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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44753 ***
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
+AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. II.--NO. 66. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
+CENTS.
+
+Tuesday, February 1, 1881. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
+per Year, in Advance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+KITTY'S FIRST PIE.
+
+
+  Baked in a patty-pan,
+    Flaky and light,
+  Done to a turn,
+    And seasoned just right,
+  By a recipe taken
+    From mother's big book,
+  And some words of advice
+    Thrown in by the cook,
+      Is Kitty's first pie.
+
+  She made it herself,
+    Did little Miss Kit,
+  Without the least help,
+    Not one tiny bit.
+  But in eating it she'll have
+    Assistance enough;
+  For there's Bertha her sister,
+    And little dog Buff,
+  And dear Mrs. Purr
+
+    (Who's a cat, as you know),
+  And all the sweet dolls
+    Sitting up in a row,
+  Each waiting her turn
+    For a piece of the pie;
+  And all the young people
+    Besides you and I
+  Would, if asked, take a bit
+    Of Kitty's first pie.
+
+  Of course 'twill go round,
+    For it's round as a wheel,
+  Though I doubt if for all
+    It would make a full meal.
+  But I'm sure there's enough
+    For each one to taste,
+  And pass an opinion
+    On the mince and the paste
+      Of Kitty's first pie.
+
+
+
+
+HAKON AND RAGON.
+
+A TRUE INCIDENT OF THE ORCADES.
+
+BY LILLIE E. BARR.
+
+
+  Oh, how the wild north winds stormed loud in the Pentland Firth,
+    Beating the shores of the Orcades Isles, all white with foam!
+  Oh, 'mid the shuddering cold and frost, was life aught worth?
+    Yes, for they saw through the blackness the lights of Home.
+
+  Hakon and Ragon alone were left of the gallant crew
+    That had sailed to the arctic seas more than a year ago.
+  Some had perished of hunger, and some where great winds blew:
+    Only they two on the ship, sinking so surely below.
+
+  But when the morning dawned, and the ship broke slowly apart,
+    They saw men launching the life-boat. Ah, would it come too late!
+  Naught was left but a three-foot spar. Each saw, with a sinking heart,
+    It would keep but one afloat. Then Hakon said, sadly: "My mate,
+
+  "Thou hast a wife and lasses and lads, and I am only one.
+    Good-by! I'll give thee a chance, Ragon. God bless thee, mate!
+        Good-by!"
+  And down he sank with a smiling face, his duty bravely done.
+    Little he cared for fame: he'd found a noble way to die.
+
+  Then, when the tide beat inland, and Hakon came to his place,
+    All the little Orcades town brought back the hero's clay,
+  And bore him to Ragon's cottage with loving tears and grace.
+    Many were there to weep for him, many were there to pray.
+
+  The dominie kissed his brave cold hand, and said, "Hakon, well done!
+    Mothers, I bid you tell your sons how Hakon lived and died.
+  Nay, do not weep; this sailor boy a noble crown has won:
+    He rests in God, and in our hearts his memory shall abide."
+
+  And in that "Court of Peace" that lies in Stromness old and gray
+    There is a spot where, spite of cold, the long green grasses wave,
+  Where youths and maidens wander, and little children play.
+    Ask them its charm, they'll answer you, "Why, this is Hakon's grave!"
+
+
+
+
+THE RAISING OF THE OBELISK.
+
+BY E. MASON.
+
+
+It was a beautiful day, and ever since early morning people had been
+pouring into the great square in front of St. Peter's, at Rome, and now
+at noon the square was filled with a silent crowd, the neighboring
+balconies with groups, silent too, and all gazing intently in the same
+direction. Not at the Pope, who, in his robes, and attended by his
+suite, was conspicuous in one of the balconies, nor at the strange sight
+at the four corners of the square--four empty gibbets which rose
+threateningly against the blue sky--but at the centre, where were a
+number of workmen, with machinery, grouped about the obelisk.
+
+This huge mass of stone had hitherto defied all efforts made by
+different architects to raise it to its pedestal; many lives had been
+lost in the attempts, much money and time wasted; and the Pope had at
+last declared that the next architect who should volunteer for the task
+would, if unsuccessful, be severely punished. There was one, however,
+Fontana, who felt confident that he could raise the obelisk, and well
+knew, if he did succeed, he should have an assured career before him;
+so, carefully making his preparations, he applied to the Pope for
+permission, only stipulating that, in order to insure success, there
+must be perfect quiet during the operation. This was why the gibbets
+stood at the corners, the Pope having officially announced that, as
+unbroken stillness must be preserved, and the workmen not disturbed by
+cries or acclamations from the excited spectators, any one who made a
+noise or spoke during the time set apart for the raising should be
+hanged; and with this wholesome terror before their eyes, it was
+believed the crowd would not be tempted to disobey the order.
+
+All were intent on the one thing, and watched anxiously the workmen, as
+cautiously they heaved the ropes, and slowly the mighty obelisk began to
+move, then gradually to assume a more erect position, and finally hung
+suspended in mid-air, needing but one more effort, when it would stand
+on its pedestal, its lofty spire pointing heavenward.
+
+But, alas! the strained, overwrought ropes seemed able to bear no more;
+already tense with the enormous weight, they were slowly beginning to
+separate. It was a moment of breathless suspense; the mighty crowd stood
+motionless, scarce daring to breathe, so great was their anxiety; and
+the wretched Fontana, foreseeing the overthrow of all his hopes of fame
+and wealth, and his destruction in the downfall, now imminent, of the
+ponderous column, in his despair hid his face in his hands. Suddenly a
+voice broke the death-like silence. It uttered but one word--"Aqua"
+(water); but no word ever sounded sweeter or brought more hope than did
+that to Fontana, whose energy revived. With a gesture he pointed to the
+fountains in the square, and the crowd aiding the workmen, they dashed
+the water over the smoking, quivering ropes; the final haul was given,
+and the obelisk stood firm and straight on its pedestal.
+
+One long, heart-felt acclamation broke from the throng, and the lately
+wretched Fontana saw himself in one brief moment rescued from the depths
+of despair. The acclamations ceased, and the Pope, commanding silence,
+ordered the workman who had disobeyed the decree of silence to be
+brought before him, and asked what reason he had to give why the
+forewarned punishment should not be executed upon him. The poor fellow
+pleaded the benefit which the pronouncing of the one word had caused,
+and the Pope not only graciously admitted the plea, but bade him ask any
+favor, and it should be granted.
+
+With humility, the workman asked only for the privilege of selling palms
+on Palm-Sunday in the great square of St. Peter's; and if we only knew
+his name, which unfortunately was not thought worthy of being recorded,
+we could tell, when in Rome on Palm-Sunday, if his descendants still
+enjoy the grant given by the Pope.
+
+
+
+
+[Begun in No. 58 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, December 7.]
+
+TOBY TYLER;
+
+OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS.
+
+BY JAMES OTIS.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CAPTURE OF THE MONKEYS.
+
+
+The boy tried to rise to his feet, but his head whirled so, and he felt
+so dizzy and sick from the effects of his fall, that he was obliged to
+sit down again until he should feel able to stand. Meanwhile the crowd
+around the wagon paid no attention to him, and he lay there quietly
+enough, until he heard the hateful voice of Mr. Lord, asking if his boy
+was hurt.
+
+The sound of this voice affected Toby very much as the chills and fever
+affect any one, and he shook so with fear, and his heart beat so loudly,
+that he thought Mr. Lord must know where he was by the sound. Seeing
+that his employer did not come directly toward him, the thought flashed
+upon his mind that now would be a good chance for him to run away, and
+he acted upon it at once. He rolled himself over in the mud until he
+reached a low growth of fir-trees that skirted the road, and when once
+he was beneath their friendly shade, he arose to his feet, and walked
+swiftly toward the woods, following the same direction that the monkeys
+had taken.
+
+He no longer felt dizzy and sick; the fear of Mr. Lord had taken all
+that from him, and made him as strong as he ever was in his life.
+
+He had walked rapidly for some distance, and was nearly beyond the sound
+of the voices in the road, when he was startled by seeing quite a
+procession of men emerge from the trees, coming directly toward him.
+
+He could not understand the meaning of this strange company, and it
+frightened him so that he attempted to hide behind a tree, in the hope
+that they might pass without seeing him. But no sooner had he secreted
+himself than a strange, shrill chattering came from the foremost of the
+group, and in an instant Toby was out from his place of concealment.
+
+He had recognized the peculiar sound as that of the old monkey who had
+left him a few moments previous, and he knew now what he did not know
+before, owing to the darkness. The new-comers were the monkeys that had
+escaped from the cage, and had been overtaken and compelled to come back
+by the old monkey, who seemed to have the most perfect control over
+them.
+
+The old fellow was leading the band, and each one had clasped hands with
+the others, which gave the whole crowd a most comical appearance, as
+they came up to Toby, half hopping, half walking upright, and all
+chattering and screaming like a crowd of children out on a holiday.
+
+Toby stepped toward the noisy crowd, held out his hand gravely to the
+old monkey, and said, in tones of heart-felt sorrow:
+
+"I felt awful bad because I thought you had gone off an' left me, when
+you only went off to find the other fellows. You're awful good, Mr.
+Stubbs; an' now, instead of runnin' away as I was goin' to do, we'll all
+go back together."
+
+The old monkey had grasped Toby's extended hand with his disengaged paw,
+and, clinging firmly to it, the entire crowd followed, without breaking
+the line, chattering and scolding at the most furious rate, while every
+now and then Mr. Stubbs would look back and scream something, which
+would cause the confusion to cease for an instant.
+
+It was really a comical sight, but Toby seemed to think it the most
+natural thing in the world that they should follow him in this manner,
+and he chattered to the old monkey quite as fast as any of the others
+were doing. He told him very gravely all that he knew about the
+accident, explained why it was that he conceived the idea of running
+away, and really believed that Mr. Stubbs understood every word he was
+saying.
+
+Very shortly after Toby had started to run away, the proprietor of the
+circus drove up to the scene of the disaster, and, after seeing that the
+wagon was being rapidly fixed up so that it could be hauled to the next
+town, he ordered that search should be made for the monkeys. It was very
+important that they should be captured at once, and he appeared to think
+more of the loss of the animals than of the damage done the wagon.
+
+While the men were forming some plan for the search, so that in case of
+a capture they could let each other know, the noise made by Toby and his
+party was heard, and the men stood still to learn what it meant.
+
+[Illustration: BRINGING BACK THE RUNAWAYS.]
+
+The entire party, who were waiting to learn the reason of the confusion,
+burst into shouts of laughter as Toby and his companions walked into the
+circle of light formed by the glare of the lanterns, and the merriment
+was by no means abated at Toby's serious demeanor. The wagon was now
+standing upright, with the door open, and Toby led his companions
+directly to it, gravely motioning them to enter.
+
+The old monkey, instead of obeying, stepped back by Toby's side, and
+screamed to the others in such a manner that they all entered the cage,
+leaving him on the outside with the boy.
+
+Toby motioned him to get in too, but he clung to his hand, and scolded
+so furiously, that it was quite apparent he had no idea of leaving his
+companion. One of the men stepped up, and was about to force him into
+the wagon, when the proprietor ordered him to stop.
