Newport, Rhode Island.
I have already received a sufficient supply of German stamps, and have sent away all my Swedish and Swiss stamps in exchange, and have no more to give.
I will try to answer all the letters I have received, but there are so many it will take me some time.
I think Young People is lovely, and I would not like to be without it.
Alice V. Smith.
Buffalo, New York.
Mamma takes Young People for me, and I like it very much, especially the story of "Toby Tyler." Poor little fellow, I feel so sorry for him!
I have a mud-turtle that I like about as well as Toby did Mr. Stubbs. I brought it from the country last August. Its shell is about as large as a silver half-dollar. We keep it in a glass dish of water, with sand and pretty stones at the bottom, and a piece of quartz for it to sun itself on. It has refused food ever since last October, until yesterday, when we gave it some raw beefsteak, and it ate it greedily. In the summer we feed it on wiggles and flies. I have named it Topsy, and it is very tame. It has slept a good deal of the time this winter.
Carrie O.
Sacramento, California.
Dear Young People,—The Sacramento River has broken the levee entirely. I am five years old, and mamma has taken me away from school because I am sick, and I have forgotten how to read.
In Sacramento there are lots of flowers. Only one rose-bush is in bloom in the back yard. There are little fingers on the bushes that make them hold to the lattice.
I went down to see the big river with my papa. I stood on a steamboat. I thought the boat was moving, but it was only the big drift and the water passing us. I saw the great, enormous chains that the anchors are fastened to. They made me think of the great, enormous squids that pull down the boats to the bottom of the ocean. That's all. [The above was written by Ottie's mamma from dictation, without change of a word.]