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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44981 ***
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
+AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. II.--NO. 71. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
+CENTS.
+
+Tuesday, March 8, 1881. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50 per
+Year, in Advance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "SUGARING OFF."--DRAWN BY W. R. YEAGER.]
+
+FUN IN A SUGAR BUSH.
+
+BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
+
+
+"Well, yes, Jerry," remarked Salina Meadows, "old Mr. Wire'll be glad to
+have anybody come to see him that knows as much about sugar as you do."
+
+"It's all the hobby he's got," said her brother Phin. "He makes the best
+maple sugar in all these parts. Whitest and cleanest. Biggest lot of it,
+too."
+
+"I've heard him say," added Rush Potts, "that no man was ever too old to
+learn. Glad we could bring you along."
+
+"There isn't much about sugar I don't know," replied Jerry Buntley,
+modestly, with a pull at his dog-skin gloves to make them fit tighter.
+"You just ought to see a real sugar plantation once."
+
+"I would like to," said Hannah Potts, all the red in her rosy face
+coming to the surface to meet the wind that blew in her face from the
+direction of old Mr. Wire's great forest on the hill-side.
+
+They were all cuddling down in Elder Meadows's great box sleigh, and
+Phin Meadows was putting the sorrel span along the road in a way that
+made their bells dance lively enough, for the March thaw had only just
+begun, and the sleighing was capital.
+
+Jerry Buntley had told them more about sugar that day than they had ever
+heard before. It was a great treat to be invited to a maple-sugaring at
+old Mr. Wire's, and Jerry's country cousins were glad of having
+something worth while to take with them by way of payment; that is, they
+were glad to take Jerry.
+
+He was glad to go, and he talked sugar until every soul in the sleigh
+thought he could taste candy, and Phin found himself comparing the color
+of his sorrel team to that of the five pounds his mother sent back to
+Barnes's grocery store, because, as she said, "She wasn't going to pay
+any 'leven cents a pound for building sand."
+
+It was not many minutes before they pulled up in front of old Mr. Wire's
+big rambling old farm-house, and there were Jim and Sally Wire coming
+out to meet them. Old Mrs. Wire was in the doorway, and she looked
+twenty years younger as soon as they had a look at her husband. Mainly
+because the difference in their ages was a good deal more than that.
+
+Nobody knew how tall Mr. Wire would have been if he had stood up, but
+the oldest old ladies around Lender's Mills village all said he'd had
+that stoop in his shoulders ever since they'd known him.
+
+"My mother used to say," said Elder Meadows, "that old Wire's father was
+a short, stocky man, and built his log-house to fit himself, and so when
+his son got taller'n he was himself, he had to hold his head down,
+'specially coming through the door."
+
+There he was now, and the visitors had not been in the house five
+minutes before Salina Meadows told how much Jerry Buntley knew about
+sugar.
+
+"His father sells tons of it, and his brother's a clerk in a sugar
+store, and his uncle's a book-keeper in a sugar refinery in the city--"
+
+"Ten stories high!" put in Jerry, with a down look of modesty.
+
+"--and he's seen sugar plantations, and molasses factories, and where
+they make all sorts of candy."
+
+"You don't say!" exclaimed Mrs. Wire. "I'm glad you fetched him along."
+
+"Wa'al, so'm I," said old Mr. Wire. "No man ain't ever too old to l'arn.
+I've only been a-b'ilin' sap for a leetle risin' of fifty year, and I
+don't know much. You're jest in time. The sun's lookin' down warm
+to-day, and we was jest a-wantin' to set out for the bush."
+
+"It isn't the fur-away bush," said Mrs. Wire; "it's that there patch
+nighest the house. The trees ain't been tapped this five year, and
+they'll run the best kind."
+
+"There'll be more here by-and-by," said Sally Wire. "Don't take your
+things off. We'll have a real good time."
+
+Old Mr. Wire took Jerry Buntley right along with him--under his wing, as
+you might say. He asked him questions, too, and nobody could guess how
+many times Jerry made him exclaim, "You don't say!" or, "Do tell, now,
+is that so?"
+
+The forest had been left standing on all that hill-side for nothing else
+in the world but sugar. It was not half an hour before the Wires and
+their visitors were crunching over the crust among the trees, or
+standing around the great fires that had been built and lit before they
+came. Every fire had a great iron kettle on it, and every kettle was
+bubbling for dear life, except when a dash of cold sap was ladled into
+it from the barrel that stood under the nearest tree.
+
+"It's afternoon now," said Sally Wire. "I do hope the other folks'll get
+here before it's too dark. But then we can have a good time at the house
+in the evening."
+
+"Boys," said old Mr. Wire, "if you want to help, you jest take them two
+auger bits and them spiles, and go and tap a fresh lot of trees over
+there to the east'ard. Jim and I'll go round with the buckets."
+
+Wonderfully white and clean were all his buckets and shoulder-yokes, and
+his wooden troughs that caught the sap as it dripped into them from the
+ends of the wooden spiles he had driven into the trees he had tapped
+already. There was plenty of work for him and his son, and so Jerry
+Buntley and Phin Meadows and Rush Potts marched away to the east, while
+the girls hung around the kettles, and tested the syrup, in every way
+they knew how, to see if any of it had boiled long enough.
+
+"We'll have plenty to sugar off with in the house this evening," said
+Sally Wire; "but we mustn't let any of it get burned."
+
+Jerry took possession of an auger and a bundle of spiles, and Phin took
+the other auger, and Rush Potts said he'd just go along to learn how.
+
+"Catching cold are you, Phineas?" asked Jerry, as he began to work his
+auger into a splendidly tall tree, and Phin and Rush both were seized
+with a sudden fit of coughing,
+
+"Ugh, ugh, ugh--no--ugh--I guess not. Bore it deep, Jerry. Old man Wire
+is particular about that."
+
+"Guess I know how to tap a tree," said Jerry. "The sun shines right on
+this one, and the sap'll run well."
+
+"Ugh--ugh--ugh," coughed Rush Potts. "I guess I'll help Phin. He doesn't
+know as much as you do."
+
+"I should say not," diffidently replied Jerry; but he had finished his
+first tree quite skillfully, and now he went for his second with all the
+zeal of a true sportsman.
+
+"Phineas," he shouted, a moment later, "when you come to a maple of this
+kind, knock off the outer bark. It bores easier."
+
+"All right," replied Phin, with his mouth half full of his handkerchief.
+But he added, in a lower voice: "Rush, stop rolling in the snow. He's
+tapping a hickory this time."
+
+"T'other was an elm. Oh, if he isn't fun! What'll old man Wire say to
+that?"
+
+"Keep still. Get up, can't you? I can't bore a hole worth a cent. Give
+me a spile."
+
+Jerry was an enthusiastic sugar-maker, and his rapidity of work was a
+credit to him.
+
+"Maple this time," said Phin, at the end of Jerry's next job. "But look
+at what he's doing now."
+
+"Beech! There'll be more sugar 'n old Wire'll know what to do with."
+
+"We must pitch in, Rush. I want to be on hand when old Wire comes to see
+if his spiles are set right. Maybe it'll kill him."
+
+"I've tapped pretty nearly two trees to their one," said Jerry to
+himself, "but I won't boast of it. Here's a remarkably fine tree, right
+in the sun. I hope they won't make any mistakes."
+
+With that he started his twist of steel into the yielding wood of one of
+the noblest silver-birches in all that forest, and in a wonderfully
+short time there was another spile fitted. Whether there would be any
+need for Mr. Wire to put a sap trough under the end of that spile was
+quite another question.
+
+The crust was thick, and bore very well, so that the girls had no
+wading to do in going from one fire to another; and Jim Wire and his
+father worked like beavers at emptying the sap troughs, and carrying in
+the almost colorless, sweetish-tasting liquid their trees had yielded
+them.
+
+"Now, Jim," said Mr. Wire at last, "we'd better take a lot of troughs
+and follow them fellers. 'Twon't do to waste any sap."
+
+Phin and Rush saw them coming, and at once stopped work. So did Jerry
+Buntley, for he had some suggestions to make about those spiles. It
+seemed to him that some of them were bored too small for the quantity of
+sap which was expected to run through them.
+
+He and the others came up just as the gray-headed old sugar-maker
+stopped in front of Jerry's first tree, and they got there in time to
+wink hard at Jim Wire. All three of them stepped around behind Jerry and
+Mr. Wire.
+
+"You've sot that there spile in jest about right, Mr. Buntley," said Mr.
+Wire, without changing a muscle of his wrinkled face; "but this kind of
+maple don't give any sugar at this season of the year. It isn't a winter
+maple; it's the kind we call an ellum."
+
+"Ah! Oh yes! Strange I didn't notice."
+
+"Doesn't yield anything but brown sugar--common brown sugar. It's all
+right, though. I declar'!"
+
+He was looking at the shell-bark hickory now, and that specimen of
+Jerry's work was a hard pull on his politeness.
+
+"Jim," he said, "put a trough under thar. It's a changin' world. Things
+isn't what they used to be. Mebbe thar's sugar into hickory nowadays."
+
+"Hickory?" gasped Jerry. "That's a fact. I kind o' didn't look up to see
+what it was."
+
+"And ye couldn't ha' told by the bark; of course not. I'd
+say--now--there--well--exactly--nobody ain't never too old to l'arn.
+Beech, bass-wood, ellum, black walnut, birch--if thar'd been a saxafrax,
+he'd ha' gone and tapped it for root-beer."
+
+There was an explosion behind them just then, for the three other boys
+gave it up the moment they saw it had been too much for old Mr. Wire.
+
+"Put troughs to all on 'em, Jim," said the latter, solemnly, recovering
+himself. "Stop your ignorant, on-mannerly laughin'. Mr. Buntley, jest
+you come back to the kittles, and tell me over ag'in what you was
+a-sayin' about surrup."
+
+Jerry was beginning to understand the tree joke, but he could not see
+why Phin Meadows should roll Rush Potts and Jim Wire over in the snow
+the way he did, for he said to himself:
+
+"It's a mistake any man would make. One tree is just like another. I
+wonder how Mr. Wire tells them apart? I think I will ask him before we
+go to the house."
+
+So he did, and the old man answered him with cast-iron politeness that
+he knew his trees, just as he did his dogs, by their bark.
+
+When the day in the sugar bush was over, however, and when, after
+supper, the fun in the house began, with a round dozen more of country
+boys and girls to keep it up, Jerry heard all sorts of things. The
+syrup, carried in and boiled down in the kettles over the kitchen fire,
+was cooled, on the snow, and every other way, into "hickory sugar,"
+"birch candy," "elm taffy," "beech twist," and all sorts of uncommon
+sweetness, and Jerry overheard Mrs. Wire saying to Hannah Potts:
+
+"You don't say! Did he really tap 'em all? He looks as if he might know
+suthin', too. Mebbe he was jokin'."
