Harper's Young People, October 12, 1880 Part 5

I smiled, but Abe was too good-natured to notice it. This animal I found, with slight variations, was made to represent horses, cows, mules, sheep, dogs, and pigs, and even chickens, which, of course, were much smaller, and had only two legs. In the course of the morning Frankie and Abe manufactured a sow with seven little pigs, two cows, a mule, and a horse.

It had stopped raining, so the boys asked if I would not like to go out and see their farms. Under a shed in the yard were these two farms, arranged as nearly as possible like Frankie's father's. Barns, stables, wagon-houses, and pig-pens were made of bricks on a very small scale, and inhabited by corn-stalk cattle.

A wagon made of a chip tied to two spools was. .h.i.tched up with two corn-stalk oxen, their feather tails standing up in the air.

I thought my little friends would like this new breed of cattle. They struck me as being much easier to manage than those of Noah's ark, for there is hardly a boy who has not had all manner of trouble in making Father Noah's cows and horses stand up. Gather together some corn stalks this autumn, let them dry, and stock a farm for yourself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MODERN ORPHEUS.]

SEA-BREEZES.

LETTER NO. 5 FROM BESSIE MAYNARD TO HER DOLL.

CAMBRIDGE, _September, 1880_.

MY DEAREST CLYTIE,--When I sent my last letter from Bar Harbor I thought it would be the _very_ last I should write you for a long time, but I shall not see you for two whole weeks more, and I can not wait till then to tell you all the fine things I am precipitating for next winter.

We left Mount Desert last Monday, and have been with grandma and Auntie Belle here in Cambridge ever since, except when we go flying back and forth from Boston. We are very busy, Clytie, and have heaps of shopping to do; for what do you think?--we are all going to Europe, and are to sail one month from to-day. I am awfully glad, of course, but I don't know how I can live all winter long without you. Don't tell the rest of the dolls, Clytie, but I do a little bit believe that you are going too!

Now that is a very great secret, so you will keep it close down in your own little heart, and not let the others even respect a thing about it, because it might make them feel bad that I chose you and left them behind; and one thing I never would do, and that is to let my children think I had a _favorite_ among them. You know I love every one of them dearly, but of course I can not take them all to Europe, and as you are the largest, it is more your _place_ to go.

Now for another piece of news: Cousin Frank and Miss Carleton are engaged! Yes, Clytie, they really are, and they are going to be married this very month, and go to Europe when we do. If this isn't news enough, here is some more: Randolph Peyton has gone home with his mamma, and they are all coming to our house in New York the week before we sail, and go with our party! Won't it be lovely? There will be Mr. and Mrs.

Peyton, Randolph and his sister Helen, and Miss Rogers, their governess.

I have never seen Helen, but Randolph says she is "awfully jolly, considering she is only a girl," so I guess I shall like her. Then there will be papa and mamma and me (and you, if we take you), Cousin Frank and Miss Carleton, only she won't be Miss Carleton then--she will be _Mrs. Howard_, and I am to call her Cousin Carrie: indeed, I call her so now, for Cousin Frank asked me to, and I would do anything to please him. I have forgiven him for sending me away one night when they were talking about little pitchers. When I asked him about it afterward, and if it was really deckerativeart they meant, he tried to exclaim to me, but he laughed so hard all the time, I couldn't make out anything at all except that _I_ was the very funniest little pitcher in the whole world!

Did you ever know such a comical thing as to call _me_, a girl ten years old, a _pitcher_? I'm sure he didn't know what he was talking about.

Mamma says I may give them anything I choose for a wedding present, and I have presided on a silver pitcher. I am going to send it with a card tied on the handle marked, "_This is me_," and I guess they will wonder what it means. Don't you?

I have told Cousin Carrie so much about you that she seems to love you already, even though she has never seen you, and she says she shall invite you to her wedding. Won't that be fun? She is going to send you her cards, and you will go with me. I shall get home in time to have your dress made. Mine is to be a bomination dress of white cashmere and silk, and I think yours will be of the same kind in rose-color.

I will tell you one more adventure that befell us at Bar Harbor, and then I shall not write any more letters unless you are left at home when I go to Europe. Of course, if you are, I shall write as often as I possibly can, and I shall have so many new and strange appearances in crossing the ocean and in visiting forran lands that the reading of them will make up in some agree for being left at home.