+
+"What boy is that?" he asked.
+
+"Job Lord's new boy," said some one in the crowd.
+
+The man asked Toby how it was that he had succeeded in capturing all the
+runaways, and the boy said, gravely:
+
+"Mr. Stubbs an' I are good friends, an' when he saw the others runnin'
+away, he just stopped 'em, an' brought 'em back to me. I wish you'd let
+Mr. Stubbs ride with me; we like each other a good deal."
+
+"You can do just what you please with Mr. Stubbs, as you call him. I
+expected to lose half the monkeys in that cage, and you have brought
+back every one. This monkey shall be yours, and you may put him in the
+cage whenever you want to, or take him with you, just as you choose, for
+he belongs entirely to you."
+
+Toby's joy knew no bounds; he put his arm around the monkey's neck, and
+the monkey clung firmly to him, until even Job Lord was touched at the
+evidence of affection between the two.
+
+While the wagon was being repaired, Toby and the monkey stood hand in
+hand watching the work go on, and those in the cage scolded and raved
+because they had been induced to return to captivity. After a while the
+old monkey seated himself on Toby's arm, and cuddled close up to him,
+uttering now and then a contented sort of a little squeak as the boy
+talked to him.
+
+That night Mr. Stubbs slept in Toby's arms in the band wagon, and both
+boy and monkey appeared very well contented with their lot, which a
+short time previous had seemed so hard.
+
+When Toby awakened to his second day's work with the circus, his monkey
+friend was seated by his side, gravely exploring his pockets, and all
+the boy's treasures were spread out on the floor of the wagon by his
+side. Toby tried to remonstrate with him on this breach of confidence,
+but Mr. Stubbs was more in the mood for sport than for grave
+conversation, and the more Toby talked, the more mischievous did he
+become, until the boy gathered up his little store of treasures, took
+the monkey by the paw, and walked him toward the cage from which he had
+escaped on the previous night.
+
+"Now, Mr. Stubbs," said Toby, speaking in an injured tone, "you must go
+in here, and stay till I have got more time to fool with you."
+
+He opened the door of the cage, and the monkey struggled as well as he
+was able, until Toby was obliged to exert all his strength to put him
+in.
+
+When once the door was fastened upon him, Toby tried to impress upon his
+monkey friend's mind the importance of being more sedate, and he was
+convinced that the words had sunk deep into Mr. Stubbs's heart, for, by
+the time he had concluded, the old monkey was seated in the corner of
+the cage, looking up from under his shaggy eyebrows in the most
+reproachful manner possible.
+
+Toby felt sorry that he had spoken so harshly, and was about to make
+amends for his severity, when Mr. Lord's gruff voice recalled him to a
+realizing sense that his time was not his own, and he commenced his
+day's work with a lighter heart than he had had since he stole away from
+Uncle Daniel and Guilford.
+
+This day was not very much different from the preceding one so far as
+the manner of Mr. Lord and his partner toward the boy was concerned;
+they seemed to have the same idea that he was doing only about half as
+much work as he ought to, and both united in swearing at and cursing
+him quite as much as possible.
+
+So far as his relations with other members of the company were
+concerned, Toby stood in a much better position than he did before.
+Those who had witnessed the scene told the others how Toby had led in
+the monkeys on the night previous, and nearly every member of the
+company had a kind word for the little fellow, whose head could hardly
+be seen above the counter of Messrs. Lord and Jacobs's booth.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO BUILD A SAIL-BOAT.
+
+BY F. S. C.
+
+
+As a matter of course, your ice-boat has been built, rigged, and ironed;
+and after a variety of mishaps you are fully able to manage her under
+sail. A locomotive has been raced with, perhaps, and beaten; Bill B. and
+Charlie A. have the marks still on their shins where the bowsprit stay
+or runner plank ran against them. A heavy fall of snow or the ice-men
+will spoil your sailing; no doubt it has come to pass, and you are left
+out in the cold, with nothing to do but blow your fingers, and blame the
+snow and the ice-men. After flying along at the rate of a mile a minute
+in, you might say, unlimited space on a gigantic pair of skates, it is
+rather a hard matter to be obliged to come down to an ordinary pair,
+with but a small pond to skate on, at a speed of, say, six miles an
+hour, and the wind in your favor, too.
+
+But it won't do to brood over your troubles, and lay the blame on the
+ice-men or the snow.
+
+Why can't you build another boat for the next sailing season, and let
+your ice-boat go for a little while? You are still on good terms with
+your friend the carpenter? and you haven't bothered the life out of the
+blacksmith with the iron-work of your ice-boat? You must call them to
+your aid again, and also make friends with the painter.
+
+With your experience in boat-building, you ought to make something nice
+this time. Suppose you try to build a flat-bottomed sail-boat, large
+enough to hold you and several of your friends. A sail-boat is much
+harder to build than any that you have yet tried; but that is no reason
+why you can't do it.
+
+In the first place, you want two pine boards for the sides, twelve feet
+long, twenty inches wide, and one inch thick, well seasoned, and free
+from knots or checks. Cut as shown in Fig. 1, using divisions 1, 2, 3,
+4, 5 to guide you. You must be careful about your measurements, or you
+will have a leaky boat.
+
+Get a piece of oak for the dead-wood, or stem, eighteen inches long,
+four inches deep, and six inches thick. Follow the measurements
+carefully, and take particular notice of the difference between the top
+and bottom in Fig. 3. The keelson is made of white pine, nine feet long
+by seven inches deep and five and a half inches wide. Get the curve of
+the bottom from the side; it commences at the dotted line on Fig. 1,
+thence aft to section marked 4. You must allow, however, for the
+mortising in the back of the dead-wood, as shown in the side elevation,
+Fig. 6. Cut four boards, following the patterns marked 1, 2, 3, 4, Fig.
+5; these are intended to mould your boat on. No. 5 is the stern, which
+is to be made of oak one inch thick, and is a fixture. The others are to
+be removed just as soon as the bottom is nailed on. Fasten the sides to
+the dead-wood with good-sized brass screws. Then put the moulds in their
+respective positions, as marked in plan Fig. 2; bend and nail the sides
+to them. Screw the stern-piece in place, and turn the boat over, and
+with plane and straight-edge prepare for putting on the bottom. Use
+white pine seven-eighths of an inch thick. Fasten with galvanized nails,
+making the joints as tight as possible.
+
+Cut an opening in the keelson for the centre-board trunk, as shown in
+Figs. 2 and 4, then nail in position from the bottom. Saw through the
+bottom board into the keelson, for your trunk comes through, and is
+flush with the bottom of the boat. Be careful that the ends of the
+boards are nailed to the keelson at the opening. Take out the moulds,
+and put inside a ribbon of oak one by three inches. Screw to the sides
+and bottom. This, you will find, stiffens the sides very much. Also put
+in ribs of oak one inch square, mortised into the ribbon, and cut off
+flush with the top of the side, twenty inches apart. These are not
+absolutely necessary, but will give your craft additional strength. You
+might get in a heavy storm, you know, or experience severe head-winds.
+
+Thwarts of pine one and three-quarter inches thick are to be placed in
+next, with the exception of the one amidships. These serve the place of
+moulds, and keep the sides in place, to be held in position by oak
+strips underneath them. Screw them to the sides, and the thwarts to
+them. The forward one serves as mast step, and the after one as support
+for the rudder-post. Your deck beams are made of oak one inch thick and
+two inches deep, three forward and one aft. These beams must be cut with
+curved tops so as to make a crown for your deck, that it may shed water.
+The stern piece shows the height of the crown aft. Forward of the
+cockpit it ought to be two inches above the side, then a gradual sweep
+to the stern. The deck may now be put on, and planed flush with the
+side. Put an oak ribbon one by three inches on the outside, flush with
+the top of the deck. Fasten to the sides with brass screws. The lower
+edge of the ribbon might have a bead cut on it. It makes a finish, you
+know.
+
+Make the centre-board trunk of pine twenty inches wide, one and
+three-quarter inches thick, and five feet long; ends one and a half by
+two inches, fastened in by brass screws; the trunk to be rabbeted, and
+fitted into the keelson, and running through flush with the bottom. Make
+the centre-board of yellow pine four feet six inches long, one and a
+quarter inches thick, and two feet wide, dowelled with galvanized rods.
+This will stiffen and weight it at the same time. Fasten in the trunk
+with a pin at the lower end forward. Don't put your deck on before your
+trunk is in, just because the deck is spoken of first. Speaking of that,
+you must strengthen the narrow part of the deck with brackets, as shown
+in Fig. 4.
+
+[Illustration: PLANS OF A SAIL-BOAT.]
+
+Now for the blacksmith. Make the rudder-post of iron three-quarters of
+an inch in diameter, running through gas-pipe, and fastened to the deck
+and the bottom with collars. (Fig. 7 gives details.) A steel pin through
+the rudder-post keeps it from falling through. This rests on the collar.
+The stay irons are screwed to the sides and inside of the oak ribbon;
+the traveller is fastened to the inside of the stern. Don't forget to
+put an iron ring on it before it is fastened down. That finishes the
+iron-work.
+
+Your hull is now done, with the exception of a few minor details. The
+combing of the cockpit is to be made of half-inch oak three inches high.
+Nail to the edge of the deck inside. The bitt for the bowsprit to be
+stepped in runs through the deck and into the keelson. Calk the seams
+with oakum and white lead, and give the hull a priming coat of paint.
+Then go ahead and get out your spars. Take the measurements from the
+side elevation at the bottom of the page. Make the spars of yellow pine.
+Running rigging, three-eighth-inch Manila rope; standing rigging,
+half-inch Manila rope. Brass rings on masts; smaller ones on jib-stay.
+Sails of yacht drill. Two rows of reefing points. Jib-sheets to run
+through eyelets, then aft to cleats near the stern. Make a spreader for
+the topmast-stays three feet long; good stiff wire three-sixteenths of
+an inch will do. Turn an eye at either end, and run stay through it.
+
+Paint the hull black, inside drab, oak ribbon dark red, and beading
+yellow. If you like, you may put on a water-line. Varnish spars,
+combing, and deck. As for the latter, you had better paint that buff.
+
+
+
+
+OUR NINE-POUNDER.
+
+BY GEORGE H. COOMER.
+
+
+While I belonged to the whaling bark _Hector_, cruising in the Gulf of
+Guinea, and occasionally touching upon the coast, there would now and
+then come to our knowledge some incident connected with the slave-trade,
+and more than once our curiosity was excited by the sight of suspicious
+vessels.
+
+We learned, among other things, that the most notorious craft of the
+slaver fleet was a Brazilian brig called the _Dom Pedro_, having a crew
+of seventy men, with a pivot twenty-four-pounder and four carronades.
+
+Time after time this brig had been chased by the English cruisers, yet
+always escaped; and it was very evident that she must have poured golden
+fortunes into the hands of a number of unscrupulous individuals at Rio
+Janeiro.
+
+Of such matters we often conversed in the forecastle, while the
+proximity of the African coast tended to vivify our conceptions of the
+secret and dreadful traffic of which we had heard and read so much.
