I am eleven years old, and have taken HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE for
three years, but have never attempted to write to you before. I
have only been going to school a year, for we have always lived so
far out in the country that mamma has been afraid to send me so far
from home. It is vacation now, but mine is almost spoiled by my
having the whooping-cough, which I do not particularly enjoy. My
sister Jessie and I often take turns riding horseback down to the
depot to meet our papa, who comes home every evening on the
seven-o'clock train. We spent last winter in the city of St. Louis.
Jessie and I have each a flower bed of our own. Jessie's is in the
shape of a letter J for her name, and has a great many pretty
flowers in it, such as pansies, verbenas, phlox, heliotrope, and
other plants. Mine is round, and has a great many geraniums, and in
the centre is a plant called the hibiscus, which has a very pretty
large red flower on it. We have a great deal of fruit now. The
peach, pear, apple, and plum trees are so full that we have to prop
them up with poles.