+
+All the rest were, except old Mr. Wire; and when the sorrel span was
+brought out to take home the sleigh-load that came from Lender's Mills
+village, he said to Jerry Buntley:
+
+"No man ain't never too old to l'arn, and it wasn't knowin' too much
+made me stoop-shouldered. Thar's a heap o' sense in what you told me
+about that new way of settlin' surrup."
+
+Nevertheless, Jim Wire went around the next morning and took away all
+the troughs from under the trees which had not yielded any sap, and put
+them where they were likely to do more good.
+
+
+
+
+[Begun in No. 58 of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, December 7.]
+
+TOBY TYLER;
+
+OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS.
+
+BY JAMES OTIS.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TOBY ATTEMPTS TO RESIGN HIS SITUATION.
+
+
+At last it was possible for Toby to speak of his loss with some degree
+of calmness, and then he immediately began to reckon up what he could
+have done with the money if he had not lost it.
+
+"Now see here, Toby," said Ben, earnestly, "don't go to doin' anything
+of that kind. The money's lost, an' you can't get it back by talkin'; so
+the very best thing for you is to stop thinkin' what you could do if you
+had it, an' just to look at it as a goner."
+
+"But--" persisted Toby.
+
+"I tell you there's no buts about it," said Ben, rather sharply. "Stop
+talkin' about what's gone, an' just go to thinkin' how you'll get more.
+Do what you've a mind to the monkey, but don't keep broodin' over what
+you can't help."
+
+Toby knew that the advice was good, and he struggled manfully to carry
+it into execution, but it was very hard work. At all events, there was
+no sleep for his eyes that night, and when, just about daylight, the
+train halted to wait a more seasonable hour in which to enter the town,
+the thought of what he might have done with his lost money was still in
+Toby's mind.
+
+Only once did he speak crossly to the monkey, and that was when he put
+him into the cage preparatory to commencing his morning's work. Then he
+said:
+
+"You wouldn't had to go into this place many times more if you hadn't
+been so wicked; for by to-morrow night we'd been away from this circus,
+an' on the way to home an' Uncle Dan'l. Now you've spoiled my chance an'
+your own for a good while to come, an' I hope before the day is over
+you'll feel as bad about it as I do."
+
+It seemed to Toby as if the monkey understood just what he said to him,
+for he sneaked over into one corner, away from the other monkeys, and
+sat there, looking very penitent and very dejected.
+
+Then, with a heavy heart, Toby began his day's work.
+
+Hard as had been Toby's lot previous to losing his money, and difficult
+as it had been to bear the cruelty of Mr. Job Lord and his precious
+partner Mr. Jacobs, it was doubly hard now while this sorrow was fresh
+upon him.
+
+Previous to this, when he had been kicked or cursed by one or the other
+of the partners, Toby thought exultantly that the time was not very far
+distant when he should be beyond the reach of his brutal task-masters,
+and that thought had given him strength to bear all that had been put
+upon him.
+
+Now the time of his deliverance from this bondage seemed very far off,
+and each cruel word or blow caused him the greater sorrow because of the
+thought that but for the monkey's wickedness he would have been nearly
+free from that which made his life so very miserable.
+
+If he had looked sad and mournful before, he looked doubly so now, as he
+went his dreary round of the tent, crying, "Here's your cold lemonade,"
+or "Fresh-baked pea-nuts, ten cents a quart," and each day there were
+some in the audience who pitied the boy because of the misery which
+showed so plainly in his face, and they gave him a few cents more than
+his price for what he was selling, or gave him money without buying
+anything at all, thereby aiding him to lay up something again toward
+making his escape.
+
+Those few belonging to the circus who knew of Toby's intention to escape
+tried their best to console him for the loss of his money, and that
+kind-hearted couple, the skeleton and his fat wife, tried to force him
+to take a portion of their scanty earnings in the place of that which
+the monkey had thrown away. But this Toby positively refused to do, and
+to the arguments which they advanced as reasons why they should help him
+along, he only replied that until he could get the money by his own
+exertions he would remain with Messrs. Lord and Jacobs, and get along as
+best he could.
+
+Every hour in the day the thought of what might have been if he had not
+lost his money so haunted his mind, that, finally he resolved to make
+one bold stroke, and tell Mr. Job Lord that he did not want to travel
+with the circus any longer.
+
+As yet he had not received the two dollars which had been promised him
+for his two weeks' work, and another one was nearly due. If he could get
+this money, it might, with what he had saved again, suffice to pay his
+railroad fare to Guilford, and if it would not, he resolved to accept
+from the skeleton sufficient to make up the amount needed.
+
+He naturally shrank from the task; but the hope that he might possibly
+succeed gave him the necessary amount of courage, and when he had gotten
+his work done, on the third morning after he had lost his money, and Mr.
+Lord appeared to be in an unusually good temper, he resolved to try the
+plan.
+
+It was just before the dinner hour; trade had been unexceptionally good,
+and Mr. Lord had even spoken in a pleasant tone to Toby when he told him
+to fill up the lemonade pail with water, so that the stock might not be
+disposed of too quickly, and with too little profit.
+
+Toby poured in quite as much water as he thought the already weak
+mixture could receive and retain any flavor of lemon, and then, as his
+employer motioned him to add more, he mixed another quart in, secretly
+wondering what it would taste like.
+
+"When you're mixin' lemonade for circus trade," said Mr. Lord, in such a
+benign, fatherly tone, that one would have found it difficult to believe
+that he ever spoke harshly, "don't be afraid of water, for there's where
+the profit comes in. Always have a piece of lemon-peel floatin' on the
+top of every glass, an' it tastes just as good to people as if it cost
+twice as much."
+
+Toby could not agree exactly with that opinion, neither did he think it
+wise to disagree, more especially since he was going to ask the very
+great favor of being discharged; therefore he nodded his head gravely,
+and began to stir up what it pleased Mr. Lord to call lemonade, so that
+the last addition might be more thoroughly mixed with the others.
+
+Two or three times he attempted to ask the favor which seemed such a
+great one, and each time the words stuck in his throat, until it seemed
+to him that he should never succeed in getting them out.
+
+Finally, in his despair, he stammered out:
+
+"Don't you think you could find another boy in this town, Mr. Lord?"
+
+Mr. Lord moved around sideways, in order to bring his crooked eye to
+bear squarely on Toby, and then there was a long interval of silence,
+during which time the boy's color rapidly came and went, and his heart
+beat very fast with suspense and fear.
+
+"Well, what if I could?" he said at length. "Do you think that trade is
+so good I could afford to keep two boys, when there isn't half work
+enough for one?"
+
+Toby stirred the lemonade with renewed activity, as if by this process
+he was making both it and his courage stronger, and said, in a low
+voice, which Mr. Lord could scarcely hear:
+
+"I didn't think that; but you see I ought to go home, for Uncle Dan'l
+will worry about me, an', besides, I don't like a circus very well."
+
+Again there was silence on Mr. Lord's part, and again the crooked eye
+glowered down on Toby.
+
+"So," he said--and Toby could see that his anger was rising very
+fast--"you don't like a circus very well, an' you begin to think that
+your uncle Daniel will worry about you, eh? Well, I want you to
+understand that it don't make any difference to me whether you like a
+circus or not, and I don't care how much your uncle Daniel worries. You
+mean that you want to get away from me, after I've been to all the
+trouble and expense of teaching you the business."
+
+Toby bent his head over the pail, and stirred away as if for dear life.
+
+"If you think you're going to get away from here until you've paid me
+for all you've eat, an' all the time I've spent on you, you're mistaken,
+that's all. You've had an easy time with me--too easy, in fact--and
+that's what ails you. Now you just let me hear two words more out of
+your head about going away--only two more--an' I'll show you what a
+whipping is. I've only been playing with you before when you thought you
+was getting a whipping; but you'll find out what it means if I so much
+as see a thought in your eyes about goin' away. An' don't you dare to
+try to give me the slip in the night, an' run away; for if you do, I'll
+follow you, an' have you arrested. Now you mind your eye in the future."
+
+It is impossible to say how much longer Mr. Lord might have continued
+this tirade, had not a member of the company--one of the principal
+riders--called him one side to speak with him.
+
+Poor Toby was so much confused by the angry words which had followed his
+very natural and certainly very reasonable suggestion that he paid no
+attention to anything around him, until he heard his own name
+mentioned, and then, fearing lest some new misfortune was about to
+befall him, he listened intently.
+
+"I'm afraid you couldn't do much of anything with him," he heard Mr.
+Lord say. "He's had enough of this kind of life already, so he says, an'
+I expect the next thing he does will be to try to run away."
+
+"I'll risk his getting away from you, Job," he heard the other say; "but
+of course I've got to take my chances. I'll take him in hand from eleven
+to twelve each day--just your slack time of trade--and I'll not only
+give you half of what he can earn in the next two years, but I'll pay
+you for his time if he gives us the slip before the season is out."
+
+Toby knew that they were speaking of him, but what it all meant he could
+not imagine.
+
+"What are you going to do with him first?" Job asked.
+
+"Just put him right into the ring, and teach him what riding is. I tell
+you, Job, the boy's smart enough, and before the season's over I'll have
+him so that he can do some of the bare-back acts, and perhaps we'll get
+some money out of him before we go into winter-quarters."
+
+[Illustration: TOBY AND THE LITTLE BOY CUSTOMERS.]
+
+Toby understood the meaning of their conversation only too well, and he
+knew that his lot, which before seemed harder than he could bear, was
+about to be intensified through this Mr. Castle, of whom he had
+frequently heard, and who was said to be a rival of Mr. Lord's, so far
+as brutality went. The two men now walked toward the large tent, and
+Toby was left alone with his thoughts and the two or three little boy
+customers, who looked at him wonderingly, and envied him because he
+belonged to the circus.
+
+During the ride that night he told old Ben what he had heard,
+confidently expecting that that friend at least would console him. But
+Ben was not the champion which he had expected. The old man who had been
+with a circus, "man and boy, nigh to forty years," did not seem to think
+it any calamity that he was to be taught to ride.
+
+"That Mr. Castle is a little tough on boys," old Ben said, thoughtfully;
+"but it'll be a good thing for you, Toby. Just so long as you stay with
+Job Lord, you won't be nothin' more'n a candy boy; but after you know
+how to ride, it'll be another thing, an' you can earn a good deal of
+money, an' be your own boss."
