[Illustration]
There is a novelty and ingenuity about this puzzle that can not fail to
delight our puzzle-loving readers. Here, under a fanciful disguise, are
four lines of poetry. Our artist has taken each word of a simple stanza,
and worked the letters into a graceful monogram. Among the monograms may
be found four well-known names. Take the four diagonals, beginning with
the one in the left-hand corner. The first two and the last give the
names of three popular authors, and the third that of a famous play.
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
There is not a bit of use in being discouraged about it, children; but
we are not ashamed to tell you that sometimes we feel just a very little
blue when we have to lay aside so many of your dear letters simply
because we have not room enough to print them. And then we think of the
sweet faces that will be clouded with disappointment, and the provoked
faces that will frown, when the Post-office Box comes week after week
without the letters John and Jenny are watching for so patiently. But,
as we said, it isn't worth while to fret and cry, and so we, for
ourselves, make up our minds to enjoy hearing about the goats that draw
the little wagons, and the kittens that have such fearful fits, and the
birds which are so cunning, and the babies who are so cute. We like to
be told, even though we can not print the letters which so inform us,
that Molly's little sister Bess is learning to walk, and that Arthur's
brother Freddie claps his hands when he looks at the pictures in
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. And if you'll keep the secret, and never whisper
it to anybody, we'll tell you that we love just as dearly, and perhaps a
wee, tiny morsel more dearly, the boys and girls whose words we do not
print, than those whose letters are published in Our Post-office Box.
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