New York City.
I am a little girl thirteen years old. I have a little dog, but he is very homely. We have three little kittens, and they are pretty. My brother found them in the garden. The cats and the dog do not fight. I have a papa and a mamma, and an auntie, and two big brothers. My auntie reads all the little letters to me. I have taken Harper's Young People since the first number.
Nettie B. M.
Monticello, New York.
Have you, dear Postmistress, ever been to Monticello? I think it is a lovely place. And there are such beautiful views. If I look to the north, I see quite a stretch of woods and hills, and away off in the distance a ridge of very high hills. I am staying on a farm where there are seven cows and four calves. Their names are Bessie, Brownie, Bright-eyes, and Bunker Hill. They are just as gentle as lambs. In the house there is a cat called Manners, and she has two kittens, Miss Muffet and Pussy Tiptoes. Tiptoes (or Tip, as she is called) has white-tipped paws, and a bib of white just under her chin. Muffet is gray and white.
I want to tell you about the County Fair. The grounds are two miles and a half from here. We rode up, and staid all day. First we went into the poultry house, which was full. What do you suppose we saw? Two little tiny hens, each with five little chickens no bigger than a medium-sized egg. After that we entered the domestic building. Dear! how full it was! Cake, jelly, pies, preserves, and fruit occupied an entire side of it. The other side was filled with art, fancy-work, and such things. The vegetable tent was next, and some one said the display of vegetables was larger than that at the state Fair. I can't begin to tell how many cattle, pigs, and sheep there were. We ate our lunch in the wagon, and it tasted very good. I was very tired when we got home, but we had a pleasant day and lovely weather.
A few weeks ago we drove to Katrina Falls. We went down into the basin, and saw the water come rushing down from fifty feet above, with high rocks and woods all around, and it made as wild a scene as I ever saw. I picked a fern and leaf to bring home and press.
Effie E. H.
THE CHILDREN AND THE SHEEP.
Diddie, Dumps, and Tot were three little girls who lived on a plantation in Mississippi many years ago. Their real names were Madeleine, Elinor, and Eugenia, but nobody ever called them by anything except their funny pet names. The three little girls had three little colored maids, who waited on them, shared their plays, and went with them everywhere. The pet who gave them so much trouble on the afternoon of this story was a sheep, who had belonged to Diddie since he was a lamb. Then he had been very gentle, but he had grown cross and stubborn with age, though Diddie kept on loving him dearly.