followed the crowd into the next department. Oh, Nell, you and Edith
would have clapped hands for joy: it was like a glimpse into
fairy-land--dolls here, dolls there, dolls everywhere. As for the
railroad, it was crowded, up-trains and down-trains."
"Oh, aunty, tell us how they were dressed!" cried Edith.
"One was a bride. I begged the clerk to stop the little car, and let me
have a good look at her ladyship. She wore a lovely princesse robe of
cream-colored satin, trimmed with lace and pearl-bead fringe; an
exquisite veil and a wreath of orange blossoms covered her golden curls.
In another car sat a very pretty little lady, with a real seal-skin hat,
cloak, and muff, and diamond earrings; her cheeks were as red as roses.
A baby doll in a long white dress sat in front of her."
"Oh, aunty, a baby doll, without any hair on its head, and only two
teeth like Min's?"
"Yes, Nell; and, by-the-way, it didn't look unlike our Min: the same
little round eyes and pudgy nose--yes, and the two teeth exactly like
hers."
"All this time, Aunt Elinor, you haven't told us what made the cars go,
and what stops them," said Edith, thoughtfully.
"What a forgetful aunty I am! This is the way it is done. Harry Thornton
wants to buy a dog; he has a fifty-cent piece; he stops at a toy counter
over which is marked Station D, and selects a nice black-and-tan--"
"No, a Newfoundland, aunty."
"Well, a Newfoundland. He hands fifty cents to the young woman clerk.
What does she do? She takes the car down off the track, using a
long-handled contrivance like a fork to do it. She places Mr.
Doggy--Carlo, if you please--in the lower wire cage, the money and her
cash-book in the top car; then places the car and its baggage on the
down-town track, and away it rushes. You see, one end of the track is
higher than the other, making a gentle descent, down which the little
car glides. A young lad hands Mr. Carlo over to the wrapping clerk, and
in a second or two, all wrapped from top to toe in tissue-paper, he
makes his appearance in car D, bound on the up-town track for Station D.
He makes the trip in ten seconds."
"But what makes him stop just at Station D?" inquires Harry.
"A small steel peg under the car, called a brake, is fixed just where it
will fit in a notch on the steel road, and every station car is provided
with one."
"I know it now," exclaimed Edith. "It was the benevolent gentleman who
said in the beginning of your story that the cash boys and girls ought
to have been in bed hours ago. He was the one who invented it--the
railroad, I mean. Who was he, aunty?"
"I am sorry I can not tell you his name; but he is a very bashful
person," replied Aunt Elinor.
"I'll tell you who it is," shouted Harry, with an air of triumph: "it's
old Santa Claus. Hurrah for old Santa Claus!"
"_Some_ one's Santa Claus, undoubtedly, little man; but whose?--that is
the question."
[Begun in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 58, December 7.]
MILDRED'S BARGAIN.
A Story for Girls.
BY MRS. JOHN LILLIE.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II.
A clamor of young voices greeted Mildred's entrance into the tiny hall
of the cottage. Three small boys and a girl of nine caught hold of the
elder sister.
"Oh, Milly, do hurry tea!" and, "Oh, Milly, who came up to the gate?"
and, "Oh, mamma said Milly was to go at once to her. She is in the
parlor."
Mildred kissed each little face, and then, disengaging herself from
them, pushed open the parlor door, while the children scampered off to
assist the one old servant in her preparations for the evening meal.
Mrs. Lee was lying on the parlor sofa when her daughter entered, while
near her stood a tall, hard-featured woman, who was displaying an open
bundle of silks and laces, shawls and ribbons. The glittering array was
spread all about the poor widow, who glanced at her eldest daughter with
a mixture of hope and perplexity. Mrs. Lee was one of those women who
take everything in life from a despondent point of view. She had begun
her married life a fresh, pretty girl who had known very little real
care or sorrow, but with no mental or spiritual force to meet even the
trifling ups and downs of existence. She loved her children dearly, but
in them she saw only so many additional causes for worry. When her
husband died she had turned almost instinctively to Mildred as a sort of
guide and counsellor, and the young girl had grown accustomed to be the
controlling influence at home.
"My darling," Mrs. Lee exclaimed, as Mildred came up to her side, "do
explain to this--lady that I don't want any of her things. Indeed,
madam, we can't buy any of them;" and Mrs. Lee turned her face rather
fretfully from her troublesome visitor.
