We think our wee readers will like this story of two little girls who gave up something they loved, to please their mamma. Of course they had a reward:
BIRDIE AND JENNIE.
Birdie and Jennie are two sweet little children.
Birdie has long light curls and soft hazel eyes, pale oval face, and slender form. She is seven years old. Jennie, the little sister, is chubby in face and form, has dark curls, and dark bright eyes. Her cheeks are almost always red. She is five years old.
These two little sisters are very sweet singers, and once, when they sang to entertain company, they were presented with a pair of white mice.
These pets delighted the children, and for a time they enjoyed them to their hearts' content; but mamma did not like white mice, and longed to have them out of the house. Accordingly she talked to the children, and urged them to let the treasures be sold.
This was a hard request, and the little ones were reluctant to comply.
Mamma understood this, and to help them make the sacrifice she promised to try to procure them something else in their place.
Birdie and Jennie loved their mice, but they loved mamma better, and to please her they consented to let the mice go, and tried to do it cheerfully.
It was on a Friday that the mice were taken away, and when Saturday night came round, what should pop into the house but a cunning little gray squirrel? This visitor made himself quite at home.
The delighted children knew not how to express their joy, and firmly believed that God sent the squirrel to them so soon, because they had parted pleasantly with their mice.
It was found that the squirrel belonged to a gentleman who lived near by, and who said he was glad to be rid of the charge, and the children were equally glad to have it. It is still living—a dear little interesting pet.
As Birdie and Jennie live in the city, the squirrel's coming to them so unexpectedly was even more strange than if their home had been in the country.
Anna D. W.
Mason, Texas.
"Well, well, what a great thing for the children of America, and of other countries too, is Harper's Young People!" Such was the exclamation uppermost in my mind after spending two or three days in reading back numbers of this gem of a paper. Yes, two or three days, and up some nights till twelve o'clock, reading Young People, and here I will soon be a quarter of a century old! I dropped Carlyle, Dickens, Macaulay, and Goethe, to read this juvenile paper, and read it not only with pleasure but profit. I enjoy Jimmy Brown's letters, which are the most mirth-provoking articles I have ever read. And here I want to give my thanks to "Jimmy" for the many hearty laughs he has afforded me. The "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" says that he "purrs very loud over a good honest letter that says pretty things" to him; so Jimmy may "purr very loud" now. Then, too, I like the war stories of Dr. Lossing, and the scientific articles of Mrs. Herrick, whom I remember in Southern Review times, and the good advice of Aunt Marjorie, who gives it so wisely and kindly. And the pictures—my! Every number is just full of good things, like a shop window. How blest are the boys and girls of to-day! Are we grateful, boys? are you thankful, girls? I can hear you all say, "Yes, yes."
I am going to get up a collection of rare curiosities from this Western country, and when they are ready, I will mention them among the Exchanges. I have a little friend here, Josie B., who takes Young People, and I will invite her to help me. Mason is away out in Western Texas, and is a little frontier town. It has a delightful climate, and the weather Christmas week was as beautiful as any that ever graced summer. On this January day I have had the door open and window up, while the day without has been full of spring. Just to show you what a charming country this is for health and climate, I will quote from the Meteorological Report of the United States Signal Officer of this place for the past year: "The highest temperature during the year was on June 22, July 1, and August 10—100° each day; the lowest temperature was on January 9, 1881—9°; yearly range of temperature, 91°. The highest wind occurred on September 6, blowing thirty-four miles per hour from the southeast. The total rain-fall of the year was 22.08 inches; the greatest monthly rain-fall was during May—5.29 inches; the least monthly rain-fall was during June—none. The prevailing wind was from the south. There were 195 clear days, 77 fair, and 90 cloudy. There were only twenty days when the temperature was below freezing, and no days when it remained below all day. There were ninety days when the temperature was above 90°. Only one bad storm occurred during the year, on September 30, when rain fell in torrents for thirty minutes, flooding the town." I doubt whether any other portion of the whole country can make a better showing in the weather record than that.
Dan M.
The beginning of this sprightly letter from our Texas correspondent was so very complimentary that we half hesitated about publishing it. Still, it is only fair to the authors whose graceful pens are making Young People so attractive, to let them know what a generous measure of appreciation they are winning from some "grown-ups" as well as from a host of little folks. So, hoping to do still better in future, we let the world see how much one of our friends thinks of our paper, including the Post-office Box, to which he has contributed so agreeably.