THE SOLEMN OLD LADY.

BY W. L. PETERS.

There was once a wee boy With an excellent face. Who was seen every Sunday At church in his place; And there this wee boy was accustomed to stare At a solemn old lady with lavender hair, Who used to sit opposite to him. But when the long service Was over at last, He would wait at the Vestibule door till she passed; And then she would stop on her way from the pew, And propound a conundrum, which he never knew, For she asked him the "drift of the sermon." By-and-by, when the little boy's Manhood came round, The whole world an unanswered Conundrum he found. And he can no more answer it now, I declare, Than he could the old lady with lavender hair, Who used to sit opposite to him.

THE WEE BOY IN CHURCH.—Drawn by C. A. Northam.

Smith's Hill, California.

I live on the east branch of Feather River, in California. I go to school in a school-house made of logs. The scholars are all Germans and Indians. Swallows generally come here in February, but this year we did not see any till the 9th of March. I saw a picture of the snow-flower in Young People No. 7. It grows on the hills near my home, and blooms in June. Lupin and larkspur and many other flowers also grow here. I am seven years old.

Lou R. K.

Downieville, California.

I am twelve years old, and I live in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about four thousand feet above the sea-level, with my aunt and uncle. The snow is two feet and a half deep (April 11), and I can not look for willow "pussies" myself, but this afternoon my uncle was out over the snow, and he found some, which I send you. These are the first I have ever seen. A few days ago there was a flock of robins in our back yard, and they went skipping and hopping about quite happy. I have a pigeon, and his name is Bob. When I hold out my hand to him with wheat in it, he will come and eat, and when he has eaten all the wheat, he will turn around and fight me. Can you tell me why the 1st of April is called All-fools' Day?

Mary A. R.

The origin of April-fools' Day is unknown. If you have Young People No. 18, read the answer to Zella T., in the Post-office Box.

Colfax, California.

My uncle subscribed to Young People for a New-Year's present to me, and I do not believe he could have found a paper I would have liked better if he had hunted all over the United States. But I can not enjoy it alone, so when I get all through reading it, I send it to a little friend. I only moved to California eight months ago. I have twenty-two real dolls, and every one has a change of under-clothing and several dresses. I have one hundred and ten paper dolls. They all have names, and a history, which I know by heart. I send you some pressed California flowers and fern. I am twelve years old.

Jeannie K. P.

Woburn, Massachusetts.

I am ten years old. I have no pets now, but I had a Newfoundland dog named Nero, and a pussy named Major. On the 14th of April I was in the woods, and I found two buttercups. They were the first wild flowers I have seen this year.

Clarence E. L.

I live in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, on the banks of the Sandusky River. This is a very historical country. It was named after a tribe of Indians called the Wyandottes, who burned Colonel Crawford at the stake on the 11th of June, 1782. In the southern part of this town is a tree called the "Big Sycamore." It is sixteen feet in diameter, and about one hundred and fifty feet high. It has several limbs that are from five to eight feet in diameter. I have some pet ducks I think a great deal of, and a sheep named Dick, that follows me everywhere.

Willie B. G.

Syracuse, New York.

We have three little canary-birds. They can feed themselves, and mamma has put them in another cage. Their names are Yellowtop, Sport, and Baby. The mother bird has made a new nest, and this morning she has two eggs in it. If Daisy Balch will softly stroke her bird through the wires of the cage every evening at dusk, he will soon allow her to put her finger inside the cage, and will peck at a little sugar on the end of her finger, and will no doubt perch on it. All this will need patience. I like the "Tar Baby" story so much, and "Mother Goose's May Party."

Ethel.

Niagara Falls, New York.

I live on the Niagara River, three miles and a half above the falls. I go to school at Niagara Falls village, and have walked nearly all winter in all kinds of weather, although it is nearly four miles. I have a little wild rabbit—black, white, and brown. I had two, but the other ran away. We have a white cat and kitten. The cat came to us nine years ago, when it was a little bit of a thing. It stands on its hind-legs when it wants something to eat, and never scratches. We have a water-spaniel named Music. He does not like to hear any one play the piano in a minor key.

F. T.

Norwich, Connecticut.

