Harper's Young People, February 17, 1880 Part 7

WAYNE, ILLINOIS.

I am a boy ten years old, and I have a cat older than myself. Its name is Noah. One day last summer it caught a rat in the yard as big as a half-grown kitten. The rat squealed so loud that a large Newfoundland dog at the store across the street heard it, and came running over to see what was the matter. The dog scared old Noah so much that it let the rat go, and ran under the shed. I think that dog better mind his own affairs hereafter, and let my old Noah catch rats.

ALLE TRULL.

SCOTTSVILLE, NEW YORK.

I am nine years old, and I go to school nearly every day. All the pet I have now is a white kitten. I did have an oriole, which was caught when very young. We put it in a cage and hung it in the cherry-tree, and its mother came and fed it every day until it was time for the birds to go to a warmer climate. It used to be very fond of bread and milk.

MARY L. MACVEAN.

Maggie M. M. has a big Newfoundland dog, just her own age, nine years, which is her faithful friend.

Belle Metzgar, Jessie Edna, C. F. Cooper, Harry B., and Charles Bentley all send pretty accounts of domestic pets, which we would be glad to print if there was s.p.a.ce to spare.

EVA MITCh.e.l.l.--_The Virginians in Texas_ is published in "Harper's Library of American Fiction," and will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States on receipt of seventy-five cents.

L. K.--Chapman's Drawing-Books are the best to use in beginning your studies.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

I once had three pigeons, and when I fed them they would turn round and round. Will you tell me how to feed guinea-pigs?

MARK FRANCIS.

You can feed guinea-pigs on cabbage leaves, bits of bread and cake, and all kinds of fruit. They like carrot tops better than any other food, especially in the spring, when the green is fresh and tender. You must give them plenty of water.

N. L. COLLAMER.--Your monthly magazine is very well edited. It is difficult to determine the correct spelling of Shakspeare's name, as equally reliable authorities disagree.

"LITTLE MARIE."--Your puzzle is very neatly done; but as "every large city" is not so favored as the one where you live, we fear it would not be easy to solve.

ELLA W.--You may send the one entirely original, and if it is pretty and very short, we might use it.

RICHARD S. C.--Your plan for a magnetic motor is very ingenious, and the machine would no doubt make a pretty and curious toy.

WILLIE H. S.--We will endeavor to send you the solution of your puzzle.

Eddie L. A., Minnesota, after expressing great pleasure in YOUNG PEOPLE, writes: "My papa thinks I am a pretty smart boy. I am eleven years old, and I milk the cow, and do most of the work, and go to school besides."

You are a smart boy, Eddie, if you do all that, and do it well. If you persevere in that course, always attending to school duties and home work besides, there is every prospect that you will grow to be a smart man.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

Will you please tell me why the land north of Behring Strait is called Wrangell Land?

MAMIE E. F.

Ferdinand Wrangell, a Russian baron and traveller, who was born near the close of the last century, and died in 1870, commanded a sledge expedition which explored the polar sea north of East Siberia about 1822. In 1867 Captain Long, in traversing that part of the sea navigated by Wrangell, discovered a large tract of land which the Russian explorer had vainly endeavored to reach, and which he named Wrangell Land.

HENRY W. R.--Every harpoon thrown into a whale before he dies is ent.i.tled to a share of the oil.

W. B. AITKIN.--The sun is supposed to be moving slowly through s.p.a.ce, carrying the earth and all the planets along with him. The great astronomer Herschel a.s.signed the constellation Hercules as that toward which we are moving, and the calculations of more recent astronomers have also pointed to that same direction.

ANITA R. N.--The "good news" mentioned in the ballad is not recorded in history, and although many inquiries have been made concerning it, no satisfactory conclusion has yet been arrived at.

G. FUNNELL.--The oldest inhabited building in the territory of the United States is an ancient house built of adobes, or sun-dried brick, in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before the annexation of New Mexico, St. Augustine, Florida, which was settled in 1565, was the oldest town, and contained the most ancient buildings.

Welcome favors are acknowledged from Edward Haines, Lillie Hathaway, Arthur G. Wedge, Alice Y., Marion Frisbie, Fannie G., Maggie W. C., H. J. Perkins, Mattie E. Church, Mabel G. Nash, Ernest F. Hill, George and Belle Hume, J. Edwards H., Louie D. M., Eddy Lock, Belle Mandeville, Lizzie F., Ethel M. R., Frank Griffin.

Correct answers to puzzles received from Kittie A. C., Edith A. M., Lilian Forbes, Lillie McCrea, M. I. Watrous, E. J. Gould, Robie Caldwell, Mary Chapel, George, Mary Bemis, Hattie L. S., Stella M., G. K. Richards, Mamie E. F., Frederick C., Edith E. Jones, Frank Coggswell, Kitty E., Lulu Craft, P. S. S., Alma Hoffmann, G. W. R., Herbert R. H., G. S. S., Theodore E., J. S., A. H. Patterson.

We acknowledge only those answers to puzzles which are mailed previous to date of publication of solution.