Harper's Young People, October 19, 1880 Part 6

SAMUEL P.

BELLEVILLE, TEXAS.

I am ten years old. I have no pets except a Maltese cat and a dog.

I was very much interested in the dog and cat of Madelaine, the little French girl. I like "The Moral Pirates" and "Who was Paul Grayson?" best of all the stories. My father gave me a piano for my birthday present; and when I was seven years old he gave me a pony, and I named him b.u.t.ton. I dearly love to gallop over the hills.

I went to New Hampshire in 1875 to see my grandfather, and we visited the White Mountains.

I think YOUNG PEOPLE is the nicest paper I ever saw, and I intend to take it until I grow up.

JOSIE C.

NEW YORK CITY.

B. I., of Radnor, Ohio, asks how to feather arrows. Choose goose or turkey feathers of a suitable size. Cut them carefully from the quill; put on hot glue, and fasten them to the sides of the arrow, about an inch from the notch, at equal distances apart. There should always be three feathers.

A. H.

It is a good plan to fasten the feathers to the arrow with pins until the glue is perfectly dry, when they can be carefully removed.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

I have a pet now, a lovely little dog, with long curly hair and large bright eyes. He is snowy white all over, and his name is Mischief. I am going to have his picture taken some time. He looks just like a bundle of cotton, with three black spots shining through. Those are his eyes and nose.

The tree represented in the ill.u.s.tration of the beetles in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 38 is just like the California buckeye-tree. The blossoms are exactly the same.

I am very much interested in the directions for making salt and fresh water aquariums. When I was in Monterey I might have collected lots of sea-anemones, snails, and pink and white star-fish, but I did not think of it. One of the gentlemen at the hotel went fishing with a net, and caught a little baby cuttle-fish, or devil-fish, as it is commonly called. It had seven or eight long legs, all lined with little suckers, like b.u.t.tons.

It was a dreadful ugly-looking thing. It must have been very young, for it was only ten or eleven inches long. The gentleman was going to keep it for a curiosity, and until he could get something better he put it in a pan of salt-water; but he forgot to cover the pan, and in the night the fish crawled out on to the floor, and died.

I have exchanged Farallon Island eggs and leaves and specimens of trees with a good many children since my letter was printed.

Is there any difference between postage stamps and postmarks? I don't believe I know what postmarks are.

IDA BELLE DISERENS.

A postmark is the stamp put on the outside of a letter at the office where it is posted. It certainly is not of much value in itself, but if a collection is neatly pasted in a book, States and countries being arranged together, counties being written under towns in the United States, and a note made of any manufactories or natural productions for which the town is celebrated, such a collection may become an interesting gazetteer, and valuable as a book of reference.

HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

On September 27 I found a blossom on the peach-tree in our back yard. I picked it, and have pressed it to send to you. I think it is very odd to have peach blossoms in September, and I would like to know if any girl or boy has ever seen them blooming in that month in this climate.

I think the story "Who was Paul Grayson?" is splendid.

REBA H.

SOUTH ELIOT, MAINE.

I bought three silk-worms' coc.o.o.ns at the Educational Department of the Permanent Exhibition at Philadelphia. In about a week's time the coc.o.o.ns broke, and the moths came out and began to lay their eggs on a sheet of brown paper which I laid them on. They have laid about all their eggs now, and there are a great many.

CHESTER B. F.

HOWARD, TEXAS.

I am seven years old. Mother teaches me at home. I am studying spelling, geography, arithmetic, and the Third Reader.

I love so much when Wednesday morning comes, for then I get my YOUNG PEOPLE, and I read until I have finished it.

I received a beautiful pressed bouquet, from Mary Lowry. It was real nice, and I am going to send her some seeds very soon.

I have three dolls, one wax and two china ones. Every day, when I am through with my lessons, my sister Myrtle and I have nice times playing with them.

MABEL P.

WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

I live on a farm about one mile from town.

We had a ring-dove given to us, and we bought a mate for it, and now we have four more. One is just hatched. Last summer, a year ago, we had a present of a pair of guinea-pigs, and we have raised six others. One of the little ones is pure white, except its head, which is black. It looks as if it had a mask on. My brother, who is ten years old, has a pigeon-house and about thirty pigeons. And he has six rabbits, which are all the time burrowing out of the pen, and a young shepherd dog. We have black and brown bantams, and two little red calves we call Spot and Lina, because one has a red spot on its back, and the other a white line.

Last spring I planted one small ear of pop-corn, and now I have gathered nearly eighty ears from it. I also planted ground-nuts.

My brother, my sister, and I have each a pair of stilts, and we have lots of fun inventing new ways to walk on them.

BESSIE R. H.

I would like to exchange postage stamps of France and Germany with any readers of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. Correspondents will please put "Via England" on the envelope, as letters thus addressed are more likely to come safely.

B. D. WOODWARD, 49 im Trutz, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany.

I would like to exchange postmarks for foreign postage stamps, or for other postmarks, with any boy in the South or West.