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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 49886 ***
+
+[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+VOL. III.--NO. 106. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
+CENTS.
+
+Tuesday, November 8, 1881. Copyright, 1881, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
+per Year, in Advance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: KILLING THE PANTHER.]
+
+THE TALKING LEAVES.[1]
+
+An Indian Story.
+
+BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+[1] Begun in No. 101, HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+
+Steve Harrison rose to his feet, and looked curiously along the ledge in
+both directions.
+
+It was not the first ore he had seen during his three years and more of
+wandering with Murray and the Lipans, but never before had he tumbled
+down upon anything precisely like it.
+
+"Mine," he said to himself, aloud--"mine! But what can I do with it?"
+
+"Do with it? What can you do with it?"
+
+Murray was still kneeling upon the precious quartz, and fingering spot
+after spot where the yellow metal showed itself, and the strange fire in
+his eyes was deeper than ever.
+
+"Steve!"
+
+"What, Murray?"
+
+"I thought it was all gone, but it isn't."
+
+"Thought what was all gone?"
+
+"The gold fever. I used to have it when I was younger. It isn't a love
+of money; it's just a love of digging up gold."
+
+"Can you feel it now?"
+
+"Dreadfully. It burns all over me every time I touch one of those
+nuggets."
+
+"Let it burn, then."
+
+"Why? What's the good of it?"
+
+"Maybe it'll get strong enough to keep you from wasting the rest of your
+days among the Lipans."
+
+"Among the Lipans? You don't know, Steve. Didn't I tell you what keeps
+me? No, I don't think I did--not all of it. You're only a boy, Steve."
+
+"You're a wonderfully strong man for your age."
+
+"My age? How old do you think I am?"
+
+"I never guessed. Maybe you're not much over sixty."
+
+"Sixty!"--he said that with a sort of low laugh. "Why, my dear boy, I'm
+hardly turned of forty-five, white hair and all. The white came to my
+hair the day I spent in hunting among the ruins the Apaches left behind
+them for my wife and my little girl."
+
+"Only forty-five! Why, Murray, you're young yet. And you know all about
+mines."
+
+"And all about Indians too. Come on, Steve; we must look a little
+further before we set out for the camp."
+
+Steve would willingly have staid to look at all that useless ledge of
+gold ore, but his friend was on his feet again, now resolutely turning
+his wrinkled face away from it all, and there was nothing to be gained
+by mere gazing. A gold mine can not be worked by a person's eyes, even
+if they are as good and bright a pair as were those of Steve Harrison.
+
+Before them lay the broken level of the table-land, and it was clearer
+and clearer, as they walked on, that it was not at all a desert.
+
+It was greater in extent, too, than appeared at first sight, and it was
+not long before their march brought them to quite a grove of trees.
+
+"Oak and maple, I declare," said Murray. "I'd hardly have thought of
+finding them here. There's good grass too, beyond, and running water."
+
+"Hullo, Murray, what's that? Look! Are they houses?"
+
+"Steve! Steve!"
+
+It was no wonder at all that they both broke into a clean run, and that
+they did not halt again until they stood in the edge of a second grove
+not far from the margin of the full-banked stream of water which wound
+down from the mountains and ran across the plateau.
+
+Trees, groves, grass in all directions, and a herd of deer were feeding
+at no great distance, but it was not at any of these that the two
+"pale-faced Lipans" were gazing.
+
+"Houses, Murray!--houses!"
+
+"They were houses once, Steve. Good ones, too. I've heard of such
+before. These are not like what I've seen in Mexico."
+
+"They're all in ruins. Some one has started a settlement here and had to
+give it up. Maybe they came to work my mine."
+
+It was less than half an hour since he had stumbled over it, and yet
+Steve was already thinking of that ledge as "my mine." It does not take
+us a great while to acquire a feeling of ownership for anything we take
+a great liking to.
+
+"Settlement?--work your mine?" exclaimed Murray. "Why, Steve, the people
+that built those houses were all dead and gone before even the Apaches
+came here. Nobody knows who they were. Not even the wisest men in the
+world."
+
+That was a great relief to Steve, for if they had been forgotten so
+completely as that, they were sure not to interfere with him and his
+mine.
+
+The two friends walked forward again until they stood in the shadow of
+the nearest ruin.
+
+It must have been a pretty large building before its walls began to
+topple over with age and decay. Some parts that were yet standing were
+three stories high, and all was built of rudely shaped and roughly
+fitted stone. There was no mortar to be seen anywhere. If there had ever
+been any, it was all washed away.
+
+"There must have been quite a town here once," said Murray, "up and down
+both banks of the run of water. It was a good place for one. It looks as
+if there was plenty of good land beyond, and there's a great bend in the
+line of the mountains."
+
+"I wish I knew where it led to. I'd follow it."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"It might give me a chance to get away."
+
+"It might, and then again it might not. There's a gap that seems to open
+off there to the west, but then it won't do."
+
+"Why won't it do? Couldn't I try it?"
+
+"Try it? Yes; but you won't. I must look out for you, Steve. You're more
+of a boy than I thought for."
+
+"I'm man enough, Murray. I dare try anything."
+
+"That's boy, Steve. Stop a minute. Have you any horse to carry you
+across country?"
+
+Steve looked down at the nearest pile of ruined masonry with a saddening
+face.
+
+"You have no horse, no blanket, no provisions, no supply of ammunition
+except what you brought along for to-day's hunt. Why, Steve, I'm ashamed
+of you. There isn't a young Lipan brave in the whole band that would set
+off in such a fashion as that--sure to make a failure. You ought to have
+learned something from the Indians, it seems to me."
+
+Steve blushed scarlet as he listened, for he had been ready the moment
+before to have shouldered his rifle and set off at once toward that
+vague and unknown western "gap." It must be that the glimpse he had
+taken of that golden ledge had stirred up all the "boy" in him.
+
+"I guess I wouldn't have gone far," he said, "before I'd have run clean
+out of cartridges. I've less than two dozen with me."
+
+"When you do start, my boy, I'll see to it that you get a good outfit.
+Now let's try for one of those deer. It's a long shot. See if you can
+make it."
+
+A fine buck with branching antlers, followed by two does, had been
+feeding in the open space beyond the ruins. The wind was brisk just then
+from that direction, and they had not scented the two hunters. They had
+slowly drawn nearer and nearer, until they were now about three hundred
+yards away. That is a greater distance than is at all safe shooting for
+any but the best marksmen, and sometimes even they will lose their game
+at it.
+
+The stories so often told of "long shots" at deer and tigers and geese
+and other terrible wild beasts are for the greater part of the kind that
+are known as "fish stories," and Steve would have been glad if that buck
+had been a few rods nearer. He knew his rifle was a good one, however,
+for it was a seven-shooting repeater of the latest and best pattern, and
+had been selected for him by Murray himself out of a lot the Lipans had
+brought in, nobody knew from where.
+
+"Steady, Steve. Think of the deer, not of the gold mine."
+
+"I'll aim at him as if he were a gold mine," replied Steve, as he raised
+his rifle.
+
+"I'll try for one of the does at the same time," said Murray.
+
+Crack! crack! Both rifles were discharged almost at the same instant;
+but while the antlered buck gave a great bound, and then fell motionless
+upon the grass, his two pretty companions sprang away unhurt.
+
+"I aimed too high," said Murray. "I must lower my sights a little."
+
+"I've got him," exclaimed Steve, "gold mine and all. But he'll be a big
+load to carry to camp."
+
+They found him so. They were compelled to take more than one
+breathing-spell before they reached the head of the ravine, and there
+they took a long one, right on the gold-bearing ledge.
+
+"Splendid pair of horns he has--" began Murray, but Steve interrupted
+him with,
+
+"That's it! That's the name of this mine, when I come for it."
+
+"What's that, Steve?"
+
+"It's the Buckhorn Mine. They always give them a name."
+
+"That'll do as well as any. The ledge'll stay here till you come for it.
+Nobody around here is likely to steal it away from you. But there's more
+ledge than mine just now."
+
+So there was, and Steve's countenance fell a little as he and Murray
+again took up their burden and began to toil under it from "stair to
+stair" down the rocky terraces of the grand chasm.
+
+"We won't go any further than we can help without a horse," said Murray
+at last. "And there's the big-horn to carry in."
+
+"Murray, that big-horn! Just look yonder!"
+
+It was not far to look, and the buck they were carrying seemed to come
+to the ground of his own accord.
+
+"Cougar!" exclaimed Murray.
+
+"The biggest painter I ever saw," said Steve, "and he's getting ready to
+spring."
+
+The American panther, or, as Murray called him, cougar, is not so common
+among the mountains as he is in some parts of the forest-covered
+lowlands, but the vicinity of the table-land above, with its herds of
+deer, might account for this one. There he was now, at all events,
+preparing to take possession of the game on the top of that bowlder
+without asking leave of anybody.
+
+"Quick, Steve! forward while he's got his eyes on the antelope. We may
+get a shot at him."
+
+Almost recklessly they darted down the cañon, slipping swiftly along
+from bowlder to bowlder, but before they had covered half the distance
+the panther made his spring.
+
+He made it magnificently. He had scented the blood of that antelope from
+far away, and he may have suspected that it was not a living one, but
+his instincts had forbidden him to approach it otherwise than with
+caution. He would not have been a cougar if he had not made a spring in
+seizing upon his prey.
+
+They are nothing in the world but giant cats, after all, and they catch
+their game precisely as our house cats catch their mice. If anybody
+wants to know how even a lion or a tiger does his hunting, "puss in the
+corner" can teach him all about it.
+
+"He will tear it all to pieces!"
+
+"No he won't, Steve. We can get a bead on him from behind that rock
+yonder. He'll be too busy to be looking out for us for a minute or so."
+
+That was true, and it was a bad thing for the great "cat of the
+mountains" that it was so, for the two hunters got within a hundred
+yards of him before he had done smelling of the big-horn, in which he
+had buried his sharp, terrible claws.
+
+"Now, Steve, I won't miss my shot this time. See that you don't."
+
+Steve took even too much care with his aim, and Murray fired first.
+
+He did not miss; but a cougar is not like a deer, and it takes a good
+deal more to kill him.
+
+Murray's bullet struck a vital part, and the fierce beast sprang from
+the bowlder with a ferocious growl of sudden pain and anger.
+
+"I hit him. Quick, Steve!"
+
+The panther was crouching on the gravel at the bottom of the ravine, and
+searching with furious eyes for the enemies who had wounded him.
+
+The report of Steve's rifle rang through the chasm.
+
+"I aimed at his head--"
+
+"And you only cut off one of his ears. Here he comes. I'm ready. What a
+good thing a repeating rifle is!"
+
+It was well for them, indeed, that they did not have to stop and load
+just then. It did not seem any time at all before the dangerous beast
+was crouching for another spring within twenty feet of them.
+
+It would not do to miss this time, but neither Steve nor Murray made any
+remarks about it. They were too much absorbed in looking along their
+rifle-barrels to do any talking. Both reports came together, almost like
+one.
+
+They were not followed by any spring from the cougar. Only by a growl
+and an angry tearing at the gravel, and then there was no danger that
+any more big-horns, living or dead, would ever be stolen by that
+panther.