+
+Among our foremast hands were two colored men, both hailing from the New
+England sea-port where the bark belonged, and as well known there as the
+captain himself, although they had originally been slaves at the South.
+Recognized as "Black Abe" and "Yellow Jack," they ranked with the best
+of the _Hector_'s crew; able, willing, and full of jollity. The idiom of
+the plantation still clung to them, but for years they had followed the
+sea, and each had a wife and family in our village.
+
+It was with a marked abhorrence that the two blacks would advert to the
+villainous business of the coast, as if dreaming of some possible but
+very improbable contingency by which they themselves might yet be
+consigned to the ghastly hold of a slaver. Of course they could
+entertain no serious apprehension of the kind, yet the passing thought
+was natural; and more than once, under the shadow of some sultry African
+headland, or in view of a vessel of mysterious character, the simple
+fellows were teased by their white shipmates with good-natured jokes in
+this direction.
+
+But how little did any of the bark's company imagine the episode which
+was in reality at hand!
+
+The _Hector_ having made a somewhat fortunate cruise wanted at length
+but one or two whales. In quest of these she ran up the Bight of Benin;
+and here, close in with the coast, we presently raised a large school.
+
+Our three boats were lowered, and we commenced a long and weary chase,
+the wildness of the game making it almost impossible to arrive within
+striking distance.
+
+The general direction of the pursuit being to windward, the bark could
+follow us only by short tacks, so that, after a time, her topmasts alone
+were visible above the horizon; and at sunset, the atmosphere having
+become somewhat hazy, she was wholly out of sight. Nor from the mate's
+boat, in which I was, could we discern either of the two others, so
+widely had the chase scattered the three consorts.
+
+About five miles off, however, was a vessel of some kind, nearly or
+quite becalmed, which might be a merchantman, a whaler, a man-of-war, or
+perhaps something of more questionable character.
+
+"I guess," said Mr. Gale, the mate, "that the old man and Mr. Orne have
+pulled back to the bark. At all events, we may as well give it up first
+as last, for it's--"
+
+"There she blows!" called Yellow Jack, looking off to starboard. And
+"There she blows!" said Black Abe, as a second spout ascended, close to
+the first; for the two colored men were both of our boat's crew.
+
+The whales, three in number, which had come to the surface not a quarter
+of a mile off, may have made a portion of the dispersed school we had
+pursued. This time they appeared unsuspicious, and we approached very
+near them. Our oars had been laid aside, and we had taken silently to
+our paddles, all of us standing carefully up, and each plying his
+noiseless implement.
+
+Suddenly there was a rushing sound close beside us, a cataract of water
+tumbled against the boat, and a fourth whale, shooting his square head
+twenty feet high, "breached," as the sailors call the movement, not ten
+yards from our gunwale. Impelled toward us by his momentum, he fell with
+his under-jaw just grazing the side of our poor little craft.
+
+Confused, or, as whalemen call it, "galleyed," by the accident of his
+position, the monster, instead of turning away from us, started straight
+on, overturning and crushing the boat, and leaving us in the water, his
+three hitherto motionless companions gliding off almost as rapidly as
+himself.
+
+It was one of those accidents to which whalemen are always liable, and
+which no watchfulness can avert.
+
+Six in number, we clung to the wreck of the boat, confident that the
+_Hector_ would pick us up in the morning, should not the unknown vessel,
+which was still in sight, anticipate her in so doing.
+
+As it grew dark, however, the stranger, who seemed to have scarcely any
+wind, and so but very gradually neared us, was lost to view. Presently a
+very faint concussion broke the evening air, and we knew that the
+_Hector_, perhaps some twelve or fifteen miles off, had fired her
+nine-pounder to make us aware of her position. Probably Captain
+Phillips, our commander, and Mr. Orne, the second mate, had long since
+returned to the vessel, where our own absence must cause some anxiety.
+
+Twice after this during the night the signal was repeated. At length the
+day broke, and not more than a mile off we saw the becalmed stranger of
+the previous evening, with a light breeze just beginning to fill his
+sails.
+
+As he came up within a cable's length of us, we were surprised at the
+number of his crew; and it was with a kind of startled curiosity that,
+as his vessel--a large, rakish, full-rigged brig--rolled lazily in the
+groundswell, we caught glimpses of a heavy cannon mounted amidships on
+her deck, so high that it could be fired over her low bulwarks.
+
+She might have run directly for us, and taken us on board by means of
+lines, but her captain preferred rather to lower a boat. None of us
+liked the appearance of things, and all glanced instinctively at Black
+Abe and Yellow Jack.
+
+From the mingled tongues upon the brig's deck, in several of which we
+were hailed, we judged her crew to be composed chiefly of Spaniards and
+Portuguese, with a sprinkling of English or Americans.
+
+The boat was manned with armed sailors, and as she came up to us, one of
+her hands, who acted as spokesman in English for the others, commanded
+Jack and Abe to get on board of her. The poor terrified fellows refused;
+but the ruffians pricked them with their bayonets, and threatened them
+with instant death in case of further hesitation.
+
+"We want nothing of the rest of you," said the hard-featured villain who
+had first spoken; "your ship will pick you up by-and-by, and we can't be
+bothered with saving a parcel of blubber-hunters; but we take _wool and
+ivory_ wherever we can find them."
+
+The feeble resistance of the two colored men was speedily overcome, and,
+wounded and bleeding, they were dragged into the boat, Mr. Gale and the
+rest of us expostulating vainly as we lay helpless on the floating
+boards.
+
+Poor Abe! poor Jack! we saw them forced up the gangway of the sharp,
+saucy brig, and driven upon her deck. It was a spectacle at which Mr.
+Gale shed tears of grief and rage, while the indignation of his
+remaining crew equalled his own. We thought of the families of the
+kidnapped men--the simple wives and the little dark children who would
+be looking for the two stout colored tars when the _Hector_ should get
+home.
+
+"That brig," said the mate, "I think, is the _Dom Pedro_. I would rather
+have lost all I shall make on this voyage than have had such a thing
+happen. The miserable, cowardly villains!"
+
+A few hours later a boat from the _Hector_ picked us up; but when we
+reached our vessel, the slaver was out of sight. With a freshening
+breeze, she had stood along the coast, the tall tree-tops of which were
+barely discernible from aloft, and would doubtless enter some
+neighboring inlet or river's mouth, where her living freight might be in
+waiting.
+
+For three days on board the _Hector_ little was talked of but our two
+hapless shipmates and their wretched fate. In the mean while, however,
+remaining upon the same cruising ground, we secured the amount of oil
+required to fill the vessel.
+
+The last of our blubber was boiled out in the night; and at daybreak
+next morning we heard the report of guns, as if some vessel were pursued
+and fired upon by another.
+
+As the sky lighted up, we made out a brig under full sail, standing
+directly toward us, and presently saw that she was chased by a ship. The
+firing, however, had now ceased; probably from the fact that the
+fugitive had widened the distance between herself and her pursuer. We
+were standing easily along under short sail, and the two strangers were
+rapidly coming up astern of us, each crowding all his canvas in the
+exciting trial of speed.
+
+"That's the villain," cried Mr. Gale, looking steadily through his
+glass--"the very scoundrel that stole my men. But he'll get away, after
+all. That British sloop of war can't sail with him--he's run her out of
+gunshot already!"
+
+All who had been in the mate's boat saw that the coming brig was indeed
+the kidnapper of poor Jack and Abe. Her low black hull and symmetrical
+spars were not to be mistaken.
+
+Again the pursuing ship essayed two or three shots from her bow guns,
+but the distance was evidently too great, and once more she ceased
+firing. There could be no doubt that the piratical slaver would escape
+her, and the excitement and chagrin of our own crew became intense.
+
+The fleeing vessel passed within a furlong of us, and was soon ahead.
+What a tempting mark she presented, with those long and tapering yards
+and jaunty topmasts!
+
+Captain Phillips was a man of quick impulses and determined resolution.
+The scoundrels who had insulted him by stealing his men were close under
+his eyes, and almost within pistol-shot. The ship of war in chase could
+not cripple the brig by her distant fire. He glanced about the
+_Hector_'s decks, and a bare possibility suggested itself.
+
+"Get ready that nine-pounder!" he cried. "Mr. Orne, have up the powder.
+You'll find three or four cannon-balls down there too. And now bear a
+hand, for there's no time to lose."
+
+Mr. Orne, taking with him a couple of the crew, ran below, and five
+minutes later, the long nine--an old but somewhat handsome gun--stood
+grimly ready for action, having within it a heavy charge of powder and
+two well-fitting balls.
+
+The _Hector_'s course was altered for the occasion, so that the gun
+could be brought to bear on the brig from what is called a "swing port,"
+and then all save the captain stepped back while he arranged his aim.
+
+"When I give the word," he said to Mr. Gale, who held the match, "don't
+lose a fraction of an instant--let her go at once."
+
+How keenly he squinted along that trusty old gun! How carefully he
+raised or depressed its breech! Now it was an inch too high, now an inch
+too low.
+
+"Ah! there! there!" he muttered; "no!--yes!--that's it!--just a
+little!--just a frac-- _Let her go!_"
+
+The gun almost parted its breech tackles with the recoil, as the charge
+burst from the muzzle, tearing our nerves with its noise.
+
+"I haven't hit her!" cried the captain, springing to the side, and
+gazing almost wildly at the brig--"haven't touched her. Load up again!
+Where's your powder? Load up, load up!"
+
+"Hold on, sir!" exclaimed Mr. Gale. "Look! look! What's the matter with
+her foretopmast? It's going, sir--it's going."
+
+As he spoke, the foretopmast of the slaver leaned heavily to leeward;
+then, like a falling tree by a river's brink, went swashing into the
+water.
+
+The game was up with the fast-sailing brig. Confounded by the disaster,
+her crew attempted no revenge upon us, as they might have done, with
+their pivot cannon; and in less than half an hour the _Dom Pedro_, as
+she proved to be, was a prize to the pursuing sloop of war. Both our
+nine-pound balls had taken effect aloft.
+
+It was found that the Brazilian brig had on board no less than five
+hundred slaves, among whom, to our great joy, were discovered Black Abe
+and Yellow Jack. The captain of the British cruiser delivered over to us
+our two shipmates; while with the rest of the blacks, the prisoners, and
+the prize, he prepared to bear away for Sierra Leone, where the wretched
+Africans would once more breathe the air of freedom.
+
+How happy were Abe and Jack! How they laughed and cried, danced and
+wept! And oh! the tales they told us of the miserable slave brig!
+
+In two months thereafter we arrived home with a full ship; and when the
+_Hector_ had been hauled in at the pier head, it did us all good to see
+four little colored children, followed by their mothers, come running
+down to the water-side to be folded in the arms of the warm-hearted
+fellows who so short a time before must utterly have despaired of such a
+meeting.
+
+"Dar's de ole gun dat saved us," said Abe, to his little family,
+indicating the nine-pounder.
+
+"An' dar's de man dat aimed it," responded Jack, with a grateful look
+toward Captain Phillips.
+
+And so they went up the wharf.
+
+
+
+
+THE NEWSBOYS' HOME,
+
+AND HOW IT HELPED JOE.
