Harper's Young People, October 19, 1880 Part 8

BERTIE HARRISON, Berlin Heights, Erie County, Ohio.

I am just beginning a collection of curiosities, and would like to exchange with some of the correspondents.

I have one brother. We live near a pond. Our pet kitten is very fond of fish; and I go out in a row-boat and catch minnows for it.

I tie mussels on a string, and the minnows bite the bait and hold fast. I caught two large minnows with a string alone.

JESSIE A. BROWN, South Norwalk, Connecticut.

I should like to exchange birds' eggs with any correspondent of YOUNG PEOPLE. I have eggs of the following birds: hedge, song, house, and chipping sparrow, bluebird, swallow, brown and red thrush, peewit, woodp.e.c.k.e.r, meadow-lark, cat-bird, pigeon, turtle-dove, ring-dove, and cardinal-grosbeak.

R. D. BRITTON, Wyoming, Ohio.

I would like to exchange postage stamps, minerals, sh.e.l.ls, and Indian arrow-heads for stamps, pressed sea-weeds, or birds' eggs.

The sh.e.l.ls are labelled with their scientific names.

E. G. W., P. O. Box 487, Binghamton, New York.

We would request all correspondents not to send us long lists of stamps, eggs, and other things, as they occupy too much s.p.a.ce in the Post-office Department. It is much better for them to prepare their lists neatly, and have them ready to send to those who write to them for exchange, after their request has been published in YOUNG PEOPLE.

We are compelled to condense the requests for exchange from the following correspondents:

Postage stamps and birds' eggs for postage stamps.

WILLIAM S. ALDRICH, Freeport, c.u.mberland County, Maine.

Postage stamps, postmarks, and Indian relics for postage stamps.

A. S. BARRETT, Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana.

Postage, Treasury, and revenue stamps for others.

HANDY DANIEL, Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York.

Postage stamps and postmarks for postage stamps.

JOHN A. WOLFF, 92 Second Street, Albany, New York.

Foreign and United States postage stamps for others.

W. C. V. CHADWICK, 44 St. George Street, Toronto, Canada.

MABEL.--The recipes you wish are in YOUNG PEOPLE Nos. 24 and 28.--A good method for varnis.h.i.+ng leaves is described by Edith L. in Post-office Box No. 38.

W. DE VEAU.--The different species of the order _Chelonia_, to which turtles and tortoises belong, are distinguished mainly by the limbs. The common fresh-water turtles have distinct toes, which are webbed and provided with long nails. They are easy and powerful swimmers, but are very helpless on land. They feed upon all kinds of aquatic worms and insects. The tortoises, or land turtles, have short clubbed feet adapted for travelling on the ground, and stout, short claws. They feed upon roots, vegetables, fruit, and small bugs and flies. Their upper sh.e.l.l is more rounded than that of the water turtle. They are capable of swimming, but seldom enter the water.

W. S. B.--Alaric the Goth was proclaimed King of the Visigoths about A.D. 400. He was a bold and artful warrior, and under his leaders.h.i.+p the Goths ravaged Greece, and entered Athens. He afterward determined to invade Italy, and after numerous repulses and misfortunes his armies succeeded in entering Rome in 410, eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of the city, which for six hundred years previous to the Gothic conquest had remained unviolated by the presence of any foreign enemy. Alaric, who had already embraced Christianity, showed much moderation in his treatment of the vanquished city, and after a short occupation he retired his troops, and proceeded to ravage Southern Italy. He was about to invade Sicily, and form an expedition to Africa, when his death, after a short illness, put an end to his conquests. His army, anxious to conceal his death, and even his burial-place, from the enemy, employed a band of captives to divert the course of the Busento, a small river which washes the walls of Cozenza, an ancient fortified town, and secretly at night a grave was dug in the river-bed, and the body of the dead chieftain was buried. The waters of the Busento were then turned back, and underneath the peaceful river the grave of the warlike Goth was securely concealed. His death occurred in 410, only a few months after his triumphal entry into Rome.

GERTRUDE C.--Your letter is very gratifying, and we are sorry we can not accede to your request, but the article in question would occupy too large a s.p.a.ce in YOUNG PEOPLE.

Favors are acknowledged from Hamilton W., Willie C. Bartlett, Isabelle Van Brunt, M. L. Hannam, Macy Walcutt, C. F. Moses.

Correct answers to puzzles are received from Ida Belle Diserens, A. H.

Ellard, Mary R. De La Mater, Harvey B. Ridgway, Miss N. J. Tiddy, Nella Coover, N. b.u.mpus, Clarence J. Was.h.i.+ngton, W. S. Ferguson, May Wells, H. A. Bent.

PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

ACROSTIC.

Place the names of five trees in such order that their initials read downward spell the name of another tree.

BOLUS.

No. 2.

UNITED DIAMONDS.