+
+"Well, Steve, if this isn't the biggest kind of sport! Never saw
+anything better in all my life."
+
+"A buck, a big-horn, and a painter before sundown."
+
+"It'll be sundown before we get them all in. We'd better start for some
+ponies and some help. Tell you what, Steve, I don't care much for it
+myself, but the Lipans would rather eat that cougar than the best
+venison that ever was killed."
+
+"I suppose they would; but I ain't quite Indian enough for that,
+war-paint or no war-paint."
+
+So, indeed, it proved; and To-la-go-to-de indulged in more than one
+sarcastic gibe at his less successful hunters over the manner in which
+they had been beaten by "No Tongue and the Yellow Head--an old pale-face
+and a boy." He even went so far as to say to Steve Harrison, "Good shot.
+The Yellow Head will be a chief some day. He must kill many Apaches.
+Ugh!"
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+THE ROCKS.
+
+BY CHARLES BARNARD.
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROCKS TELLING THEIR STORY.]
+
+Not long ago I saw some men at work in a stone quarry on Second Avenue,
+at the corner of Seventieth Street, New York. In this part of the city
+there are many empty lots not yet built upon. These vacant squares are
+in some places covered with great masses of rough rocks, that must be
+cleared away before the houses can be built. So it happens there are
+stone quarries right in the midst of the city. In talking to you about
+the sea, you may remember I told you the world is like a great
+picture-book. Here is one of the leaves lying wide open, where we may
+read a strange old story. Those of you who live in New York can go up to
+Seventieth Street and see it; but the men are busy tearing it down, and
+before you get there, there may be nothing left but a fine row of
+cellars or a block of houses. Many of you can not visit New York, so I
+carried my camera to the place, and took a photograph of the rocky wall.
+The engraver has made a picture from my photograph, and here you can
+see it. At the left you can look down Seventieth Street, and see part of
+the rocky hill on the next block. On top is an old shanty, a tree or
+two, and a tumble-down fence. Directly in front is the solid wall of
+stone, just as it has lain there for perhaps tens of thousands of years.
+In the foreground are the broken fragments of rock that have been torn
+down by the blasts. One of the quarry-men looked up from his work just
+as I set up my camera, and got nicely caught in the picture.
+
+You must study these rocks. See how they are split into thin sheets and
+layers. The rocky wall is full of horizontal seams. It looks as if made
+of thin layers laid one over the other. The middle part of the rock,
+that is in the shadow of the overhanging layers, is divided into very
+fine layers, so close together it is hard to tell them apart, yet you
+can see by the broken edge against the sky that all the rocky pile is in
+sheets and layers one above the other.
+
+I carried some of the small pieces home, and rubbed them together over a
+sheet of paper, and soon had a small heap of black and white dust. Here
+we have two things about these rocks. The picture shows you the rock is
+arranged in layers. Rubbing the pieces together showed that it was made
+up of fine dust that when wet would resemble mud or wet sand. These
+things plainly point to the water. The rock must have come from the sea.
+
+The rain and the frost may have begun the work. The rain wet some old
+rocks, and the cold turned the water to ice, and the ice worked its thin
+fingers into every crack, and broke off millions of small pieces. The
+spring torrents swept this dust into the streams, and these carried it
+to the sea that then covered all this part of the country. Perhaps it
+was the surf beating on some ancient shore that ground up the rocks; but
+of this we can not be so sure as we may be concerning some other rocks
+we shall see presently. One thing is pretty plain. The loose dust or mud
+was swept hither and thither by the tides and currents. Very likely the
+moon arranged all these sheets of stone. The tides rose and fell as the
+moon swung round the world. Each tide carried up some of the soft
+glittering and silvery mud, and left it on the shore to dry in the sun.
+The next tide brought a little more, and laid it over the first sheet.
+In this way, for perhaps hundreds of years, the moon bid the sea spread
+carpets of mud and soft sand one over the other upon its floor. Under
+the shadow of the overhanging part of the rock it seems to be of quite a
+different kind. Something happened, and the tides and currents brought a
+different kind of material.
+
+In time the soft mud became pressed together into solid rock, and was
+lifted above the sea. Perhaps not suddenly, but so slowly that a
+thousand years passed before it was all dry. Then terrible days came.
+The rock was bent and twisted by strains and heavings as the earth
+moved. None of these layers as we see them to-day are level. All are
+tilted up toward the northeast. Hot rocks, liquid, like melted lead,
+burst up and filled the cracks with new kinds of stone. The old rocks
+were frightfully burned, and changed so much that in looking at some of
+the pieces we can not be quite sure whether they came from the sea or
+not. For this reason they are sometimes called the changed rocks.
+However, much of the rock to be found in this part of the city clearly
+came from the sea; and perhaps the whole of it, except that which has
+been melted, was born in the ocean.
+
+Afterward the pile of rocks was buried deep under solid ice, that ground
+and crushed over it as it moved toward the south. To-day you can see
+where the ice tore off great pieces, and scratched and polished the low
+hills into their present curious shapes.
+
+I have chosen these rocks on Second Avenue because they tell so much.
+They show you how to read the great picture-book of the world. How do we
+know all these things happened? Because we see such things going on
+to-day all about us. The sea, the ice, the wind, the tides, and the rain
+are ever at work tearing down and building up. We can see the sea making
+sand and mud that will one day be solid rock and dry land. Surely these
+things are worth studying, and you must look about for other rocks, and
+try to read their story.
+
+Everywhere in New York city, and in many other Eastern cities, you will
+see a rock that you may be very sure came from the sea. A smooth and
+beautiful stone that is like a story-book telling of old beaches where
+the surf beat with terrible fury in great storms, where the tides kept
+time with the moon, and of long summer days when the sea was smooth, and
+gentle waves fell on the white sand glistening in the sun. This is the
+brown stone used in building houses. It is a real sandstone.
+
+Upon the beach you saw the sand arranged in wavy lines and curves by the
+water. Each creamy wave that ran up the beach left a trace showing just
+how far it went. The smaller and lighter particles of sand swept along
+by the water were dropped just at the place where the water stopped for
+an instant before it turned back. As the wave retreated, you remember
+the larger grains of sand were to be seen sorted out along the lower
+edge of the beach.
+
+Look at these blocks of sandstone. Here are the same markings. Look
+carefully and you will soon find a piece where the sand is arranged in
+horizontal layers just as the water left it. Perhaps you can count a
+hundred layers in a single piece of stone. Some will be thick, and full
+of large grains of sand. There must have been a high tide that day, or
+perhaps there was a bad storm. Some of them will be thin, and of about
+the same thickness for several inches. It must have been pleasant
+weather then, when the sea was smooth, and each tide brought up about as
+much sand one day as another.
+
+The masons in getting out the stone from the quarry cut across the
+layers in every direction, so that these marks are not everywhere
+equally plain. Yet with a little search you can soon find a perfect
+picture of that old, old beach. Each piece bears the finger-marks of the
+sea, the tracings of the moon and tides, the very handwriting of the
+waves. Afterward the white sand was stained with iron rust. The water
+bearing the iron left it mixed with the sand, and when it became dry,
+and was lifted above the water, the iron bound all the sand firmly
+together into this beautiful red sandstone, this story-book of the sea.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAPTURED MOUSE.]
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCESS SUNNYLOCKS AND THE RUNAWAY SUNBEAM.
+
+BY LILLIE E. BARR.
+
+
+One day a Sunbeam determined to run away from all his merry brothers and
+sisters, and go upon an excursion by himself.
+
+And as his mamma, the Moon, was off on a visit to the other side of the
+earth, and his papa, the Sun, was busy flirting with all the brooks and
+flowers he could find, instead of minding the little Sunbeams, as he had
+been told to do by the Lady Moon, he thought it a capital time.
+
+So making use of the limbs of an old elm-tree to hide him from his
+papa's view, he slipped through the dancing leaves, and stopped just one
+minute on the outside of a gray old palace to consider what he should do
+with himself.
+
+"Oh, you darling Sunbeam!" called a sweet voice from a little latticed
+window, "how ever did you get there? You are the first sunbeam that ever
+managed to slip through that old elm's leaves. Do come in and play with
+me."
+
+"With all my heart," answered the Sunbeam, gliding through the open
+casement right down beside the loveliest little girl; and before she
+could say a word he had played at hide-and-seek among her golden curls,
+peeped into her bright blue eyes, and kissed her rosy lips a dozen
+times.
+
+The little girl did not get angry; she just laughed, and said, "Oh, you
+dear Sunbeam!" And then she added, sadly, "No one kisses me, now that my
+mamma has gone away."
+
+"Where did she go to?" asked the merry Sunbeam.
+
+"Ah! that is what I do not know. But come, and I will show you her
+picture;" and as she spoke the Princess let the Sunbeam into a room
+where hung the portrait of a lovely lady, whose rosy lips looked as
+though they would say, "My darling child," and whose white hands seemed
+as though they would lift the Princess up and fold her to her breast.
+
+"See, this is my mamma," she cried. "She used to call me Princess
+Sunnylocks, but no one calls me that now; for since the other Queen came
+in her place I have been so lonely and so sad. Ah! if I only knew where
+my mamma was gone, I would go and find her out; for I am sure she wants
+her little Sunnylocks. _Oh, I must go to her!_ Dear Sunbeam, tell me
+where you think she has gone."
+
+The Sunbeam glided first upon the rich gilt frame, and then he kissed
+the small white hands, and then he kissed the lovely face all over, and
+as he came back to the Princess, said, "She is just like you; and she is
+so beautiful that she must have gone to Fairy-Land."
+
+"Gone to Fairy-Land," cried the little Princess. "Why, if she has gone
+there, so will I; I too will go to Fairy-Land." And catching up her
+cloak and hood, she fled as fast as her feet could carry her, away from
+the gray old palace, and out into the forest that bounded her father's
+kingdom.
+
+All day she travelled gayly on, as happy as the birds who brought her
+berries, or the squirrels who brought her nuts; and just as evening
+fell, she found a lovely spot where seven oaks grew, and underneath
+their shadow was a fairy ring, as soft as velvet and as fresh and green
+as could be. Here she determined to pass the night; so, commending
+herself to the care of the good God, she lay down in the centre of the
+ring and fell fast asleep.
+
+The next morning when she opened her bright blue eyes she had to shut
+them quickly; for there was the runaway Sunbeam laughing right down into
+her pretty face from among the branches of the largest oak.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad you have come, you dear, dear Sunbeam," she cried,
+"for I am sure you know the way to Fairy-Land."
+
+"To be sure _I_ do; but _you_ must go to the great white Stork who lives
+in the ruins over there, and he will tell you where it is, and how to
+get there too. Come now with me, and I will find you some sweet ripe
+dew-berries."
+
+The Princess tripped by the Sunbeam's side, and at last they came to the
+ruins. Then she knocked at the door, but the Sunbeam jumped through the
+window right down upon the Papa Stork's shoulder.
+
+"Ah! you are welcome, my dear Sunbeam--take a chair, I pray," said the
+Papa Stork, gravely.
+
+"So I will; but first send some one to open the door, for a sweet little
+princess knocks there to gain admission."
+
+Mr. Stork opened the door himself, and led little Sunnylocks in, who
+said,
+
+"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Stork, I bring you a gift of sweet ripe dew-berries
+which the Sunbeam found, and I gathered fresh from the grass this
+morning."
