Harper's Young People, July 27, 1880 Part 7

WELLSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA.

I was up in the woods a few days ago, and I saw a woodchuck go in a hole. Having heard that they had a great deal of curiosity, I hid behind a heap of dirt real close to the hole, and in a minute out the woodchuck came to get a better look at me. Just then d.i.c.k, a little dog, came scampering up, ran by the hole, turned round, and crept softly back and stopped, watching, with eyes and ears on the alert. But I made a noise, so the woodchuck did not come out again.

Once d.i.c.k was watching on the top of a steep bank, and a great big woodchuck stuck its head out of a hole. d.i.c.k grabbed it, and together they rolled to the bottom of the bank, where, if somebody had not killed the woodchuck, d.i.c.k would have had the worst of the fight, as he was the smallest.

Are ground-squirrels, chipmunks, and gophers the same kind of animals?

I have a barrel sunk in the ground, with cold water running in and out, and about two hundred minnows in it. Please tell me something good to feed them on.

SAMUEL J.

The ground-squirrel and chipmunk are the same animal, but the gopher, or Canada pouched rat, belongs to a different family.--Feed your minnows by throwing bread-crumbs, and flies, and other small insects on the surface of the water.

CHIMAc.u.m VALLEY, WAs.h.i.+NGTON TERRITORY.

I live on a farm. I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and I think it is a very nice little paper.

I have had the rheumatism since Christmas so bad that I could not walk nor turn myself in bed. Do you know what will get me well? I am thirteen years old.

A lady gave me eight ducks' eggs. I set them under a hen, and now I have five little ducks. The old hen looks so frightened when her little ones go swimming in a pan of water! I suppose she thinks they are strange chickens. I have a dog named Prince. He knows so much he comes very near talking. Whenever I go away and come back, he will pick up a stick in his mouth and run toward me. I have a hen with nine little chicks. Whenever they get hungry, the mamma hen will come to the door of the house and cluck. My father milks twenty-eight cows. They give a bucket of milk apiece.

ARTHUR S. R.

YOSEMITE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA.

I live in Philadelphia, but it is so hot there in the summer that we decided to spend a few weeks in this beautiful Californian valley, camping out.

We travelled from Merced to this place in our own wagons, pitching our tents every night. I like camp life very much, sleeping in tents and eating in the open air. Sometimes we build a camp fire in the evening, and all sit around it, telling stories and singing. It is very warm in the daytime here, and cold at night; and there is such a strong wind almost all the time that if you go too near the water-falls the spray is blown over you like rain. We make excursions every day to mountains and water-falls near by.

On the way here we saw a tree so large that it took fourteen of us to get our arms round it.

If any of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE ever get a chance to go camping, I advise them to do it, for I think it is a great deal of fun.

I like to read YOUNG PEOPLE very much, and I am so glad I take it.

I am twelve years old.

ALICE W. S.

GLENORA, MISSISSIPPI.

My grandma gives YOUNG PEOPLE to my brother and myself, and we like it very much. I have no pets to write about, for my little pet deer, named Nettie, died. We live in the country, on the banks of a beautiful lake, and have a nice time fis.h.i.+ng and taking skiff rides. I wish you could see the lovely magnolia-trees in my grandma's yard; and she has so many pretty roses too.

LOUISE B.

BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

My papa is in Europe this summer, and he writes me very funny letters. His last one was from Paris, and he told me what people did when they wanted to take a bath in their room at the hotel.

You touch an electric bell, and the man in the office telegraphs to a station, and a cart carrying a round boiler with hot and cold water, and drawn by a horse, comes das.h.i.+ng up to the hotel just like a fire engine; a man rushes up to your room with a tub and towels, and before you know it you are taking a nice warm bath.

Papa said one day, just for fun, he rang for two baths at the same time, and it was very comical to see the two Frenchmen fight to see which bath should be used first. Papa makes little sketches all through his letters, so I know just how things look. I guess we shall all go to Europe another year, and then I will write you a letter from London or Paris.

PAUL S.

DANSVILLE, NEW YORK.

I am four and a half years old, and I can not read or write, but mamma is writing this for me. Papa has taken HARPER'S WEEKLY since 1865, and binds it himself, and now he takes YOUNG PEOPLE for me, and is going to bind that too. I love to look at the pictures and hear mamma read the stories in my paper as soon as it is sewed and cut.

I have many nice toys and playthings, and two pet kittens; their names are d.i.c.k and Spot.

Papa plays on the violin, and mamma plays the organ, and I play on my triangle with them. I have a little violin, too, that grandpa gave me, but I don't play on it much when papa and mamma play. I can sing a great many pieces. I like music.

We live in a pleasant farm-house south of Dansville. I do lots of ch.o.r.es for papa and mamma, and I ride our horse to water nearly every day. We have plenty of nice fruit and flowers.

I think the Post-office Box is nice.

CLYDE H.

HASTINGS, MINNESOTA.

I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and I like it so much. I always read the letters the very first thing when I get my paper. Almost all the boys and girls write about their pets. I have no pets except my dolls. I have eight dolls. The largest is wax, and I call her Bessie.

As I was trying to paint, the other day, I saw a large ant run along. I touched it with my brush, and then it was a green ant instead of a black one.

I tried the recipe for cup-cake that Bessie L. S. sent, and it was just splendid.

I think the story of "The Moral Pirates" is very nice. When I get a whole volume of YOUNG PEOPLE, I am going to have it bound. I am ten years old.

MABEL I.

JENKINTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

Our school closed on the last day of June, and the 1st of July we had a picnic, and we all enjoyed ourselves very much.