+
+"But I don't want to stay with the circus," wailed Toby; "I don't want
+to learn to ride, an' I do want to get back to Uncle Dan'l."
+
+"That may all be true, an' I don't dispute it," said Ben, "but you see
+you didn't stay with your uncle Daniel when you had the chance, an' you
+did come with the circus. You've told Job you wanted to leave, an' he'll
+be watchin' you all the time to see that you don't give him the slip.
+Now, what's the consequence? Why, you can't get away for a while,
+anyhow, an' you'd better try to amount to something while you are here.
+Perhaps after you've got so you can ride, you may want to stay, an' I'll
+see to it that you get all of your wages, except enough to pay Castle
+for learnin' of you."
+
+"I sha'n't want to stay," said Toby. "I wouldn't stay if I could ride
+all the horses at once, an' was gettin' a hundred dollars a day."
+
+"But you can't ride one horse, an' you hain't gettin' but a dollar a
+week, an' still I don't see any chance of your gettin' away yet awhile,"
+said Ben, in a matter-of-fact tone, as he devoted his attention again to
+his horses, leaving Toby to his own sad reflections, and the positive
+conviction that boys who run away from home do not have a good time,
+except in stories.
+
+The next forenoon, while Toby was deep in the excitement of selling to a
+boy no larger than himself, and with just as red hair, three cents'
+worth of pea-nuts and two sticks of candy, and while the boy was trying
+to induce him to "throw in" a piece of gum because of the quantity
+purchased, Job Lord called him aside, and Toby knew that his troubles
+had begun.
+
+"I want you to go in an' see Mr. Castle; he's goin' to show you how to
+ride," said Mr. Lord, in as kindly a tone as if he were conferring some
+favor on the boy.
+
+If Toby had dared to, he would have rebelled then and there, and refused
+to go; but as he hadn't the courage for such proceeding, he walked
+meekly into the tent, and toward the ring.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+THE NATIONAL FLOWER OF JAPAN.
+
+BY WILLIAM ELIOT GRIFFIS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan, as the rose is of
+England, the lily of France, the thistle of Scotland, and the shamrock
+of Ireland. On the Mikado's flags, papers, and carriages, and on the
+soldiers' caps and uniform, you will see the open chrysanthemum. But
+the flower of the people and of the nation is the flower of the
+blossoming cherry-tree.
+
+"Do not all cherry-trees blossom?" you will ask.
+
+Yes; but the Japanese cultivate all over Japan, by the millions, the
+sakura-tree, which is valued only for the beauty of its blossoms.
+Botanists call it _Prunus pseudocerasus_. From an entire tree you could
+not get ripe cherries enough to make a pie; but the blooms are massed
+together on the boughs like clouds, and the blooms are often as large as
+a rose. Picnics in Japan are called, "Going to see the flowers." In
+June, millions of the people go out to sing and sport and laugh and play
+under the cherry-trees, or to catch "the snow-showers that do not fall
+from the skies." There are tens of thousands of stanzas of poetry about
+the cherry-tree. Some of the people become so enchanted with the lovely
+blossoms that they actually say their prayers under them, or even
+worship the famous old trees. Here is an instance, which the artist has
+told by his pencil. A sacred cherry-tree has been carefully surrounded
+by a fence of bamboo, and two old gentlemen are worshipping the tree,
+while one young fellow is snickering at them from around the corner, and
+the other's mouth is wide open with astonishment, and he is probably
+saying, "Naru hodo" (Well, I declare!).
+
+
+
+
+PUSSY WILLOW.
+
+BY MARIAN DOUGLAS.
+
+
+  The brook is brimmed with melted snow,
+    The maple sap is running,
+  And on the highest elm a crow
+    His big black wings is sunning.
+  A close green bud the May-flower lies
+    Upon its mossy pillow;
+  And sweet and low the South Wind blows,
+  And through the brown fields calling goes,
+    "Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!
+  Within your close brown wrapper stir;
+  Come out and show your silver fur;
+    Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!"
+
+  Soon red will bud the maple-trees,
+    The bluebirds will be singing,
+  And yellow tassels in the breeze
+    Be from the poplars swinging;
+  And rosy will the May-flower lie
+    Upon its mossy pillow,
+  But you must come the first of all.
+  "Come, Pussy!" is the South Wind's call--
+    "Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!"
+  A fairy gift to children dear,
+  The downy firstling of the year--
+    Come, Pussy! Pussy Willow!
+
+
+
+
+THE ANTS AT HOME.
+
+BY CHARLES MORRIS.
+
+
+The brook that ran merrily by the garden of Woodbine Cottage, prattling
+like a happy child on a holiday, grew sober and quiet further down,
+spreading into a broad sheet of gleaming water, through whose liquid
+surface glistened the silvery sands that adorned its bed.
+
+Here the soft green verdure spread like a rich carpet, and Harry and
+Willie Mason lay buried in the deep grasses until only their heads
+appeared above the waving blades. On the bank of the brook sat their
+uncle Ben, his kindly face turned with a pleasant smile to the
+questioning boys.
+
+"So you want to hear some more queer stories about ants?" he said. "Why,
+I thought we were well done with the subject."
+
+"But you said, you know, that there was a lot more of odd things,"
+replied Harry, "and Willie wants ever so much to hear them. Don't you,
+Willie?"
+
+"I guess _you_ does," retorted Willie, with a sly gesture.
+
+Uncle Ben laughed heartily. "So it is one word for Willie, and two for
+yourself," he said. "But what shall I tell you about? Shall I describe
+that strange tree which keeps up a standing army of ants to preserve it
+from injury, while it in return finds the ants in food and shelter?"
+
+"A tree!" cried Harry, with a shout of laughter. "It must be a thinking
+tree, then."
+
+"I suppose so--in its way. Not just in our way, of course. One can
+hardly believe such things of a tree."
+
+"_I_ don't b'lieve it," said Willie, sturdily.
+
+"What a born critic you are!" replied his uncle, with a quizzical look
+at the little doubter. "It is true, nevertheless. The tree in question
+is called the bull's-horn acacia. A species of ants lives upon it, and
+protects it from insects which would injure its foliage, such as slugs
+and caterpillars. But the odd thing is the mode in which the tree
+manages to provide for these ant soldiers."
+
+"Is they the soldiers you kept talking 'bout?" asked Willie.
+
+"Oh no; those were soldier ants who went out in armies, and fought
+battles with other ant armies, or attacked the nests of the negro ants
+and carried off their young to bring them up as slaves. These soldiers
+only fight for the good of the tree."
+
+"Which takes care of them in return?" asked Harry.
+
+"Precisely. There are certain cavities in its outer surface which serve
+as barracks for these regiments of ants. But the most curious feature is
+the mode in which the tree provides food for its defenders. When the
+leaves are young, and in danger from insects, there opens a little gland
+at their base, which is filled with a honey-like liquid. The ants are
+very fond of this, and lap it up greedily. They run from one gland to
+another, and are thus kept constantly about the young leaves. And these
+little chaps bite shrewdly, so that no other creeping thing dares to
+venture near the leaves."
+
+"Well, that is certainly very curious," said Harry, raising himself on
+one arm half out of his grassy bed.
+
+"But that is only part of the provision," continued his uncle. "The leaf
+is what is called a compound leaf, consisting of a number of leaflets on
+one stem. When this compound leaf first unfolds, there appears at its
+base a little yellow fruit-like body, attached by a fine point to the
+leaf. It is a beautiful object through the microscope, looking like a
+little golden pear. It is not quite ripe when the leaf first opens, and
+the ants may be seen busily running from one to another to see if any
+are ripe. Whenever one is found to be ripe, the ant bites it off at the
+small point of attachment, and carries it eagerly away to its nest. But
+they do not ripen all at once, so that the ants are kept about the
+leaves until these are old enough to be out of danger."
+
+"Well, I never heard anything quite so queer about trees!" exclaimed
+Harry.
+
+"There are many strange instances of trees being aided by insects,"
+remarked Uncle Ben; "but I doubt if there is any stranger than this.
+There is one tree, of the genus _Triplaris_, whose trunk, limbs, and
+even its smallest twigs, are hollow. If any person happens to break or
+even to shake one of these twigs, he might well imagine that the tree
+was alive, for he will instantly find it covered with multitudes of
+creeping brown creatures, which bite furiously. It is, in fact,
+inhabited by myriads of ants, which occupy the whole interior, and which
+protect the tree from its enemies by their vicious bite."
+
+"I hardly think I would like to break switches from that tree," laughed
+Harry.
+
+"I's mighty sure I wouldn't," said Willie.
+
+"There is another tree, called the trumpet-tree," continued their uncle.
+"This has a hollow stem, divided by partitions, like the reeds which
+grow on our river shores. Ants get into this tree by boring a hole from
+the outside. They then bore through the partitions, and get the run of
+the whole interior. Every cell made by the partitions serves them as a
+separate apartment, some being devoted to eggs, and some to their young
+in different stages of growth. One cell is kept as the home of the
+queen, this royal lady having an apartment of her own."
+
+"Do the ants protect this tree too?" asked Harry.
+
+"Oh yes; they rush out in millions if the tree is shaken, and are very
+apt to make things uncomfortable for intruders."
+
+"Don't feed 'em on pears, does it?" asked Willie.
+
+"Not exactly; they do not get their living directly from the tree; but
+they feed on it indirectly. The fact is, this species keeps a kind of
+ant cows. These are minute insects, which attach themselves to the
+interior of the tree, and live on its juices. They give out a honey-like
+liquid, of which the ants are very fond, and lap up with great
+eagerness. You see thus that there are various ways in which plants feed
+the ants which protect them from other insects."
+
+"Are there any other ants that live on trees?" asked Harry.
+
+"Yes, indeed. Ants are very apt to take possession of hollow trees. They
+build thin partitions, which divide the interior of the tree into halls,
+galleries, and saloons, and they live there thoroughly sheltered from
+the weather. The Ethiopian ants hollow out long galleries, and use the
+finely powdered wood which has fallen to the bottom of the tree to stop
+up every chink in the floors, to make partitions, and to fill up useless
+apartments. There are also yellow ants which construct entire stories of
+this decayed wood. They mix it with a little earth and spider's web, and
+thus make it into a sort of _papier-maché_."
+
+"Don't think that's so awful smart," protested Willie. "Jess don't the
+wasps an' the hornets make paper nests too?"