+
+"We are much obliged, my dear, and will accept them gratefully," said
+Mrs. Stork; "and now thou and the Sunbeam will stay and take breakfast
+with us, and then thou mayst go upon thy journey."
+
+Sunnylocks thanked Mrs. Stork, and after she had eaten her breakfast she
+inquired the way to Fairy-Land.
+
+"Why, I thought every bird and beast and flower knew the way. But then
+thou art neither bird nor beast nor flower, consequently thou canst not
+know the way. Fairy-Land lies on the other side of the moon."
+
+"Alas! alas! how can I get there, then?" said the little Princess,
+sadly.
+
+"Cheer up thy heart, my pretty maiden, for I will direct thee to one who
+will take thee to Fairy-Land if thou art as brave as thou art fair,"
+said Mr. Stork.
+
+"I fear nothing," cried the Princess, "and will brave all dangers to
+reach dear Fairy-Land."
+
+"Then thou must go three days' journey through this wood, when thou wilt
+come to a range of mountains; climb that one whose head is crowned with
+clouds, and there, upon a projecting cliff, stands King Eagle's castle.
+He alone can take thee to Fairy-Land."
+
+The Princess then kissed the Storks all round, and the Sunbeam kissed
+her, after which they ran upon their journey, seeking berries, and
+playing hide-and-seek the whole day long.
+
+At last night came, and Sunnylocks lay down beneath an old oak-tree.
+Here she slept sweetly until the Sunbeam coaxed a frolicking Breeze
+Fairy to shake some dew-drops down upon her lovely face. That made her
+laugh and shake her golden curls, and then she ran a race with them,
+until she was quite tired out, when they caught and kissed her.
+
+Presently they met a merry little Robin-Redbreast, who was busy getting
+his breakfast, and he invited them to sit down and have some too, which
+they accordingly did; and Robin had a long story to tell of how a wicked
+white owl had eaten a dear little wren who was his sweet companion.
+
+When he had finished, the Sunbeam vowed he would tease that owl all day,
+and so did the Breeze Fairy.
+
+The Princess now thanked the Robin, who sang her a sweet song, and even
+accompanied her a little way; then they parted, and Sunnylocks ran gayly
+on her journey.
+
+Just at sunset she found a lovely bank of white violets, which, of
+course you know, are the Fairy Queen's own flowers, shielded by her
+magic power from all evil; consequently on them Sunnylocks slept sweetly
+all that night.
+
+When she awoke she looked about for the Sunbeam, but neither he nor the
+Breeze Fairy was to be seen; so she ate her breakfast, and then began
+her last day's journey.
+
+At last she reached the mountains, but as it was fast growing dark, she
+began to search for a resting-place. Now as she looked uncertainly about
+her, a beautiful long-eared Rabbit came out of a little cave in the
+mountain-side, and asked her what she sought.
+
+"For a place to pass the night, madam," said the Princess Sunnylocks.
+
+"Come in and sleep in my pretty house. There is a soft bed in the
+warmest corner, and there is new fruit for your supper," replied the
+grave gray Rabbit.
+
+The Princess readily consented, and was soon asleep in the Rabbit's cozy
+bed. The next morning, after thanking the Rabbit for her kindness, she
+began her journey again; but the mountain was rough and steep, so she
+was forced to travel very slowly now; but as she clambered wearily up,
+out jumped Sunbeam, and kissed her on both cheeks before she could say,
+"Oh!"
+
+"Where have you been, you darling Sunbeam?" cried she, clapping both her
+hands.
+
+"Oh, I have had such a glorious time! We killed the owl, and then I ran
+down into a great city, where a bad man was beating his poor horse, and
+I gave him such a stroke right on his head that all the people cried:
+'He is dead! he is dead! A sun-stroke, _poor_ man! Take him to the
+hospital!' And then all the papas and mammas looked at the tell-tale
+mercury, and forbade their boys to play ball that day."
+
+"Ah, you naughty Sunbeam!" cried the little Princess--"not naughty for
+hurting the bad man, but for getting all the little boys shut up."
+
+At that the Sunbeam laughed, and said, "Oh, that did not matter; most of
+them slipped away, anyhow; boys do do such things, you know," he added,
+gravely.
+
+"What else did you do?" asked Sunnylocks.
+
+"Oh, I kissed all the little girls I met, and I freckled the runaway
+boys, and I teased all the fat people, and I made a crying baby laugh by
+jumping on the wall, and I went into the King's palace and kissed the
+Queen before his face, and I did ever so many things besides."
+
+"And now you have come to help me to Fairy-Land," said the little
+Princess, gayly.
+
+"Yes, and I might have carried you there, only I was afraid my lady
+mamma would set me to work again," laughingly said the Sunbeam.
+
+"You are a lazy fellow," said sweet Sunnylocks; and then they went on,
+the Princess laughing gayly at his freaks, for never did Sunbeam behave
+so wildly before or since. In fact, he performed so many wonderful feats
+that Sunnylocks never felt tired once, and was surprised when she found
+herself fairly in the Eagle's castle, and standing before that monarch
+himself.
+
+He listened gravely to all her entreaties to take her to Fairy-Land, and
+then he stretched his mighty pinions, and bade her follow him.
+
+This both the Princess and the Sunbeam did, gliding swiftly down the
+mountain-side until they reached Cloud-Land, where the Eagle bade her
+step into a tiny skiff made of a fleecy cloud.
+
+No sooner had she done so than away it floated, King Eagle just a little
+in advance, and the Sunbeam making beautiful rainbows over it, just to
+amuse himself and her.
+
+Soon the skiff moored in a lovely arbor, where the water made sweet
+music as it rippled by the amber steps, up which the Princess now went
+alone, for the Sunbeam fled back to the mountain-side again, as he was
+afraid his lady mamma would set him to work.
+
+And now if you want to know what Fairy-Land looks like, you just ask
+your baby brother or sister the first time you see them smiling in their
+sleep, and they will tell you; for only babies and angels have the right
+words to describe it with.
+
+All I know is that Sunnylocks was led to the palace of the Fairy Queen,
+which is built of all the lovely actions which are unheeded in this
+world of ours, and that she dropped upon her knees and said:
+
+"Dear Fairy Queen, the Sunbeam saw my beautiful mamma's picture, and he
+said she was so lovely that she must have come to Fairy-Land. _Oh, if
+she has, please give her to me, for I want her--oh, so much!_" and
+little Sunnylocks stretched out her arms as though to clasp her dear
+mamma in them.
+
+"Dear child," said the Fairy Queen, "thy mother is not here; she went to
+the Land of the Blessed to dwell; but be thou of good cheer, and I will
+send thee thither also." And as she spoke she came down from her
+gleaming throne, and taking Sunnylocks by the hand, she led her to the
+shore of the mighty Ocean Space.
+
+Here she waved her magic wand, and instantly a bark made of a purple
+cloud, with golden masts and rosy sails, drifted swiftly to the shore;
+and after a loving farewell, Sunnylocks was borne by it onward, and
+still onward.
+
+At last she stepped upon a land whose glory far exceeded that of all
+God's other worlds; and as she stood upon the wondrous shore, great
+bands of little children came singing down to meet her, led by One
+beyond all beautiful, who smiled upon them as they pressed about His
+steps.
+
+Now when Sunnylocks saw the beauty of the children, and perceived that
+He who walked with them was indeed the King, she feared _she_ would not
+be received; but He stooped down, and set His seal upon her brow, while
+the children robed her in such garments as they wore, and then the great
+King led her toward a lovely lady seated on the ocean's shore, as though
+she watched for some one.
+
+But as soon as Sunnylocks beheld her lovely face, she cried, "My
+beautiful mamma!" and this time the lips _did_ say, "My darling child,"
+and the white arms _did_ fold her closely to her breast; and all the
+children rejoiced with great joy because Sunnylocks had found her dear
+mamma, and come to dwell forever with them.
+
+"But what became of the runaway Sunbeam?"
+
+Well, when the Sun, his papa, discovered that he was gone, he sent six
+of his brothers to catch and bring him back; but the little Sunbeam was
+too fleet for them, for before they could even touch him, he jumped
+right into the Lady Moon's arms, and as he was the very littlest and the
+very youngest Sunbeam, it was not likely his mamma would send him back
+to be punished.
+
+So the six little Sunbeams went back, and standing before their papa,
+with their little fingers in their sweet little mouths, they all told
+him what the Lady Moon had said.
+
+At that the Sun got into a tremendous passion, and hid himself and all
+the little Sunbeams behind some ugly clouds for three whole days; and
+when he next came out, the astronomers declared they saw dark spots upon
+his face.
+
+
+
+
+THE SURPRISING EXPERIENCE OF BEN BUTTLES.
+
+BY FRANK H. CONVERSE.
+
+Part Second.
+
+
+Ben Buttles was a real mother boy; that is, he was in his sixteenth
+year, yet did not think himself too old to love and obey his mother, or
+care for her comfort. It is always a bad sign when a boy begins to
+outgrow one or both of his parents.
+
+So, immediately after his arrival in Savannah, Ben borrowed the mate's
+writing materials, and wrote to Mrs. Buttles, to relieve the anxiety he
+knew she must be feeling, despite his telegram.
+
+Ben's educational advantages had been limited, though I am glad to say
+he made the most of such as he had had. Hence I trust that
+better-educated boys will excuse the mistakes they may see in his
+letter. Poor Ben had never seen such a book as _The Polite
+Letter-Writer_ in his whole life. But he had read the late Captain
+Buttles's old log-books over and over again, and looking upon them
+admiringly as specimens of high literary art, he had, perhaps without
+knowing it, imitated their short and pithy sentences in this almost the
+first letter he had ever written. And I am not sure that most business
+men, particularly editors, would object if some of their correspondents
+could tell their story as clearly in as few words. This is a copy of the
+epistle:
+
+  "SAVANAR, _October_ 29, 187-.
+
+     "MY DEAR MOTHER,--I take My pen in hand To ashure you I am safe, et
+     ceterer. tell Jim Studley i cort a hollibut nigh the braking shole
+     I gess would way 200. Then got under way for Home about 6 pm with
+     Thretning wether. It come on to Blow with hevy sqwalls from n,n,w
+     to n. a terble cross sea Runnin. carried away my Starbord ore and
+     had to lay to a Drag. at 11 pm Colided with brig _calipso_ laying
+     to Making a complete reck Of the Dory. got Abord the Brig by the
+     Main chanils Arriving at savanar Oct 28. Thay are verry Kind. Capn
+     adams who cent the Tellygraft says there is nothing Bound north and
+     to stay abord til We are loded for boston. he will pay me saylor
+     wages when i Go back. The mate has gave Me a starch shirt, a hat
+     Shoose and socks. And the sekond mate a soot of Blue close wich Is
+     a little wore. And flanils. i was never Drest so Nice. I am Looking
+     for a good paing job Ashore while i am hear. perhaps i can Make a
+     Big strik and Bring home the munny to pay up the Morgige. I must
+     Now close with love to All inquiring frends Yore duttifle sun
+
+  "BEN B."
+
+Having mailed this remarkable document, Ben strolled through the
+streets, enjoying the novelty as only a boy can who has never been ten
+miles from home in his whole life.
