Gardiner, Maine.
Dear St. Nicholas: I have been your constant reader since I was a very little girl, and you are still my favorite magazine, although I read many others. Last summer I tried a string house, but not as you described, for it is impossible to make morning-glories grow under a tree, as they need a great deal of sun. My house was shaped like a tent, with sloping sides, and outside of the morning-glories I planted a border of nasturtiums, but although I began it early, planted the seeds very thick, and took the greatest pains with it, it did not succeed, and I don't think I shall try it again, as the season here is probably too short. But I should advise any one who intends making a string house not to make it under a tree, but on a frame in the open ground. I think it is a great pity you don't come more than once a month (and I am sure all the rest of your readers will agree with me), I am so much interested in Mrs. Burnett's "Little Lord Fauntleroy." I hope you will have another paper on "Historic Girls" soon. I have no pets, as a great many of your readers seem to have, except a very small aquarium, but have in place of them three collections, which I have collected almost entirely myself, and am much interested in. The first, and most interesting to me, is one of birds' eggs, the second, moths, insects, and butterflies, and, last but not least, a small collection of minerals. I hope you will find room to print this, but I suppose it is hard to choose among all the letters that must be sent to you.
Your constant reader, Amy R.
Honolulu, Sandwich Islands.
Dear St. Nicholas: I have never written you a letter before, but when I was looking over the letters in the St. Nicholas (for which I have lately become a subscriber) I didn't see any letter from Honolulu, so I thought I would write you one about the volcano in Hawaii, which you know is one of the Hawaiian Islands. Well, about three weeks ago we heard that the bottom of the volcano had fallen in. We were afraid that we would have some severe earthquakes or, perhaps, a tidal wave; some thought the Islands might all sink, but nothing of the kind has occurred. Mr. S——, a photographer, was the first to see it; he had been let down by ropes, and was standing on a ledge taking photographs of the crater. The volcano was unusually active. He took the photographs, and just as he was taking one he saw the whole thing caving in. First the bottom fell out and then the sides fell in, and down it all went, leaving nothing but a bottomless hole. No sooner was he hauled up than the ledge on which he had been standing fell in.
Yours truly, Henry W.
New Glasgow, N. S.
Dear St. Nicholas: I have taken you for ten years. We stopped for one year, and we could not do without you, so we have commenced again. I think "Little Lord Fauntleroy" is a beautiful story. I have never seen a letter from this province before. I hope to see my letter in print. Your constant reader,