I am ten years old. I like to read Young People. The Post-office Box letters are nice. Katie R. P. says she collects insects. So does my papa. He puts lumps of cyanide of potassium, bought at the druggist's, in a bottle, and mixes plaster of Paris with water until it is like dough, and then pours it over the potassium. When it dries, the bottle is ready for use. Five cents' worth lasts a season, and is cheaper than ether, papa says, and works better. When the butterflies are dead, he spreads them on a board to dry, spreading their wings carefully and evenly, and holding them in place with pins. Papa has butterflies all the way from China. He has as many as five hundred kinds. He raises them just as people do chickens, right from the egg. He calls the worms his pets—great green ones. I get food for them. They eat lots. He calls worms larvæ, which he says means baby butterflies.

That butterfly Bessie F. had was the Danais, papa thinks. Butterflies are all foreigners, and have queer names I don't understand. The worm of the Danais is found on milkweed, papa tells me. It does not spin a cocoon, but forms a chrysalis—a handsome green sack that looks like an ear-drop, with gold and black spots on it.

Walter H. P.

It is scarcely safe to recommend the handling of cyanide of potassium, in any form whatever, to our young readers, as it is one of the most terrible of poisons, and works much mischief and suffering by merely coming in contact with a slight cut on the finger.

Greensburg, Kentucky.

I live on the top of a cliff almost two hundred feet high. The scenery is beautiful. You can see for a distance of twenty miles in almost every direction. There is an old field on our farm in which papa thinks the Indians fought a battle, because there are so many flint arrow-heads there. My brother and I are saving them, because we like to have them in our room.

I caught seven woodchucks with my dog. I am fourteen years old, and own a horse of my own. I bought her about two years ago. I have a goat that I work in a wagon I made myself. In autumn and winter I go to school, and in spring and summer I work on the farm, which I like pretty well. There are several caves on our farm. In one of them I have been in over a hundred yards. I like to read all of the letters in Young People's Post-office Department.

John H. B.

Jersey City, New Jersey.

I have been intending to write to the Post-office Box ever since I began to take Young People, which papa gave me for a Christmas present. I have a pet cat, which I call Fluff, after the kitty I read about in the Christmas number. My Fluff is very much like that kitty, only she never went to church in her owner's muff.

Mattie J.

Pontotoc, Mississippi.

I see most of your little correspondents live in the far North and West, and I thought you might like to hear from a little Southern girl, who likes Young People very much. I am nine years old. I have no sister, and but one brother. My papa is a doctor, and is often from home; so when Buddie and I are at school, mamma is alone. I love to go to school. I have two cats—Muldrow and Dumpie. I will write about our beautiful birds next time.

D. R. H.

Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.

I am trying to collect a cabinet of curiosities, and have quite a lot of things already. I have pieces of celebrated foreign buildings, English street-car tickets, Lake George diamonds, the rattle of a rattle-snake, and other things.

I think the "Letter from a Land Turtle" is very interesting. I had a young water turtle that I could cover with a two-cent piece. I saw a very funny ants' bed the other day. It was an oyster shell, with the edges all covered with sand, except on one place, where the ants went in. I think it must have been a very cozy house. Will you please tell me something about the habits of ants?

C. B. F.

Auburn, New York.

I have no pets, but we have a nice flower garden. One of the boy correspondents of Young People asked if we had ever seen a tarantula, or California spider. We have one five or six inches long, preserved in alcohol. My uncle sent it to us from Nevada. He says the webs are so strong that people use them for thread.

Bertie S.

I would like to exchange pressed wild flowers with some little girl living in the East. I would like some small bouquets for a scrap-book. We have a great variety of beautiful wild flowers here. I have one sister and two brothers. My pet is a sheep. She will leave the herd to come to me. She eats bread, and tobacco too, when the shepherd gives it to her. Her name is Susie.

Mabel Sharp, Buchanan, Fresno County, California.

New York City.

I am a great admirer of Shakspeare. I have just finished reading Macbeth. I have seen Edwin Booth play Hamlet. My mother has read aloud to me King Richard III. and many others of these plays. I am also very fond of history. I first read Peter Parley's Universal History, next Dickens's Child's History of England, and since many other books of historical tales. I am now reading Guizot's Popular History of France. There are six large volumes, and I have finished the third volume to-day.

I think you will be interested to hear about my Bible. It is the elegant "Illuminated Bible" which was "published by Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff Street," just before the fire, which destroyed all the plates of "sixteen hundred historical engravings." I read in it every Sunday, and almost every morning. I have read the Old Testament in course to the end of Chronicles, and I am pretty familiar with the rest of the Bible.