+
+BY F. E. FRYATT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Here's yer five o'clock e-dishun, _Post_, _Express_, an'
+_Commercial_--full account of Gen-er-ull Garfield on the tow-path!"
+shouted three urchins, planting themselves directly before a portly old
+gentleman who was slowly puffing up stairs to the elevated railway.
+
+"Clear out, you little scamps!" grumbled the besieged, adding, more
+amiably, as he caught sight of the youngest of the three, "give me a
+_Post_, sonny, and change this quarter."
+
+"Thankee, sur," said Joe Brown, the lucky competitor, diving into the
+deepest of pockets for the needful coppers, then dashing pell-mell after
+his comrades in pursuit of a probable customer.
+
+"_Post_, _Express_, an' _Commercial_--full account of Gen-er-ull
+Garfield!" still rang the cry an hour later, while in and out, up and
+down and across the streets, darted the lithe, eager little fellows,
+until the crowd began to thin out, the papers were nearly all sold, and
+a distant bell reminded them that if they wanted their six-cent supper,
+it was high time to be off for the Lodging-House.
+
+Let us follow them as they hasten to the lofty brick building which
+stands on the triangle formed by the meeting of New Chambers, Duane, and
+North William streets. The great doors are wide open; we pass in with
+Joe, his two comrades, and half a score of bustling, laughing lads,
+mount two long flights of stone steps, and enter the large lecture or
+school room on the second story, with its rows of desks and benches, and
+the convenient lockers or closets against the walls.
+
+[Illustration: BEING REGISTERED.]
+
+One by one, in orderly fashion, the boys step within the iron railing,
+state their names, ages, and parentage to the clerk, receive numbered
+keys to their lockers, and pass on.
+
+Here a lad locks up his bundle of unsold papers until after supper,
+another his blacking-box and brushes, a third his hat and jacket; then
+away for the lavatory, with its long ranges of foot and plunge baths,
+and its shining basins under the bright copper faucets.
+
+Business must be unusually brisk, or the demands of the "inner man"
+unusually lively, if one may judge by the celerity with which the boys
+appear, brushed and combed and ruddy-faced, for supper.
+
+"Hurry up, Bill, and get yer ticket," cried Joe, passing up to the desk,
+and depositing twelve cents for bed and supper, then taking his place at
+the end of the line that was already on the move.
+
+"Sixty, sixty-one, two, three, four," calls the Superintendent as the
+boys file past, and the tramp of descending feet comes to us through the
+open doorway.
+
+[Illustration: AT SUPPER.]
+
+By the time we reach the dining-room, with its expanse of polished
+floors and high column-supported ceiling, seventy or eighty boys are
+seated at long tables, which present an inviting appearance with their
+white enamelled cloths, platters piled high with bread, and rows of
+capacious bowls steaming with fragrant tea.
+
+What a busy scene it is for the time! the bread mountains diminish like
+snow before the sun, the tea fountains vanish like rain on thirsty soil,
+and the young women attendants, in their neat dresses and aprons, pass
+to and fro continually with their renewing bread trays and flagons of
+tea and syrup.
+
+The majority of the boys laugh and chatter like magpies, but here and
+there sits a silent little news merchant, whose mind, absorbed with
+visions of "extras," hurries him on to the wished-for future.
+
+See, there they go, half a dozen of them, with quick steps and anxious
+faces; they will notify the watchmen that they must keep late hours, and
+pay the required trifle for retaining their locker keys beyond time. Up
+to midnight their shrill cries will ring through the gas-lighted
+thoroughfares of the great city, while many--or, indeed, most--of the
+young readers of this paper are dreaming happy dreams in bed.
+
+It is now nearly eight o'clock, supper is over, and the boys disperse
+for the short evening left them before bed-time; for all must be
+within-doors at half past nine, or pay a fine.
+
+[Illustration: THE GYMNASIUM.]
+
+Some of the boys go out for a walk, others, I am sorry to say, to spend
+their earnings at the cheap theatres and shows of the city; but the
+sensible ones drop their spare pennies or silver coins into the
+odd-looking savings-bank near the door, and hasten up stairs to the
+reading-room or the gymnasium. Let us follow some of them to the latter.
+
+What a jolly place it is! One could have no end of fun with its
+horizontal and parallel bars, its rings, ladders, and flying trapeze: it
+is better than a circus.
+
+There's a race for you already on that long ladder rising from one side
+of the room, crossing over, and coming down on the other slantwise.
+Johnnie Wilson has started at the north end, Billy Jones at the south
+end. There they go, hand over hand! Now they meet overhead in the
+middle. I declare, Billy's feet touch the floor first: he has beaten by
+three rounds.
+
+"Hurrah for Billy! three cheers for Billy Jones!" shout the boys who are
+watching them.
+
+Yonder three lads are trying their strength lifting iron weights in the
+corner. Tough work they find it, and soon leave to take a look at a
+comrade who hangs by his feet from a horizontal bar.
+
+Now he swings back and forth before the little group, who are eager to
+risk their necks in the wonderful experiment.
+
+See! he lets go, and with a dexterous swing catches by his hands, and
+drops safe and sound before his admirers.
+
+This is nothing to what is going on yonder, where two boys are
+performing prodigious feats on the flying trapeze, squirming and
+twisting, and turning somersaults, hanging by their chins, then by their
+toes, and then by each other, until the looker-on trembles and grows
+dizzy.
+
+Let us look for wee Joe Brown; he is not here, neither is he in the
+reading-room below-stairs, where a dozen or more youngsters are amusing
+themselves quietly, some reading story-books and illustrated papers,
+others playing checkers or dominos.
+
+I'll tell you where Joe is. He is one of the early birds. Since four
+o'clock in the morning, when he went out for his daily papers, only when
+he ate his simple meals, his busy little feet have paddled about the
+great city, his childish voice has shrilled forth the familiar cry,
+"_Sun_, _Herald_, an' _Tri-bune_, _Post_, '_Xpress_, an' _Commercial_,"
+until, too sleepy to read, too weary for even the fascination of
+watching the flying "trapezeists," he sought the solid comfort of the
+dormitory.
+
+[Illustration: THE DORMITORY.]
+
+Look in at the long tiers of beds one above another, like berths in a
+steam-boat. In number 69 you will find Joe sleeping the sleep of the
+innocent and weary.
+
+Would not the young people like to hear how Joe happens to be in the
+Newsboys' Home? I'll tell you. It all came about through Lenny Williams,
+who is a "call-boy" at one of the small theatres up town, and lives at
+the Duane Street Lodging-House.
+
+Very late one stormy night in midwinter, as he was coming home from his
+work, he fancied he heard a child sobbing, and stopping, he discovered
+by the feeble flickering light of a gas lamp a small figure crouching in
+the low doorway of one of the old-fashioned shops of that quarter.
+
+His heart gave a great bound of pity and sympathy for the poor homeless
+little creature so tattered and forlorn. His own jacket was wet without,
+but within it was dry and warm. To pull it off and place it around the
+shoulders of the shivering child was but the work of an instant.
+
+"Get up on your pins, little 'un, an' come along with me," said Lenny,
+assisting him, and buttoning the jacket close under his throat.
+
+With difficulty the poor child, whom you must have guessed before this
+was Joe Brown, rose and limped along, for he was stiff with cold and
+weak with hunger.
+
+Before they reached the Lodging-House, Lenny won from him his pitiful
+story--how, driven from home by the cruelty of his drunken father and
+step-mother, he had wandered the streets from day to day, managing by
+dint of begging and running errands, and sleeping in dark corners known
+only to the wretched and homeless, to keep soul and body together while
+the fine weather lasted.
+
+A kind old apple woman only yesterday had given him a basket, and some
+matches to sell; but then came the cold, pitiless rain, and nobody
+wanted to buy anything; so he had strayed from street to street, until
+he had lost his way in the dark, and sat down, utterly worn out and
+famished, where Lenny found him.
+
+"Yes, chicken," said Lenny, as he finished his sad story, "you'd hev
+froze to death as sure as a gun. But cheer up; here we're home at last."
+
+Never will Joe forget the glow and warmth of the "drying-room" into
+which he was led. There were three other boys there hanging up their wet
+clothes to dry.
+
+And wasn't the bath warm and delightful into which they plunged him!
+
+For a long time Joe could not understand why there should be a clean,
+whole shirt, a jacket and trousers, socks and shoes, all ready for such
+a poor miserable little stranger.
+
+And the bowl of hot bread and milk, what a luxury it was!--surely he
+must be in heaven, the place where all good, unhappy boys go when they
+die. Perhaps he had really died, out in that pitiless storm, and was
+there? He rubbed his eyes, and expected to see wings, and was
+disappointed at not finding them.
+
+The books of the institution tell how the seven-year-old child, deserted
+by his inhuman parents, was taken within the sheltering doors of the
+Lodging-House; but in another book the recording angel has written how a
+simple "call-boy" on that dark night did the will of his heavenly
+Master.
+
+That night Joe had a blessed sleep in his little bed with its nice
+sheets and downy "comfortables," so that when he woke the next morning
+he was a new little man; but after breakfast he was happier than a king,
+for the Superintendent loaned him a small sum of money to buy some
+newspapers.
+
+Two or three of the boys volunteered to teach him "lots" about selling
+them; and they did, for before night he had sold two sets of morning and
+evening papers.
+
+A prouder, more independent little fellow than Joe can not be found
+anywhere, because he not only earns his meals and lodging, and helps a
+comrade occasionally, but every night drops pennies or nickels into
+savings-box No. 90.
+
+This he has been doing for some months; at the end of each he receives
+ten per cent. interest.
+
+Joe, being studious and ambitious, faithfully attends the evening
+schools; he does not mean to grow up to be an ignorant, useless man;
+besides, he must make the most of his time, for he indulges in the dream
+of a happy home in the country, and though he hasn't told me, I am sure
+he is saving up that money to buy a good stock of books to take with
+him.
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE BIDDY'S BIRTHDAY.
+
+BY CHARA B. CONANT.
+
+
+"Mother, can I have a birthday?"
+
+"A birthday?" asked Mrs. Keaney, pausing in the midst of her washing,
+and looking down, half bewildered, half amused, at her little daughter.
+
+"Yes, mother. I _have_ birthdays, don't I, just the same as Mabel Ray?"
+
+"Shure there's no mistake about that, darlint," laughed her mother,
+resuming her work. "Eight years ago next week you came into this
+throublesome world. That's two things we have in common wid the rich,
+innyhow--the day of our birth, an' the day of our death."
+
+"But, mother," persisted Biddy, her big blue eyes rounder still with
+eagerness, "can't I have a party on my birthday? Mabel Ray had one last
+week; Eliza told me so. An' she had ice-crame, an' cake wid raisins in
+it, an' a wax doll what opens its eyes, an' lots o' children come to
+play wid her. An', oh, mother--"
+
+"Sakes alive, Biddy! what's got into you?" said her mother, gazing down
+at her with a mingling of pride, amusement, and regret. No bonnier child
+than Biddy could you find anywhere. Her complexion was a pure red and
+white, her hair chestnut, falling in natural curls over her shoulders,
+her mouth as sweet a rose-bud as Mabel Ray's.