+
+"Why, what a high steeple!" said Ben to himself, as he stopped below the
+Cotton Exchange, and gazed admiringly at the lofty but slender spire of
+the handsome church directly opposite.
+
+Now it is a curious fact that if you stand still in the street, and
+begin to look intently at anything, some one else is sure to stop and
+stare in the same direction, as though people generally had an
+interrogation point for a sort of mental birth-mark. And Ben had hardly
+fixed his gaze on the tall spire, when two gentlemen came to a halt and
+began to look the same way.
+
+"I thought you took the contract to regild the ball and arrow up there,
+Miles," Ben finally heard one of them say, with a nod of his head toward
+the weather-vane.
+
+"So I did," returned Mr. Miles, who was a "boss" painter, "and a nice
+fix I'm in about it, too."
+
+"How so?" asked the other, as, bringing his gaze earthward, he leaned up
+against the iron fence, and lit a cigar.
+
+"Well," answered Mr. Miles, following his friend's example, "it's this
+way: I contracted to have the thing done for so much. I supposed, of
+course, that the vane could be sent down, like any other, and gilded,
+and had my best man go up to see to it. He worked at the nuts and bolts
+that hold it for 'most half a day; then he came down all of a shake, and
+says the thing can't be done, everything has rusted so, and that if it
+can't be regilded where it is, it can't be done at all. _He_ won't be
+hired to go up there again, and I can't find any one hereabouts that
+_will_ try it for love or money. I even telegraphed to New York for
+Ferguson, the steeple-climber, offered to pay expenses, and give him
+seventy-five dollars to boot; but he is engaged two months ahead. I'd
+give a hundred and fifty dollars to-day," said Mr. Miles, smoking
+vigorously, "to any one who would shin up there and do the job; for
+though it isn't an easy thing, I know it _can_ be done."
+
+"Say two hundred, and I'm your man," suddenly exclaimed Ben, who had
+been listening, carelessly at first, then eagerly. Two hundred dollars
+would clear the incumbrance from the little brown house. Once he had
+climbed the pole of the signal-staff on Covert Point, and rove off the
+halyards almost a hundred and fifty feet from the ground, and was glad
+to get five dollars for doing it. But then, as Mrs. Buttles said, "Ben
+was a dretful ventur'some creetur."
+
+Mr. Miles was a man of few words. He eagerly grasped at this unexpected
+straw.
+
+"If you mean business," he said, eying Ben's self-reliant face
+approvingly, "come to the church to-morrow morning early, and I will
+show you what is to be done."
+
+Ben nodded, and made his way back to the _Calypso_.
+
+"I want to borrow a piece of spare running gear, sir," he said to the
+mate on the following morning.
+
+"Take all you want," was the answer.
+
+Long before Mr. Miles had made his appearance at the church, Ben was in
+the church tower, with the running gear coiled over his shoulder, and a
+coil of spun yarn in the bosom of his blue shirt. Climbing upward over
+cobwebbed cross-beams and girders, he found himself under the four
+narrow skylights of heavy ground glass that dimly lighted the narrow
+interior of the spire. Through one of these, which was partly open, Ben
+thrust his neck and shoulders. About twenty feet above him the tapering
+spire ended in a great ball, through which rose the tall iron "spindle,"
+surmounted by the vane in the shape of an arrow. Two parts of a knotted
+rope were twisted around the spindle above the ball, and brought down
+through the skylight. This had served Mr. Miles's workman in lieu of
+ladder. Ben's head and heart failed for one brief moment, as he looked
+upward, and for the first time began to realize the magnitude of his
+task. Only for a moment, though.
+
+"It's for mother's sake," he said, softly, to himself, and the thought
+strengthened his heart and steadied his nerves.
+
+By this time Mr. Miles had clambered up to a rude scaffolding under the
+open skylight with a basket containing a can of oil size and some large
+"books" of gold-leaf. He then showed Ben how to apply the leaf to the
+size, and cautioned him not to fall, which Ben gravely assured him he
+should try very hard not to do.
+
+In one end of his coil of light but strong gear Ben had tied a running
+bowline. This he threw over his shoulder, and taking off his shoes,
+began his perilous ascent.
+
+It was easy enough to reach the spindle by the knotted rope-ladder. Then
+came the tug of war. Up the spindle, which shook and swayed, the
+courageous boy crept, until, breathless and almost exhausted, he threw
+his arms over the vane itself, and for the first time ventured to look
+out and downward.
+
+A toy-city, with Lilliputian people moving through the little streets,
+lay beneath him. Beyond, the Savannah River like a narrow ribbon wound
+through the low-lying rice fields until it reached the distant sea,
+which lay hazily indistinct against the horizon. The view was sublimely
+beautiful, but Ben's head began to swim, and he bethought himself of his
+task.
+
+[Illustration: BEN AT WORK.]
+
+Casting a few feet of the coil around the spindle and over the vane, so
+that the bowline should hang properly, Ben called to Mr. Miles to make
+the end well fast. Then lifting himself by his arms, he slipped his legs
+through the loop and sat suspended between earth and sky. Lowering his
+piece of spun yarn to Mr. Miles, he received a bit of stout ratlin
+stuff, with which he rigged a foot-rope (as you see them under the yards
+of a ship) on the vane, which was about nine feet long. Mr. Miles then
+sent him up a basket with the gilding material, which Ben made fast to
+the vane. Then, with great difficulty, getting on to the foot-rope, upon
+which he could only _sit_--for he dared not stand--he "squirmed" himself
+out to its extreme limit, and began his work.
+
+Ah me! what a terrible task it was! The sun beat down on his head with
+terrible force as it rose higher in the heavens. He could only use one
+hand to work with, the other being employed in holding on. An occasional
+breath of air would set the arrow in motion, and send his heart into his
+mouth at the same time. Every bone in him ached, his head was confused
+and dizzy--he dared not look directly down for his life. But he kept
+doggedly at his work all day long, with the one thought uppermost in his
+mind, "It's for mother's sake," and as the watchman in the neighboring
+church tower called out, "Six o'clock, 'n' all's well" (for this is one
+of the old usages of the city), Ben put the last touch of gilding on the
+point of the arrow.
+
+Changing back to the bowline, Ben then cast off the ends of the
+foot-rope, while a cheer came faintly up to his ears from the great
+crowd which had gathered in the square beneath, as they knew the little
+Yankee--as they called him--had completed his work. Hugging the spindle
+tightly, Ben drew himself out of the bowline, threw it off from the
+vane, and slid rapidly down the swaying rod. Down the knotted rope he
+sped, past Mr. Miles, who began to congratulate him, down by beam and
+ladder and winding stair, until he reached the solid earth. And then, as
+a great shout went up from the lookers-on, Ben for the first and only
+time in his whole life fainted away. But a little cold water, and the
+touch of the roll of crisp greenbacks which were counted out by the
+enthusiastic Mr. Miles, quickly restored Ben to himself, and he returned
+to the _Calypso_ a hero.
+
+The city papers made honorable mention of the "gallant young
+New-Englander," and one lady, if I remember rightly, immortalized the
+daring feat in a poem called "The Arrow and the Ball."
+
+The passage back to Boston was a quick one, and Ben was once more
+clasped in his mother's arms, narrating the story of his adventures.
+
+"But I wouldn't undertake such a climb again," said Ben, as he carefully
+folded away the cancelled mortgage, with its indorsement of paid-up
+principal and interest, "for all the money in Savannah."
+
+"I hope not, Benny dear," returned Mrs. Buttles, with a tearful shake of
+her head; "but I should be most afraid to resk it--you're sech a dretful
+ventur'some creetur."
+
+
+
+
+AN ENGLISH PUG.
+
+BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD.
+
+
+  An English Pug only six weeks old
+  To a wealthy lady one day was sold
+  For _sixty-five dollars_. Bless me! no!
+  Yes, yes, my dears, it was really so.
+
+  To learn good manners this Pug was sent
+  To an excellent school on the Continent,
+  Where the price per quarter you'd never guess
+  Was _twenty dollars_! No more nor less.
+
+  And when the lady made up her mind
+  To cross the ocean, nor leave behind
+  Her pug-nosed pet, on the famous ship
+  She paid _twelve dollars_ for doggy's trip.
+
+  Arrived at New York, she went straightway
+  To the "Windsor," paying _a dollar a day_
+  For the pup that needed especial care,
+  And must be fed on the choicest fare.
+
+  But this terrible climate soon began
+  To tell on the pug-nosed Englishman,
+  Who had to be sent with haste emphatic
+  To an M. D., whose patients are all dog-matic.
+
+  But he died, alas! and the doctor's bill
+  Was _thirty dollars_. And if you will
+  Take the trouble to count these figures up,
+  You'll find 'twas a pretty expensive pup.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A GAME OF LACROSSE AT THE POLO GROUND, NEW YORK CITY,
+OCTOBER 24, 1881.--DRAWN BY W. ST. JOHN HARPER.]
+
+LACROSSE.
+
+BY BRAINARD G. SMITH.
+
+
+Lacrosse is becoming very popular among the young men and lads of the
+United States, and very properly, too, for it is a fine game, and one
+that is thoroughly American. Years ago, how many no one knows, it was
+played by American Indians, who called it "Baggataway."
+
+Basil Hall, Catlin, and Lanman, who have written some of the best books
+about Indians, tell how the Creeks of Alabama, the Cherokees of North
+Carolina, and other tribes, played the game years ago, and their
+accounts show that then it was a fierce, hard game to play, in which the
+young Indians displayed wonderful skill and strength and pluck, and
+where broken bones were no rare thing.
+
+"But," says one writer, "there never appears to be any spite or wanton
+exertions of strength to affect them, nor do disputes ever happen
+between the parties." These last words should be printed in large
+letters, that they may be easily read by all boys nowadays who play
+lacrosse.
+
+In those days the game was not the scientific one that it is now. Then
+it was a matter of brute strength, and sometimes as many as six hundred,
+eight hundred, and even a thousand, players took part. The Canadian
+Indians claim to have invented the present game, and when the French
+first saw them playing, they gave it the name "La Crosse"--the bat--from
+the bat, or crosse, used in the game.
+
+For a long time only the Indians played it; then the young Canadians
+took it up; and finally, in 1867, the game was formally adopted as the
+national game of Canada. Naturally the Canadians play well their own
+game, and the best clubs in the world are said to be the Toronto Club,
+of Toronto, and the Shamrocks, of Montreal.
+
+They are great rivals, and which is the best it would be hard to say.
+Not long ago they played one hour and thirty-six minutes without either
+getting a goal, and then they were stopped by the darkness.
+
+Lacrosse is a simple game, and easy to understand. A large level piece
+of ground is required, the smoother the better, but smoothness is not
+necessary. A goal is simply two poles driven into the ground, so that
+the tops, where wave little flags, shall be six feet high. The poles are
+six feet apart. Each side has a goal, designated by the color of the
+flag. These goals may be any distance apart, just as the players decide.
+
+Now the great thing to do is for one side to throw the ball through the
+goal of the other side. At the end of the play, the side having thus
+made the most goals is the winner. By throwing, it is not meant that the
+ball is thrown with the hands, as in base-ball. The ball is never to be
+touched by the hands. All the work is done with the crosse, which is
+made of a frame of bent wood, on which are woven thongs of rawhide or
+catgut. This has a long handle. With this crosse the ball is caught,
+carried, and thrown.
