running against things. If he starts to run out of the gate he is just
as likely to run head first into the fence, and when he chases a cat
round a corner he will sometimes mistake a stick of wood, or the
lawn-mower for the cat and try to shake it to death. This was the way he
came to get me into trouble with Mr. Martin.
He hadn't been at our house for so long (Mr. Martin, I mean) that we all
thought he never would come again. Father sometimes said that his friend
Martin had been driven out of the house because my conduct was such and
he expected I would separate him from all his friends. Of course I was
sorry that father felt bad about it but if I was his age I would have
friends that were made more substantial than Mr. Martin is.
Night before last I was out in the back yard with Sitting Bull looking
for a stray cat that sometimes comes around the house after dark and
steals the strawberries and takes the apples out of the cellar. At least
I suppose it is this particular cat that steals the apples for the cook
says a cat does it and we haven't any private cat of our own. After a
while I saw the cat coming along by the side of the fence looking wicked
enough to steal anything and to tell stories about it afterward. I was
sitting on the ground holding Sitting Bull's head in my lap and telling
him that I did wish he'd take to rat-hunting like Sam McGinnis's
terrier, but no sooner had I seen the cat and whispered to Sitting Bull
that she was in sight than he jumped up and went for her.
He chased her along the fence into the front yard where she made a dive
under the front piazza. Sitting Bull came round the corner of the house
just flying, and I close after him. It happened that Mr. Martin was at
that identicular moment going up the steps of the piazza and Sitting
Bull mistaking one of his legs for the cat jumped for it and had it in
his teeth before I could say a word.
When that dog once gets hold of a thing there is no use in reasoning
with him, for he won't listen to anything. Mr. Martin howled and said
"Take him off my gracious the dog's mad," and I said "Come here sir.
Good dog. Leave him alone" but Sitting Bull hung on to the leg as if he
was deaf and Mr. Martin hung on to the railing of the piazza and made
twice as much noise as the dog. I didn't know whether I'd better run for
the doctor or the police, but after shaking the leg for about a minute
Sitting Bull gave it an awful pull and pulled it off just at the
knee-joint. When I saw the dog rushing round the yard with the leg in
his mouth I ran into the house and told Sue and begged her to cut a hole
in the wall and hide me behind the plastering where the police couldn't
find me. When she went down to help Mr. Martin she saw him just going
out of the yard on a wheelbarrow with a man wheeling him on a broad
grin.
If he ever comes to this house again I'm going to run away. It turns out
that his leg was made of cork and I suppose the rest of him is either
cork or glass. Some day he'll drop apart on our piazza then the whole
blame will be put on me.
A MISHAP.
BY JOSEPHINE POLLARD.
A dear little fellow named Noah
Had made up his mind that he'd go a--
Sailing alone
In a boat of his own,
For he was a champion rower.
This dear little fellow named Noah
Hadn't gone very far before--oh! ah!--
His boat was upset,
And he got very wet,
Did this little numskull of a Noah.
CORN-STALK CATTLE.
BY FLORENCE E. TYNG.
Last winter my health gave out, and the doctor said I must go South.
What a mourning there was among our little boys at the thought of losing
Aunt Kate and her "beautiful stories"!
Just before the train started, little Jamie begged to be held up to the
car window to give me a good-by kiss. Poor little fellow! his eyes
streamed with tears, and not even the promise of a pound of candy could
console him.
I was not going to Florida, where fashionable invalids spend their
winters, but to the home of an old friend of mine on an Alabama
plantation. How glad I was to find that she too had a little boy! He was
not much like the nephews I had left behind, but I soon found him to be
a good-hearted, brave little lad.
His mamma and I were sitting one rainy morning with our work before a
great wood fire, when Frankie and his bosom companion, Abe, a young
darky, came in with an armful of long dry corn stalks, a handful of
chicken feathers, and two kitchen knives.
"Now, Frankie, you are going to make a mess, so get some papers and put
them down on the floor," said Frankie's mamma. Abe ran to get the
papers, and very soon the two boys were down on their knees, peeling the
stalks.
I noticed that the stalks were old and brittle, and that the boys
preserved the hull. After watching them for some minutes, I began to
make inquiries as to what the stalks were for.
"Dese is fur cattle," said Abe, grinning.
I then asked how they made cattle. Frankie did not seem communicative,
so Abe again answered my question.
"Wa'al, we jest cuts 'em. If yer waits a minute I'll show yer."