+
+"Very true," replied his uncle. "There is another curious ant, though,
+which makes its nest out of leaves. These are large, strong leaves, but
+the little creatures somehow draw their edges together, and gum them
+fast, so that they make themselves a close, roomy shelter inside. They
+have been seen at work, thousands of them tugging away for dear life at
+the edges of the leaves. If they are startled, and made to loose their
+hold of the edge, it flies back so strongly that it is a marvel how they
+ever drew it in."
+
+"Don't they sometimes build very large nests on the ground," asked
+Harry--"much larger than the little ant-hills we see about here?"
+
+"I should think so, indeed! Why, the common red ant of England builds a
+nest of any rubbish it can find, such as straw, leaves, and bits of wood
+mixed with earth, often as large as a small hay-cock. But this is a
+trifle, compared with some tropical ant-hills. Travellers in Guiana
+describe ant-hills which are fifteen or twenty feet high, and thirty or
+forty feet wide at the base. You might well fancy they were houses for
+elephants, instead of for ants."
+
+"I should imagine they must be elephantine ants," remarked Harry.
+
+"Not at all. There is a very small ant in New South Wales whose hills
+are eight or ten feet high. But this is not all; these great mounds are
+only the upper part of the ant city. It extends as deeply under-ground.
+There is one ant described that builds a nest of forty stories, twenty
+above and twenty under ground. These stories are divided into numerous
+saloons and apartments, with narrow galleries, and inclined planes for
+stairways. The partitions are usually very thin, but the ceilings are
+often supported by pillars and buttresses, just like our great halls."
+
+"It must take the ants a long while to build such nests as that,"
+remarked Harry.
+
+"I guesses so," said Willie. "I's seen 'em, many and many a time,
+running up with their wee little bits of dirt, and I knows they'd jess
+be ever and ever so long."
+
+"But you do not stop to think what can be done by keeping at it," said
+Uncle Ben. "They are the very hardest of hard workers. They never seem
+to tire or lie down to rest, so that it is astonishing what progress
+they make. It is said that they will finish a complete story to their
+nest, with all its rooms, galleries, vaulted roofs, and partitions, in
+seven or eight hours. They use wet clay in the work, and put it together
+very rapidly."
+
+"I suppose these big nests are built just like the little ones we have
+here," said Harry, with a questioning look.
+
+"Yes, on much the same principle. In fact, our little mason ants are
+very expert builders. Some of them only build while it is raining, or
+while the ground continues wet. If it gets so dry that the earth will
+not stick together, they pull down their unfinished walls, and heap the
+earth over the finished portions. The ash-colored mason is very curious
+in his ways. He begins by bringing a quantity of earth, which he heaps
+on the roof of his old home. Then he goes to work upon this, excavating
+galleries, just as a laborer will dig ditches across a field. Finally he
+roofs over these galleries. But if he should begin a roof before the
+walls are high enough, he will carefully take it down, and build the
+walls higher before proceeding with his roof."
+
+"Why, what smart little chaps they are! They must think, anyhow. Don't
+you believe so, Uncle Ben?"
+
+"One would fancy so, at any rate. They may not be able to think like
+philosophers, but they certainly think like builders. I could give you
+other evidences of it. If you saw them carefully closing the doors of
+their nests at night or in wet weather, and opening them again in the
+morning, and carrying their young out-of-doors to enjoy the sun on
+bright days, and a dozen other shrewd habits, you might well imagine
+they thought it all out. Among the strangest of these ant-philosophers
+are the driver ants of West Africa, a species which can not endure the
+hot suns of that region. If they are caught by the fierce rays of the
+sun when out travelling, they at once build themselves a covered archway
+of clay--a long tunnel whose sides and roof are cemented by some gummy
+material from their own bodies. Under this they travel safe from the
+sun. It is said of the same ants that when they are obliged to cross a
+stream in their journeys, they will ascend a tree, and run out on a low
+limb that hangs over the opposite side. From this they drop a line of
+ants to the earth, each clinging firmly to the one above it. Over this
+living line the whole army passes. Other travellers relate that if they
+can not cross the stream in this way, they will drop a line of ants to
+the water, from which a horizontal line, supported on the water, runs to
+the other side; forming a living bridge, over which the whole army
+marches. For my part, I hardly know what to think of these stories,
+since the driver ants are entirely blind."
+
+"I guesses that's 'nough," said Willie. "Let's go play, Harry. Ants
+can't do that, anyway. They doesn't do nuffin but work all the time."
+
+"Indeed you are very much mistaken, my young friend," replied his uncle.
+"They are just as fond of play as you are. They will wrestle with one
+another, and ride on each other's backs, as if it were the greatest fun
+in the world. And they have been seen practicing gymnastic sports,
+climbing, hanging down by one leg, and letting themselves fall from a
+distance, as if they enjoyed it hugely. In fact, they are up to almost
+as many pranks and capers as young boys. I doubt, however, if they get
+into mischief as often. But go on; I won't detain you any longer from
+your play."
+
+"Maybe you's glad 'nough to get rid of us," said Willie, slyly, as he
+snatched Harry's cap and ran away with it. In an instant the ants were
+forgotten, and there was a hot chase across the grassy meadow.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ABDULLAH AND HIS FRIENDS.]
+
+AN EGYPTIAN BOOT-BLACK.
+
+BY L. M. F.
+
+
+I am only a poor Egyptian boot-black, but, for all that, I do not
+consider myself the inferior of any living being, and feel very proud to
+own that I am a descendant from one of the most ancient nations existing
+on the face of the earth. I was born in Cairo, Egypt; so were all my
+ancestors, and no other land bears the imprints of the soles of their
+feet, for they lived and died in this sunny land.
+
+My name is Abdullah (_i. e._, servant of God). I am an orphan; my
+parents died before I was five, leaving me a waif trusting to the mercy
+of the world at large. Having no home, and no kith or kin to claim me, I
+was thrown into the streets to hunt up my own living. I used to wander
+up and down begging for a para, a piece of bread, or anything with which
+I could satisfy the pangs of hunger. Thus I passed about four years of
+my life living on beggary, till one day I noticed a boy blacking an
+Englishman's boots, and he paid the boy one piastre for doing it. I at
+once resolved to earn my living that way, and begged the boy to instruct
+me. He first refused, but on my telling him I was an orphan, he at once
+taught me how to handle the brushes, and gave me a couple of old ones
+which he had in his box. I gratefully accepted them. Hastening to one of
+the stores, I begged for an empty little box, and fastening it to a
+piece of rope I had found on a dust heap, I slung it across my shoulder
+proudly, in imitation of all boot-blacks. How could I get some blacking?
+was my next thought. I entered a grocery store, and said to the owner,
+"Ya sidi" (_i. e._, my lord), "I will black your boots for a couple of
+figs."
+
+"You don't look like a boot-black," he responded.
+
+"I can black boots better than ten boot-blacks," said I, confidently.
+
+"All right," said he, seating himself, and presenting me his foot;
+"black away."
+
+I tremblingly opened my box, and taking out my brushes hesitatingly
+said:
+
+"Ya sidi, my blacking is not very good; it is rather dry. If you let me
+use your blacking, I could make your shoes like a mirror."
+
+"Very well," he unsuspectingly said, handing me a large box of blacking
+from a well-filled shelf over his head. "I guess mine is fresher; but
+make them fine, for I want to go to a wedding."
+
+"Halla rassi" (_i. e._, on my head), I replied, setting to work. It
+being a very hot day, this gentleman was dressed in a long spotless
+white caftan touching his ankles. I worked vigorously, and in my
+eagerness to do the thing well, I got the blacking smeared over my
+hands, which left large black marks on his ankles, and, worst of all, I
+had a nice sprinkling of black dots all over his white suit.
+
+"Oh, you young rascal!" he exclaimed, hurriedly, glancing at his
+condition, "what have you done?"
+
+He was just about dealing me a blow, when I grasped my box and brushes
+and made my escape. Exasperated that he had missed me, with an oath he
+flung the box of blacking after me, which hit me on the shoulder. I
+joyfully clutched the blacking, and ran into another street as fast as
+my legs could carry me. Breathless, I sat down on a door-step to
+contemplate my next undertaking, whereupon four professional boot-blacks
+roughly accosted me, asking how long I had been a boot-black, and to
+what district I belonged. I replied that I did not belong to any; upon
+which they began roughly pushing me, and wanted to take away my brushes
+and blacking; but I fought manfully and desperately for them.
+
+"Hafarêm" (_i. e._, well done), said one. "You are a ghadah" (_i. e._,
+fine fellow). "You can fight well; and as you have no one, we will take
+you in our company, provided you divide your earnings with us."
+
+Of course I acceded with great pleasure.
+
+The Egyptian boot-blacks have a regular constitution and set of laws;
+not written out or printed, but not the less enforced.
+
+1. The city of Cairo is divided into about a dozen boot-black districts.
+
+2. The strongest boot-black in his district shall be the Sheik, or
+chief, until some stronger boy whips him; then the strongest boy takes
+his place.
+
+3. Every boot-black must obey his Sheik.
+
+4. Always stand by a boot-black, even if from another district.
+
+5. Only Mohammedans are allowed the privilege of being boot-blacks. Any
+other sects taking up the trade must be put down.
+
+I soon learned all these rules, and followed them closely. The
+Mohammedans, with the exception of the military men and those in the
+Viceroy's service, never have their boots blackened. A true Mohammedan
+looks on blackened boots as on something sacrilegious, so that we
+boot-blacks are regarded with scorn by our pious neighbors. The
+boot-black trade is in the European part of the city; that is where we
+mostly get our customers. We charge no regular price, but take just what
+we can get. Our worst customers are the military officers and policemen,
+for they often fail to pay us a single para; and if they are in a good
+humor, thereby refraining from giving us a kick, they will occasionally
+throw us the end of a cigar, and we are obliged to submit to this
+treatment with all humility. The European and American tourists are our
+genii, for they often give us a franc for polishing their boots. The
+Christians and Jews who reside in the city do not pay us well. Some of
+the richer ones give twenty paras (equal to two cents); while others,
+such as grocery men, pay us in an orange, or a few figs, or a handful of
+dates. Thus we barely make a living among a population of four hundred
+thousand inhabitants. Our voices are heard among the first sounds of the
+early morning, calling, "Boyâ! boyâ! boy-â-â-â!" (_i. e._, blacking). We
+frequent the streets where most customers are to be found, and often
+have a fight with some boot-black from another district who is trying to
+obtain the best custom.
