Harper's Young People, October 26, 1880 Part 7

DORSET, CANADA.

I am fourteen years old, and I live in the northern part of Canada. My sister takes YOUNG PEOPLE. I liked the story of "The Moral Pirates" very much. Our nearest neighbor is about six miles away. There are lots of lakes here in which are a great many speckled and salmon trout, and there are troops of red deer in the woods. I have killed thirteen myself. We have two hounds which run the deer in the lakes, and we have birch-bark canoes in which we row. There is a sporting club comes here every year from New York and Toronto.

ERASTUS W. L.

I am seven years old. I live North, among the rocks and mountains and lakes of Canada. I never went to school, except once for five weeks, but I can read in the Fourth Reader. I have a pet cat and a chicken, and papa says he will catch me a fawn. I love YOUNG PEOPLE very much.

NETTIE L.

My sister Nettie and I can crochet, and we would be very much obliged if Gracie Meads would send us the pattern she wrote about in her letter. We would send her some flower seeds in return.

ADDIE LOCKMAN, Dorset P. O., Haliburton, Ontario, Canada.

MARENGO, IOWA.

I like YOUNG PEOPLE very much, but I like best of all the Post-office Box, and all the pretty things. I am going to make a Manes life-boat, and a cucuius.

My sister has two white mice and a brown one, and I have a canary-bird. One of our white mice was sick, but is getting better.

Can any one tell me a good way to make a sc.r.a.p-book?

I am beginning a collection of stamps. I have only eight different kinds, but will soon have more. I am also collecting birds' eggs and nests. I would like to know what bird lays a white egg speckled with brown.

JESSIE LEE R.

There are several varieties of birds that lay white eggs speckled with brown. The king-bird's egg has brown blotches on one end, and is speckled all over; the wood-peewit lays a small white egg speckled with brown, the spots forming a ring around one end; the egg of the meadow-lark is long and white, with brown spots on the large end; swallows' eggs are white, covered with brown spots; and other common varieties of birds lay eggs of a similar appearance.

CLAREMONT, MINNESOTA.

I have taken YOUNG PEOPLE ever since it was published, and I like it very much. I enjoy reading the letters from all the children in the Post-office Box. I am thirteen years old.

There is nothing much to do here except go to school and play. My father keeps a store, and during the summer I worked for him.

School began on the 4th of October. I have ten chickens, and am building a coop for them; and I have a very large cat named Buff.

I am saving money now to buy a cornet.

Will you tell me whether the stamps the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE are collecting are used or new? I have quite a number of used ones.

GEORGE H. H.

The stamps in the alb.u.ms of young collectors, if they are genuine issues, have, with but few exceptions, done service on some letter or package before they find their way to the collector's hands. Unless they are too much defaced by postal marks they form as valuable specimens as if they were new, and are perhaps more interesting. To obtain full collections of new foreign stamps would be difficult and very expensive.

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA.

I like HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE very much. I have a paint-box, and I am going to color all the pretty pictures. I have a pony named Tiny, two cats, and a canary which sings delightfully. I am eight years old.

EMILY T. H.

BOSTON, Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

Little "Wee Tot" wishes to say that she is getting a great many requests for ocean curiosities. She can not possibly answer all the letters, but whoever will send her a box of pretty curiosities in minerals, insects, birds' eggs, skulls and skeletons of reptiles, rare postage stamps, coins, relics, Revolutionary mementos, ancient newspapers, or anything else that is of value, shall receive an equivalent in things from the ocean.

Last week "Wee Tot" received through the Post-office a beautiful Indian bow and three arrows from the Indian country, and yesterday she received fifty-six baby water-snakes and some beautiful b.u.t.terflies.

With much love to you, dear YOUNG PEOPLE,

"WEE TOT" BRAINARD, 257 Was.h.i.+ngton Street, Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts.

LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

I can give some good directions to Daisy F. for pressing sea-weeds. The implements used are a dish of water, a camel's-hair brush, sheets of paper, blotting-paper, and linen or cotton rags.

After cleaning all the sand and dirt from the weeds, put one in a dish of water, and slip a sheet of paper under it. Then lift it carefully nearly out of the water, and arrange all the little branches naturally with the brush. Now lay the paper which contains the weed on a piece of blotting-paper: over it put a rag, so that the weed is entirely covered by it, and over that another piece of blotting-paper, and on this in turn lay another sheet of paper upon which a weed has been floated. Proceed in this manner until you have a pile ready. Place it between two boards, and leave it under heavy pressure for three or four days, until it is dry. Then remove the blotting-papers and rags very gently, taking care not to pull the sea-weeds from the paper on which they are pressed.

WILLIAM A. L.

When floating certain kinds of sea-weeds on to the paper it will be found necessary to cut away, with a sharp, fine-pointed scissors, many superfluous stems and branches, as otherwise the sea-weed when pressed will present a matted appearance, and much of the delicacy be lost.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

I have taken YOUNG PEOPLE from the first number, and have learned a great deal from it.

I have a collection of three thousand five hundred and thirty-one stamps, no two alike, six hundred and six of which are American varieties. I would like to know if any reader has one as large.

The young chemists' club have elected me President, and I am desired to thank the readers of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE for the experiments they have sent, and to request them to favor the club with more.

CHARLES H. W.

DUBUQUE, IOWA.

I like YOUNG PEOPLE so much! and I always read all the letters in the Post-office Box.