He cut off a piece of the peeled stalk about four inches long, then
split the hull into four pieces about a quarter of an inch wide and two
inches long. He stuck two of these pieces near one end of the stalk for
hind-legs, and the two others at a quarter of an inch from the other end
for front ones. He then cut a piece of the stalk about an inch long for
the head, a niche for the mouth, two pins for eyes, and narrow bits of
hull for horns; another little strip of hull was stuck first into the
head and then into the body to form the neck, a chicken feather put in
for the tail, and the job was finished.
"Now, den," said Abe, triumphantly, holding it up, "don't yer see dat's
a cow?"
I smiled, but Abe was too good-natured to notice it. This animal I
found, with slight variations, was made to represent horses, cows,
mules, sheep, dogs, and pigs, and even chickens, which, of course, were
much smaller, and had only two legs. In the course of the morning
Frankie and Abe manufactured a sow with seven little pigs, two cows, a
mule, and a horse.
It had stopped raining, so the boys asked if I would not like to go out
and see their farms. Under a shed in the yard were these two farms,
arranged as nearly as possible like Frankie's father's. Barns, stables,
wagon-houses, and pig-pens were made of bricks on a very small scale,
and inhabited by corn-stalk cattle.
A wagon made of a chip tied to two spools was hitched up with two
corn-stalk oxen, their feather tails standing up in the air.
I thought my little friends would like this new breed of cattle. They
struck me as being much easier to manage than those of Noah's ark, for
there is hardly a boy who has not had all manner of trouble in making
Father Noah's cows and horses stand up. Gather together some corn stalks
this autumn, let them dry, and stock a farm for yourself.
[Illustration: A MODERN ORPHEUS.]
SEA-BREEZES.
LETTER NO. 5 FROM BESSIE MAYNARD TO HER DOLL.
CAMBRIDGE, _September, 1880_.
MY DEAREST CLYTIE,--When I sent my last letter from Bar Harbor I thought
it would be the _very_ last I should write you for a long time, but I
shall not see you for two whole weeks more, and I can not wait till then
to tell you all the fine things I am precipitating for next winter.
We left Mount Desert last Monday, and have been with grandma and Auntie
Belle here in Cambridge ever since, except when we go flying back and
forth from Boston. We are very busy, Clytie, and have heaps of shopping
to do; for what do you think?--we are all going to Europe, and are to
sail one month from to-day. I am awfully glad, of course, but I don't
know how I can live all winter long without you. Don't tell the rest of
the dolls, Clytie, but I do a little bit believe that you are going too!
Now that is a very great secret, so you will keep it close down in your
own little heart, and not let the others even respect a thing about it,
because it might make them feel bad that I chose you and left them
behind; and one thing I never would do, and that is to let my children
think I had a _favorite_ among them. You know I love every one of them
dearly, but of course I can not take them all to Europe, and as you are
the largest, it is more your _place_ to go.
Now for another piece of news: Cousin Frank and Miss Carleton are
engaged! Yes, Clytie, they really are, and they are going to be married
this very month, and go to Europe when we do. If this isn't news enough,
here is some more: Randolph Peyton has gone home with his mamma, and
they are all coming to our house in New York the week before we sail,
and go with our party! Won't it be lovely? There will be Mr. and Mrs.
Peyton, Randolph and his sister Helen, and Miss Rogers, their governess.
I have never seen Helen, but Randolph says she is "awfully jolly,
considering she is only a girl," so I guess I shall like her. Then there
will be papa and mamma and me (and you, if we take you), Cousin Frank
and Miss Carleton, only she won't be Miss Carleton then--she will be
_Mrs. Howard_, and I am to call her Cousin Carrie: indeed, I call her so
now, for Cousin Frank asked me to, and I would do anything to please
him. I have forgiven him for sending me away one night when they were
talking about little pitchers. When I asked him about it afterward, and
if it was really deckerativeart they meant, he tried to exclaim to me,
but he laughed so hard all the time, I couldn't make out anything at all
except that _I_ was the very funniest little pitcher in the whole world!
Did you ever know such a comical thing as to call _me_, a girl ten years
old, a _pitcher_? I'm sure he didn't know what he was talking about.
Mamma says I may give them anything I choose for a wedding present, and
I have presided on a silver pitcher. I am going to send it with a card
tied on the handle marked, "_This is me_," and I guess they will wonder
what it means. Don't you?
I have told Cousin Carrie so much about you that she seems to love you
already, even though she has never seen you, and she says she shall
invite you to her wedding. Won't that be fun? She is going to send you
her cards, and you will go with me. I shall get home in time to have
your dress made. Mine is to be a bomination dress of white cashmere and
silk, and I think yours will be of the same kind in rose-color.