+
+Once in the year there is a gathering of the faithful followers of
+Mohammed for a pilgrimage to Mecca. The streets are filled with gay
+processions escorting the pious pilgrims. All the boot-blacks on that
+day unite in full force, every Sheik marching at the head of his company
+brandishing a stick; our boxes are slung across our shoulders to
+designate our trade; and we all heartily join in making as much noise as
+possible, shouting, "Boyâ! boyâ-â-â!" as we lead a camel richly
+harnessed through the streets of the city. There are hundreds of such
+other camels in this grand procession, led by various parties. Slowly we
+file through the streets, amid the hearty cheers of the citizens, and
+wend our way toward the desert, where we leave our camel to the charge
+of some faithful pilgrim, and return back again to our daily routine of
+boot-blacking.
+
+I have been a successful boot-black for five years, and I am now the
+Sheik of my district, which position I gained by being the strongest and
+most able fighter, and best story-teller, consequently, as a badge of
+honor, I wear a small turban around my cap. The four boys who first
+patronized me are my best friends. After a hard day's work, we often
+resort to some quiet spot on a door-step, and, seating myself, my
+friends cluster round me for a thrilling tale from the _Arabian Nights_.
+Ali sits on my left, resting his weary arm on my knee, for he is the
+best boot-polisher in the city, and works very hard. Mustapha, on my
+right, has his only brother Hassan's head resting in his lap. Mahmud is
+the youngest, and is rather restless. He is fond of standing up, brushes
+in hand, and trying to see if he can not chance to spy some customer
+wanting his boots blackened, for he is ambitious to make as much money
+as possible, as he has an old grandmother, whom he loves dearly, to
+support.
+
+Not long ago a kind American lady, who seems to have taken an interest
+in us poor boot-blacks, started an evening school for us. As she had
+been good to me, and had once helped me out of a serious difficulty, I
+used all my power as Sheik of my district to make the boys attend. At
+first it seemed rather dull work to spend two evenings every week in
+school, but our kind friend made it so pleasant for us that we gradually
+grew to like it, and now think our school evenings the pleasantest of
+the week. I am trying hard to learn what is taught us, and hope some
+time to be something better than an Egyptian boot-black.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FAITHFUL SENTINEL.]
+
+
+
+
+AN AWFUL SCENE.
+
+BY JIMMY BROWN.
+
+
+I have the same old, old story to tell. My conduct has been such
+again--at any rate, that's what father says; and I've had to go up
+stairs with him, and I needn't explain what that means. It seems very
+hard, for I'd tried to do my very best, and I'd heard Sue say, "That boy
+hasn't misbehaved for two days good gracious I wonder what can be the
+matter with him." There's a fatal litty about it, I'm sure. Poor father!
+I must give him an awful lot of trouble, and I know he's had to get two
+new bamboo canes this winter just because I've done so wrong, though I
+never meant to do it.
+
+It happened on account of coasting. We've got a magnificent hill. The
+road runs straight down the middle of it, and all you have to do is to
+keep on the road. There's a fence on one side, and if you run into it,
+something has got to break. John Kruger, who is a stupid sort of a
+fellow, ran into it last week head first, and smashed three pickets, and
+everybody said it was a mercy he hit it with his head, or he might have
+broken some of his bones, and hurt himself. There isn't any fence on the
+other side, but if you run off the road on that side, you'll go down the
+side of a hill that's steeper than the roof of the Episcopal church, and
+about a mile long, with a brook full of stones down at the bottom.
+
+The other night Mr. Travers said-- But I forgot to say that Mr. Martin
+is back again, and coming to our house worse than ever. He was there,
+and Mr. Travers and Sue, all sitting in the parlor, where I was
+behaving, and trying to make things pleasant, when Mr. Travers said,
+"It's a bright moonlight night let's all go out and coast." Sue said, "O
+that would be lovely Jimmy get your sled." I didn't encourage them, and
+I told father so, but he wouldn't admit that Mr. Travers or Sue or Mr.
+Martin or anybody could do anything wrong. What I said was, "I don't
+want to go coasting. It's cold and I don't feel very well, and I think
+we ought all to go to bed early so we can wake up real sweet and
+good-tempered." But Sue just said, "Don't you preach Jimmy if you're
+lazy just say so and Mr. Travers will take us out." Then Mr. Martin he
+must put in and say, "Perhaps the boy's afraid don't tease him he ought
+to be in bed anyhow." Now I wasn't going to stand this, so I said, "Come
+on. I wanted to go all the time, but I thought it would be best for old
+people to stay at home, and that's why I didn't encourage you." So I got
+out my double-ripper, and we all went out on the hill and started down.
+
+I sat in front to steer, and Sue sat right behind me, and Mr. Travers
+sat behind her to hold her on, and Mr. Martin sat behind him. We went
+splendidly, only the dry snow flew so that I couldn't see anything, and
+that's why we got off the road and on to the side hill before I knew it.
+
+The hill was just one glare of ice, and the minute we struck the ice the
+sled started away like a hurricane. I had just time to hear Mr. Martin
+say, "Boy mind what you're about or I'll get off," when she struck
+something--I don't know what--and everybody was pitched into the air,
+and began sliding on the ice without anything to help them, except me. I
+caught on a bare piece of rock, and stopped myself. I could see Sue
+sitting up straight, and sliding like a streak of lightning, and crying,
+"Jimmy father Charles Mr. Martin O my help me." Mr. Travers was on his
+stomach, about a rod behind her, and gaining a little on her, and Mr.
+Martin was on his back, coming down head first, and beating them both.
+All of a sudden he began to go to pieces. Part of him would slide off
+one way, and then another part would try its luck by itself. I can tell
+you it was an awful and surreptitious sight. They all reached the bottom
+after a while, and when I saw they were not killed, I tried it myself,
+and landed all right. Sue was sitting still, and mourning, and saying,
+"My goodness gracious I shall never be able to walk again. My comb is
+broken and that boy isn't fit to live." Mr. Travers wasn't hurt very
+much, and he fixed himself all right with some pins I gave him, and his
+handkerchief; but his overcoat looked as if he'd stolen it from a
+scarecrow. When he had comforted Sue a little (and I must say some
+people are perfectly sickening the way they go on), he and I collected
+Mr. Martin--all except his teeth--and helped put him together, only I
+got his leg on wrong side first, and then we helped him home.
+
+This was why father said that my conduct was such, and that his friend
+Martin didn't seem to be able to come into his house without being
+insulted and injured by me. I never insulted him. It isn't my fault if
+he can't slide down a hill without coming apart. However, I've had my
+last suffering on account of him. The next time he comes apart where I
+am, I shall not wait to be punished for it, but shall start straight for
+the North Pole, and if I discover it the British government will pay me
+mornamillion dollars. I'm able to sit down this morning, but my spirits
+are crushed, and I shall never enjoy life any more.
+
+
+
+
+[Begun in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 66, February 1.]
+
+PHIL'S FAIRIES.
+
+BY MRS. W. J. HAYS,
+
+AUTHOR OF "PRINCESS IDLEWAYS," ETC.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE FAIRY'S STORY.
+
+
+"I promised you a story," said the little voice, close to his ear again.
+
+"Yes, I know you did; can you tell it now?"
+
+"To be sure I can, if I only have time. I did not bring any of my people
+to-night; they are helping some of the herb elves. It is a little late
+in the season, and some blossoms have been slow in opening, so that we
+have to urge them."
+
+"How?" asked Phil.
+
+"By coaxing and persuasion for some of them; others we have to blow upon
+quite forcibly."
+
+"I am ready for the story when you are," said Phil.
+
+"It is a wild affair, and one that all children might not care to hear;
+but to you, I fancy, nothing comes amiss."
+
+"No, I like almost everything," said Phil.
+
+"I shall begin just as my grandmother used to. Once upon a time, in the
+days of enchantment, there was a dreadful old ogre--"
+
+"Do not make him too dreadful, or I shall have bad dreams," interrupted
+Phil.
+
+The fairy laughed and flapped her little wings. "Now you must not be
+afraid; it will all come out right in the end. When I said the ogre was
+dreadful, I meant he was ugly-looking: we fairies like everything
+beautiful. Shall I go on?"
+
+"Oh yes, and please forgive me for stopping you."
+
+"This ogre was ugly, with a shaggy head, a shaggy beard, and fierce
+eyes, and he lived all by himself in a great stone castle on the shore
+of a large lake. His principal pleasure consisted in tormenting
+everything and everybody he came near; but if he had any preference, it
+was for boys; to tease and ill-use them had the power of affording him
+great happiness. Lazy, loitering little fellows were in especial danger,
+for he would catch them quite easily by throwing over their heads the
+nets he used in fishing, drag them off to his castle, and keep them in a
+dungeon until there would be no chance of discovery, and the boys'
+parents would think them lost forever. Thus he would gain a very useful,
+active set of laborers for a stone wall he was building, for so afraid
+were they of his displeasure, and so fearful that they might be starved,
+since the only food they received was dried and salted fish, that these
+boys worked like bees in a hive, only it was a sullen, painful sort of
+working, for they never sang or shouted, whistled or talked, and they
+were thin and wretched, and more like machines than boys.
+
+"Now in this lake, on the shore of which was the ogre's castle, was an
+island, where lived a Princess whom the ogre had bewitched, but who had
+also regained her liberty, and near whom the ogre could never again
+come; even to land on her island or bathe in the water near would at
+once change him into a shark.
+
+"This Princess, passing the ogre's castle in her beautiful swan-like
+sailing-boat, had seen the unhappy little boys at work on the stone
+wall; her sympathies had been aroused at so sad a sight, and she
+determined to wait her chance, and do what she could to relieve them.
+The chance came one day when the ogre had gone on a fishing excursion,
+from which he would not return till night. He had given the boys their
+rations of salt fish, and had commanded them in the gruffest tones to be
+sure and do an unusual amount of work in his absence, or they should all
+have chains on again; for when they were first caught he always chained
+them for fear they might try to escape; but they so soon lost all spirit
+and all desire for freedom that their chains were removed to enable them
+to work more easily.
+
+[Illustration: APPROACH OF THE SWAN-LIKE BOAT.]
+
+"He had no sooner disappeared in his great clumsy craft laden with
+seines and harpoons, and baskets and jugs, than a whispering began among
+the boys, a sad sort of sighing and crying, almost like the whispering
+of wind in the tree-tops, which changed again to looks and glances of
+surprise as a beautiful vessel with silken sails floated up to the
+wharf, and a lovely gracious-looking lady clothed in white stepped from
+the boat, and came rapidly toward them.
+
+"'Boys,' said she, addressing them in a very soft sweet voice, 'I have
+come to release you from this cruel bondage; will you trust me, and go
+with me?'
+
+"'Yes, yes,' came from more than a dozen little tongues.