Randolph and I went down to the beach, the evening before we came away, to launch his s.h.i.+p--a beautiful one, with sails all set, "full-rigged,"

as the sailors say, that his uncle in Philadelphia had sent him that very day.

The Stars and Stripes waved from the prow or stern--I never know which is which--and on the top of one of the masts he fastened a "pennon," as he called it, with the name of the s.h.i.+p in big blue letters. (He printed it himself with his blue pencil, and it looked real cunning blowing round in the wind, and flapping up and down.) What do you suppose the name was? _Bessie_, to be sure. He says he thinks it is an "awfully jolly" name for a s.h.i.+p, or for a girl either.

Well, the wind blew just the right way for a splendid launch. I held the cord, letting it out as fast as he told me to, and he gave it a push, and off it sailed, straight and lovely as a duck. I was so delighted I couldn't possibly help clapping my hands, and, oh, Clytie! I dropped the cord, and away it went, up and down over the waves as if it was alive.

Randolph muttered something that sounded like, "Bother! that's just like a girl!" and scowled awfully at me, and then ran out into the water after it. I screamed as loud as I could, for I was afraid he would drown; and then I remembered how he had saved my life, and I said to myself, He is my friend now, and I will save him, for he saved _me_ when we were emernies. So, as the story-books say, I "dashed into the foaming billows" after him, and just as I caught him by his jacket I thought I heard him say again, "Bother!" and then came a great rus.h.i.+ng noise in my ears, my mouth was full of water, and the next thing I knew I was lying in mamma's bed, and she and two or three other people were rubbing me! I was almost drowned, Clytie; and so it was Randolph who saved _my_ life a second time, and I never saved _his_ at all.

When I pulled him by his jacket, a wave broke over us; but he was stronger and bigger than I, and a _boy_ besides (and truly, Clytie, boys _do_ know more than girls about _some_ things), and so he caught me, and sort of pulled and rolled and pushed me out of the water; and just then Cousin Frank and Miss Carleton came round the point in their boat, and Cousin Frank took me in his arms, and ran up to the hotel as fast as he could go.

Poor mamma was most subtracted when she saw me, and Randolph was so scared he forgot all about his lovely new s.h.i.+p, that long before that time had gone sailing out to sea all by itself.

Wasn't it awful, Clytie? If I had minded what Solomon says, "Look before you leap," I should have seen that Randolph had his hand on the s.h.i.+p at the very moment I seized him, and he could have got back safe to the sh.o.r.e without any of my help.

Good-by for a little while. I shall see you and the rest of the dolls week after next.

Your loving mamma, BESSIE MAYNARD.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]

CHAM, SWITZERLAND.

I am a little boy only six years old, and can not write very well, but I want to say how much I like YOUNG PEOPLE. My mamma and papa have taken HARPER'S WEEKLY and HARPER'S MONTHLY more years than I can remember.

I like so much to hear all about the pets of the other children. I have not any, but I have a dear little sister called Myra, and she is my pet.

I liked the story "Across the Ocean" very much, but I think "The Moral Pirates" was the best.

My governess is writing this, but soon I hope to be able to write myself, as I have nearly finished my second copy-book. One year ago I could not speak any English, but now I can read short stories, and I am always so happy when YOUNG PEOPLE comes.

C. D. P.

LYNCHBURG, TEXAS.

I am twelve years old. I have a little colt, but it is not gentle, it is very wild. I also have a roan horse, named Sabine. Whenever horses are gathered I help to herd them. I like to do it very much. We generally have about three hundred head to herd. I have no pets now, for my little dog died.

I visited Captain H----'s plantation last winter, and I had a very nice time. I saw the men gin cotton, and I drove the horses round in the gin.

CHARLES A. T.

BUFFALO, WYOMING TERRITORY.

I have wanted to write to the Post-office Box for a long time for I like YOUNG PEOPLE so much, but I thought as there were so many children writing perhaps my letter would not be printed.

I live in a very lonely country. There are no little girls here at all, but I have a good many pets. I have two colts, named Nellie and Dollie, and a puppy named Carlo. Then I have a cat and four little kittens, and six pigeons, and lots of little chickens. I am going to get a pair of canaries very soon.

LUELLA A. M.