Mildred gave the peddler a grave look of rebuke, but she said, civilly
enough: "Please bring your things into the next room; I will talk to you
there. My mother is not well enough to be disturbed."
The woman had very quickly measured Mildred's power. Moreover, she
fancied she detected in the slim, pretty young girl a more promising
customer than the wearied, faded lady on the sofa; so she was by no
means unwilling to gather up her things and follow Mildred into the
little room which served as dining and school room, where her mother's
piano, the children's books, and her own sewing-machine were kept.
"Now, miss," began the woman at once, shaking out some of her most
brilliant wares, "do just have a look--not to _buy_ unless it suits ye,
but just to see what's pretty. Now here's _just_ the thing would do you
for your life--a gray silk you couldn't match in all Milltown; and
cheap--as cheap--"
"No, thank you," said Mildred, coldly, turning away from the dazzling
offer. "I shall be _so_ glad if you'll put up your things. I'm tired,
and the children want their tea."
"Well, well," said the woman, with a coarse affectation of good-humor,
"it'll take me a minute or two; but first just cast your eye over that
bit of silk--gray's your color; you're just pink and white and soft
enough for it, and it's only thirty dollars for twenty yards--enough to
make a dress now, and a jacket next spring. And I'll tell you how I
manage with young ladies like you: I take _easy pay_--weekly
installments, don't you see? But law! it's so little at a time--only
fifty cents a week--keeps me waiting more'n a year; and you may say you
get a year's wear out of your dress for nothing."
"I am very sorry," said Milly, still persistent; "I do not want the
dress. I must take off my things. I am just up from the store."
"The store!" echoed the woman, eying her sharply. "Mr. Hardman's, I
suppose? Yes, you're just the kind of pretty, genteel young figure they
like to get. Now I dare say you are in the mantle department."
[Illustration: MILDRED'S TEMPTATION--DRAWN BY JESSIE CURTIS SHEPHERD.]
"Some part of the day," said Milly, shortly. The woman was busy tying up
her parcel, folding the gray silk so that its sheen caught Milly's eye
perpetually. It _was_ a pretty silk, the young girl thought. Oh, why
couldn't she have _just_ such a dress to wear at Miss Jenner's party,
instead of her old, often-washed white muslin! But Milly resolutely shut
such a wild ambition out of her mind, and tried to look uninterested
while the woman continued:
"Why, you must be earning at least five or six dollars a week down to
Hardman's. He's good pay, I know. Fifty cents wouldn't be much. Well,
well," she added, turning the pretty silk back and forth in shining
ripples, "I'll find an easy sale for this anywheres: only I must say,
_as a friend_, you're making a mistake."
A half-pang of regret shot through Milly's mind as the woman tied up the
last article in her parcel, and the gray silk disappeared from view.
During the busy occupations of the evening her mind kept recurring to
the peddler's visit and her tempting offer. Before she went to bed she
had made a rapid calculation of how long it would take her to save the
required sum out of her earnings. It took nearly all she and her mother
could earn to feed the four hungry little mouths as well as their own,
and to keep a respectable roof over their heads.
"Still," argued Milly, "I work so hard, why shouldn't I have at least
_fifty cents_ a week for my clothes, and such a good silk, too! And to
look well at Miss Jenner's!"
Visions of an impossible future, in which Miss Jenner would adopt all
her little brothers and sisters, filled Mildred's mind, completely
shutting out the fact that girlish vanity was at the root of her desire
to possess the gray silk. Unfortunately Mildred had never been
accustomed to go with her little perplexities to her mother, and so it
did not now occur to her to seek any advice. Mrs. Lee was always "too
tired" or too "blue" to be "bothered," and while Mildred had learned a
habit of self-restraint and reserve, the younger children looked to her
for every suggestion, so that Milly felt quite capable of governing her
own actions when she was allowed to govern theirs. By the time the young
girl awoke, she had, as she thought, reasoned herself into a belief that
the most foolish mistake of her life was in letting that gray silk slip
out of her possession. The sight of her limp old muslin in the wardrobe
did not lessen this regret, nor did her mother's bemoaning at breakfast
that "Milly would look a fright at Miss Jenner's party" help matters in
the least.
"If you could only at least _look_ like your father's daughter," sighed
Mrs. Lee, "no knowing what might come of it."