+
+So expert do some players become that they will throw the ball straight
+and swiftly from goal to goal. Mr. Lally, of the Shamrock Club, is able
+to throw the ball four hundred and fifty feet. The ball is of India
+rubber sponge, not less than eight nor more than nine inches in
+circumference. As the game is now played, twelve players are on each
+side, placed according to the best judgment of their captains for
+working the ball toward the opposite goal, or keeping it from going
+through their own goal.
+
+All the play, the running, dodging, leaping, twisting, throwing, is
+simply to get the ball through the goal. This part of it is easily
+learned. Of course it requires practice to enable one to handle the
+crosse well. But any active lad can soon get the hang of that, and once
+learned, it is doubtful if he will give up lacrosse for base-ball, with
+its broken fingers and sprained thumbs, or for foot-ball, with its
+kicked shins and sometimes broken ribs.
+
+But lacrosse is no girls' play. There is sufficient hard work and danger
+to make it quite exciting enough for anybody; but there is not much
+danger of a player's getting maimed for life, as has often happened in
+these other games. There are no spiked shoes worn, no wrestling, no
+holding, no intentional tripping, no striking. It is simply a game of
+agility and endurance.
+
+To be a good player, one must be able to run well and to run long. It is
+remarkable what speed and endurance some of the players possess. To have
+these, they must take good care of their health, and good lacrosse
+players are careful seldom or never to touch tobacco or strong drink,
+nor to eat unwholesome food at unnatural hours.
+
+Lacrosse is a good game, because it cultivates courage in a boy, knocks
+the timidity out of him, gives him confidence and pluck, and teaches him
+to govern his temper. It develops judgment and calculation, promptness
+and decision, and gives him a healthful and manly recreation. Besides,
+it is a cheap game. It can be played on almost any vacant lot. In Canada
+it is played in the streets of the towns and on the village greens. The
+balls are not expensive, and last well, and the crosses do not cost a
+large sum.
+
+It is a pretty game. It is very interesting to watch twenty-four
+players, especially if they are wearing tasteful uniforms, all rushing,
+leaping, dodging, over the green grass, each side intent upon driving
+that little black ball through the goal.
+
+There have been games of lacrosse that were not so pretty. History tells
+of one that ended in a fearful tragedy. It was played over one hundred
+years ago, in 1763. One of the British chain of forts in the North was
+Fort Michilimackinac. On the 4th of June, 1763, it was garrisoned by
+thirty-five soldiers, and contained about ninety other persons, men,
+women, and children. It was the birthday of King George, and the
+soldiers were celebrating the day.
+
+There had been rumors that the Ojibway Indians had conspired with
+Pontiac, the great chief, to capture the fort, but Captain Etherington,
+the commandant, paid no attention to them. So, when on this day the
+Ojibways sent an invitation to the fort to see a grand game of
+"baggataway," or lacrosse, between them and the Sacs, on the plain in
+front of the fort, the soldiers gladly accepted.
+
+"The gates were opened wide," says Mr. W. G. Beers, in his account of
+the game; "the soldiers were lying and standing about in groups, the
+majority without arms. Captain Etherington and Lieutenant Leslie stood
+close by the gate, betting on the game.
+
+"A large number of squaws were collected near the fort. Then the game
+began. The players, nearly naked, yelling, with leaps and dashes, chased
+and fought for the ball, kicking, wrestling, rolling over each other.
+The spectators roared with laughter. No one thought of anything but the
+game. But slowly the ball neared the fort. Once or twice it shot into
+the air, and fell inside the pickets, and was thrown out. Gradually the
+great body of players neared the fort, all playing with might and main.
+
+"Suddenly the ball was thrown high into the air, and as it fell near the
+gate, the players made a great rush, followed by all the warriors who
+had not been playing.
+
+"The war-whoop rang over the plain; the ball sticks were thrown away;
+the squaws threw open their blankets, and the players snatched the
+tomahawks and other weapons they had concealed there."
+
+Then the massacre began, and of that little band of English but twenty
+escaped alive. So you see when you play lacrosse you are playing a
+purely American game, and a historical game too.
+
+
+
+
+A YARN FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF TOM FAIRWEATHER.
+
+A Visit to an Ostrich Farm.
+
+BY LIEUTENANT E. W. STURDY, U.S.N.
+
+
+"Hello!" cried Tom, "we're off."
+
+Off from Cape Town, South Africa. Wasn't Tom a lucky fellow? He was
+cruising around the world in his father's ship. To-day he was going a
+few miles inland to visit Mr. Van Zeilin's ostrich farm. Queer kind of
+farm, eh? Are you wondering whether the ostriches were the farmers?
+Well, you'll see.
+
+It was a lovely trip in a railway car, much like our cars at home,
+by-the-bye, over fair fields bright and sweet with flowers.
+
+Tom enjoyed it after having been cooped up on ship-board for some time;
+in fact, he grinned from ear to ear with pleasure. I have a colored
+photograph of him I would like to show you. Blue, roving eyes, yellow
+hair, round, rosy cheeks--dressed in a suit of sailor clothes. His
+messmates thought him a nice boy, and called him "Little Boy Blue."
+
+"Ostrich farming is a new thing, is it not?" asked Tom's father, Captain
+Fairweather, of Mr. Van Zeilin, the owner of the farm they were going to
+visit, and who, as his name showed, came of the early Dutch settlers of
+the colony.
+
+"Yes; the attempt was first made only about twenty years ago." (Tom
+thought twenty years made a very old thing of it.) "We have been fairly
+successful; our only profit is in the feathers, as you doubtless know."
+
+"Don't you sell the eggs, sir?" asked Tom.
+
+"As other farmers sell hens' eggs? No. The eggs are worth five dollars
+apiece. We hatch a good many of them by artificial means. These birds
+are careless of their eggs, and leave them lying around, so that it is
+part of our business to collect them. In other parts of Africa the
+natives eat the eggs, however, roasting them in the shell, and stirring
+the meat with a stick. They also use the thick hard shells for
+drinking-cups."
+
+The party reached their journey's end, and after eating luncheon at Mr.
+Van Zeilin's comfortable house, started off to explore.
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Tom; "what's that?" In the next breath he
+recognized the strange object before him as an ostrich, but just at
+first he was thoroughly amazed. It was hard to realize that any mere
+bird could be so big. It was as tall--well, its head would be on a level
+with the top of an ordinary-sized wardrobe. Its legs alone were four or
+five feet long. Bird, indeed! it looked more like a young camel than
+anything else; only it had but two legs. Tom stared and stared. He had
+expected to see something like a prize turkey, and now this! Meanwhile
+Mr. Van Zeilin had halted. He began cutting off branches from the tree
+beneath which they were standing.
+
+[Illustration: OSTRICHES.]
+
+"I wish to show you a nest," he said; "but we shall have to be wary. We
+may meet with a warm reception. Tom, you are a traveller. What do you
+propose doing if the ostrich shows fight?"
+
+"I'll fight back," said Tom, valorously. "He's only a bird. I guess I
+can whip him."
+
+"Not so fast," said Mr. Van Zeilin, continuing to trim his branches,
+which he forked at one end. "Ostriches are very strong. Their strength
+is in their legs, and they fight with them. An ostrich has been known to
+knock down a lion with one well-aimed blow; so I fancy an angry bird
+would make short work of you, my plucky little fellow. No, I wouldn't
+advise you to fight."
+
+"He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day," laughed
+Tom's father. "What do you say to taking to your heels, my boy?"
+
+"You would be likely to get the worst of that too," replied Mr. Van
+Zeilin. "The ostrich outstrips the horse. He is said to run sixty miles
+an hour at the start, although he can not keep up this speed. He would
+soon catch up with you."
+
+"I give it up," said Tom, heartily.
+
+"Fortunately," continued Mr. Van Zeilin, distributing the branches he
+had been cutting to their party of six, "the ostrich is as stupid as he
+is strong and swift. I will give you two points. In the first place,
+when you are pursued by an ostrich, if you come to a fence, get over it,
+and you are safe, even if it is only two feet high. The fellow could get
+over it with the greatest ease, but he doesn't know it, and I doubt if
+he ever will."
+
+"What is your other point, sir?" inquired Tom.
+
+"Just this. If an ostrich makes for you, present a forked stick at
+him--thus--and slowly retreat. It does not occur to him to dodge you. He
+conceives himself to be hopelessly pinned, and he abandons the attack.
+You see now, gentlemen, why I have provided you each with a branch."
+
+"I wonder you don't run up a lot of fences all over your field, sir,"
+suggested Tom.
+
+"That might be a good idea," returned good-humored Mr. Van Zeilin,
+"except that the ostriches require a long tether. They would die if we
+fenced them in."
+
+They had entered a field where were collected a number of ostriches in
+groups, in pairs, and singly.
+
+"The male and female take turns in hatching the eggs," said Mr. Van
+Zeilin. "But there is a nest that is deserted for the moment. That huge
+black bird over there is the owner. I wish you to see the nest, and as
+there are enough of us to intimidate him, I think we may venture."
+
+So saying, the party approached; but the black ostrich showed such
+evident signs of annoyance, coming up angrily, and craning his neck in a
+defiant way, as though measuring the strength of the party, that Mr. Van
+Zeilin directed some of his men to drive him off with their branches.
+
+Mr. Van Zeilin went on: "The long plumes grow in the tail and wings, you
+observe. Now for the nest. As you see, it is merely a huge hole scraped
+out in the ground."
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six eggs," counted Tom. "How big they
+are!"
+
+Tom dropped behind the party presently as they strolled away, but a
+piercing scream from him suddenly rent the air. His friends turned in
+consternation, and saw him tearing after them in a panic, the black
+ostrich in hot pursuit.
+
+Mr. Van Zeilin had barely time to throw himself between the boy and the
+bird. In another moment he would have been too late, and Tom's cruising
+around the world would have come to an untimely end. When Mr. Van Zeilin
+had succeeded in driving off the ostrich, he turned to Tom. "How did it
+happen?"
+
+"He looked so quiet, I thought there could be no harm in taking another
+look at the nest. I only just looked in, and he flew at me."
+
+"But your branch--why didn't you use your branch?"
+
+Tom owned up like a man. "To tell the truth, I was so scared, sir, I
+didn't know what I was about. I threw away my branch."
+
+It was hard to keep from laughing, now that the danger was over. Tom's
+hair nearly stood on end, his eyes started from their sockets, and his
+voice shook with fright. His enemy stood eying him for a moment or two
+at a little distance, then went back with great strides to his nest,
+over which at that moment was standing a gray ostrich. Black eyed his
+visitor suspiciously, then angrily.
+
+"These fellows can not endure any approach to their nests," said Mr. Van
+Zeilin. "Look at him now!"
+
+Black, in fact, was going through a most singular performance. He threw
+himself on the ground, wallowed about in the dust, and struck the earth
+with his wings as though he had gone crazy.
+
+"He is trying to work himself up to a fighting pitch," said Mr. Van
+Zeilin. "See! the gray is coming nearer. Watch him. Look! he is going
+through the same manoeuvre as the other."