I will tell you one more adventure that befell us at Bar Harbor, and
then I shall not write any more letters unless you are left at home when
I go to Europe. Of course, if you are, I shall write as often as I
possibly can, and I shall have so many new and strange appearances in
crossing the ocean and in visiting forran lands that the reading of them
will make up in some agree for being left at home.
Randolph and I went down to the beach, the evening before we came away,
to launch his ship--a beautiful one, with sails all set, "full-rigged,"
as the sailors say, that his uncle in Philadelphia had sent him that
very day.
The Stars and Stripes waved from the prow or stern--I never know which
is which--and on the top of one of the masts he fastened a "pennon," as
he called it, with the name of the ship in big blue letters. (He printed
it himself with his blue pencil, and it looked real cunning blowing
round in the wind, and flapping up and down.) What do you suppose the
name was? _Bessie_, to be sure. He says he thinks it is an "awfully
jolly" name for a ship, or for a girl either.
Well, the wind blew just the right way for a splendid launch. I held the
cord, letting it out as fast as he told me to, and he gave it a push,
and off it sailed, straight and lovely as a duck. I was so delighted I
couldn't possibly help clapping my hands, and, oh, Clytie! I dropped the
cord, and away it went, up and down over the waves as if it was alive.
Randolph muttered something that sounded like, "Bother! that's just like
a girl!" and scowled awfully at me, and then ran out into the water
after it. I screamed as loud as I could, for I was afraid he would
drown; and then I remembered how he had saved my life, and I said to
myself, He is my friend now, and I will save him, for he saved _me_ when
we were emernies. So, as the story-books say, I "dashed into the foaming
billows" after him, and just as I caught him by his jacket I thought I
heard him say again, "Bother!" and then came a great rushing noise in my
ears, my mouth was full of water, and the next thing I knew I was lying
in mamma's bed, and she and two or three other people were rubbing me! I
was almost drowned, Clytie; and so it was Randolph who saved _my_ life a
second time, and I never saved _his_ at all.
When I pulled him by his jacket, a wave broke over us; but he was
stronger and bigger than I, and a _boy_ besides (and truly, Clytie, boys
_do_ know more than girls about _some_ things), and so he caught me, and
sort of pulled and rolled and pushed me out of the water; and just then
Cousin Frank and Miss Carleton came round the point in their boat, and
Cousin Frank took me in his arms, and ran up to the hotel as fast as he
could go.
Poor mamma was most subtracted when she saw me, and Randolph was so
scared he forgot all about his lovely new ship, that long before that
time had gone sailing out to sea all by itself.
Wasn't it awful, Clytie? If I had minded what Solomon says, "Look before
you leap," I should have seen that Randolph had his hand on the ship at
the very moment I seized him, and he could have got back safe to the
shore without any of my help.
Good-by for a little while. I shall see you and the rest of the dolls
week after next.
Your loving mamma,
BESSIE MAYNARD.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
CHAM, SWITZERLAND.
I am a little boy only six years old, and can not write very well,
but I want to say how much I like YOUNG PEOPLE. My mamma and papa
have taken HARPER'S WEEKLY and HARPER'S MONTHLY more years than I
can remember.
I like so much to hear all about the pets of the other children. I
have not any, but I have a dear little sister called Myra, and she
is my pet.
I liked the story "Across the Ocean" very much, but I think "The
Moral Pirates" was the best.
My governess is writing this, but soon I hope to be able to write
myself, as I have nearly finished my second copy-book. One year
ago I could not speak any English, but now I can read short
stories, and I am always so happy when YOUNG PEOPLE comes.
C. D. P.
* * * * *
LYNCHBURG, TEXAS.
I am twelve years old. I have a little colt, but it is not gentle,
it is very wild. I also have a roan horse, named Sabine. Whenever
horses are gathered I help to herd them. I like to do it very
much. We generally have about three hundred head to herd. I have
no pets now, for my little dog died.
I visited Captain H----'s plantation last winter, and I had a very
nice time. I saw the men gin cotton, and I drove the horses round
in the gin.
CHARLES A. T.
* * * * *
BUFFALO, WYOMING TERRITORY.
I have wanted to write to the Post-office Box for a long time for
I like YOUNG PEOPLE so much, but I thought as there were so many
children writing perhaps my letter would not be printed.
I live in a very lonely country. There are no little girls here at
all, but I have a good many pets. I have two colts, named Nellie
and Dollie, and a puppy named Carlo. Then I have a cat and four
little kittens, and six pigeons, and lots of little chickens. I am
going to get a pair of canaries very soon.
LUELLA A. M.
* * * * *
WHEATLAND, NEW YORK.
