DOLLY.--The Postmistress advises you not to mind a few freckles or a
little deeper brown on your skin, but to go out every day and walk in
the sunshine and fresh air. Begin by taking short walks, and going home
before you are very tired. Try to keep the mouth closed, and breathe
through the nose. You may walk a little farther each day than you did
the day before, as you grow stronger. The bright eyes and rosy cheeks of
health will soon make up for the pallor you lose, and the freckles, if
they come, will be little beauty-spots. Do not wear a veil unless it is
very windy indeed, but tie on a large shade hat. Try a little gardening.
With a sun-bonnet and a pair of long loose gloves you can protect your
complexion thoroughly, if mamma desires you to do so, and you will have
hours of real delight among your lilies and roses.
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THEODORE.--Whether the reform in spelling, of which some writers and
scholars are in favor, will be adopted by people generally I can not
tell. Of course it would be a good thing if our English spelling could
be more uniform, but at present the best way for your friend and
yourself, and for a Postmistress too, is to spell according to the
standard dictionaries. The English language is derived from many
sources, and there is danger that in spelling words by their sound we
may lose some of their sense, as we find it, by tracing the word back to
its root. It is quite interesting to notice what great changes have
taken place in our spelling and grammar by comparing our style of the
present with that of some of the earlier authors, as Chaucer, for
instance, or Spenser. If you will take your New Testament, and turn to
the parable in Matthew, vii. 27, where allusion is made to the two men
who built their houses, the one on the sand and the other on the rock,
we read: "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of
it." In the version of Wycliffe, in 1380, the same text is given as
follows: "And rayn came doun, and floode's camen, and wynde's blewen,
and thei hurliden in to that house, and it felle doun, and the fallying
doun thereof was grete."
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Members of the C. Y. P. R. U. will find in this number a variety of
articles from which to choose. The boys will be interested on "Chats
about Philately," describing the postage stamps and cards of the far-off
colony of Surinam, while the girls will welcome "The Orchestra of
Yesterday and To-day," another of Mrs. John Lillie's entertaining
articles on music. Mr. William L. Alden tells us, in his humorous
fashion, "How Jumbo Crossed the Ocean." Mr. A. W. Roberts has something
interesting to tell us about the curious plant which our Irish friends
find so palatable, and to which they apply the curious name of
"Dellusk." It is top-time too, and we have an article by "An Old Boy"
which ought to make us all successful as top-spinners.
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