Various

“ Beata tried again. "Doesn't the snow look like pearls, Rex?"
"Can't say I see it. Oh, you're thinking about that swell locket of yours. Now in Sparta they never allowed them to wear bosh like that."
"Then Sparta was a stupid place," began Beata, hotly; but they came round the corner by the lake, and the sight there put everything else out of both their minds.
Such a pretty sight! Ice as smooth and clear as sweeping could make it; white banks of snow gleaming like a wreath about it; crowds of gayly dressed ladies and knickerbockered gentlemen skimming about, or being pushed in chairs ”

“ Down in the park at Dene Hall there is a beautiful little lake, where the wild fowl swim in summer, and where Beata and Rex were wont to paddle about in a flat-bottomed boat, a "tub," Rex called it. But now the water was covered with firm smooth ice, and the ladies and gentlemen staying at the Hall had gone down there to skate, and Cousin Cecil had promised to look after the children if they might come too; and Beata was tempted.
Rex was shouting from the hall. Without another pause the locket was out of its case, slipped on a ribbon, and the ribbon tied round Beata's neck. ”

“ Look at that woman in the red shawl—she's a tramp."
But here, skating down to them with a pretty grace, her sweet face glowing above her warm furs, came Cousin Cecil, and just behind her the fair mustache of Captain Strangways, the children's firm friend; and after that there could be nothing but delight.
To skate between Cousin Cecil and Captain Strangways, holding a hand of each, seemed to Beata the summit of human felicity. Rex, still Spartan even in his pleasures, preferred to stagger about alone. Beata forgot to try and pretend she was grown up. ”

“ So saying, he leaped away gayly, but with eyes open and on the sharp look-out, almost at the very start. "For," said he, "the most common things possess a new interest when shown in a new light by the hand of genius, and the ordinary things of one locality become objects of curiosity in another where they are not found. Thus I could astonish vain man, could I speak his jargon, with accounts of many things familiar to my sight by daily contact in the bottom of the pool, but which seldom or never meet his eyes." ”

“ Captain Strangways secured a very big carved chair on the outside of the circle, and the children nestled down close to him on the tiger-skin rug. It was only the holiday-time that gained them this distinguished honor of taking tea down stairs, instead of in the school-room. But Beata did not feel grown up at all; she was far too busy mourning over the lost locket, and thinking of the confession that would have to be made to mamma by-and-by. Rex was very silent too, but he was busy with the muffins. ”

“ All this he does in a manner which would be remarkable for a man of great talent, who had been studying the violin ever since he was able to hold the instrument, and yet he is not at all conceited. He does not think he has nothing more to learn. On the contrary, he will go to Paris in the spring, and study again with Léonard for six months. After that he will give concerts in Russia.
To young people Mauricio Dengremont's career is a fine example. Of course he has greater talent for music than hundreds of others. But it is not his talent only to which he owes his early fame. ”

“ A very young frog—very young indeed, scarcely out of tails (that is to say, out of tadpolehood) —with a very great ambition and ordinary ability, set out one morning with the purpose of seeing the world, and by night-fall bringing back something to astonish the pool. ”

“ She said—and I believe it is true—that it is the first time in her life she took what wasn't hers, and it was only the starving babies, and the sight of the glittering locket, that tempted her. Oh, Beata dear, don't you see now what it is to wear things that may put temptation in other people's way? ”

“ At last, when he was six years old—the same age at which Mendelssohn began to learn the piano—his father bought him a toy violin for twenty cents, and thought he would give him a lesson, just to see if he was in earnest. Before that, however, he told him how hard he would have to work if he wanted to be a musician. But Mauricio said he didn't mind working, he wanted to learn the violin just as soon as he could. Fancy the father's surprise when he found during the first lesson that Mauricio played his notes correctly and clearly. ”

“ But even a race for life must have an end, either in disaster to the pursued or disappointment to the pursuers, and just at the moment when the wide-open beak of the admired white crane was about to close upon him, with all the other eager open jaws close following, our adventurous student splashed into the waters of the pond. ”

“ I have a dog named Major, who sits up on his hind-legs and hangs down his fore-paws pitifully, as if they were broken, and some people think they really are; but Major only does it to beg for candy. He has many friends, and sometimes they bring him sticks of candy all the way from Philadelphia. ”

“ As old Ben did not give him as much sympathy as Toby thought he ought to give—for the old man, while he would not allow Mr. Job Lord to strike the boy if he was near, thought it a necessary portion of the education for Mr. Castle to lash him all he had a mind to—he poured out all his troubles in the old monkey's ears, and kept him with him from the time he ceased work at night until he was obliged to commence again in the morning. ”

“ I wish Young People came every day instead of once a week. I was so sorry when "Mildred's Bargain" was finished! but I like the other stories ever so much, especially "Toby Tyler." I read all the letters in the Post-office Box, and wish I could see all the boys and girls who write them. The little girl away down in Texas who wrote about the first snow has no idea how much fun we Northern children have coasting on the snow crust, sometimes over drifts eight and ten feet deep. ”

“ When he made rather careless mention of the glistening snake, the old frogs shuddered as they informed him that of all their enemies this was most to be dreaded, because of its stealthy way of creeping upon its victim unawares through the grass, fastening its fangs upon him, and sometimes taking hours to swallow its prey, which all the while remained alive, in painful and agonized certainty of his slow-approaching death.
The owls, they said, were less to be dreaded than any of his pursuers; they were not particularly fond of frogs, would as soon have a snake, and much preferred mice. ”