+
+It was extraordinary to see the two birds. The gray did his best to work
+himself into a passion, the black meanwhile keeping his eye on him, and
+walking about in an uneasy way. Finally the rightful owner of the nest
+made one rush, and the other, alas! ran away.
+
+"Oh, what a coward!" cried Tom.
+
+"Not at all," returned Mr. Van Zeilin. "He recognizes the rights of
+property, and knocks under to the real owner of the nest."
+
+"Hi!" exclaimed Tom, suddenly, and he jumped two feet at least. An
+ostrich had come up to him quietly, and had begun to peck at the brass
+buttons on the sleeve of his jacket.
+
+Mr. Van Zeilin laughed. "No danger this time," he said. "That is a
+female bird. The females are very gentle. Now she is pecking at the
+locket on my watch chain. Her eyes are as soft as those of a gazelle,
+are they not?"
+
+"She is a pretty creature, but she has no long plumes," said Tom,
+examining her.
+
+"No, only short downy feathers, useful for trimming."
+
+"My sister has a coat trimmed with little soft feathers like these," Tom
+said. "I wonder if ladies and girls ever think of the trouble it is to
+get their feathers for them?"
+
+"Trouble and danger too," said Mr. Van Zeilin. "I tell you what, I once
+saw an ostrich come down on a man like a battering-ram. He knocked the
+breath out of him with one blow; then he rolled him over and over until
+he thought he had finished him, when he walked away. The man picked
+himself up slowly, blinded and bleeding. He had kept his face and head
+covered as best he could, and had realized that his only chance lay in
+making no resistance."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Van Zeilin," said Tom, "how glad I am you rescued me in time!"
+
+But this yarn is too long already, so we will not stop to tell you about
+Tom's return trip to Cape Town. Some other time we may spin you another
+taken from the log-book of "Little Boy Blue."
+
+
+
+
+NURSERY RHYMES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  "Willy boy, Willy boy, where are you going?
+    I will go with you, if I may."
+  "I'm going to the meadow to see them a-mowing;
+    I'm going to help them make the hay."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  A diller, a dollar, a ten-o'clock scholar!
+    What makes you come so soon?
+  You used to come at ten o'clock,
+    But now you come at noon.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Tell-tale Tit,
+  Your tongue shall be slit,
+  And every little dog in town
+  Shall have a little bit.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  To market, to market, to buy a plum-cake;
+  Home again, home again, market is late.
+  To market, to market, to buy a plum bun;
+  Home again, home again, market is done.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
+    His wife could eat no lean;
+  And so, between them both,
+    They licked the platter clean.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
+    Kitty Fisher found it;
+  There was not a penny in it,
+    But a ribbon round it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Cross Patch, lift the latch,
+    Sit by the fire, and spin;
+  Take a cup, and drink it up,
+    Then call your neighbors in.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Ride a cock horse
+  To Banbury Cross,
+  To see little Johnny
+  Get on a white horse.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Polly, put the kettle on,
+    We'll all have tea;
+  Sukey, take it off again,
+    They've all gone away.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
+
+
+  VENICE, ITALY.
+
+     I must tell you about this lovely city and the beautiful sights I
+     have seen. The fine old Church of St. Mark faces a square or
+     piazza, and near this is an arch with a large clock; on top of this
+     is an immense bell, with two bronze figures of men with hammers in
+     their hands, with which they strike the bell when the hour comes
+     round. There are several hundred pigeons here, which are fed by the
+     city every day at two o'clock, and many times I have bought corn
+     and fed them too; they are so tame that two or three have eaten
+     from my hand at once. Two weeks ago this square was illuminated. It
+     was called "The Illumination of the Architecture," and there were
+     one hundred thousand lights in the piazza. The gas lamps, which are
+     always lighted, had this night red glass globes on, thirty for each
+     lamp. On the Campanile, or belfry, was the "Star of Italy," which
+     had three thousand lights. The Church of St. Mark looked
+     magnificent, illuminated by electric lights placed in front of it.
+     An island called St. George was flashing with thousands of lights,
+     so that it looked like an enchanted palace rising out of the water.
+     Altogether it was the most beautiful sight I ever saw. A regatta
+     also took place, which I watched from the balcony of an old palace.
+     First I saw the King and Queen of Italy in a gondola, with their
+     son the Prince of Naples. They had four men to row, called
+     gondoliers. These men wore scarlet coats trimmed with gold braid.
+     After a little while the nine gondolas of the race passed, their
+     crews dressed according to the color of their boats--green, white,
+     blue, yellow, solferino, gray, purple, red, and orange. The one in
+     green won the first prize. After the race, the gondola in which was
+     the royal family went up and down the Grand Canal, followed by
+     hundreds of gondolas, some of them with streamers of silk, some
+     with velvet trimmed with gold and silver fringe trailing in the
+     water. Some boats larger than a gondola, called "bissom," were all
+     covered with silk and velvet, the gondoliers dressed in gay colors.
+     Some had eight and some ten men to row. It was a beautiful scene.
+
+  ALBERTO DAL M.
+
+You have described the brilliant illumination in a manner both vivid and
+picturesque, and the thousands of bright eyes which peer into Our
+Post-office Box every week will thank you, Alberto, for this glimpse at
+fairy-like Venice, the Bride of the Sea.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  DES MOINES, IOWA.
+
+     We moved to Iowa last December, and the best thing I have had since
+     I have been here is your lovely paper, HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. How
+     we did laugh when we read about Miss Julia Nast's cooking party!
+     When we lived in New Jersey I used to see her sometimes, and I
+     sometimes saw her father and brother riding past our house, with
+     those great English hounds running on behind the horses. The
+     funniest picture I ever saw is the little De Lesseps children in
+     the dog-cart with their father. I wish the baby had been in the
+     cart too, with her mamma. I have been wanting to see Mollie
+     Garfield, and, to my delight, there she was in last week's YOUNG
+     PEOPLE. I feel so sorry for her and the rest of the family! My
+     brothers and sister and I gave some money for the monument. When I
+     become a grown-up lady, and the monument shall have been erected, I
+     will go to see it.
+
+     I am now ten years old. I attend a school which the Western people
+     call a college; in the East we would call it a seminary. I have two
+     beautiful birds. The name of one is Cassius, and of the other Ida.
+     I have three brothers and one sister. My big brother is in the East
+     at college. My brother fourteen years old is getting ready for
+     college here in Des Moines. My little brother Paul stays at home
+     and learns his ABC's with mamma. My sister Blanche is seven years
+     old, and can spell a little, but can not write. She is learning how
+     to crochet.
+
+  HELEN H.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  OSAGE MISSION, KANSAS.
+
+     This is the first letter I have ever written to your dear little
+     paper. I am seven years old. I go to school. I have so many nice
+     books, and a little secretary to keep them in. I have a velocipede,
+     a wagon, and a wheelbarrow, and many other things. My papa is
+     postmaster. I hope you will find this good enough to print.
+
+  ERNEST H.
+
+You printed your letter so elegantly in those large capitals that we
+were delighted with it, and were very glad to send it to the press to be
+made into a dear little letter for Our Post-office Box.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  REXFORD FLATS, NEW YORK.
+
+     I would like to belong to the Natural History Society, and when I
+     find anything interesting I will report. Last spring, as my mother
+     was digging in the garden, she unearthed a queer specimen. It was a
+     common white grub, with one of the little knobs on its head grown
+     to about an inch in length, and the other was about half as long.
+     How many of the Natural History scholars have seen such a specimen?
+     Not many, I am afraid. I found a ripe wild strawberry Friday, the
+     14th of October.
+
+  CHARLES MCB.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  WHEATLAND, NEAR LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+     I have a Cashmere goat and two wagons. The goat is entirely white.
+     His name is Billee G. Taylor. I have painted his horns with gold
+     paint, and it makes him look beautiful. He eats everything, from
+     old shoes down to grass, newspapers, leather, and especially dry
+     beech and sycamore leaves, but he will not touch maple leaves.
+     Isn't it funny?
+
+  H. E. J., JUN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CULLEOKA, TENNESSEE.
+
+     Many copies of YOUNG PEOPLE are sent to Culleoka every week, and
+     yet I have never seen a letter from here. We use YOUNG PEOPLE in
+     school instead of Readers. I am very much interested in "Tim and
+     Tip." Please tell Jimmy Brown to write some more of his troubles; I
+     enjoy reading his letters so much. I can work the Labyrinth Puzzle.
+
+  ADDIE C. W.
+
+     P. S.--I put in something for the Daisy Cot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CULLEOKA, TENNESSEE.
+
+     I used YOUNG PEOPLE as a Reader for two sessions, and liked it
+     better than any Reader I ever used. At examination we had to write
+     off as much of "Toby Tyler" as we could remember. Why is it that
+     editors like you to write on only one side of the paper? I like
+     Friday to come, because YOUNG PEOPLE arrives on that day. I have
+     worked the Labyrinth Puzzle. I live in Nashville, at the Vanderbilt
+     University, but am now attending school in Culleoka.
+
+  SUSIE S.
+
+Addie's contribution has been sent to Miss Fanshawe, the Treasurer of
+St. Mary's Free Hospital. In reply to Susie, the reason why editors
+prefer correspondents to write on one side of the paper, and not on
+both, is a twofold one. It is mainly for the convenience of printers
+that the request is made, because sometimes ten or a dozen printers are
+setting the type for an article at the same time. The pages are divided,
+and assigned to different compositors as "copy," and the article can be
+set up much more rapidly if the writing is on one side only of the
+paper. Sometimes a page has to be cut in two when there is much need for
+haste. Editors, who are very busy people, can read manuscript which is
+written in this way with more ease than if it were otherwise. As they
+read, they do not need to turn their leaves, but can lay them down as
+they get to the end of each.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  ALBANY, NEW YORK.
+
+     I like the letters in the Post-office Box very much. I have a
+     brother nine years old, and we have three pets--two kittens, one we
+     call Topsy and the other Spotsy, and a large Newfoundland dog.
+     Every morning he brings papa his paper before he is up out of bed,
+     and we play hide and seek with him, and he runs to papa and puts
+     his face in his arms, and waits until we call "Ready," and then
+     hunts until he finds us.
+
+     When mamma read to my little brother Bennie about Tim and Tip,
+     where Captain Pratt did not use Tim well, and threw the knife and
+     fork at him, and whipped him so much, he went out into the garden,
+     and we did not know where he was. He sat down and put his arms
+     around Flora's neck, and cried to think how hard it was for Tim to
+     part with Tip.
+
+     I could tell you a great many more of Flora's tricks, but I am
+     afraid to make my letter too long, for fear it may go into the
+     waste-basket, and I would feel very sorry to have that happen. I am
+     twelve years old.
+
+  ELLA M.
+
+Not the waste-basket, dear, but the pigeon-hole. We do not destroy the
+letters which we can not publish, and even when they are not printed, we
+enjoy reading them, and feel obliged to those who write to us.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.
