Willie F.
This cordial invitation was written before the sad end of Mr. Stubbs, and the arrival of Toby at his home, and in their name we thank Master Willie for his generous intentions.
The following information in reference to the meaning of the word Toronto has been sent to the Post-office Box by a gentleman in Detroit for the benefit of Henry M. R.:
Toronto is an Indian word (Iroquois, if I remember right), signifying "oak-trees growing up or rising from the lake." This I learned from one of my old school-books when a boy in Canada, nearly fifty years ago.
J. R.
Palo Alto Plantation, Mississippi.
We are little boys of the same age, ten years. We live on a cotton plantation. There are no little boys near on the same side of the river as we are. The farms are large, so we have to go a great distance to see any one. There are two thousand acres in cultivation, and there are miles and miles of woods all around. As soon as we leave our yard we are in the woods. We can go hunting for rabbits, or squirrels, or partridges. We have the largest pecans growing here that I ever saw. They measure two inches round, and are an inch and a half long. We have a plantation of magnolias, walnut-trees, pears, figs, and pomegranates, besides peaches and apples.
We each have a bay colt, which we must get up early in the morning and groom. Our father says we are to know all about a farm. He often sends us three or four miles alone to see how the log heaps are burning, or how the corn or cotton is being planted. He makes us row ourselves over the river in a little boat we have.
We have a governess who wants to make us very elegant, but we do not like to brush our teeth and nails so often, and go to the table in such prime order. But she reads Young People to us, and we would do almost anything to hear the paper read better than we can read it for ourselves.
If any little boy would like to know more about this country, we will write again to Young People, and tell all we know.
Richard and Kennon T.