I am eleven years old. I live in the Genesee Valley, which I have
heard is the nicest valley in the world. We have not many pets,
because there are seven of us children, and mamma thinks those are
pets enough for one house.
We have a black dog named Shot, but he is real old. We raised him
from a puppy. Once he was in a soap box, with three other puppies,
and mamma heard an awful squealing. There was a knot-hole in the
box, and the puppy's tail stuck out. My little brother Jim crept
up and grabbed hold of it, and was trying to pull the poor puppy
through the knot-hole.
We had a yellow cat named Moses. He would let us dress him and put
him to bed like a baby, and when my little sister sat down on the
floor, he would come and put his paws around her neck. He died
last spring, and we had a funeral. My brother Manta made a
head-stone for him, and painted it white, and put poor Moses's
name and age on it.
LAURA M.
* * * * *
WINONA, MINNESOTA.
I have just returned home from Maiden Rock, a little town in
Wisconsin. It is a funny name for a town, and I will tell you why
it is called so. There was once an Indian maiden who wanted to
marry a young brave, but the other Indians were not willing. One
day she went to the top of a high rock, as high as the bluffs on
the shore of Lake Pepin. The Indians called to her to come down,
and they would give her permission to marry her lover; but she
knew very well that if she went down they would kill her, so she
jumped from the rock and killed herself. I am eleven years old.
BELLA M.
* * * * *
SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA.
I got HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE for a birthday present, and I like to
read the Post-office Box.
In August I went on a mountain trip. We slept in tents. The roads
over the mountains are very rough, but we thought it splendid fun
to ride in the baggage-wagon.
I have a small museum. Last year when my father came home from
Europe he brought me some stones from Rome and from the Alps, and
also some pressed flowers.
H. E. R.
* * * * *
CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.
I am nine years old. I have a twin sister Ina, and a little
brother Herbert, who is very cunning and full of mischief. We have
only two pets besides Herbert--a dog named Dick and a cat named
Jack. We have lots of fun. We have a croquet set in the yard, and
sometimes we have a tent too. Every time Dick comes into the house
Herbert calls out, "Dit, here, Dit."
Papa owns a share in a cabin, and every summer we all go up to the
lake, and stay about two weeks. Herbert likes to play in the
water, and throw stones in it. One day he crawled right in, and
got all wet. He does not like to ride in the boat, because he has
to sit still. He wants to be in mischief all the time, and he is a
little wide-awake, and will not go to sleep when he can help it.
He is nineteen months old.
ADA E.
* * * * *
LOCKPORT, ILLINOIS.
I want to tell you about some fun I had the other day. We have a
barrel sunk in the yard with water-lilies in it. There was a
lizard in it too. I made a noose and caught it, and put it into
mamma's big dish pan, which I filled with water. Then I caught two
little toads; one was a little brown fellow about an inch long,
and the other a little larger. I put a little piece of board in
the water, and fastened it to the end of the string that was round
the lizard's neck. Then I put the little toads on the board, and
the lizard drew them all around.
EMMA H.
* * * * *
SCOTTSVILLE, NEW YORK.
I am five and a half years old. I can not read, but I can write
letters, although mamma says nobody can read them, so she is
writing this for me. Mamma and sister read me the stories in YOUNG
PEOPLE. I liked "The Moral Pirates" best of all, but I was afraid
Jim would get shot when he took the borrowed boat back.
I have a cat that eats milk and everything with its paw. And I
have three rabbits.
Yesterday I took mamma and papa over to the depot, a mile away,
and drove home all alone.
I go fishing with papa, and have caught a good many fish.
MILTON B.
* * * * *
XENIA, OHIO.
I wish to ask a favor of some of the Southern correspondents of
the Post-office Box. My sister planted a cotton seed, and the
plant that came up bears white blossoms which afterward turn red
and drop off. Now I would like very much to know whether it is
cotton or not. I would also be glad for all information about the
cotton-plant that any correspondent will give.
ROSCOE E. E.
* * * * *
I am a little boy seven years old. I live at Ingleton, Alabama,
two miles from Dickson. My papa owns a large stone quarry. I have
two little brothers and one little sister, and we take YOUNG
PEOPLE. I like Bessie Maynard's letters to her dollie the best of
all.
GEORGIE F.
* * * * *
BUFFALO PAPER MILL, NORTH CAROLINA.
Papa takes HARPER'S MAGAZINE and WEEKLY, the BAZAR for mamma, and
YOUNG PEOPLE for my brothers and sister and myself. I like to read
the stories, and the letters in the Post-office Box.
We live right in the woods. Buffalo Creek runs around our house,
almost forming an island. I do not go to school. Mamma teaches us
at home. We say our lessons every evening.
