Harper's Young People, October 5, 1880 Part 7

BOSTON, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

It would be curious to know how many of the child-correspondents of YOUNG PEOPLE are really getting good natural history collections. I can not imagine a greater help in educating a child. My little girl, known among them as "Wee Tot," is quite absorbed in learning everything she can about sh.e.l.ls, minerals, birds, flowers, and other natural objects, and nearly every mail brings or takes some new variety.

ONE OF THE MOTHERS.

WEST BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND.

Although I am not one of your youngest readers, I wish to tell you that YOUNG PEOPLE is the best paper I ever saw for little folks, and I very much wish there was one as good in my own country, which is France.

My pet is a little chicken hatched by steam, which I bought at Coney Island, at a show where you can see the whole process of hatching. The eggs are kept at a certain temperature for twenty-one days, the length of time a hen would sit on them, and then the little chickens begin to knock on their sh.e.l.ls for admittance into the wide world. In half an hour they are fairly out, and ready to eat some yolk of an egg crumbled in little bits, which is given them for the first few days of their life.

I bought one when it was a day old. The poor little thing was put in a card-board box, where it cried all the way home. I kept it in a cage made of an old box for several weeks, fearing the cat would take it for a bird, and eat it up. I call it Cocotte. It is very tame, and follows me everywhere, but its favorite place is in the kitchen closet, keeping guard over the oatmeal bag, which contains its princ.i.p.al food, although it will eat any kind of meat with the cats, and drinks milk with them.

Cocotte, which is now two months old, is a Spanish Leghorn. She sends her best love to YOUNG PEOPLE, and begs me to say that she is a very happy orphan.

A. D.

CLIFTON SPRINGS, NEW YORK.

I have some very queer pets. They are craw-fish, which I caught in a little creek. There were thirteen, but there are only twelve now, for one fell out of the window. We keep them in a pan, and they fight each other a great deal. A good many have some of their claws bitten off, and in the morning I find a stray claw floating on the top of the water. The two smallest are named Budge and Toddy. I would like to know how to take care of them.

BESSY F.

You must put dirt and small stones on the bottom of your pan, for craw-fish like to burrow and hide themselves in the mud. Feed them with worms and bits of meat. If they live, and you watch them carefully, you will find that the claws they lose will soon grow out again.

CINCINNATI, OHIO.

As all the children write of their pets, I would like to tell about mine. They are ten little silver minnows. They are so tame they will come up to me when I go near them. They are very fond of moss, which I put in the water for them, and they like to run under it.

In cold weather the water freezes, and I put the gla.s.s globe near the fire to thaw. The minnows seem so happy when the water is thawed.

M. LILIAN K.

DUBLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

I send a very simple experiment to the chemists' club. Take equal parts of oil and water, and even when shaken violently they will not unite. Add a small quant.i.ty of ammonia, and they will take the form of liquid soap.

GEORGE L. O.

LYNCHBURGH, TEXAS.

I am taking YOUNG PEOPLE, and I like it very much, but I like the Post-office Box very much indeed.

I have a pet colt. I raised it on milk. At first I had to feed it with a bottle, as it had no mother. Its name is Minnehaha. It now eats bread, sugar, or corn. When I call, it answers just like a child, and will come to me.

I have a wax doll named Lily. I had eight dolls, but I sent the others to my little cousins.

My little sister Ruby, five years old, has a pet cat that comes every morning and gets in the bed with her, and lies down with its head on her arm, like a little baby.

PEARL A. H.

NORTH ANDOVER, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

I was very much interested in the account of "Lovewell's Fight with the Pigwackets," in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 47, as I live in the house in which it is said Chaplain Jonathan Frye was born, and from which he started to the fatal fight where he lost his life.

About sixty years ago my grandfather bought the house and repaired it, and my uncle owns it now. The north portion is the oldest, and the walls are finished with antique wooden panels. Formerly there were very big fire-places, but they have all been modernized.

Just before starting to fight the Indians, Chaplain Frye brought a young elm-tree from the woods, and planted it on the green by the road-side near the house. About a month afterward, in May, 1725, he was killed, but the tree grew and flourished, and its great round crown stood n.o.bly against the storms and winds of a hundred and fifty, years. It was known all through this region as the "Old Frye Elm." Although it had many dead branches, it was still a beautiful tree when in 1875 it was cut down. The trunk was left standing about twenty feet high--a silent and mournful monument to the memory of him who planted it. The winds carried some germs of the solidago to the top of the stump, where they rooted in the decaying wood, and for several autumns crowned it with their golden blossoms. But the stump is now very much decayed, and must soon fall, and this natural monument to the memory of a brave man will disappear forever.

HARRY W. C.

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

I was very much interested in the story of the escape of Hannah Dustin, in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 42, because I know many of the places through which she pa.s.sed. The brook that runs by our house empties into the Merrimac. Lake Pennacook, now called Long Pond, supplies the city of Concord with water. It is a favorite resort for picnics and boating parties.

The monument on the island at the mouth of the Contoocook is near Fisherville, one of the suburbs of Concord. There is another monument on the west side of Concord, which we pa.s.s every time we go to town. It is in memory of several white people who were ma.s.sacred by Indians near that spot.

We have felt three slight shocks of earthquakes here this summer.

I hope the Moral Pirates will report their next cruise.

B. M.

HAZLET, NEW JERSEY.

I am a little boy nine years old. My mother, my little sister, and myself came from Texas in June to spend the summer in the North.

We live in Galveston. I think HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE is full of pretty stories. I have been very much interested in "The Moral Pirates." I found a little row-boat in the creek last week, and took possession of it with three of my little friends. We cruised to the end of the creek, where we had to leave our boat, as we did not know how to turn it around. The boat is there still. It is too old to be of any use, and is abandoned by its owner. Mamma said I must have been imitating the Moral Pirates. I never enjoyed myself so much as I did that day.

OMER.

WEYMOUTH, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.