Milly echoed these words over and again as she walked down to the store,
varying them with her own unwise reflections. She was a little late, and
received a half-sneering reprimand from "Mr. Tom" as she passed him at
the desk. It was her duty to go to the mantle department, which was in a
sort of L off the main part of the store. Milly, after hurriedly laying
aside her things, turned toward the cloak-room. No other sales-woman
was in it, but there, seated at the side, an expression of vulgar
audacity on her face, was the peddler of last night!
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
EMBROIDERY FOR GIRLS.
BY SUSAN HAYES WARD.
No. III.
[Illustration]
The Pilgrim women who sailed in the _Mayflower_ brought with them the
very old stitch, a magnified view of which is given in Fig. 11. I have
seen a picture wrought by one of these same Pilgrim Mothers--rows of
houses and trees something like this (you could any of you draw better),
with a meeting-house in the middle; but the houses and trees were a
marvel of crewel-work, the background of silk, all in this ancient
stitch, which is also found in old Persian and Turkish embroidery. I
know an old lady who has used it from her childhood, who calls it
"pocket-book" stitch; it is really a kind of "fagotting," and there are
remnants of old petticoats and curtains still to be found in
out-of-the-way country towns of New England, exquisitely worked in this
most economical of stitches, which, for convenience, I shall call the
New England stitch. Turn the work over and you will see how economical
the stitch is: all the wool, except just enough at the outline to catch
in the stuff, shows on the upper side. By pushing your needle first
toward you and then from you, as seen in Fig. 10, you get that pretty
twisted look which you see very much enlarged in Fig. 11. The Janina
stitch, as given in HARPER'S BAZAR, November 6, seems to be an imitation
of this, though much inferior in effect and ease of working.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.]
The design here given (Fig. 12) is suitable for a tidy, bureau-cover,
curtain, or mantel lambrequin. For a bureau-cover take nice Russia
crash, allow twelve inches to hang over each side, _besides_ enough for
fringe. Three flowers like the two in Fig. 12 are enough for crash of
ordinary width. Trace off the pattern on a piece of paper, repeat the
left-hand flower at X, stopping at R, and omitting the spray marked S.
You can finish off the stem at R with Fig. 13 if you prefer. When your
pattern is all ready on the paper, trace it on the crash, in the middle
of the twelve inches, according to directions in No. II. This figure,
designed expressly for the girls who read these articles, can be worked
according to the directions for color given below, in New England
stitch, or in three shades of one color, in either New England or stem
stitch, following the same gradations of color.
A genuinely old design used one hundred and fifty years ago will be sent
to the girl under sixteen who first reports having finished the
embroidery of Fig. 12, according to directions, in New England stitch.
COLORS.
A, very light yellow-green; B and C, darker shades; _a_, very light
salmon pink; _b_ and _c_, darker shades; _l_, light yellow; _n_, old
gold; _m_, an intermediate shade of yellow.
Every other flower might be worked in old blues.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.]
[Illustration: THE POST-OFFICE BOX.]
The readers of YOUNG PEOPLE, whose letters give assurance of the
pleasure and instruction they have received from the paper during the
past year, will doubtless be glad to put others in the way of sharing in
their enjoyment. This they can most easily do by speaking of the paper
to their friends and acquaintances, showing them copies of it, and
advising them to subscribe for the new volume. By thus extending its
circulation they will be working for their own interest; because the
larger the list of subscribers is, the better able the publishers will
be to increase the beauty and attractiveness of the paper.
* * * * *
The next issue of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE will be a beautiful Christmas
number. The serial stories and the Post-office Box will be omitted, and
the entire contents will be suited to the holiday season. There will be
a charming Christmas story, entitled "HOW IT ALL HAPPENED," by Miss
Alcott, with illustrations by Jessie Curtis Shepherd; "WHEN THE CLOCK
STRUCK TWELVE," a play for Christmas-eve, by Edgar Fawcett; a beautiful
double-page Christmas picture by Thomas Nast; music; and other pretty
things to please our young readers. The number will be inclosed in a
special cover, designed by W. A. Rogers, and printed in dark red ink.
* * * * *
We must again call the attention of our correspondents to the fact that
the Post-office Box can not be made a medium for buying or selling
curiosities, stamps, or articles of any kind. Neither can we print
requests for the address of any correspondent.
The requests for exchange should be made as short as possible. We can
not publish lists of eggs, stamps, minerals, and other things; but would
advise boys and girls to make out a neat list of the articles they have
to exchange, and those they desire in return, and have copies always
ready to send in answer to the letters they receive.