I have a pet hen. She is black, and so tame that she comes in the
house every evening for me to put her to roost. Then we have lots
of pigs, goats, calves, chickens, and pigeons, and each of my five
brothers has a colt.
MARY T.
* * * * *
WARSAW, INDIANA.
I have no father nor mother. I live with my uncle and aunt, who
are very good to me. In vacation I work in uncle's
printing-office, and when there is school I go.
My uncle takes HARPER'S WEEKLY, and my aunt takes the BAZAR, and I
take YOUNG PEOPLE. I think it is one of the best papers published.
I have a pet chicken named Mary. She will walk a rope, and swing
in a little swing I made for her.
ALFRED J. H.
* * * * *
PAXTON, ILLINOIS.
I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and I like to read the letters from the
little folks. I am ten years old, and am in the fourth room and
"A" class at school.
I had a velocipede, but it is broken. I have a horse and a saddle
and bridle, and I ride a good deal.
My little sister is three years old, and I am making a play-house
for her. She bit my ear so hard I had to cry. Mamma asked her what
made her bite brother's ear. She said, "Brother hurt his ear on my
teeth."
RITCHEY M. K.
* * * * *
ARROW ROCK, MISSOURI.
In the hot weather we keep our doors open at night, and one night
a little opossum got in, and in the morning we found it curled up
in papa's hat. I kept it for a few days, but once when I went away
it ran off. I am seven years old.
RIDLEY MCL.
* * * * *
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
YOUNG PEOPLE comes every week, and I assure you it receives a warm
welcome.
We have two little pets. Their names are Roly and Poly. Roly is a
little Skye terrier, and Poly is a kitten, which travelled here
from "down East." They eat, drink, sleep, and, I am sorry to say,
cry together, for they are both very sensitive. They object
strongly to being shut up at night, and protest against it loudly.
I am thirteen years old, and I wear spectacles.
J. O.
* * * * *
WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
I have taken YOUNG PEOPLE ever since the first number, and I find
it very interesting. I was born in this Territory, but I have been
to San Francisco and down the Pacific coast as far as Santa
Barbara, where I remained six months with my mother and brother
and sister. Sometimes in warm weather we take a trip to the Blue
Mountains, and we have picnics and fishing parties. I am eleven
years old.
FANNIE MINNIE B.
* * * * *
ADAMS, WISCONSIN.
I am ten years old. I live in the country, near a beautiful lake
called Lake Pleasant. I often have a boat-ride on it. The hills
are quite high around the lake.
I live with my grandpa and grandma, and I go to school in an old
yellow school-house that has stood for thirty years. We are going
to have a nice new brick school-house soon, but I do not like to
have the dear old house torn down, as it is the same one my mamma
went to school in.
We have two hundred sheep. I have a pet lamb that will leave the
flock when I call it. Its name is Dickie.
NORA P.
* * * * *
RANDALL, NEW YORK.
I am eleven years old. I have not any pets now, but I had two. One
was a little dog named Fanny. It would draw a little sleigh with a
milk-pail on it, and pull me on the ice when I had my skates on.
The other was a little kitten that would jump and take a piece of
meat out of my hand when I held it over my head.
GEORGE W. L.
* * * * *
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.
I am eleven years old. I like YOUNG PEOPLE very much. I often go
out to the Spanish fort. There is a band of music there every
evening, and every Saturday it is there all day. There are two
cannon which have been in the fort ever since 1718. I have two pet
kittens that follow me everywhere.
CHARLIE N. W.
* * * * *
I have a collection of stamps, and would gladly exchange with some
of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.
EDDIE DE LIMA, care of D. A. de Lima & Co.,
68 William St., New York City.
* * * * *
I would like to exchange postmarks of the United States or Canada
with any readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.
A. W. RUSSELL, P. O. Box 109,
Brookfield, Madison County, New York.
* * * * *
I would be glad to exchange postage stamps with any readers of
YOUNG PEOPLE.
HARRY GUSTIN, Bay City, Michigan.
* * * * *
I have a few foreign coins which I should like to exchange for
rare postage stamps. They are small French coins, Swiss, English,
Prussian, German, and Italian, copper and nickel. Some of them I
do not know. They look like silver, but I think they are only
German silver.
EUGENE E. PETTEE,
11 Prospect Street, Fall River, Massachusetts.
* * * * *
I have a collection of shells, minerals, postmarks, coins, and
woods. I have also a collection of about eleven hundred and
twenty-five stamps, all different kinds, and I would like to
exchange stamps with any of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.
I am twelve years old. I have a canary, and my brother and I had
a pair of squirrels, but one died.