+
+"She's as pretty as inny lady's child of them all," thought her mother;
+"an' as gintle an' good." But aloud she said, decidedly:
+
+"Honey, you're talkin' nonsinse. I've hard work enough to kape us both
+in bread an' mate, let alone clothes, widout givin' parties for you.
+Ice-crame an' cake, indade! It's a nigger waiter you'll be wantin' nixt,
+to be openin' the door for your stylish frinds," she went on, chuckling,
+as she wrung out one of Mrs. Ray's embroidered white skirts.
+
+"Oh, mother, I know you couldn't give me _such_ a party. But I thought I
+might have just a few little frinds in to play wid me, an' we'd have
+some crackers, an' some ginger cookies maybe; and thim two pinnies you
+gave me would buy candy an' nuts. An' if--"
+
+"An' who do you want to invite, may I ax?" said the mother, trying not
+to laugh.
+
+"Oh, mother, if I could ask poor little Jim Swaney, the boy what lives
+acrost the way--he's lame, you know; an' little Annie his sister.
+They're so poor, an' the father gets drunk, an' bates thim awful. I'd
+like thim to have a good time for onst."
+
+"Bliss your little heart!" said the mother; "you shall have thim in an'
+wilcome, an' I'll buy some cookies to trate thim wid, and maybe
+something besides. But don't you ask another child in this neighborhood;
+they're a bould, bad set, as you know, and it's sorry I am we have to
+live in the midst of thim."
+
+"No, mother, I won't; but I do wish I could ax some of the girls I go to
+school wid. There's Sally Flynn, and Jenny Dean, an' Mary Connor, and
+Ann Gormly, an' Kitty Fay, an'--"
+
+"Saints presarve us!" cried Mrs. Keaney. "Do you want to bring all New
+York in on me? No, no, honey, I can't affoord such a party as that. Be
+off to school now, like a good child, and don't bother me no more."
+
+But the pleading face of her little girl, the only child she had,
+haunted Mary Keaney, and when, later in the day, some unexpected work
+arrived from a lady to whom Mrs. Ray had recommended her, she resolved
+at once to gratify her darling.
+
+"It comes only onst a year," she said, "an' she's the only child I've
+got. I'll buy 'em some cookies an' gingerbread, an' a half-dozen limons
+to make some limonade wid; an' I hope they'll be satisfied, for I can't
+do no more."
+
+So Biddy, to her great joy, was allowed to invite half a dozen little
+girls, her most "intimate" friends, to her "party," which would take
+place Thursday afternoon of the following week.
+
+When Mrs. Keaney took Mrs. Ray's clothes home Thursday afternoon, she
+told Eliza, the chamber-maid, as a good joke, about her little girl's
+"party" and the expected guests.
+
+Thursday afternoon came, and about four o'clock "Lame Jim" and his
+sister arrived, and were received by Biddy, fresh and sweet as a pink in
+her clean cambric frock, with a rose-colored ribbon tied above her
+shining hair. Mrs. Keaney had but two little rooms in the third story of
+a tenement-house, but though poor and scantily furnished, they were kept
+as clean and sweet as broom and scrubbing-brush could make them.
+
+How happy little Jim was! How his sweet wan face brightened like a pale
+flower brought into the sunshine! Mrs. Keaney placed him in her one
+rocking-chair, and gave him and little Annie a drink of milk and a
+goodly slice of bread and butter straightway, for she knew how little
+they had to eat at home.
+
+And soon arrived the six girls all together; and what a merry clatter of
+tongues there was in that little kitchen! They were just as happy as if
+they had worn silk dresses and kid slippers--happier, perhaps. Soon all
+were engaged in a merry game of "hide the thimble," Jim as active as any
+one, hopping nimbly about on his crutches. At last they found the
+thimble snugly hid in his pocket, where Kitty Fay had cunningly slipped
+it, unknown even to the boy himself.
+
+Game followed game in quick succession, until Mrs. Keaney, who had been
+looking on smiling, ordered them into the bedroom.
+
+"Guess she's settin' the table," said Mary Connor: "I hear the dishes
+rattlin';" and hereupon they all fell a-chuckling. A few moments after,
+they were called into the next room.
+
+"Ain't it jist illegant?" whispered Ann Gormly to Sally Flynn. "Look at
+the sugar-cookies! and, oh my! there's limonade. I smell it."
+
+"Can't you behave?" said Sally, reprovingly. "One 'ud think you'd niver
+been to a party before."
+
+"No more I haven't," said Ann, quite above concealment. "Oh, goody,
+Sally, there's slices of mate atween the bread an' butter!"
+
+"Ain't she a greedy?" whispered Sally to Jenny.
+
+"Poor thing! they say she's most starved at home," said kindly little
+Jenny. "Her father's been out of work these three months."
+
+Mary Keaney, hospitable-hearted soul, had not been able to content
+herself with the bill of fare she at first meditated. The table was
+bountifully spread with sandwiches, cookies, molasses-cake, rosy-cheeked
+apples, and a plate of gay-colored candy in the centre.
+
+Biddy's cheeks were like roses, and her eyes like stars. Was there ever
+such a mother, and such a "party"? The good cheer soon set all the
+little tongues going, while Mrs. Keaney watched the "fun," well pleased,
+and kept the plates and glasses filled.
+
+In the midst of their festivity Mrs. Keaney was called down stairs. She
+came up in a few moments with something wrapped up in her apron.
+
+The children were too absorbed to notice her, but when in a few moments
+she appeared bearing a big earthen platter exultingly aloft, what a
+shout went up from all the little throats!
+
+"Ice-crame! ice-crame!" Even demure Sally joined in the cry; and Ann
+Gormly nearly fell out of her chair in her joyful excitement.
+
+"Oh, mother! mother! have you given _all_ your money for my party?"
+cried Biddy, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and feeling a pang of
+self-reproach amid her transports.
+
+"My lamb, who sent it I don't know, but I mistrust Mrs. Ray. An' look at
+the illegant cake wid the dape white frostin', an' the Charlotte-Russys
+too!" she added, setting two other dishes on the table. The children sat
+a moment dumb with admiration, then set up another shout.
+
+"The man said he'd a horrible job to find the place, an' I reckon it's
+the first time ice-crame an' Charlotte-Russys found their way to Rid
+Lane!" said Mrs. Keaney, who scarcely knew whether to laugh or cry
+herself.
+
+"Oh, mother, wasn't it lovely in Mrs. Ray?"
+
+"Troth it was, darlint. It must be Eliza tould her, and--"
+
+"Scarcely were the words out of her mouth, when a loud rap at the door
+made her start.
+
+"Sakes alive! I hope nobody's come to say the ice-crame wint to the
+wrong place!" She opened the door; there stood John, Mrs. Ray's colored
+man.
+
+"Good-evenin', Mrs. Keaney," surveying her with a condescending smile.
+"Here's a package for Biddy, with Miss Mabel's love. Sorry to be so
+late, but I had a number of other errands, and it was hard to find the
+place. Good-evenin'," and before Mrs. Keaney could speak, he was gone,
+anxious to escape a reproof from his mistress for his delay.
+
+With trembling fingers Mrs. Keaney undid the strings, while the little
+group looked breathlessly on. But when at last she brought out a doll--a
+lovely wax doll, with golden hair and large brown eyes--a cry of
+admiration broke from all but Biddy. She stood speechless, with flushed
+cheeks and dilated eyes, gazing up at the doll.
+
+"Och, darlin', where's your tongue?" cried Mrs. Keaney. "Such a swate
+doll, dressed up so illegant, an' she can open an' shut her eyes! Look,
+honey, look! Why, what _are_ you crying for?"
+
+"It's too beautiful!" sobbed little Biddy. "Everythin's so beautiful, I
+don't know what to do.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, as Biddy lay in her bed, while her mother was tucking her
+in, she said, with a long sigh, "Oh, mother! mother! I'm so glad I've
+had a birthday! I'll niver forget it as long as I live! Oh, mother,
+wasn't it jist beautiful?"
+
+"Yes, dear," said Mrs. Keaney. But a little jealous pang gnawing at her
+heart made her add, "I couldn't give you ice-crame, darlin', nor wax
+dolls, but--"
+
+Biddy threw both her arms round her mother's neck. "Oh, mother! dear,
+darlin' mother! what you did was most of all. Oh, there niver was a
+mother like mine!"
+
+A tear rolled down the mother's cheek. What reward could be sweeter than
+those loving words, the clasp of those little arms about her neck? And
+so ended Biddy's happy birthday.
+
+
+
+
+PHIL'S FAIRIES.
+
+BY MRS. W. J. HAYS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "PRINCESS IDLEWAYS," ETC.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE WIND HARP.
+
+
+"Oh, Lisa, how many stars there are to-night! and how long it takes to
+count just a few!" said a weak voice from a little bed in a garret room.
+
+"You will tire yourself, dear, if you try to do that; just shut your
+eyes up tight, and try to sleep."
+
+"Will you put my harp in the window? there may be a breeze after a
+while, and I want to know very much if there is any music in those
+strings."
+
+"Where did you get them, my darling?"
+
+"From Joe."
+
+"Joe, the fiddler?"
+
+"Yes, he brought me a handful of old catgut; he says he does not play
+any more at dances; he is so old and lame that they like a younger darky
+who knows more fancy figures, and can be livelier. He _is_ very black,
+Lisa, and I am almost afraid of him; but he is so kind, and he tells me
+stories about his young days, and all the gay people he used to see.
+Hark! that is my harp; oh, Lisa, is it not heavenly?"
+
+"I don't know," said poor tired Lisa, half asleep, after her long day's
+work of standing in a shop.
+
+Phil's harp was a shallow box, across which he had fastened some violin
+strings rather loosely; and Phil himself was an invalid boy who had
+never known what it was to be strong and hardy, able to romp and run, or
+leap and shout. He had neither father nor mother, but no one could have
+loved him more or have been any gentler or more considerate than was
+Lisa--poor, plain Lisa--who worked early and late to pay for Phil's
+lodging in the top of the old house where they lived, and whose whole
+earthly happiness consisted in making Phil happy and comfortable. It was
+not always easy to do this, for Phil was a strange child: aside from the
+pain that he suffered, he had odd fancies and strange likings, the
+result of his illness, and being so much alone. And Lisa could not
+always understand him, for she lived amongst other people; rough, plain,
+careless people, for whom she toiled, and who had no such thoughts as
+Phil had.
+
+From the large closet that served as her bedroom, Lisa often heard Phil
+talking, talking, talking, now to this thing, now to that, as if it were
+real, and had a personality; sometimes his words were addressed to a
+rose-bush she had brought him, or the pictures of an old volume she had
+found on a stall of cheap books at a street corner, or the little
+plaster cast that an image-seller had coaxed her to purchase. Then,
+again, he would converse with his knife and fork or plate, ask them
+where they came from, how they were made, and of what material. No
+answer coming, he would invent all sorts of answers, making them reply
+in his own words.
+
+Lisa was so used to these imaginary conversations that they did not seem
+strange to her.
+
+Phil had, too, a passion for music, and would listen intently to the
+commonest strains of a hand-organ, and Lisa had given him a little toy
+harmonica, from which he would draw long, sweet tones and chords with
+much satisfaction.