Requests for exchange are often accompanied by lengthy conditions, but
we can not make room to print them, and shall invariably leave them for
the exchangers to settle among themselves. In sending specimens great
care should always be taken to mark them distinctly, and to state the
locality from whence they came, otherwise the recipient may become the
possessor of some valuable curiosity, and be unaware of its character.
Our puzzle contributors will please remember that a puzzle, in order to
be accepted, must be not only good, but must have a solution not already
used in YOUNG PEOPLE, and contain no slang, and no obsolete words. Read
over your contributions and correct them carefully before sending them
to YOUNG PEOPLE, as the misuse of a single letter spoils an otherwise
excellent puzzle.
* * * * *
MONTREAL, CANADA.
I am a little boy nine years old. I have been ill in bed for ten
weeks, but now I am getting better.
I had a little dog named Bogey, but he bit a policeman, and we had
to send him away.
We have lots of snow here now, and the sleigh-bells are tinkling
all day. I wish I was well enough to have a snow-ball fight with
the other boys. Now they have plenty of coasting and snow-shoeing
and tobogganing, and it is great fun.
I can read all of YOUNG PEOPLE myself. I wish it would come
oftener.
BERTIE G.
* * * * *
NEW YORK CITY.
I want to tell the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE how to make a bran
pudding for the Christmas dinner. It is the nicest kind of pudding.
Select some little gifts, pretty or ridiculous, for each person
expected. Wrap them neatly, and write upon each the name, and a few
lines appropriate to the present and the receiver. Place them in a
large tin pan, and cover them with dry clean bran. After all the
other good things have been served, have this placed before papa,
and he will take out each package with a spoon, and read the name
and verse aloud. Shouts of laughter and expressions of delight
greet each one as the parcels are opened. If mamma or aunty will
help write the verses, they can be made very funny, and be a jolly
ending to a Christmas dinner. It is a dessert very much better than
plum-pudding for little folks.
BESSIE GUYTON.
* * * * *
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.
I get YOUNG PEOPLE every week, and I am so pleased when it comes! I
liked "The Moral Pirates" very much.
I have a brother a year younger than I am, and we each have a pet
cat. His is all black except its paws, which are white, so we call
it White Socks. Mine is all gray, and its name is Jenny. We have a
very pretty little collie dog named Tyne.
I have four dolls, and a black doll for their nurse. I have never
been to school. We have a governess. I like to read the letters in
the Post-office Box very much, and I should like to know if I am
the first little girl who has sent a letter from Scotland.
PEGGIE M.
The Post-office Box has received numbers of letters from Scottish lads
and lassies.
* * * * *
MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.
I have taken YOUNG PEOPLE only a little while, and I like it so
much I would be very sorry not to have it now. When my papa brings
it home I take it to school, and my teacher reads it to the
scholars. There are fifty in our school.
HOWARD L.
* * * * *
HUTCHINSON, KANSAS.
We had a present of a pair of white mice. They had four little
ones, but my sister killed one of them. The mice have red eyes and
pink feet. The mother mouse is very kind to the little ones. She
picks them up in her mouth as a cat does her kittens. They are not
large enough to eat yet, but the big ones eat cookies and apples,
and drink milk. We have a tin cage to keep them in.
I do not go to school. Mamma teaches my sister and me at home. I
am eight years old.
MARY B. M.
* * * * *
OTTAWA, CANADA.
There are some very fine buildings in this city. The Parliament
House and Departmental Buildings are situated on a beautiful hill
about two hundred feet high. All three are built of marble. The
ground, which is tastefully laid out with lawns and flower beds, is
in the form of a square, with the Parliament House in the centre,
and a Departmental Building on either side. From the rear of the
Parliament House there is a fine view of the Chaudière Falls and
the surrounding country.
A bridge joining the provinces of Quebec and Ontario has just been
completed, which is the second largest bridge in the world.
EDWARD L.
* * * * *
DANVILLE, ILLINOIS.
I want to tell the Post-office Box of the fun I had this afternoon.
We met at two o'clock, and went to the river. We coasted a long
while on the large hills, then we went on the ice. The river is
frozen hard, and the skaters took some of us riding on the ice. We
had a splendid time. Afterward we went back to the hills, and built
a large bonfire. The flames were about eight feet high, and we
hurrahed and shouted. We went home about five o'clock.