+
+"'Come, then, at once. Drop your work, get into my boat, and we will be
+off. We have no time to lose, for your cruel master might possibly
+change his course and overtake us; then we should be in great danger.'
+
+"The boys crowded about her, and with a wild cry followed her to her
+little vessel, and almost tumbled into it in their delight. It was with
+some difficulty that she kept them balanced, and prevented their falling
+out; but once packed, there were so many of them that they could not
+move. The vessel seemed to start of itself; its sails swelled out and
+spread themselves like wings, and away they dashed over the rippling
+waves, which rose and fell, and hurried them on their way. The ogre's
+castle was quickly left far behind, and the tired boys breathed more
+freely as it disappeared entirely from their view. In another minute
+they fell fast asleep, and did not waken till the motion of the boat
+ceased, and they found themselves gliding into a quiet harbor, fringed
+on each side with lovely shrubs that dipped their beautiful flowers into
+the calm water. Then the lady bade them follow her as she stepped from
+the boat on to the soft grass, and led them past fruits and flowers, and
+winding walks and fountains, up to the dazzling crystal palace in which
+she lived. Here the boys were halted while she made them this little
+speech: 'Boys, this is my home, these are my gardens; for a while you
+will have to remain here. We may have trouble with the ogre, but I want
+you to have no trouble among yourselves. Kindness, good-humor, pleasant
+looks and words, must prevail. There must be no envy, no selfishness, no
+desire to get the better of each other in any way. I demand obedience;
+if I receive it, all will be well; if I do not, you will have to suffer
+the consequence. Now I have said all that I need. These flowers, these
+fruits, are yours to enjoy in moderation.'
+
+"As she ceased speaking, she clapped her hands, and a troupe of servants
+appeared. They led the boys to marble baths, where waters gushed and
+flowed in liquid beauty, and groves of orange-trees made a dense thicket
+about them. Here each boy was made sweet and clean, and provided with a
+suit of white clothes. When they emerged from the baths, they saw before
+them on the lawn tables filled with the most tempting food--roasted
+meats, broiled birds, pitchers of milk and cream, biscuits and jellies
+and ices.
+
+"The utmost order prevailed. Starved as the poor boys were, the grace
+and beauty of their surroundings made them gentle and patient. At each
+plate was a tiny nose-gay held in the beak of a crystal bird, the body
+of which was a finger-bowl. Every plate was of exquisite workmanship.
+Some had birds of gay plumage; some had fierce tigers' heads or
+shaggy-maned lions; others bore designs of tools or curious instruments;
+but that which most delighted the boys was a dish of crystal, an exact
+imitation of the _Swan_--the _Fairy Swan_--in which they had sailed to
+this lovely island. It was laden with choice fruits. While the boys
+feasted as they had never before done in their lives, strains of sweet
+music became audible; and they could also hear the soft splash of the
+waves on the shore, or the dripping and tinkling of fountains, as the
+waters sparkled and fell in their marble basins.
+
+"After they had feasted, the boys wandered off in most delightful
+idleness to all parts of the island. They climbed the trees, which bore
+blossoms, fruits, and nuts, all at the same time; they fished in the
+little coves; they waded in the shallow basins; and nothing would have
+marred their happiness had not one tall boy, with unnaturally strong and
+keen vision, declared that he saw the ogre's sail coming in the
+direction of the island.
+
+"This was terrible, and had the effect of bringing all the boys together
+from their various amusements, just as chickens run from a hovering
+hawk. Together they crowded for a moment in mute dismay, unable to
+speak, to even hide, waiting the approach of their cruel foe.
+
+"Nearer came the sail, and now they could all discern it. Its great
+clumsy shape, its heavy lumbering action, were not to be mistaken.
+
+"What should they do?
+
+"'Run for the Princess,' said one.
+
+"'Too cowardly, that,' said another; and indeed their good abundant meal
+had begun to put strange courage in their little hearts.
+
+"'Let's meet him, and fight him,' said one.
+
+"'Let's upset his boat,' said another.
+
+"'How?'
+
+"'By pelting him with stones when he comes near enough.'
+
+"'Good!' cried they all; and they began gathering all the bits of rock
+and pebbles they could find.
+
+"Now came a roar of ogreish rage from the boat as it neared them.
+
+"'I'll have ye again!' screamed the ogre.
+
+"Then began the attack--a volley of small stones, nuts, fruits, anything
+they had in their pockets.
+
+"One of the ogre's eyes was closed, so certain had been the aim of the
+tall boy who acted as leader.
+
+"But the boat came nearer, and they were very much afraid the ogre would
+leap from it, when one of the boys whispered:
+
+"'I'll go out to tempt him. Once get him in the water, and he's a goner.
+He'll be bewitched.'
+
+"So he off with his jacket, and out he waded, while the others looked on
+in breathless admiration.
+
+"The ogre looked with his one eye in eager derision; then forgetting his
+danger, and regarding the boy much as he might do an unwary fish that he
+would gobble up, he sprang from his boat into the shallow water,
+preparing not only to snatch the one boy, but to seize them all in a
+great seine he dragged after him, when suddenly the waves from the
+centre of the lake began hissing and seething, a tremendous swell set in
+toward the shore, driving the brave little fellow who had gone out to
+tempt the enemy completely off his legs, and obliging him to swim to the
+land, which he had no sooner reached than a great shout from all the
+boys made him look back, when, lo and behold! there was no ogre, only a
+great shark, with open jaws and a shining row of teeth, floundering
+about, and dashing himself in angry transports against the sides of the
+ogre boat, which he vainly attempted to board. And now could be seen
+swarms of little fish attacking the great one, darting hither and
+thither, now at his head, now at his tail, but keeping well away from
+his open jaws. And the waves began to be colored with the shark's blood.
+At last, wearied and wounded, with an angry snap of his jaws he dived
+down, and was seen no more.
+
+"Then the boys gave another loud huzza, when, like a broad flash of
+sunshine, the lovely Princess came among them.
+
+"'Boys,' said she, 'you have proved yourselves brave youngsters. The
+ogre can never again trouble you. He will be a shark for three thousand
+years, and he will not care to stay in these waters, with so many
+enemies about him. Now when you have regained your good looks and
+strength, I will take you all home. Here is the key of my sweetmeat
+closet. Run off, now, and have a good time.'
+
+"The sweetmeat closet was a large inclosure where grew sugar-almond
+trees, candied pears, candied plums, and where even the bark and twigs
+of trees and bushes were of chocolate. In the centre was a pond of
+quivering jelly. Mounds and pyramids of jumbles and iced cakes abounded.
+They were too tempting to be long looked at without tasting, and the
+boys helped themselves gladly.
+
+"A long sweet strain from a bugle called them away from this delightful
+spot, and on a broad smooth field they found bats and balls, ten-pins
+and velocipedes--in short, everything a boy could want to play with.
+
+"After this they supped in simple fashion, each boy with only a great
+bowl of bread and milk. Then to more music they were marched to their
+beds--downy white nests in a great room arched with glass, through which
+they could see the moon and stars shining, and where the dawn could
+waken them with its early light.
+
+"Such was their life for two of the most happy weeks of their lives, and
+never did boys thrive better. They grew fat and rosy; they sang, they
+danced, they played. Every time the Princess came among them they
+shouted with glee, and nearly cracked their young throats in doing her
+honor. But all fine things come to an end some time. Once more they were
+packed in the _Fairy Swan_, and away they sailed for the land of reality
+and for home. The Princess gave them each a beautiful portrait of
+herself, of the island, and of the _Swan_. And each boy promised that
+whenever he had a chance to perform a kind action he would do it in
+remembrance of the gentle courtesy of the Princess. And so ends my fairy
+story. Good-night, Phil."
+
+"Good-night. Oh, how nice it was! I thank you so much!" and sleepy Phil
+turned to see the little white butterfly wings skimming out of the
+window, while a long sweet sigh came from his wind harp, sounding like
+"Good-night--good-night," again.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHILDREN AT TEA.
+
+BY S. B.
+
+
+  I am very anxious, children dear,
+    That you should quiet be,
+  And take care to behave quite well
+    While I pour out the tea.
+
+  Matilda Jane, I need not scold,
+    For you behave so well;
+  You sit so straight, and try your best
+    To please me, I can tell.
+
+  But oh, Belinda, what a sight!
+    See how she sits awry;
+  I can not make that child obey,
+    No matter how I try.
+
+  Her hair is always in a furze;
+    Her dress and sash untied;
+  She drops her shoes, turns in her toes,
+    I know not what beside.
+
+  But now for once, Belinda dear,
+    I trust you will behave;
+  Not spill the milk, nor spoil your dress--
+    My trouble try to save.
+
+  And then you both shall have a cup
+    Of most delicious tea,
+  A piece of cake, perhaps some jam,
+    And then go out with me.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A WISE DOG.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX]
+
+
+  ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK.
+
+     I wish to tell the little readers of the Post-office Box about our
+     pony. He is a dear little fellow, and just like a playful kitten.
+     Sometimes Dexter--the pony--will not go the way you want him to.
+     The other day I was going for Eddie, my brother, and down at our
+     gate Dexter wanted to go one way, and I the other. As he is very
+     hard on the mouth, he turned round to go home again. In doing so he
+     upset the little sleigh, and the box came off, and away went Dexter
+     up the drive and into the carriage-house.
+
+      When mamma saw it all through the window, she thought I was hurt,
+      and she sent the man down to the gate. When he got there, all he
+      could see was a heap of buffalo-robes, cushions, seats, and other
+      things, with a pair of legs sticking out from under them. I was
+      not hurt, and as soon as I could get up I went to the house to be
+      brushed off. I am twelve years old.
+
+  FREDDIE L. T.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  TROY, NEW YORK.
+
+     I can hardly wait until I get YOUNG PEOPLE. I think the story of
+     "Toby Tyler and Mr. Stubbs" is just splendid. One wet day two
+     little friends came to play with me. Bertha was the fat woman, and
+     I was Toby. I wish you could have seen Allie as our Living
+     Skeleton. We found out that Mr. Treat knew what he was talking
+     about when he said it was much easier to get a fat woman than a
+     skeleton. We had great fun playing tableaux.
+
+  MORTON B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following letter is not written in Chinese, nor in Sanskrit, nor in
+any other uncommon language, but is simply a "Baby Letter," written by
+little four-year-old Bertha S., to Our Post-office Box. Bertha's mother
+writes that the little girl is sure her letter will be printed, and that
+the circle in the lower left-hand corner is a kiss for the editor. After
+that, it wouldn't do to disappoint her, would it?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.