+
+Old Joe, who blackened boots for some of the lodgers, had heard the
+child's attempts at music, and had brought his violin, and played for
+him. One day, happening to leave it for a while on the window-ledge,
+Phil's quick ear had detected a low vibration from the instrument. This
+circumstance, and something he had read about a wind harp, had given
+him the wish to make one--with what success he was anxious to find out,
+when Lisa laid it in the open window for him.
+
+A soft south wind was blowing, and as Phil spoke, it had stirred the
+loose strings of the rude Æolian harp, and a slight melodious sound had
+arisen, which Phil had thought so beautiful. He drew his breath even
+more softly, lest he should lose the least tone, and finding that Lisa
+was really asleep, propped himself up higher on his pillows, and gazed
+out at the star-lit heavens.
+
+He often talked to the stars, but very softly and wonderingly, and
+somehow he could never find any answers that suited him; but to-night,
+as the breeze made a low soft music come from his wind harp, filling him
+with delight, it seemed to him that a voice was accompanying the melody,
+and that the stars had something to do with it; for, as he gazed, he saw
+a troop of little beings with gauzy wings fluttering over the
+window-ledge, and upon the brow of each twinkled a tiny star, and the
+leading one of all this bevy of wee people sang:
+
+  "Come from afar,
+  Here we are! here we are!
+  From yon Silver Star,
+  Fays of the Wind,
+  To children kind."
+
+[Illustration: "'HOW LOVELY THEY ARE!' THOUGHT PHIL."]
+
+"How lovely they are!" thought Phil; "and so these really are fairies. I
+never saw any before. They have wings like little white butterflies, and
+how tiny their hands and feet, and what graceful motions they have as
+they dance over my harp! They seem to be examining it to find out where
+the music comes from; but no, of course they know all about it. I wonder
+if they would talk to me?"
+
+"Of course we will be very glad to," said a soft little voice in reply
+to his thoughts.
+
+"I was afraid I would frighten you away if I spoke," said Phil, gently.
+
+"Oh no," replied the fairy who had addressed him; "we are in the habit
+of talking to children, though they do not always know it."
+
+"And what do you tell them?" asked Phil, eagerly.
+
+"All sorts of nice things."
+
+"Do you tell them all they want to know?"
+
+"Oh no," laughed the fairy, with a silvery little voice like a
+canary-bird's. "We can not do that, for we do not know enough to be able
+to: some children are much wiser than we. I dare say you are."
+
+"Indeed I am not," said Phil, a little sadly; "there are so many things
+that puzzle me. I thought that perhaps, as you came from the stars, you
+knew something of astronomy."
+
+"What a long, long word that is!" laughed the fairy again. "But we are
+wind fairies; and yet the Father of the Winds is called Astræus--that
+sounds something like your long word, does it not?"
+
+"It sounds more like Astrea, and that means a star."
+
+"Why, where did you learn so much?"
+
+"I saw it in a big book called a dictionary."
+
+"Another long word. Doesn't your head ache?"
+
+"Sometimes, not now. I have not any books now, except picture-books."
+
+"Did you ever have?"
+
+"Oh yes; when papa was living we had books, and pictures, and many
+beautiful things; but there was a great fire, and all sorts of trouble,
+and now I have only Lisa. But Lisa does not understand as papa did; it
+was he showed me that word in the dictionary."
+
+"Oh, don't say that great ugly word again! Shall I tell my friends to
+make some more music?"
+
+"Yes, please."
+
+The wind fairy struck her little hands together, and waved her wings. In
+a moment the little white troop danced over the strings of the harp, and
+brought out sweet, wild strains, that made Phil nearly cry for joy. They
+seemed to be dancing as they did it, for they would join hands and sway
+to and fro; then, parting, they wound in and out in graceful,
+wreath-like motions, and the tiny stars on their foreheads flashed like
+diamonds. Up and down they went, the length of the strings, then across,
+then back again; and all the time the sweet wild music kept vibrating.
+"How lovely! how lovely!" said Phil, when there was a pause.
+
+"I am so glad you like it!--we often make music for people, and they
+hardly hear it," said the fairy.
+
+"I do not see how they can help hearing," said Phil.
+
+"Why, I'll tell you how: we frequently are in the tree-tops, or whirling
+about low bushes; every soft breeze that blows has some of our music in
+it, for there are many of us: and yet very few people pay any attention
+to these sounds."
+
+"When the wind screams and roars in winter, is it you, then, who does
+that too?" asked Phil.
+
+[Illustration: FAST ASLEEP.]
+
+"Oh no," said the fairy, rustling her wings in some displeasure. "We are
+of the South Wind only, and have no such rude doings: I hope I may never
+have any work to do for the North Wind, he is so blustery. Now it is
+time you went to sleep, and we can not stay longer, for if the moon
+rises we can not see our star-beams, and might lose our way. We will
+just fan you a little, and you will soon be in dreamland."
+
+As she spoke, Phil saw her beckon to her troupe, and they all flocked
+about him, dazzling him so with their starry coronets that he was forced
+to shut his eyes, and, as he closed them, he felt a gentle wafting as of
+a hundred little wings about his forehead, and in another moment he was
+asleep.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
+
+
+  ROUND LAKE, HALIBURTON.
+
+     I and my brother used to have such good times fishing on these
+     lakes in our canoes, and hunting deer in the woods, but now I am so
+     lonely, for my only brother is dead. He went out in the woods to
+     hunt deer, and got lost, and froze to death. He was sixteen years
+     old, two years older than I am. It has been a very cold winter
+     here, and he froze to death on the 19th of November. As our
+     neighbors all live many miles away, there were only father and I to
+     hunt for him, and I found him dead the third day. He forgot to take
+     matches, and it snowed so much he could not see his tracks to get
+     back. It seems very hard for me to live here without my brother.
+
+      My sisters and I have received a good many requests for loons' and
+      gulls' eggs and for moss, and we will attend to them all, next
+      summer, as soon as we can gather them, for there is any amount of
+      those things here.
+
+      I received some pretty Christmas and New-Year's cards and books,
+      and my sister has received some presents and a doll from some
+      readers of YOUNG PEOPLE, and we have sent a set of deer horns and
+      what eggs we had in return, and in the spring we will be sure to
+      send other eggs we have been asked for.
+
+  ERASTUS W. LOCKMAN,
+  Dorset P. O., Muskoka District, Ontario, Canada.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS.
+
+     I am going to write, so that some little girl may see what a nice
+     time a friend of mine and myself have been having. We dressed two
+     dolls, and saved up our money until, with what was given to us and
+     what we had saved ourselves, we had five dollars. Then we carried
+     the dolls and the money to the Children's Hospital, and gave them
+     to some sick children. It made the children very happy.
+
+  M. LOULOU C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  WINDSOR, VERMONT.
+
+     I have three Cotswold lambs, named Fanny, Nora, and Cora. They are
+     very tame, and will eat out of my hand.
+
+      I am eleven years old. I take HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE all myself.
+      Last summer I had a very fine sage bed. I cut the green leaves,
+      and dried them, and when they were sold, they brought more than
+      enough to pay for my YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+      We have a piano. I have taken fourteen lessons, and can play a few
+      pieces.
+
+  NELLIE J. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SARANAC, MICHIGAN.
+
+     I am eight years old. I have a brother ten years old and a sister
+     two years old. My brother takes YOUNG PEOPLE, and he lets me read
+     it sometimes. I think it is very nice. My brother said he was going
+     to write a letter to the Post-office Box, but I am going to
+     surprise him, and send one first.
+
+  ALLIE S.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  DAYTON, OHIO.
+
+     I am a subscriber to YOUNG PEOPLE, and although I am not one of the
+     "little folks," I find the Post-office Box very interesting, as I
+     am very fond of children and of pets. I have a bright, intelligent
+     pony, a Mexican dog four years old that does not weigh more than
+     two pounds, a mocking-bird, canaries, and a lot of fancy pigeons,
+     and two aquaria filled with fish. I must add my cat also, although
+     it is a poor stray waif that came to the house only a short time
+     ago. I had it carried away several times in the evening, as I had
+     determined it must go, on account of my birds. But as soon as the
+     door was opened in the morning, Cattie would be there, and after
+     giving one glad little mew, she would begin rubbing around my feet
+     and purring in such a cunning way, as though asking if she might
+     not stay. One day I heard Cattie calling in such a peculiar way
+     that I opened the door. There she was, with a mouse in her mouth,
+     and she began purring and rubbing around me. I stooped down and
+     petted her, and she seemed very proud, and ran away to eat her
+     mouse, casting a backward glance, as much as to say, That settles
+     it; I shall stay. And so she shall and welcome, if she will be
+     contented to make her home in the stable, with only an occasional
+     visit to the house.
+
+      Will Mary R., of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, please oblige me by giving
+      her method of cultivating heliotrope, as it is one of my
+      favorites, and I can never succeed in raising it. I have over two
+      hundred plants in my parlor and sitting-room windows, and not one
+      heliotrope.
+
+  SALLIE E. L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.
+
+     There are four of us little folks here. Mamma or papa reads YOUNG
+     PEOPLE to us every week. We have all the numbers from the first.
+     Papa is having them bound in a book, and we expect it every day. We
+     all like the Post-office Box very much, and the stories too,
+     although some of them are too old for us; but we will have the
+     book, and will understand them better when we are older.
+
+      We have a big dog, Rover. When he stands up on his hind-legs, he
+      can put his fore-paws on papa's shoulder. He is awfully afraid of
+      a gun, and runs and hides when one is fired off. We have five
+      Seabright bantams; they are no larger than quails, and are very
+      pretty.
+
+      I was eight years old Christmas-day. Walter is six and a half,
+      Ollie is three and a half, and Robbie is four months.
+
+      Papa writes this for me, because it is my first letter to YOUNG
+      PEOPLE, but Walter and I go to school, and will soon be able to
+      write for ourselves. We both go to Sunday-school at nine o'clock
+      every Sunday morning.
+
+  ELLA R. W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  LANSINGBURG, NEW YORK.
+
+     I have a beautiful black goat named Dan, and a complete set of
+     silver-plated harness. I have a wagon; I drive out with it in
+     summer; and for winter I have an elegant red box cutter, and a
+     string of silver bells, and a beautiful robe. I have a nice house
+     for my goat, and in one corner of it I have a harness box. Dan will
+     not allow any boy to come near him, but he loves me dearly, and I
+     love him. I am eleven years old. I have no brother or sister, but I
+     have a cat that I think the world of, and a pet turtle about as
+     large as a silver dollar.
+
+  HARRY C. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SAGINAW CITY, MICHIGAN.
+
+     I am eleven years old, and I have always lived in Saginaw. A year
+     ago last Christmas my papa gave me a pony, and on my last birthday
+     I had a present of a saddle.
+
+      We have a club called the Saginaw City Horse Guards. There are
+      about ten boys belonging to it. Last summer we used to go to the
+      woods to play "follow my leader," and we had lots of fun. And we
+      went to the fair dressed in uniform.