I can not express in words how much I like YOUNG PEOPLE. The
stories and pictures are elegant.
Will you please tell me which was the first railroad in the United
States?
COLMORE S.
The first railway in the United States was constructed in 1826 from the
quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. The cars
were drawn by horses. The second American railroad was laid in 1827,
from the coal mines of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, to the Lehigh River.
With branches and turn-outs it was thirteen miles long. It was operated
by gravity. Mules were used for drawing back the empty cars. The first
passenger railway was the Baltimore and Ohio, fifteen miles of which
were opened in 1830. During the first year the cars were drawn by
horses, but in 1831 the first locomotive built in America was put on the
track. It had an upright instead of a horizontal boiler. On its trial
trip it drew an open car at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, from
Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills. The next passenger line built was the
Mohawk and Hudson, from Albany to Schenectady.
* * * * *
FORT WARREN, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
I have taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE ever since No. 9, and I like it
very much. I think "The Moral Pirates" and "Old Times in the
Colonies" are the best stories.
We have a pet cat named Frisky, and she wears a very large ruffle
around her neck, like Queen Elizabeth. We had two dogs, but we
sent them away because there were too many about the Fort. Army
posts are so dull, that we like to get all the pets we can.
Will you please tell me who first discovered the Antarctic
Continent?
CHESTER MAXWELL W.
The Antarctic Continent was discovered in January, 1840, by Captain
Wilkes, of the United States navy, who was commander of an exploring
expedition toward the south pole. He traced the coast for some distance,
but was prevented from landing by the great masses of ice along the
shore. In 1841, Sir James Ross, who commanded a British expedition,
penetrated still farther south, and discovered Mount Erebus, which is
the most southern volcano, so far as known, and which at the time of its
discovery was throwing out smoke and flame. He also discovered Mount
Terror, which is in appearance an extinct volcano.
* * * * *
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK.
I shall be twelve years old next February. Willie W. and I got up a
company of soldiers, and had a big parade in November. The
Drum-Major was a boy very oddly dressed. The newspaper here said
our parade made a smile on more faces than one. We do not expect to
parade again until next summer; then, when all the city boys are up
here, we will show them our regiment.
NASH R.
* * * * *
NEWMAN, GEORGIA.
My uncle sends me YOUNG PEOPLE from Macon, and I like it so much! I
am eight years old, but I have never been to school. My little
cousin and I recite our lessons at home. I have a little pony named
Dolly.
FREDDIE B.
* * * * *
HERMAN, MINNESOTA.
I have received so many letters from parties wishing to exchange
for my petrified buffalo's tooth that I hardly know what to do. I
only had two specimens. But I have sent a number that were not
petrified. I hope the correspondents will see this letter, and know
why they did not receive just what they expected. I can not answer
all the letters I have received now, but will do so as soon as
possible.
THEODORE H. PATCHEN.
* * * * *
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.
For my winter sport I go to my uncle's sugar plantation, and see
them make sugar. I have a pony and a colt up there, and have lots
of fun.
MONROE V.
* * * * *
I would like to exchange a few Hot Springs diamonds, and also some
seeds of the cotton-plant, for ocean curiosities, shells, or Indian
relics. My pa procured these diamonds at the Hot Springs of
Arkansas last summer.
Pa has a jug which was taken from a mound thirty feet high. There
were trees growing on the mound three feet in diameter. I asked pa
how old the jug was, and he said the Mound-Builders put it there
four thousand years ago, more or less.
ANNIE SIDNEY DUFFIE,
Princeton, Arkansas.
* * * * *
My grandpa sends us HARPER'S WEEKLY and YOUNG PEOPLE, and papa
says, "It is the best reading we could have for our little ones."
We children hope never to miss a number of our dear YOUNG PEOPLE.
We keep them all nice, and some time we will have them bound.
If all the little folks who read this paper could come out here,
we could get them plenty of curiosities. The winters here are very
quiet, but in the summer the town is full of strangers.
I have some pressed ferns and leaves I will send to any little
folks who would like them.
AGNES, P. O. Box 19,
Forest Lake, Washington County, Minnesota.
* * * * *
The following exchanges are also offered by correspondents:
United States internal revenue stamps for United States and foreign
postage stamps.
CHARLES E. BARBOUR,
150 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
* * * * *
Flower seeds.
GERTY M. LOTHROP,
Topsfield, Washington County, Maine.
* * * * *
Sea-shells and minerals.