+
+     My father brings me YOUNG PEOPLE every week. I keep my papers in my
+     wall-pocket that grandma gave me Christmas. I got a beautiful doll
+     for a present, too.
+
+      Christmas week we had snow here, and we had a fine time
+      sleigh-riding and snow-balling.
+
+      I am going to New Orleans with papa and mamma for _mardi gras_.
+
+  NELLIE O.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
+
+     I have already received a sufficient supply of German stamps, and
+     have sent away all my Swedish and Swiss stamps in exchange, and
+     have no more to give.
+
+      I will try to answer all the letters I have received, but there
+      are so many it will take me some time.
+
+      I think YOUNG PEOPLE is lovely, and I would not like to be without
+      it.
+
+  ALICE V. SMITH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BUFFALO, NEW YORK.
+
+     Mamma takes YOUNG PEOPLE for me, and I like it very much,
+     especially the story of "Toby Tyler." Poor little fellow, I feel so
+     sorry for him!
+
+      I have a mud-turtle that I like about as well as Toby did Mr.
+      Stubbs. I brought it from the country last August. Its shell is
+      about as large as a silver half-dollar. We keep it in a glass dish
+      of water, with sand and pretty stones at the bottom, and a piece
+      of quartz for it to sun itself on. It has refused food ever since
+      last October, until yesterday, when we gave it some raw beefsteak,
+      and it ate it greedily. In the summer we feed it on wiggles and
+      flies. I have named it Topsy, and it is very tame. It has slept a
+      good deal of the time this winter.
+
+  CARRIE O.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.
+
+     DEAR YOUNG PEOPLE,--The Sacramento River has broken the levee
+     entirely. I am five years old, and mamma has taken me away from
+     school because I am sick, and I have forgotten how to read.
+
+      In Sacramento there are lots of flowers. Only one rose-bush is in
+      bloom in the back yard. There are little fingers on the bushes
+      that make them hold to the lattice.
+
+      I went down to see the big river with my papa. I stood on a
+      steamboat. I thought the boat was moving, but it was only the big
+      drift and the water passing us. I saw the great, enormous chains
+      that the anchors are fastened to. They made me think of the great,
+      enormous squids that pull down the boats to the bottom of the
+      ocean. That's all. [The above was written by Ottie's mamma from
+      dictation, without change of a word.]
+
+  HENRY OSCAR B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     If any of the readers of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE will send me a
+     collection of United States postage stamps, I will send in return a
+     collection of Java postage stamps.
+
+  A. VAN HEEL,
+  Samarang, Java.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     We were at Avon Springs last summer, and while there we found some
+     petrified shells and other fossils. We dug them from under a
+     stratum of rock five or six feet below the surface of the earth,
+     where they had lain for ages. I will exchange some of them for any
+     kind of ore, sea-shells, or other curiosities.
+
+  EMMA HUNT,
+  59 South Ninth Street, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I want to tell you what a nice time I had one day in January. It
+     was a very stormy Monday. I went to school; and although it is a
+     very large school, only about one hundred scholars came, and in my
+     room there were only eight. We did not have any classes, but spent
+     the time in guessing words; that is, the letters of a word were
+     given out all mixed up, and we had to guess the word they would
+     spell. One easy one was oobk, which spells book. This is a very
+     nice game.
+
+      I will exchange fifteen Connecticut postmarks (no duplicates), for
+      fifteen of any other State except Michigan, Wisconsin, and New
+      Jersey.
+
+  WILLIE E. HILL,
+  32 Pratt Street, Hartford, Conn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A few days ago we went into a beautiful cave that is on the farm of
+     one of our neighbors, and got a great many nice stalactites and
+     stalagmites. One of the stalactites is almost transparent, and in
+     all of them there are beautiful crystals. We saw some stalagmites
+     over twelve inches high. In one place the roof of the cave is
+     covered with fossil shells. We tried to break some off, but could
+     not get any whole ones.
+
+      We have a large collection of curiosities, and would be glad to
+      exchange with any of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE for relics,
+      minerals, or curiosities of any kind.
+
+  HARRY R. BARTLETT and BROTHER,
+  P. O. Box 8, Greensburg, Green County, Ky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I am trying to make a scrap quilt, and I would like to have scraps
+     from different parts of the United States. If any little boy or
+     girl will send me a nice package of silk scraps, I will send in
+     return Texas mosses, grasses, forest curiosities, six different
+     kinds of acorns, or snail-shells.
+
+  NINON G. HARE,
+  Lynchburg, Harris County, Texas.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I am trying to get a collection of postage stamps. I have a scroll
+     saw, and can make many pretty things. If any one will send me
+     twenty-five foreign stamps, I will send in return two easels I have
+     made.
+
+  E. M. WRIGHT,
+  Bremen, Marshall County, Ind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I have some postmarks, some silver ore, some shells from Florida,
+     and a pretty stone--I do not know where it came from--which I would
+     like to exchange for coins.
+
+  FREDERICK PFANS,
+  11 Beaver Street, Newark, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I have a few Greek newspapers which I would like to exchange for
+     Indian arrow-heads and relics.
+
+  CHARLES WARREN,
+  1577 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I live three miles from nine Indian mounds, and I have a great many
+     arrow-heads, and twenty-seven spear-heads. I will exchange a rock
+     from Missouri for one from any other State, and my brother will
+     exchange an Indian stone hatchet for six stone arrow-heads or
+     spear-heads.
+
+  WILLIAM REEL,
+  Baden P. O., St. Louis, Mo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     I have just been reading YOUNG PEOPLE. A friend of mine and I take
+     it together. We live near each other, and often go to the beach to
+     gather shells and mosses. In the spring we have a great variety of
+     wild flowers. I would like to exchange pressed wild flowers,
+     sea-mosses, and shells from the Pacific coast for a moss-agate, a
+     bunch of cotton just as it is picked with the seeds in it, or any
+     other curiosity from the Central or Southern States, or the
+     Atlantic coast.
+
+  CAROLINE BALDWIN, Santa Cruz, Cal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:
+
+     German postage stamps, for minerals, fossils, or ores.
+
+  P. C. HENNIGHAUSEN,
+  143 Sharp Street, Baltimore, Md.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign postage stamps, for Chinese and South American stamps, or
+     for coins.
+
+  KEARNY MASON,
+  2119 Pine Street, St. Louis, Mo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Twenty-five foreign postage stamps (no duplicates), for ten United
+     States department stamps.
+
+  W. W. BRADEN,
+  445 East One-hundred-and-eighteenth Street,
+  New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign postage stamps, for curiosities.
+
+  LEWIS PIERSON,
+  57 Third Place, Brooklyn, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps, for minerals. Correspondents are requested to label
+     all specimens.
+
+  R. T. ANDREWS,
+  214 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Cowries, scallops, cockle-shells, Chinese coins, stamps, and
+     postmarks, for quartz crystals, gypsum, hematite, copper, lead, or
+     graphite. Correspondents will please label specimens.
+
+  E. V. SHEERAR,
+  Wellsville, Allegany County, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stamps, for minerals, ores, Indian relics, or old and rare American
+     coins.
+
+  JOHN E. HODGES,
+  153 South Paca Street, Baltimore, Md.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stamps from Egypt, Iceland, Ceylon, St. Helena, Persia, Ecuador,
+     and other foreign countries, for United States stamps.
+
+  JOHN L. CASPAR,
+  P. O. Box 8, China Grove, Rowan County, N. C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stuffed birds.
+
+  HARRY GREENE,
+  8 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Two Cape of Good Hope stamps, for two Mexican stamps.
+
+  EMMA K. GRIFFIN,
+  Fond du Lac, Wis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A stone from Massachusetts or New Jersey, for one from any other
+     State except Missouri; soil of New Jersey, for soil of any other
+     State; or specimens of mica, for any kind of ore.
+
+  F. L. FOSTER,
+  Fairmount Avenue, Elizabeth, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postmarks and stamps, for stamps.
+
+  WILLIAM M. WHITFIELD,
+  235 West Thirty-fourth Street, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Old issues of United States postage stamps and postmarks, for
+     foreign stamps.
+
+  EDITH L. SMITH,
+  Glenburn, Lackawanna County, Penn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign postage stamps, shells, and other curiosities, for others.
+
+  G. H. SMITH,
+  Care of Mr. J. B. Wright,
+  Columbus, Muscogee County, Ga.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stones from Missouri, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, for stones from
+     any Southern or Western State excepting Georgia, Illinois,
+     Colorado, and Minnesota.
+
+  FRED P. HALL,
+  238 Warren Street, Jersey City, N. J.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Rare Indian relics, for minerals and stamps.
+
+  NELLIE SUGDEN,
+  49 West Fifty-third Street, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     United States and foreign postmarks, for stamps.
+
+  SAMUEL J. LUTZ,
+  Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Twenty-five postmarks, for two foreign postage stamps.
+
+  FRANK RIGGS,
+  P. O. Box 107, Watseka, Iroquois County, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     United States revenue stamps and postmarks, for foreign stamps; or
+     a stone from Kentucky, for one from any other State.
+
+  HARRY PULLIAM,
+  275 West Broadway, Louisville, Ky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A printing outfit, for a scroll saw or a good printing-press.
+
+  FRANK RAWIE,
+  Canton, Stark County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps.
+
+  STAFFORD R. SOUTHWICK,
+  131 East Seventy-ninth Street, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign postage stamps and foreign and United States revenue
+     stamps, for old United States or rare foreign stamps.
+
+  BRYANT WILLARD,
+  Newport Barracks, Newport, Ky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Fifteen Michigan postmarks and eight of other States, for one
+     Chinese postage stamp.
+
+  ARTHUR K. WILLYOUNG,
+  147 Park Street, Detroit, Mich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Two specimens of California wood, for every set of twenty-five
+     postmarks.
+
+  H. M. H.,
+  60 West Rutland Square, Boston, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps. Swedish and Danish stamps especially desired.
+
+  WILLARD FRANCIS,
+  258 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Asbestos and United States internal revenue stamps, for fossil fern
+     and gold ore.
+
+  LYMAN NEWELL,
+  Slater National Bank, Pawtucket, R. I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Sandwich Island or Canadian stamps, for other foreign stamps.
+
+  M. D. AUSTIN,
+  1199 Main Street, Buffalo, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stamps of British Guinea, Newfoundland, France, Norway, and
+     Hong-Kong, for stamps of Honduras, Peru, Persia, Brazil, and
+     Mexico.
+
+  FRANK H. NICHOLS,
+  341 East Indiana Street, Chicago, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Minerals, forest woods, stamps, and sea-shells, for new specimens
+     of the same. Minerals preferred.