+
+      It is very cold weather here. The other day we boys flooded the
+      back part of our yard, and made a skating rink twenty-seven feet
+      wide and forty-one feet long, and now we have a nice place to
+      skate. It is very good sleighing here, and I am having a splendid
+      time sleigh-riding.
+
+  FRED H. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA.
+
+     I am eight years old. Papa gave me YOUNG PEOPLE for my Christmas
+     present.
+
+      In September we visited Le Grand, where the Iowa marble quarries
+      are, and I saw the men getting marble, and I brought home some
+      pretty specimens.
+
+      There are two tribes of Indians not far from us, and some of them
+      are in town almost every day. They are lazy and dirty, and the
+      ladies here will not let the squaws into their houses; for if they
+      do, the squaws will not go away again until they are made to.
+
+  LUTIE B. R.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  KEYESVILLE, VIRGINIA.
+
+     I began taking YOUNG PEOPLE in November, and I am very much
+     interested in "Toby Tyler" and "Mildred's Bargain."
+
+      We have a missionary society in the village, called "The
+      Children's Baptist Missionary Society." We meet once every month,
+      and at each meeting two of the members are required to read
+      something. I had to read at our first meeting, and I read "Out of
+      the Woods," from YOUNG PEOPLE No. 53, which pleased everybody very
+      much.
+
+      I am eleven years old, and I have three sisters. I came here in
+      May to stay with my grandpapa and grandmamma, but I am going to
+      Brooklyn in February.
+
+      We have an old horse here that is nearly twenty-six years old. His
+      name is Joe, and every one thinks there is no horse like him.
+
+  JULIA M. C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA.
+
+     My uncle sends me YOUNG PEOPLE, and I enjoy it very much. Santa
+     Claus brought me a knife, a football, a book, and a pair of gold
+     cuff buttons. I have a little sister named Lizzie. She can talk and
+     walk.
+
+  CHARLIE H. R.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  COLFAX, CALIFORNIA.
+
+     We have read with interest and pleasure the entertaining stories in
+     YOUNG PEOPLE, and we think the children in the United States ought
+     to give a vote of thanks to this nice little paper, which provides
+     such pleasant reading for them.
+
+      Colfax, where we live, is a pleasant place, and the climate here
+      is delightful. Some time ago we had a small snow-storm, but now
+      (January 5) the green grass is springing up all about.
+
+      We have a wiggle club here, and send you a few which we have made.
+      We wish all possible success to YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+  GRACE and JEANNIE.
+
+The wiggles from this California club came too late to be printed with
+the others, but we acknowledge them with thanks. The same
+acknowledgments are due to George Arthur, Helen A. Searing, and other
+correspondents whose wiggles arrived behind time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     I have three pet turtles, but they all buried themselves under the
+     flower bed before the ground was frozen.
+
+      I spent one summer at Cape May, and there I found a turtle that
+      was so tame it would eat out of my hand, and drink out of a
+      tea-spoon. I fed it on raw meat, soaked bread, and worms, but it
+      ran away. I am twelve years old.
+
+  ELSIE B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I wish to exchange postage stamps with readers of YOUNG PEOPLE. I
+     have also a large piece of wood, full of worm-holes, that came out
+     of the bottom of a large vessel that went over three thousand miles
+     on her first voyage, and was eaten by worms. If any boy would like
+     a piece of this wood, I will send it in return for some good
+     foreign stamps.
+
+  GEORGE H. ELDER,
+  Care of Kelsey & Suydam,
+  99 Broadway, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I am nine years old. I would like to exchange postage stamps or
+     iron ore, for minerals, ocean curiosities, or Indian relics, with
+     any readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+  G. C. WARNER,
+  Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I have a collection of birds' eggs, and would like to exchange with
+     other collectors. I have also a collection of postmarks, and I will
+     give twenty (all different) for any egg not already in my
+     collection.
+
+  DE WITT AYRES, Penn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I want to tell you what mamma gave me for my Christmas present. A
+     little while before Christmas she said she was tired of moving my
+     HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE round from one place to another, so she
+     gathered them all up and put them away, as I thought. But
+     Christmas-eve they came back to me handsomely bound, and I find
+     them a great deal nicer to read. In looking through the book I find
+     a great many pieces I never noticed before. Mamma says I can take
+     it until I am fifteen, and have it bound every year. I am eleven
+     years old now, so then I will have five nice volumes.
+
+      I am beginning a collection of curiosities, and would like to
+      exchange small sea-shells or stones with any little boy or girl
+      for any curiosity, or for different kinds of moss.
+
+  JESSA PEARSON,
+  Xenia, Greene County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     I have received so many letters in answer to my request for
+     exchange that I can not possibly supply all demands immediately,
+     but will do so as soon as possible. I hope those who have been so
+     kind as to write to me will not think I have forgotten them.
+
+  ANNIE P. CARRIER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I wish to inform correspondents who desire to exchange with me that
+     I have changed my address from New York to Brooklyn, as given
+     below. I will now exchange foreign and United States revenue stamps
+     and postmarks, for Indian curiosities.
+
+  GEORGE B. DONNELLY, 331 Hicks Street,
+  Corner of Atlantic Av., Brooklyn, L. I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I have about one thousand postmarks, and a large collection of
+     minerals, coins, stamps, and curiosities, which I will exchange for
+     birds' eggs. All eggs must be in good condition and unbroken, as I
+     use fine steel borers to make the holes. I wish nothing but eggs in
+     exchange.
+
+  J. N. KRIEGSHABER, 490 Fifth Street,
+  Between Breckinridge and Kentucky,
+  Louisville, Ky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     In my letter printed in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 62 I intended to say that
+     I would exchange postmarks, not for other postmarks, but for stamps
+     and minerals. I regret that I made the mistake.
+
+  TEDDY SMITH, 641 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Mich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  JACKSON, MICHIGAN.
+
+     I am a little girl ten years old. I have never been to school, but
+     I can read, and I could write till I got too nervous. I have been
+     sick for six years, and can not run around like other little girls,
+     but I am very happy, because everybody is very good to me. My uncle
+     John sends me YOUNG PEOPLE, and I have had it since the first
+     number.
+
+      I have three canary-birds, and two of them that are in one cage
+      are trying to build a nest. I have a lot of books and dolls. I did
+      have a kitten, but it had fits, and we sent it away. My papa wrote
+      this for me, because I have to lie in bed, and can not guide a
+      pen.
+
+  MAGGIE B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:
+
+     Postage and revenue stamps.
+
+  J. E. JOHNSON, JUN.,
+  Longdale, Alleghany County, Va.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stones of Maryland, for stones of any other State.
+
+  T. MORRIS BROWN,
+  199 Hoffman Street, Baltimore, Md.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Indian arrow-heads, flint rock, and petrified wood, for postage
+     stamps and silver ore.
+
+  WALTER BUCHANAN,
+  Butteville, Marion County, Oregon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A specimen of petrified cedar, for one of zinc ore.
+
+  WILLIAM E. CHASE,
+  Franklin, Essex County, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign and rare United States postage stamps.
+
+  LEWIS G. PARK,
+  24 Arlington Street, Cambridge, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Peacock coal, for minerals, shells, or curiosities.
+
+  ANNA C. BRASTOW, Wilkesbarre, Penn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postmarks, for foreign and United States postage stamps (except
+     one, two, and three cent United States stamps), coins, birds' eggs,
+     or minerals.
+
+  LOUIS A. OSBORNE,
+  237 West Thirty-fourth Street, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Norwegian postage stamps, for other foreign stamps.
+
+  ANTON HIRSTENDAHL,
+  Stoughton, Dane County, Wis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Ocean curiosities, stones from Ireland, or Indian arrow-heads, for
+     foreign coins.
+
+  WINTER D. HUBER,
+  Westminster, Carroll County, Md.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign stamps and curiosities, for the same or for autographs.
+
+  FRANK OSBORN,
+  Care of Mrs. C. L. Osborn,
+  471 East Toun Street, Columbus, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stamps for shells, or for autographs of renowned men and women.
+
+  S. D. G.,
+  P. O. Box 1221, Plainfield, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign and United States postage stamps.
+
+  WILLIE S. SMITH, P. O. Box 50,
+  Westminster, Carroll County, Md.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Soil from Massachusetts, for soil of New York or Pennsylvania.
+
+  Camilla W. Mansur,
+  74 Columbia Street, Cambridgeport, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Twenty-five postmarks (no duplicates), for five foreign stamps.
+     Those of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island
+     especially desired.
+
+  KITTY REED,
+  3024 Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Birds collected in Vermont, for foreign or old issues of United
+     States postage stamps.
+
+  CLAYTON J. KINSLEY,
+  P. O. Box 225, Burlington, Vt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Ohio and other Western postmarks, for postmarks from the South; or
+     Italian and Bavarian stamps, for other foreign stamps.
+
+  MAURICE A. MCMILLAN,
+  Washington C. H., Fayette County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps, for curiosities.
+
+  EDWARD H. DILLON,
+  217 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, L. I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Birds' eggs, stamps, or minerals, for birds' eggs, sea-shells, or
+     curiosities, especially with correspondents in the Southern States
+     or west of the Mississippi. Lists of curiosities exchanged.
+
+  HARRY SPAULDING,
+  Albion, Orleans County, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Five varieties of Turkish postage stamps, for any other rare
+     stamps.
+
+  NED PRATT,
+  2431 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Specimens of wood from Ohio, showing the bark of the tree, for
+     similar specimens from any other State.
+
+  EDDIE WILLIAMS, P. O. Box 135,
+  Loveland, Clermont County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps, for pieces of rare wood. Specimens should be
+     three-fourths of an inch thick, two inches wide, and two inches
+     long.
+
+  L. H. NELSON,
+  3804 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps and postmarks, for insects or curiosities.
+
+  EDDIE A. JONES,
+  29 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, Conn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Indian arrow-heads, for cotton or rice as taken from the field, or
+     other curiosities.
+
+  WILLIE WILLIAMS,
+  Economy, Wayne County, Indiana.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postmarks from the eastern portion of the United States, for others
+     from the West.
+
+  WILLIE F. DIX,
+  444 High Street, Newark, New Jersey.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A small specimen of copper ore, for an Indian arrow-head, or some
+     other Indian relic.
+
+  HARRY E. DIXON,
+  111 East Fifty-first Street, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A self-inking printing-press and one font of type, for a collection
+     of birds' eggs.
+
+  FRED CHENEY, 51 Fort Avenue,
+  Boston Highlands, Boston, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A triangular Cape of Good Hope stamp and other rare stamps, for
+     stamps, Indian relics, or minerals.
+
+  RUFUS L. SEWALL,
+  26 Brimmer Street, Boston, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Twenty-five postmarks of New Jersey and New York, for twenty-five
+     of any other State.
+
+  A. M. WOODRUFF,
+  645 High Street, Newark, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stones and curiosities from Hot Springs, Arkansas, for Indian
+     relics, sea-weeds, or shells, stones from any State except
+     Tennessee and Arkansas, or curiosities of any kind.
+
+  WILLIAM H. HOWLAND,
+  140 Adams Street, Memphis, Tenn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A piece of pure white coral, for minerals, ocean curiosities, lava
+     from a volcano, or choice shells; or some yellow and white sand
+     arranged in bottles, for a star-fish or a sea-horse.