I was paralyzed when I was sixteen months old, and have not the use of my right hand. As yet I can not write well with my left. I am twelve years old.

S. Cassius E.

Jersey City, New Jersey.

My sister Gertie and I had each a small turtle. They were kept in a glass globe in the house all winter, and about a week ago we put them out in the yard in a large pan. To-day, when I went out to see them, mine was dead. Can anyone tell me what was the matter with it? They both had plenty of raw meat and earth-worms. The water was changed every day, and there were large stones for them to crawl up upon. We put the other turtle back in the glass globe in the house.

Mamie E.

Turtles prefer to bury themselves in the mud, and sleep all winter. Perhaps had you allowed your turtle to follow its natural instincts, it would not have died.

Provincetown, Massachusetts.

I am seven years old. I want to tell all the boys who read Young People that I live where they catch those big whales. My uncle goes in a vessel after them. He has killed nine this spring. The largest one was over sixty feet long, and made fifty barrels of oil. They shoot the whales with a bomb-lance.

Freddie R. A.

Benton, Illinois.

I take Young People, and I think it is a very interesting paper. I am living in Benton now, and very soon I will have a little dog, a lamb, and a pig. Some of you that live up North will think a pig is a very strange pet; and yet when you think that the pig is white and clean, then perhaps you would like him better. Perhaps I shall have a canary-bird and a kitten, but I am not sure. To-morrow I am going to see somebody weave a carpet. I have to study history and French every day except Saturday and Sunday. I like to study them when they are easy enough.

Lilian McD.

Janesville, Wisconsin.

I found hepaticas on the 7th of April, and anemones a little later. Violets, shooting-stars, Solomon's-seal, wild geranium, and jack-in-the-pulpit are in blossom now (May 14), as well as other wild flowers. I have seen woodpeckers, orioles, lots of robins and blue jays, brown thrushes, and bluebirds. When I was going out in the yard this morning I saw several chipmunks.

Alice C. L.

Prosperity, South Carolina.

I live down in "Dear old South Carolina." We have a nice flower garden, and there are plenty of flowers in blossom already. It has been very warm this winter. I did not start to wearing shoes till nearly Christmas, and I pulled them off again on my birthday, which was the 4th of March.

My father is an editor, and we get a great many papers to read. I am very much interested in "Across the Ocean." I used to live up in the snow, on the banks of the Potomac.

J. W. H.

Baltimore, Maryland.

I live in the city, but I have got some chickens, and am very much interested in them. I have raised some; but there is an old cat that has eaten eleven of them, and I can not kill her. I have pigeons too, and have raised a good many. I read a letter in Young People No. 13 from a little boy who hatched a chicken by putting the egg in ashes. I wish he would tell me how he kept the egg warm.

Henry W.

Brooklyn, New York.

I have tried Nellie H.'s recipe for sugar candy, and I found it very nice indeed. I intend to try Puss Hunter's recipe for cake, and I will let her know my success.

Christabel V.

Elmira, New York.

Here is a recipe for chocolate caramels for the cooking club: One cup and a half of sugar; one cup of grated chocolate; one cup of milk; one cup of molasses; a piece of butter the size of an egg; one tea-spoonful of vanilla. Let the mixture boil twenty minutes, and then pour it in buttered tins to cool.

Fanny S.

Fort Union, New Mexico.

I am nine years old. I do not go to school, but I study at home, and I can write pretty well. I tried the recipe that Nellie H. sent, and it was very nice. I tried it several times. I had a canary once, but it died, and papa buried it under a tree.

Margaret R. MacN.

Fannie A. Hartwell and Bertha C. M. send recipes for doll's cup-cake for Puss Hunter's cooking club, but as they are almost the same as the one from Bessie L. S., printed in Post-office Box No. 28, we do not repeat them. The domestic inclinations of these little housekeepers of the future are very pleasing, and we hope other little girls will send recipes for the cooking club, which should certainly be encouraged.

Geneva Lake, Wisconsin.

I will be ten years old in July. I take Young People, and I think there never was such a nice little paper. We have live cherry-trees, and they are all in bloom (May 7). We live near the lake, and my little brother and I play on the shore almost every day. They are launching two large steamers to-day. Papa, mamma, and I went out fishing not long ago; we did not catch even one fish, but we enjoyed the sail very much. I am going to the woods to-morrow, and will send "Wee Tot" some wild flowers. I have a pet kitty and a little Skye terrier, and every one likes to see them play together.

Frankie P.