+
+  CHARLES R. FLETCHER,
+  144 Cambridge Street, East Cambridge, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postmarks and foreign postage stamps.
+
+  LILLIE W. HOUSE,
+  85 Whitney Place, Buffalo, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps.
+
+  CHARLES UHLER,
+  Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Penn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     United States postmarks, for stamps.
+
+  EDDIE EARL,
+  P. O. Box 714, Leominster, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Ocean curiosities, for soil from any State excepting Pennsylvania
+     and New Jersey.
+
+  HARRY LEWIS, care of J. W. Barton,
+  Northwest Corner of Front and Market Streets,
+  Philadelphia, Penn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Stones from the Great Lakes, for foreign postage stamps.
+
+  WAT H. T. MAYO,
+  Hague, Westmoreland County, Va.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Ten rare foreign stamps, for ten Brazilian stamps. No duplicates.
+
+  IKE HAMMOND and FRED CROSE,
+  Lock Box 152, Greencastle, Putnam Co., Ind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Old United postage stamps, for foreign stamps, Indian arrow-heads,
+     or other curiosities.
+
+  ELBERT E. HURD,
+  Lempster, Sullivan County, N. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign stamps, old United States copper one-cent and half-cent
+     coins, for foreign coins, postmarks, and curiosities.
+
+  CHARLES GRUNER,
+  79 Park Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Soil from Massachusetts, for soil of Ohio.
+
+  EVERETT CRANE,
+  Weymouth, Norfolk County, Mass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign postage stamps, for minerals and Indian relics.
+
+  GARRY B. POST, care of George R. Post,
+  New Britain, Hartford County, Conn.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Minerals, for sea-shells, agates, and curiosities of all kinds; or
+     lichens, moss, pressed ferns and flowers from Illinois, for moss,
+     ferns, and flowers from other States and Canada.
+
+  MARY LOWRY,
+  Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Spar, fossils, stamps, and postmarks, for ocean curiosities. Thirty
+     varieties of foreign stamps, or twenty stamps and twelve foreign
+     postmarks, for a box of sea-shells and a star-fish.
+
+  OSCAR RAUCHFUSS,
+  Golconda, Pope County, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     American copper coins.
+
+  ED SWEET,
+  Wellsville, Allegany County, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Postage stamps, for stamps, curiosities, and Indian relics.
+
+  FRANCIS B. WHEATON,
+  55 Park Street, Providence, R. I.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Asbestos and mica, for foreign stamps, especially from Nova Scotia,
+     Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland.
+
+  WILLIE BOGARDUS,
+  1455 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     A stone from Illinois, for a stone from any other State or
+     Territory.
+
+  BLYTHE HENDERSON,
+  101 Third Street, Peoria, Ill.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Foreign and United States War Department stamps, for rare and old
+     coins, a ten-cent piece of 1879, stamps, shells, copper or zinc
+     ore, or stones and soil from any State except Wisconsin.
+
+  CLARE B. BIRD,
+  Jefferson, Jefferson County, Wis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     United States postage stamps, for the same or foreign stamps.
+
+  CLINTON F. HICKS,
+  Pine River, Waushara County, Wis.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Twenty-five rare and old postmarks, for twelve foreign stamps.
+
+  BAKER BROS,
+  P. O. Box 5, Comstocks, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Soil of Ohio, for that of any other State.
+
+  HARRY LAURIMORE,
+  Lock Box 6, Greenville, Darke County, Ohio.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CARRIE E.--The book you inquire about is not contained in the "Franklin
+Square Library." The only answer possible to your other question was
+given in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE No. 15, February 10, 1880.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+T. H. P.--The line, "Tall oaks from little acorns grow," occurs in a
+poem entitled "The School-boy's Address," which is given in old Readers.
+The following paragraph in reference to the authorship of this poem has
+been kindly written by Mr. Benson J. Lossing, with whose name the
+readers of YOUNG PEOPLE are familiar:
+
+     "'The School-boy's Address,' in Bingham's _Columbian Orator_,
+     beginning, 'You'd scarce expect one of my age,' was written by
+     David Everett, principal of the New Ipswich (New Hampshire)
+     Academy, in the winter of 1791, previous to his entrance to
+     Dartmouth College. It was written for a favorite pupil, Ephraim
+     Hartwell Farrer, and was spoken at a school exhibition at the
+     academy that same winter.
+
+      "At the centennial celebration of the founding of New Ipswich, in
+      1850, Mr. Farrer, then a white-haired man sixty-six years of age,
+      was called upon to respond to the toast, 'Rev. Stephen Farrer, the
+      first pastor of New Ipswich: The memory of the just is blessed.'
+      Mr. E. H. Farrer was a son of the venerable pastor. When he arose
+      to respond, his first words were,
+
+  "'You'd scarce expect one of my age
+  To speak in public on the stage.'
+
+      "These words he had spoken just fifty-nine years before."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ALICE B.--You will find a description of a very simple way to make
+snow-shoes in a letter from May C. T. in the Post-office Box of HARPER'S
+YOUNG PEOPLE No. 65. The best snow-shoes are a light frame-work covered
+with a netting of stout thongs, but these would be difficult for you to
+obtain, and you could not make them yourself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+F. S. K.--The poet Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, on February
+27, 1807. He studied at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, graduating
+in 1825. Nathaniel Hawthorne, John S. C. Abbott, and some others who
+afterward became distinguished literary men, were his classmates. After
+leaving college he spent several years in Europe, and on his return, in
+1829, became Professor of Modern Languages at Bowdoin College. In 1835
+he again visited Europe, and one year later became Professor of Modern
+Languages and Literature at Harvard University. He made his home in the
+historic Cragie House, once Washington's head-quarters, which he soon
+purchased. Longfellow resigned his position at Harvard in 1854, but
+still continues to reside in the historic mansion in Cambridge. Honorary
+degrees have been conferred upon him by the Universities of Oxford and
+Edinburgh, and his name is dear to the heart of every American.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I. CHASE.--The letter from your Prince Edward Island correspondent
+published in the Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE No. 62 probably
+explains your trouble.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C. U.--A five-kreutzer German stamp is worth about two cents, United
+States currency.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Correct answers to puzzles have been received from Jimmie F. Burns, Lila
+Baker, A. E. Cressingham, Richard Owen C., C. D. Chipman, W. K.
+Crithens, R. H. Davidson, Linda and Susie Egbert, Philip S. Gillis,
+Jesse S. Godine, Carrie and George Hall, Frank H. H., Charles Jefferson,
+Norman D. Lippincott, William A. Lewis, Andrew E. P., "Red Lion,"
+"Starry Flag," Louis K. Sayre, "L. U. Stral," I. W. Trotter, "The Dawley
+Boys," Eva J. Turner, Howard J. Van Doren, Bennie C. Woodward, Edith M.
+Wetmore, J. Anthony Walker, Willie F. Woolard, "Young Solver."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+No. 1.
+
+ENIGMA.
+
+  My first in old, but not in new.
+  My second in toll, not in curfew.
+  My third in enemy, not in foe.
+  My fourth in pack, but not in stow.
+  My fifth in quarrel, not in fight.
+  My sixth in heavy, not in light.
+  I am renowned in ancient song
+  For something most absurdly long.
+
+  T. H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+NUMERICAL CHARADES.
+
+  1. I am a famous place in the Western part of the United States,
+      composed of 14 letters.
+  My 3, 7, 13, 5 is a twig.
+  My 7, 2, 14 is a trifle.
+  My 5, 2, 11, 8 is a small burrowing animal.
+  My 9, 4, 6, 12 is a curtain.
+  My 1, 10, 5 is a tropical vegetable.
+
+  WILLIAM A. L.
+
+  2. I am an English bird composed of 8 letters.
+  My 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is one of the cereals.
+  My 6, 7, 8 is a part of the body.
+
+  CARRIE E.
+
+  3. I am a flower composed of 6 letters.
+  My 2, 5, 1 is a verb.
+  My 3, 6, 4 is a boy's name.
+
+  W. I. T.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 3.
+
+CHARADE.
+
+  My first is to be disordered in mind.
+  My second is a letter of the alphabet.
+  My third is an illuminating agent.
+  My fourth is a public conveyance.
+  My whole is found on the map of the Eastern Hemisphere.
+
+  WILLIE L. K.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 4.
+
+DOUBLE ACROSTIC.
+
+An East Indian tree. Worthless. The ancient name of a country in Europe.
+A fish. A river in Germany. Birds belonging to the thrush family.
+Primals and finals spell the name of a country.
+
+  HUGH.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 5.
+
+ENIGMA.
+
+  First in mend, not in patch.
+  Second in knob, not in latch.
+  Third in boat, not in raft.
+  Fourth in brig, not in craft.
+  Fifth in sail, not in mast.
+  Sixth in second, not in last.
+  My whole is a Southern city gay,
+  Upon the shore of a lovely bay.
+
+  C. P. M.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 68.
+
+No. 1.
+
+  D A C T Y L
+  A D O R E
+  C O Z Y
+  T R Y
+  Y E
+  L
+
+No. 2.
+
+  C O N T R O V E R S Y
+    I N D E L I B L E
+      O M N I B U S
+        F A V O R
+          D E N
+            B
+          A R T
+        G U A V A
+      G A R N I S H
+    I N V E C T I V E
+  T H O U G H T L E S S
+
+No. 3.
+
+Leadville.
+
+No. 4.
+
+A Valentine.
+
+No. 5.
+
+Mango.
+
+
+
+
+WIGGLES.
+
+
+On the following page are a few of the best ideas of Wiggle No. 17,
+given in No. 65. We hope that our young contributors whose Wiggles are
+omitted will not be greatly disappointed at not seeing their names
+published, as has been customary. More than five hundred answers to this
+Wiggle were sent in, and to publish all the names would require more
+than a column of the Post-office Box space. Therefore the editor has
+decided that hereafter no names shall be published save those whose
+Wiggles are used. Three "Wigglers"--Joe Ulmer, Ada Allen, and
+O. M. W.--hit upon our artist's idea, and sent in correct answers to
+Wiggle No. 17. If these three will send their full names and addresses
+to the editor, they will hear of something pleasant from him. Will "B,"
+who gave a correct answer to Wiggle No. 16, also send his or her name
+and address?
+
+
+
+
+HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+
+SINGLE COPIES, 4 cents; ONE SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $1.50; FIVE
+SUBSCRIPTIONS, 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: SOME DRAWINGS OF WIGGLE No. 17, OUR ARTIST'S IDEA, AND
+NEW WIGGLE, No. 18.--SEE PAGE 303.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, March 8, 1881, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44981 ***