+
+  SALLIE KELLEY,
+  Kleine St., East Walnut Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps and postmarks, for Indian relics, minerals, fossils,
+     or California curiosities.
+
+  JOE F. FOLSOM,
+  Bloomfield, Essex County, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Ten Michigan postmarks, for ten postmarks from other States.
+
+  HARRY W. QUIMBY,
+  777 Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, Mich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps. Jamaica stamps a specialty.
+
+  CHARLES H. ISRAELS,
+  Irving Institute, Tarrytown, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stamps and postmarks.
+
+  FRANK B. MYERS,
+  Ishpeming, Mich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Minerals, for good foreign postage stamps.
+
+  CLINTON C. ANDREWS,
+  Kirkwood, St. Louis County, Missouri.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+HARRY J.--Any mineral or any package containing minerals, shells, or
+similar matter, not exceeding four pounds in weight, may be sent by mail
+at the rate of one cent for each ounce. In exchanging stones from
+different States, it would always be better to send some specimen of
+interest in itself, and one which represents the character of some mine
+or of celebrated ledges or quarries within the State limits. For
+example, it would be much more interesting to have a specimen in your
+collection labelled, "Marble from Vermont" or "Iron Ore from
+Connecticut," than to have the same specimen simply labelled a stone
+from either of those States. From Iowa, where you live, a specimen of
+galenite from the lead mines would be interesting, or any mineral found
+in abundance near your home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A. J. GIBBS.--The first canal in the United States is supposed to have
+been built in the Connecticut Valley to allow boats to pass around the
+falls at South Hadley and around Turner's Falls at Montague. In
+February, 1792, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act
+incorporating a company for the building of this canal, and operations
+were soon after commenced at South Hadley. The engineer was Benjamin
+Prescott, of Northampton. The Middlesex Canal, from Boston to Lowell,
+was built a few years later, and also a portion of the Mohawk Valley
+Canal. In 1797 six miles of the latter were completed, making a passage
+around rapids on the Mohawk River for boats of fifteen tons.
+
+The first canals were built by the ancients for purposes of irrigation,
+but at a very early period they were also used as navigable channels.
+The royal canal of Babylon, built about 600 B.C., is one of the earliest
+mentioned in history. The Grand Canal of China, which is about 650 miles
+long, was built during the eighth century. At the changes of level the
+boats were dragged up inclined planes, and it was not until about 1480
+that locks were invented by two Italian engineers. After this invention,
+by which one of the greatest impediments to canal navigation was
+removed, the construction of canals became general throughout Europe.
+One of the largest enterprises of the kind was that undertaken by Peter
+the Great during the first years of the eighteenth century: 1434 miles
+of canals were built, connecting St. Petersburg with the Caspian Sea and
+with inland districts.
+
+The first canal was built in England in 1760, and at the present time
+there are about 47,000 miles of canals in Great Britain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Favors are acknowledged from Frankie L. Garbutt, F. M. Elliot, Albert H.
+Hopkins, Josie Chesley, N. D. Sugden, A. H. Patterson, Gracie Mathews,
+May Arnold, Willie Derr, Florence E. Lewis, Calvin Colton W., Henry J.
+Nuhn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Correct answers to puzzles have been sent by Harry H. Dickinson, Rebecca
+Hedges, Martie H., Thomas M. Armstrong, Allie Maxwell, Hugh Pitcairn,
+Will B. Shober, Grace B., William Harris, Walter P. Hiles, C. Wieland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+No. 1.
+
+GEOGRAPHICAL HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.
+
+A lake in Louisiana. A city in Northern Europe. A river in Mexico. A
+city in Japan. A city in Germany. In Montreal. A river in Europe. A
+river in Italy. A capital of one of the United States. A river in the
+western part of North America. A river near the east coast of British
+America. Centrals read downward spell the name of one of the divisions
+of Germany.
+
+  FANNIE E. S.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+ENIGMA.
+
+  First in ham, not in beef.
+  Second in rock, not in reef.
+  Third in fortune, not in fate.
+  Fourth in fish, not in bait.
+  Fifth in bed, not in cot.
+  The whole an animal never shot.
+
+  F. V.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 3.
+
+NUMERICAL CHARADES.
+
+  1. I am composed of 12 letters.
+  My 1, 2, 3 is part of the body.
+  My 4, 5 is a river in Europe.
+  My 6, 7, 8 is a cooking utensil.
+  My 9 is a vowel.
+  My 10, 11, 12 is the generic name of certain animals.
+  My whole is an animal.
+
+  WILLIE L. K.
+
+  2. I am composed of 6 letters.
+  My 1, 2, 3 is a part of the head.
+  My 4,5,6 is something John Gilpin lost.
+  My whole is an insect.
+
+  3. I am composed of 9 letters.
+  I am an English bird, and may often be seen in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
+        seeking my simple 6, 7, 8, 9.
+
+  4. I am composed of 7 letters.
+  My 1, 2, 3, 4 is part of a shoe.
+  My 5, 6, 7 is wrath.
+  My whole is a creature found in South America.
+
+  BEATRICE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 4.
+
+WORD SQUARES.
+
+1. First, a beautiful mineral. Second, a tree. Third, a girl's name.
+Fourth, a metal.
+
+  FRANK.
+
+2. First, a girl's name. Second, to rend. Third, to accept. Fourth, a
+character in mythology.
+
+  HALLA.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 5.
+
+ENIGMA.
+
+  In corn, not in ear.
+  In horse, not in deer.
+  In stay, not in go.
+  In spry, not in slow.
+  In inn, not in house.
+  In rat, not in mouse.
+  In fly, not in dove.
+  My whole the synonym of love.
+
+  JAMES E. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 63.
+
+No. 1.
+
+  P E T A R D   P E S T E R
+  E L I N O R   E N E R V E
+  T I N G L E   S E Q U I N
+  A N G O L A   T R U A N T
+  R O L L E R   E V I N C E
+  D R E A R Y   R E N T E D
+
+No. 2.
+
+        J
+      C U P
+    C A B I N
+  J U B I L E E
+    P I L O T
+      N E T
+        E
+
+No. 3.
+
+  F  la  G
+  A lonz O
+  M arve L
+  E  nde D
+
+Fame, Gold.
+
+No. 4.
+
+Vulture.
+
+No. 5.
+
+  I llinois
+  N ebraska
+  D elaware
+  I owa
+  A labama
+  N ew York
+  A rizona
+
+
+
+
+NOTICE.
+
+
+HARPER & BROTHERS _beg leave to state, in answer to numerous inquiries,
+that the Bound Volume of_ HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE _for 1880 is entirely
+out of stock, and will not be reprinted at present_.
+
+
+
+
+HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+
+SINGLE COPIES, 4 cents; ONE SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $1.50; FIVE
+SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $7.00--_payable in advance, postage free_.
+
+The Volumes of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE commence with the first Number in
+November of each year.
+
+Subscriptions may begin with any Number. When no time is specified, it
+will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the
+Number issued after the receipt of the order.
+
+Remittances should be made by POST-OFFICE MONEY-ORDER OR DRAFT, to avoid
+risk of loss.
+
+  HARPER & BROTHERS,
+  Franklin Square, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TUMBLER TRICK.
+
+
+This trick consists in balancing a match on the edge of a tumbler
+containing water, in the position represented in our picture, and then
+drinking the water without dropping the match.
+
+Solution in our next.
+
+
+
+
+IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.
+
+
+  "To sleep! to sleep!" called December,
+    To the cheery young strawberry vines.
+  "Not a green leaf is left on the maple,
+    Nor the creeper that round it entwines;
+  And the song-birds have gone to the South-land,
+    And the last of the flowers is dead,
+  And it's time that all good little strawberry plants
+    Were fast, fast asleep in their bed."
+
+  "Who cares?" said they, saucily; "we don't,
+    Though all that you tell us be true.
+  We're as wide, wide awake as we can be,
+    And we won't go to bed, sir, for you."
+  "Oh, you won't!" and he summoned a snow-storm,
+    While he laughed with a merry "Ho! ho!"
+  And in spite of themselves soon those saucy young plants
+    Were under a blanket of snow.
+
+
+
+
+MIRTHFUL MAGIC
+
+BY G. B. BARTLETT
+
+
+HOW TO PLACE AN EGG SO IT CAN NOT BE BROKEN WITH A TIN PAN.
+
+Show a large, tin pan and a common egg, and allow the spectators to
+handle and examine both to see that there is no deception about either.
+Then let any one take the pan, and be ready to strike with all his
+might. When he has tried in vain to guess how you can place the egg
+where it can not be broken with the pan, stand it up in the corner of
+the room, and of course it will be impossible for any one to hit it.
+
+HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITHOUT WORK.
+
+Draw several lines radiating from a central point, and let each player
+choose a line and be sure to remember which it is. Each then places a
+piece of money on his line, and you say, "Take particular notice of your
+line and money, so that you will not forget either." Then move the
+pieces of money about, taking care that not one piece remains on its
+original line. Ask each one in turn, "Is that your line?" and of course
+every one will say, "Yes." Afterward say to each, in the same order, "Is
+that your money?" touching the piece that is now on the line belonging
+to the person addressed. When all have answered these questions in the
+negative, you calmly collect and pretend to pocket all the money, with
+the quiet remark, "As you have all said that that was not _your_ money,
+I think it must be mine."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Say to any person, "I will lay a wager to any amount that I have more
+money in my pocket than you have." After an animated debate, and
+exhibition of the contents of pockets, you say, "I have more money in my
+pocket than any one, for none of you have any money in my pocket."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Say to the ladies, "A man can marry any woman he pleases." After the
+long and indignant protest, calmly reply, "A man may marry any woman he
+pleases, but the trouble is to find the woman that he does please."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=The Point of a Diamond.=--Some time ago a Mr. Tarrants executed some
+writing on a small piece of glass with a diamond the point of which had
+been ground a million times finer than that of a pin. This writing was
+the Lord's Prayer, and the lines were so fine that they were quite
+invisible to the naked eye. If the whole of the Old Testament were
+written the same size, it would only occupy a space equal to that of a
+thumb-nail. The magnifying power of the microscope necessary to enable
+us to read this minute writing is so great that if it were possible to
+put a small boy under the glass, he would look ten times taller than
+Bunker Hill Monument, and his head would be the size of the dome of the
+Capitol at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+PUSSY AND THE SNOW.
+
+
+  Pussy:--born last summer--
+    Never saw the snow
+  Till this winter morning
+    Just an hour ago.
+  "Oh! what pretty lamb's-wool!"
+    Said she; when it began
+  To fall; "I'll go and play with it."
+    And out-of-doors she ran.
+  But back again, astonished,
+    In greatest haste came she.
+  "That is the queerest, coldest wool
+   That ever I did see!"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OUTSIDERS.
+
+SMALL BOY (_who has been waked up by the music at an evening party_).
+"They are just going down to Supper. Don't you smell the Ice-Cream and
+Cake and things."]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: UNNECESSARY REQUEST.
+
+BROTHER ON SLED. "Don't push too quickly, Alice."]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, February 1, 1881, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44753 ***