+
+     Papa gave YOUNG PEOPLE to me as a birthday present, and I am so
+     glad when he brings it home every week. I read all the stories, and
+     I love to read the letters from all the little girls and boys. You
+     will see I am a little Southern girl, and in the winter here the
+     orange-trees are all in bloom, and the gardens are filled with
+     flowers, as we do not often have the snow and ice that some of your
+     readers do. There are only two of us. My sister Isa is ten, and has
+     dark eyes and brown curls. I have light eyes and curls, and am
+     eight years old, so you see that we don't look alike. I have been
+     at a kindergarten for two years, and now I am in school with the
+     larger girls. I am very fond of dolls, and have a great many of
+     them. My sister is godmother to all of them, and makes all their
+     clothes, which is a great help to me. We have a very boisterous
+     puppy, and his name is Leo. He chewed up my prettiest wax doll. It
+     was great fun for him, but not for me. Papa gave me another in her
+     place, and she is very pretty. I take great care of her, so that
+     Leo shall not get hold of her. We found a little stray kitten a few
+     days ago in the street. We brought it home, and fed it, and as it
+     is a tortoise-shell, and very pretty, we have named it Mrs.
+     Langtry. What I like best of everything in HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE is
+     the poetry. Such pretty pieces you publish! I studied, and recited
+     at school on Friday "Only One," by George Cooper. So do find some
+     more for me. This is a long letter from a little girl you don't
+     know, and as my hand is tired, I will say good-by.
+
+  MAY P.
+
+We feel quite well acquainted with you, May, and will be glad to hear
+from you again. It was too bad that your poor doll met with so dreadful
+a disaster. We can sympathize with you, for we once had a
+mischief-making little dog who chewed our favorite books, tore our
+dresses, hid our handkerchiefs, buried our gold pencil, frightened the
+chickens, and flew at all our friends, until they were afraid to enter
+the front gate. He grew more sedate and much less entertaining, however,
+in the course of time, which has a very subduing effect on puppies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Some time has passed since I wrote you, and I feel to-day as if I
+     would like to write again. My home is on a pretty little Southern
+     River--the Tensas--and if I were a photograph artist, I would send
+     you some of the prettiest river views you ever looked at. I often
+     wish I could have some of the lovely vine-covered trees in our
+     yard. The river is so very low at present that in places one can
+     ride across it on horse-back; yet you would scarcely believe this
+     could you see it in early spring, for nearly every year we are
+     overflowed, and do all our visiting and church-going in skiffs. We
+     have steamboats all the winter season, which carry off our cotton
+     to New Orleans, and bring back all supplies, etc., from there. The
+     boats have nice accommodations for passengers, and trips to the
+     city are very pleasant. I am hoping to take one this winter.
+
+     This country has been unusually healthy this summer. Papa says
+     _distressingly_ so; that is because he is the doctor. We had church
+     service yesterday. We have it only once a month, for our minister
+     has two other appointments besides this. He lives only a quarter of
+     a mile from us. He has six children, two boys and four girls, and
+     they are so fair and delicate mamma often calls them our "Lilies of
+     the Valley." Mollie, the second girl, is just a year older than I,
+     and we are very dear friends, so we visit very often. I have a nice
+     set of croquet, and the children sometimes come to play with me,
+     and we enjoy the game ever so much. Please tell me, may other than
+     subscribers have letters in YOUNG PEOPLE.
+
+     My letter is growing long. I do not like to take too much room, and
+     crowd out other correspondents, so I will propose an exchange, and
+     finish it. I have a large pair of deer horns, which I will send in
+     return for a piece of jet, gold ore, or silver ore, or a petrified
+     lizard or frog. I will exchange for a bunch of white violets,
+     Wandering Jew; and grasses for grasses. Write before sending.
+
+  MARIE LOUISE USHER,
+  Wild Wood Post-office, Catahoula Parish, La.
+
+Any one, whether a subscriber or not, may write to our Post-office Box.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  UTICA, NEW YORK.
+
+     There are three cats which I would like to tell you about, but as
+     it would be too long a letter, I will divide it into two, and send
+     you the other another time. The first was a little half-bred
+     Persian, and as she had beautiful fur, we called her Fluffy. She
+     belonged to my sister, so we took her to a boarding-school in
+     England, for we lived there then. After breakfast at school we used
+     to have prayers, and I am sorry to say Fluffy used to behave very
+     badly. She would jump up on the table and lick the butter off the
+     bread, or run up the curtains, and look down from the top with such
+     a catch-me-if-you-can air that it was very difficult to keep from
+     laughing. We had great fun with her, for she used to walk into the
+     school-room in the middle of lessons, and of course we used to try
+     and hide her from the governess. We had her at school about a year,
+     and then she died. All the girls were very fond of her, she was
+     such a bright, loving little creature, so all the boarders went
+     into mourning for her for a week.
+
+  JANIE P. G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  DETROIT, MICHIGAN.
+
+     I have written once before, but my letter was not printed. I
+     suppose you have a great many letters to attend to. I have a sweet
+     little brother. He has been very sick, but he is getting better
+     now. We have a cute little kitten, and its name is Toby Tyler. My
+     papa is going to New York to open a studio this winter. I am very
+     sorry, because it will be so lonesome here without him. He says
+     maybe he will go where they publish this nice paper, and then he
+     will write and tell us all about it. When Toby Tyler's monkey died,
+     my little brother cried like everything, and I felt like it too.
+     Please ask Jimmy Brown to tell us some more of his sad mishaps.
+
+  KATIE J. C.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  ROCKFORD, IOWA.
+
+     I have written two letters to HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, and have never
+     seen them in print; but I will try once more. I thought the first
+     one went into the waste-basket, but I have since found out that
+     both were put safely into a pigeon-hole. One day not long ago I was
+     sitting in school, and I heard a curious noise at my ear. I stopped
+     studying, and listened. I distinctly heard the words: "Oh dear! I
+     am so tired squeezed in here so tight. This morning when the mail
+     came, that great monster of a man pushed a whole lot more letters
+     in beside me. I am going to get acquainted with them." I then heard
+     a rustling noise, and then: "How do you do? Aren't you rather
+     tired?" "Oh my! I should think so. I am packed in so that I can
+     scarcely breathe. How long have _you_ been here?" "Ever since last
+     April." "I have just come this morning, but I have been on the road
+     three days. I came from Kansas, and the name of the little girl who
+     wrote me is Maudie B. She has seven kittens, a pet lamb, and a
+     little pony, besides a whole family of dolls." I heard another
+     curious noise, almost like thunder, only not so loud, then a bang
+     and--awoke to find it half past two, my lesson not learned, and a
+     boy beginning to ring the bell which is always rung just before
+     recess.
+
+  BAT B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  UTICA, NEW YORK.
+
+     I am a little boy eleven years old, and I wish to tell you what my
+     papa brought me from Canada a short time since. He had been fishing
+     there for about a week, and brought me a tame white rat with pink
+     eyes. It was a curious enough pet at first, but I gave it away, as
+     I do not like rats. I go to New York quite often to see my grandpa
+     and grandma who live there. I always have a nice time, and see lots
+     of pretty things. I have a collection of cards. If any little boy
+     or girl would like to exchange cards, please address
+
+  GEORGE S. KLINCK,
+  7 Steuben Street, Utica, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
+
+     I saw in YOUNG PEOPLE lately some anecdotes of cats, and I thought
+     that I would like to describe a very strange cat owned by a friend
+     of mine. This gentleman calls her a rabbit-cat, and she is very
+     much like a rabbit. She has a "bob" tail, and her hind-legs are
+     much longer than her fore-legs, so that she seems to tip forward as
+     she runs.
+
+     She runs like a rabbit, and is very wild. It was very hard to get
+     near enough to examine her. But the queerest parts are her feet;
+     she has five toes on each hind-foot, and seven on each fore-foot.
+     The fore-foot looks as if she had originally had four toes on it,
+     and the three extra ones had been hitched on afterward.
+
+     I should much like to have this printed.
+
+  W. S. D.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  RED OAK, IOWA.
+
+     I live in the western part of Iowa. My brother Herbert has taken
+     HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE ever since it was first published. I did not
+     seem to care for it at first, but now I like the stories very much
+     indeed. I have just been reading "The Talking Leaves," and can
+     hardly wait for the rest of it to come. I have learned two pieces
+     from YOUNG PEOPLE to speak at school.
+
+     We have a great many pets, but those I like best are a pair of
+     ducks. They were given to me when very small. They eat so cunningly
+     out of my hand, and follow me all about the yard; and it is the
+     funniest thing to see them swim in a pond that was made for them.
+     We have a very handsome horse named Kit, and she is so gentle that
+     I drive her down town sometimes to bring papa home, though I am
+     only a little girl nine years old.
+
+     When I learn to write better I will write again if you want me to.
+     I like the other children's letters very much.
+
+  NORA L.
+
+Your writing is very plain, and we will compare your next letter with
+this one, and see what improvement you shall have made a few months from
+now.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.
+
+     I am a little boy ten years old, and have taken HARPER'S YOUNG
+     PEOPLE ever since it was first published, and enjoy it very much.
+     Papa buys it of the news-dealer. I think the pictures very nice
+     indeed. How very pretty is the one of M. De Lesseps and children!
+     How cunning they look perched up in their village cart, and what
+     jolly times they must have together! I attend the Kindergarten
+     School. I study geography, arithmetic, read in the Third Reader,
+     and also study German. My teacher is, besides being thorough and
+     efficient, a real Christian lady, and we all love her very much.
+     Should you chance to be in Bridgeport some Friday morning, come in
+     and see us. There are a great many who take HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE
+     among our scholars, and they would be delighted to see the editor.
+     Papa and mamma take me occasionally to your beautiful city, and
+     next time I go papa says he will show me where YOUNG PEOPLE is
+     published; but I will not write more, for fear my letter may be too
+     long.
+
+  CLINTON T. P.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NEW YORK.
+
+     Will Miss Lena W., of Tuckernuck, Pennsylvania, who writes to the
+     YOUNG PEOPLE, as printed in the number for October 11, 1881, that
+     she has a three-legged cat, kindly send her full name to Professor
+     B. G. Wilder, Ithaca, New York, who has hitherto supposed himself
+     to be the only possessor of a feline tripod?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+M. J. L.--The piece of music called "Tam o' Shanter" can be purchased at
+any large music store in New York, and you can procure it through the
+book-seller in your village, or by writing directly to one of the
+dealers whose addresses are given on your sheet music. You will have to
+explain your other question more fully if you wish a reply. It is rather
+indefinite.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C. Y. P. R. U.
+
+Which question shall I answer first? It needs a very wise Postmistress
+indeed to decide which has done the most for the world, peace or war;
+and to answer the question decidedly, we would have to be familiar with
+all the histories that have ever been written, and all the systems of
+political economy which have governed different nations and countries in
+ancient and modern times. It carries our thoughts back to the days of
+knight-errantry, to the Middle Ages, to the period of Rome's glory, to
+Alexander the Great, to Babylon and Nineveh, and to Egypt and the
+Pharaohs. A young friend was talking with me the other day on this very
+subject, and he said, "I think there is a great deal more told in
+history about war than about peace." So there is. Wars are like storms
+or fierce tornadoes. They do an immense amount of damage. They devastate
+vast regions, and they cause many broken hearts. There is nothing more
+terrible than war. Still, wars are sometimes necessary. They clear the
+moral atmosphere; they settle questions which can be settled only by the
+sword, which decides which party is the stronger; and they prepare the
+way for peace. Some great wars have sent scholars and artisans into
+exile, and thus learning and useful arts have been carried to new lands,
+and mankind has been benefited in the end. Peace gives time for the
+growth of that which is best in the life of nations. Science,
+literature, and industry flourish in an era of peace, and home happiness
+and good morals prevail. More and more, as the world becomes highly
+civilized, and the religion of Christ is spreading from land to land,
+peace obtains victories, and war goes out of fashion. Nations resort to
+arbitration about disputed matters, and rulers learn that they can not
+be allowed to plunge thousands of people into distress and poverty to
+satisfy their personal ambition. But the thunder makes itself heard,
+while the dew is distilled silently, and the wheat which makes the
+world's bread grows without any sound, and there, after all, is the
+difference between war and peace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.