I am eleven years old. I take Harper's Young People, and I like the Post-office Box best of all. I have two pet pigeons. They are very tame, and fly to me when I go out; I never feed them except out of my hands. I would like to exchange pressed flowers with any little girl.

Fanny Lawrence, Dedham, Massachusetts.

I have about five hundred specimens and curiosities of different kinds which I would like to exchange with any correspondents of Young People. I myself have a cabinet of about one thousand specimens. Letters or packages may be addressed to

Franklin J. Kaufman, 40 Butternut Street, Syracuse, New York.

Buchanan, California.

I am ten years old. My father takes Young People for me, and I enjoy it very much. I save all my money to buy Du Chaillu's books. I have three now, and mean to get them all. Will you please tell me if Du Chaillu is alive yet? I hope he is, and is making some more books for us boys. I have a pet horned owl. He snaps his bill and hisses at me.

Eugene S.

Mr. Du Chaillu is alive, and in excellent health. You will be pleased to know, also, that he is hard at work on new books, which promise to be of even greater interest than those already published.

A.H. Ellard.—See answer to B., Post-office Box No. 23.

S. A. S.—Rabbits eat cabbage, clover, cracker and milk, and almost all kinds of vegetables, herbage, or grain. Do not give them parsley, as it is said to be poisonous to them.

PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.

No. 1.

ENIGMA.

My first is in bloom, but not in fade. My second is in shadow, but not in shade. My third is in gloomy, but not in grave. My fourth is in valiant, but not in brave. My fifth is in anvil, but not in forge. My sixth is in chasm, but not in gorge. My seventh is in tares, but not in weeds. My whole was a man of noble deeds. Lottie.

No. 2.

GEOGRAPHICAL HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.

A city in Spain. A city in France. A sea of the Eastern Continent traversed by many ships. In Russia. A famous mountain of Asia Minor. A city in Belgium. A city in Spain. Centrals read downward spell the name of a city in Germany.

C. P. T.

No. 3.

DIAMOND PUZZLE.

In combine. A boy's name. Jovial. Barren. In gipsy.

Johnny R. G.

No. 4.

WORD SQUARE.

First, endure. Second, imagination. Third, precious. Fourth, a title.

Pierre.

No. 5.

ENIGMA.

My first is in rat, but not in mouse. My second is in pheasant, but not in grouse. My third is in limp, but not in stiff. My fourth is in smoke, but not in whiff. My fifth is in waistcoat, but not in vest. My sixth is in eager, but not in zest. My seventh is in high, but not in low. My whole was a courtier of long ago, An author who travelled in foreign lands, And died at last by cruel hands. North Star.

No. 6.

DOUBLE ACROSTIC.

Silent. A man's name. A beloved relative. An empire. An ancient Greek author. Answer—Two celebrated authors.

Harry M.

ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN NO. 28.

No. 1.

L

RIP

LILAC

PAD

C

No. 2.

NanteS

OczakoW

RomE

WexforD

AlicantE

YucataN

Norway, Sweden.

No. 3.

Cabbage-rose.

No. 4.

Make hay while the sun shines.

No. 5.

Mayflower.

No. 6.

Noon.

A Personation, on page 392—Shakspeare.

Favors are acknowledged from Samuel H. Manning, Grace N. Whiting, H. E. Stout, C. W. Lisk, C. Bingham, Adella Titus, Lottie Noble, N. E. Portlock, Howard E. Meiller, W. T. Sears, Dotty Seaman, Josie L. Moore, G. C. Meyer, Charlie Stewart, Lena B.

Correct answers to puzzles are received from Charles Spier, Cora Frost, Paul Beardsley, J. R. Blake, William and Mary Tiddy, Edward May, Willie Draper, John McClintock, Bennie Lynch, Eva L. Pearson, George W. Hambridge, J. S. Peabody, Willie F. Dix, Eddie A. Leet, Mattie Jameson, C. Steele, Hattie Norris, Bert J., Mary E. DeWitt, "A School-Boy," Minnie H. Ingham, Louisa Gates, George Schilling, S. Cassius Ensworth, G. Dudley Kyte, Rebecca Hedges, Bessie Eaton, Violet, Fanny S., S. A. Hibbs, Ada B. Vouté, Leon M. Fobes, Alice Dudley, George H. Radley, H. G. B., C. D. P., Jimmie B. Tallman, Helen W. Dean, Louisa J. Gray, Albert E. Seibert.