I am a little boy eleven years old, and live on a farm in the town of Stoddard. I have a dog, and call him Jack, two nice calves, a very pretty lamb, four doves, and some hens. I like to attend to my father's stock. He keeps horses, oxen, cows, sheep, hogs, and some young stock. I let out the cattle to water, and tie them up again. When my father is away in the summer-time, Jack and I go after the cows. Sometimes Jack trees a woodchuck, and then he and I have a grand time digging him out. He and I caught twenty-one last year. Jack is a splendid dog. You ought to see him drive up the cows; they have to go home when he says so, and they will start when they see him coming.
I have been making sugar for myself this spring. My father let me have twenty buckets, and my mother let me take her large brass kettle and two pots. I hung them up by a large rock, and tapped fourteen trees, and have made forty pounds of sugar, which I sold at ten cents per pound. I have bought me a pair of boots and some books, and have almost enough left to pay for Young People next year. I start to school next week.
J. W. T.
Well done, my little man! You worked faithfully, and spent your money very wisely. I wish you had told Our Post-office Box what books you bought, and I hope the boots will wear well. And then you had a splendid time making the sugar. I wish some of us had been there to help you.
If woodchucks were not such pests to the farmer, I think I would feel sorry that Jack trees so many of them. I think I can see him bounding along after the cows. What is your name? J. stands for Jonathan, James, Jerome, and a number of other names; and I like my boys to send more than their initials to me, so that I can remember them when they write again.
Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands.
I read your Post-office Box with a great deal of interest every time it comes. I used to live in Kansas, and often saw prairie fires there, and one nearly burned up my father's hay-stack and barn. But we fought it, and saved them. My father and mother moved to these islands from there, and landed here the last day of 1878. We have Kanaka policemen to guard the streets, and most of the sidewalks are made of lava sand: some are of broken boards, and there is a nice stone pavement once in a long distance. So when it rains the sidewalks are muddy. Most of the yards are very beautiful. We have a nice band. They are all Kanakas except the leader, who is a German. They give moonlight concerts free in the Park several times a month, and every Saturday afternoon at half past four o'clock. The little Park is very nice, and has plenty of seats in it. I went to Hilo with my papa, and also to the lava flow, which is only a mile and a half from that place. It is still too hot to step on in some places, though the flow stopped on the 9th of last August. When it rained you could trace it a long distance by the steam. I am nearly eleven years old, and go to school, and have not been absent or tardy this term.
Charlotte H. P.
When next I go to one of our Saturday afternoon concerts in Prospect Park, I will think of you, dear, and wonder whether the bands are playing the same airs in Brooklyn and Honolulu.