+
+     DEAR POSTMISTRESS,--A dear little friend of mine wishes me to send
+     you her history. Her name is Georgia Brand, and she is living with
+     her "adopted papa," as she calls him, at a military station in one
+     of our Western States. Little Georgia was found, rolled up in a
+     tattered old shawl, under a shrub somewhere in the wilds of
+     Colorado, with a paper pinned on her shawl, on which was written,
+     "Take good care of my darling child," and nothing more. The
+     soldiers who found her took her to the Colonel, who befriended the
+     child at first, and then adopted her. He named her for his native
+     State, Georgia, and gave her his last name, Brand. One day, when
+     her father was telling her of some scars he had gained during the
+     civil war, Georgia said, "See, papa, I have a scar too," and
+     stripping up her sleeve, she showed some marks near her shoulder,
+     which her father said looked like a brand. "Then," said little
+     Georgia, "I am not Georgia Brand, but branded Georgia." She is a
+     witty little thing, and the soldiers call her "the life of the
+     regiment." What the mark meant, and who her parents were, have
+     never been known; but she is very happy with her "adopted papa,"
+     who gives her every advantage. Even now her father says she can
+     sing and play better than any other little girl of ten.
+
+  GEORGIA'S AUNT NELLIE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIZZIE H. B.--The splendid hues of the autumn leaves are due to their
+ripening, and not to the frost, as was formerly supposed by many
+persons. The gay leaves
+
+    "wear, in sign of duty done,
+  The gold and scarlet of the sun."
+
+There are many beautiful allusions in our American poetry to the charms
+of the autumn woods. The Postmistress will give you a chaplet of verses
+next week, taken from some of the poets she loves best, and she hopes
+that you and others, who keep a commonplace book, will take pains to
+copy these stanzas into its pages in the neatest possible manner. Those
+who draw or paint might illustrate their book, and make it a delightful
+souvenir for the future.
+
+The little webs which you refer to as stretched from one blade of grass
+to another in dry weather are made by spiders, whose instinct teaches
+them to spin their webs when there is little probability that the rain
+will destroy them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+INQUIRER.--If you have read the story of Ariadne, you will remember that
+after she had married Theseus, and had been deserted by him on the
+island of Naxos, she was found and comforted by the young god Dionysus,
+or Bacchus. Venus herself had come to her, checked her weeping, and told
+her she should become the wife of a god. Bacchus, the god of wine and
+pleasure, was generally represented as a beautiful youth with long
+flowing tresses. The vine, ivy, and pomegranate were sacred to him, and
+he was often represented as seated in a car drawn by panthers and lions.
+You can see that the sculptor who represents Ariadne as seated on the
+back of a lion may have had her union with Bacchus in mind. The more
+beautiful part of her history is the first, where she puts into
+Theseus's hand the clew of thread which shall guide him in safely
+through the windings of the labyrinth until he can reach and slay the
+Minotaur. The lion is the symbol of strength and dominion, and Ariadne
+seated upon him is upon a throne.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We would direct the attention of the C. Y. P. R. U. to the very
+instructive article entitled "The Rocks," by Mr. Charles Barnard, and to
+the interesting description of "A Visit to an Ostrich Farm," by
+Lieutenant E. W. Sturdy, U.S.N. For those who are interested in athletic
+sports, and to the lesson which is always attached to them, that no game
+requiring quickness, precision, and endurance can be successfully played
+unless great attention is paid to health, and all habits of intemperance
+and self-indulgence renounced, we would recommend Mr. B. G. Smith's
+excellent article upon the game of Lacrosse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
+
+No. 1.
+
+TWO ENIGMAS.
+
+1.
+
+  First in butter, but not in cheese.
+  Second in burn, but not in freeze.
+  Third in virtue, but not in sin.
+  Fourth in needle, but not in pin.
+  Fifth in lie, but not in truth.
+  Sixth in Nettie, but not in Ruth.
+  Seventh in wagon, but not in sled.
+  Eighth in white, but not in red.
+  Ninth in narrow, but not in wide.
+  Tenth in run, but not in ride.
+  My whole is a town on a lake's fair side.
+
+  D. B. C.
+
+2.
+
+  First in game, but not in play.
+  Second in evening, but not in day.
+  Third in knife, but not in fork.
+  Fourth in stopper, but not in cork.
+  Fifth in eyrie, but not in nest.
+  Sixth in labor, but not in rest.
+  Seventh in minute, but not in hour.
+  My whole the name of a beautiful flower.
+
+  ALICE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 2.
+
+CHARADE.
+
+  My first is an animal spry.
+  My second is an animal spry.
+  My whole is an animal spry.
+
+  WILL A. METTE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 3.
+
+WORD SQUARE.
+
+1. To improve. 2. A landed estate. 3. To follow. 4. Parts of speech. 5.
+To clothe.
+
+  R. O. BERT.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 4.
+
+DOUBLE SQUARE.
+
+Across.--1. The blanched leaves of the artichoke. 2. A concealer. 3. A
+girl's name. 4. Dissolves. 5. A metal.
+
+Down.--1. The rim of a cask. 2. One who contracts for service. 3. A
+girl's name. 4. Sums of money. 5. To clothe.
+
+  MILTIADES.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 5.
+
+TRANSFORMATIONS.
+
+  Behead me, and you'll find an act
+  No mortal lives without, in fact.
+  Now turn my final letter back,
+  And whether green, or brown, or black,
+  Your mother wants me from the store,
+  And when I'm gone will send for more.
+  Clap on my head. You can not be
+  A happy person without me.
+
+  FREDDIE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 103.
+
+No. 1.
+
+Pansy, Phlox, Pink, Poppy, Daisy, Verbena, Rosemary, Jessamine.
+
+No. 2.
+
+Rhine.
+
+No. 3.
+
+Megrim, Ice-Cream, Pine-Apple.
+
+No. 4.
+
+Spill, Yam, Box, Omission, Trice, Stable.
+
+No. 5.
+
+      G
+    B A A
+  G A U G E
+    A G E
+      E
+
+No. 6.
+
+Level.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Correct answers to puzzles have been received from T. Knight Durham,
+_Lizzie Webster_, Ella Lark, Camilla M. Serrano, Forrest F., Belle
+Foster, Frank Duff, D. B. C., Maud Muller, Belle F. Snart, G. Chapman,
+Frank Lomas, "Dandy," Eddie S. Hequembourg, Susie Shipp, and "Queen
+Bess."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[_For Exchanges, see third page of cover._]
+
+
+
+
+GOOD COMPANY.
+
+
+  "I'll Try!" is a soldier,
+    "I Will!" is a King;
+  Be sure they are near
+    When the school-bells ring.
+
+  When school-days are over,
+    And boys are men,
+  "I'll Try" and "I Will"
+    Are good friends then.
+
+
+
+
+SCIENTIFIC PUZZLES.
+
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
+
+The experiment shown in Fig. 1 requires no other apparatus than a
+decanter and a strong piece of straw. The straw is bent before being
+passed into the bottle of water, so that when it is lifted the centre of
+gravity is displaced, and brought directly under the point of
+suspension. The illustration shows the method of lifting the decanter of
+water by the straw very plainly. It is well to have at hand several
+pieces of straw, perfectly intact, and free from cracks, in case the
+experiment does not succeed with the first attempt.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
+
+The experiment shown in Fig. 2 is apparently very difficult, but it will
+be found easy enough in practice if the hand be steady. Take a key, and
+by means of a crooked nail, or "holdfast," attach it to a bar of wood by
+a string tied tightly round the bar, as in the picture. To the other
+extremity of the bar attach a weight, and then drive a large-headed nail
+into the table. It will be found that the key will balance, and even
+move upon the head of the nail, without falling. The weight is under the
+table, and the centre of gravity is exactly beneath the point of
+suspension.
+
+Figs, 3 and 4 are examples of the force of inertia; that is, the
+tendency of a thing that is at rest to remain in that state.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+To perform the experiment in Fig. 3 a needle is fixed at each end of a
+broomstick, and these needles are made to rest on two glasses, placed on
+chairs; the needles alone must be in contact with the glasses. If the
+broomstick is then struck violently with another stout stick, the former
+will be broken, but the glasses will remain intact. The experiment
+answers all the better the more energetic the action. It is explained by
+the resistance of inertia in the broomstick. The shock suddenly given,
+the impulse has not time to pass on from the particles directly affected
+to the adjacent particles; the former separate before the movement can
+be transmitted to the glasses serving as supports.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
+
+It is possible, for the same reason, to extract from a pile of money a
+piece placed in the middle of the pile without overturning the others.
+It suffices to move them forcibly and quickly with a flat wooden ruler.
+The experiment succeeds very well also if performed with draughtsmen
+piled up on the draught-board, Fig. 4.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAMEL.
+
+
+The expression of his soft, heavy, dreamy eye tells its own tale of meek
+submission and patient endurance ever since travelling began in the
+deserts. The camel appears to be wholly passive--without doubt or fear,
+emotions or opinions of any kind--to be in all things a willing slave to
+destiny. He has none of the dash and brilliancy of the horse; that
+looking about with erect neck, fiery eye, cocked ears, and inflated
+nostrils; that readiness to dash along a race-course, follow the hounds
+across country, or charge the enemy; none of that decision of will and
+self-conscious pride which demand, as a right, to be stroked, patted,
+pampered, by lords and ladies.
+
+The poor camel bends his neck, and with a halter round his long nose,
+and several hundred-weight on his back, paces patiently along from the
+Nile to the Euphrates. Where on earth, or rather on sea, can we find a
+ship so adapted for such a voyage as his over those boundless oceans of
+desert sand? Is the camel thirsty--he has recourse to his gutta percha
+cistern, which holds as much water as will last a week, or, as some say,
+ten days even, if necessary. Is he hungry--give him a few handfuls of
+dried beans; it is enough; chopped straw is a luxury. He will gladly
+crunch with his sharp grinders the prickly thorns and shrubs in his
+path, to which hard Scotch thistles are as soft down. And when all
+fails, the poor fellow will absorb his own fat hump. If the land-storm
+blows with furnace heat, he will close his small nostrils, pack up his
+ears, and then his long defleshed legs will stride after his swan-like
+neck through suffocating dust; and having done his duty, he will mumble
+his guttural, and leave, perhaps, his bleached skeleton to be a landmark
+in the waste for the guidance of future travellers.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "MY GOLLY! I'S COTCHED HIM DIS TIME, FOR SURE."]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, November 8, 1881, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 49886 ***