But time pa.s.sed, and none of these things happened. The little boat drifted on and on, through woods full of singing-birds, and by fields covered with waving grain, beside houses, around hills, under bridges, and over mill-dams. To be sure, when they emerged from the latter, the paper travellers were wet to the skin, but the _Foam_ always came out right side up, and the sun soon dried them.
By-and-by the sun went down, and when the moon rose the little river had changed into a big one, and the tiny boat still floated down the middle of it, on and on, all through the night, and during the whole of the next day; and discovering that nothing terrible befell them, the three paper dolls began to grow quite contented with their life of constant change; and when they sailed down past the great city, with its many piers, big steamers, middle-sized ferry-boats, and little tugs, they forgot all about being frightened, so interested were they in gazing at the strange sights about them.
And thus they floated down the harbor, out at the Narrows, and so into the great broad ocean, and there they may be drifting to this very day.
At any rate, the girls say they are going to keep a good look-out for them when they go to Europe.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]
HONOLULU, SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Having seen the charming little paper, HARPER"S YOUNG PEOPLE, and being in a distant country, I thought that now and again a letter from this place might please some of the dear children.
The little folks here are very dark-skinned, not black. They use a very different language, and call everything by a different name.
Not having any snow, the boys go to the top of a steep mountain, and slide down its side on sleds they make for themselves. Some are boards, and some only palm leaves. The mountain is very steep, so that it looks as though the children must be killed in coming down its sides. Fancy yourselves sliding down the side of an old volcano on a palm leaf!
Sometimes the boys go and jump from thirty feet above the water down into it, and go out of sight. After a time they come up a long way off, and run up the rocks, or crawl up, and then jump off again.
One morning the boys started off, and were found sitting in a sugar plantation eating sugar. Though they do not steal as a rule, yet, I am sorry to say, they think it no harm to take fruits. Some day I will write the children some more strange things.
AUNT ALICE.
CHAMPAIGNE, ILLINOIS.
My little nephew and all of us enjoy the YOUNG PEOPLE very much.
It gets a pretty thorough reading, for I take it to school, where the pupils have it for a week, any who recite perfect lessons taking it in turn. Then I send it to my little niece in Indianapolis, who, after reading it, sends it to her cousin. You see this one copy has a considerable circulation, and I trust that many of these readers will take the paper for themselves another year.
Your well-wisher, M. O. A.
The above letter is very gratifying, and we thank the writer heartily for her kind wishes on behalf of YOUNG PEOPLE.
VICKSBURG, MICHIGAN.
I am nine years old. I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and think it the nicest little paper I ever saw. Little Netta Franklin, the little girl whose letter you acknowledged in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 17, and said it was so neatly printed, was my little sister. She died several weeks ago, and I miss her very much. I am alone now, with neither sister nor brother. She thought so much of YOUNG PEOPLE! She had mamma read a story to her out of it the night before she died.
MOLLY W. F.
DOWNIEVILLE, CALIFORNIA.
I wrote a few weeks ago and told YOUNG PEOPLE of the pleasant weather we were having, although the snow was still on the ground.
But the very next day it began to rain, and before night it was snowing. A few days afterward the snow was four feet deep in places where there was none before. The storm lasted two weeks, and my uncle, who has lived here for more than twenty-eight years, says he never knew anything like it before.
I feel very sorry for those Indians Bertie Brown wrote about, and I think he drew a very nice picture for a boy only nine years old.
I have a cat named Frolic. He is just one year younger than I am.
He is full of tricks. One is this: when auntie is making cake, he always sits quietly at the end of the table and watches her. When supper-time comes he waits patiently till we are finished, then cries for his share. Just to tease him, uncle gives him a piece of bread, but Frol knows the difference between bread and cake, and he will not touch a mouthful of anything until he gets his cake.
We had thirteen cats once, but some of them are dead, and now we have only seven.
MARY A. R.
PRAIRIE PLAINS, TENNESSEE.
I am a little girl eleven years old. My father was hurt on the railroad and died, and I and my mamma live with a family that have no children at home, so I am the only child in the house. Uncle Henry sends me YOUNG PEOPLE. He is not my own uncle, but I love him just as well as though he were.
I have a nice shepherd puppy. It is just as cunning as it can be.
There is no school here that I can go to, so I study at home. We have eight cows. I can milk, and I can strain the milk and skim it too. One evening I skimmed sixteen pans.
SUSIE H.
MOUNTAINVILLE, NEW YORK.
I live in the country, and write to tell you how much pleasure the charming little paper YOUNG PEOPLE gives me. I only wish it came every day instead of once a week. My little sister Ethel is greatly interested in all the stories, and begs me to read them over and over.
Mamma has over two hundred little chickens. I have made a pet of one of them. It follows me wherever I go, and does not seem contented without me. We had quite a curiosity the other day in the shape of a little chicken. It had four legs and four wings, and was otherwise perfect. Unfortunately it did not live, which was a great disappointment to us.
FLORENCE C.
NEW ALBANY, INDIANA.
I read so many letters in the Post-office Box from other little girls that I thought I would write myself. I like YOUNG PEOPLE so much that I can hardly wait until it comes.
I had some pet chickens. They were so tame they would eat out of my hand. I had a bird too, but it fell into its bath-tub, and was drowned. My only pet now is a cat named Kitty Clover.
N. V. L.