You will enjoy yourself very much more if you study and read before going to the Old World, in order to understand what you see. Write to the Postmistress, and describe some of your adventures, and tell her what pleases you most in London and Paris and in other places where you may stop awhile.
Beauclerc, Florida.
I saw in No. 111 a picture of seven oranges on one branch. We had two bunches on this place with twelve on, and one with sixteen. They were just as close together as could be. Some of them were flattened, they pressed each other so hard. We had a curiosity of an orange—a large one with a smaller one growing out of it. It did look too funny, but it dropped from the tree before ripening.
I would like to exchange nice fresh moss, with blossom on, for unused postage stamps, foreign and domestic—no revenue. Do not send less than five at once; and no two alike. I will send the moss according to the value of the stamps. Cancelled ones will not be accepted.
It will not be necessary to write beforehand, as I will send the moss without fail to any one sending the stamps. I would like to exchange with foreign correspondents, and this offer will remain open four months for that reason.
Can you tell me which is the best stamp album, or, rather, where to get a good one?
F. C. Sawyer.
Bridgeport, Kansas.
We moved to Kansas from Indiana more than a year since, and witnessed our first large prairie fire on the afternoon and evening of February 9. We first noticed the reflection on the sky in the southeast on the night of the 8th, and by the afternoon of the next day the fire had come so near that we began to make preparations to protect our property by burning a "fire guard" around the house, etc. After that we had leisure to watch the progress of the fire, and as it grew dark the grandeur of the sight increased. We mounted a hill which commanded a view for miles in every direction, and turn in whatever direction we would there was fire. It looked like a grand torch-light procession of men in single file marching and countermarching, forming circles, squares, and all conceivable shapes, ever widening their circuit, until there were miles on miles of lines of flame. The wind freshened about 9 p.m., and then the sight was grand beyond my powers to describe. No doubt much damage to property was done. Many families in this vicinity have related to us damage inflicted by former prairie fires.
Mrs. E.