“ If you'll take the children home for me, I won't be long."
"But you must not go alone, and it's almost dusk."
"Jim shall go with me," and she beckoned to a stable-boy in the crowd. "Indeed, Captain Strangways, I would much rather you did not come, really;" and reluctantly he stooped and unfastened her skates, and stood watching her as she passed quickly down toward the village, with Jim in attendance, and the little child in her arms.
"It's all right, really," said Rex, trying to cut a double S, and failing signally. "Don't you know Cousin Cecil is doctor to half the village?" ”

“ Dom Pedro was so pleased with the boy's performance that he gave him a beautiful medal, and promised to give him a good sum of money every year, so that he could go to Paris and take lessons of the famous violin-player Léonard. Dengremont's father accepted the offer, and soon afterward he took the boy to Europe. Mauricio staid in Paris until two or three years ago, when he began to travel and give concerts. Everywhere he played he met with great success. People came to his concerts in great crowds, and applauded him loudly ”

“ We like Harper's Young People very much, especially the Jimmy Brown stories, and "Toby Tyler." We are all English children, and have never lived anywhere in America except in New Mexico. Our pets are dogs and cats and a colt. We like the colt best of all.
We have had some very heavy snow-storms, and the cañon has been impassable several times this winter, so we have not received Young People very regularly. I am twelve years old.
G. Kercheval M. ”

“ Castle when that first lesson was concluded, and it certainly was to Toby, for he had had all the teaching in horsemanship that he wanted, and he thought, with deepest sorrow, that this would be of daily occurrence during all the time he remained with the circus.
As he went out of the tent he stopped to speak with his friend the old monkey, and his troubles seemed to have increased when he stood in front of the cage calling "Mr. Stubbs! Mr. Stubbs!" and the old fellow would not even come down from off the lofty perch where he was engaged in monkey gymnastics with several younger companions. ”

“ At length our leaping student of nature tired even of his admiration of this beautiful bird, and leaped on his journey again in search of other objects of scientific interest, one of which he soon found in the person of another curious bird, also with long legs, and not very unlike in form the one he had just seen, though not near so beautiful. ”

“ I want you to have it."
"No, I can't take it," said Toby, shaking his head resolutely, as he put the golden temptation from him, and then, as a happy thought occurred to him, he said, quickly: "I tell you what to do with your dollars: you keep them till you grow up to be a woman, an' when I'm a man I'll come, an' then we'll buy a circus of our own. I think, perhaps, [Pg 308] I'd like to be with a circus if I owned one myself. We'll have lots of money then, an' we can do just what we want to." ”

“ I like the life of Lafayette which was published in Young People so much! I have the lives of generals in my history, but the way they are written in Young People is so much more interesting! I wish the paper was published twice a week, it seems so long to wait to hear how Toby Tyler gets along. On Wednesday morning it is "Hallo! has Young People come?" ”

“ The secret lies in this: if you look carefully at Fig. 2, you will discover that the little finger of one hand and the thumb of the other are really holding the same loop; so you have only to retain your hold at these points, letting the rest go, to draw the string out of the button-hole with freedom.
But you may find it rather difficult at first to make the proper thumb and finger act quickly and in unison, apart from the twin brother of each; for thumbs, and also little fingers, are like twin children, and, unless well trained, one always wants to do what the other does. ”

“ Lisa will take her work on the piazza, and you can lie in one of the easy-chairs. Joe is to wait on you, and do a little weeding, and keep the paths in order, and bail out the boat; and the old man seems to be very much at home already. So that is the order of the day. Now good-by, and don't do too much thinking."
ON THE LAKE.
"One moment, Miss Schuyler; do you believe in fairies?"
"Just a little," said Miss Schuyler, with a quizzical smile.
"Well, I believe in them," said Phil, "and I think you are one of the best of them."
"Oh no, I am very human, dear Phil, as you will find out. ”

“ I have a little brother named Harry. I love him very much. He likes the pictures in Young People as much as I do. I think Jimmy Brown is jolly.
Wrightie G.
San Antonio, Texas.
I have two mocking-birds for pets. They whistle so pretty! I am going to have a pretty flower garden this summer. Spring is here (February 16) , and the peach-trees are budding, and everybody is making gardens.
I like all the stories in Young People. I always laugh so hard when mamma reads Jimmy Brown to me! I wish he would send another story.
May K. ”

“ Minnie G.—A Brazilian silver milreis, or one thousand reis, is worth about fifty-one cents, United States currency. The face value of a ten-reis postage stamp is about half a cent.—Cancelled stamps are commonly used in exchange by our correspondents, as new ones are difficult to obtain, especially those of foreign countries.
A. A. Y. C.—The cost of material for sail-boat described in Young People No. 66 is about fifteen dollars. For the other information you require, go to the foot of Court Street, Brooklyn, in which city you live, and talk with the boatmen and boat-builders there. ”

“ Such was the sad doom of Louis XVII., King of France. The annals of the poor offer no fate so miserable as that of this descendant of the proudest and most powerful of European monarchs. By some writers it is asserted that Louis escaped from his imprisonment, that a child deaf and dumb was substituted for him, and that the King, or Dauphin, died in obscurity in some part of Europe or America. But the legend is improbable, and Louis XVII. sleeps, no doubt, in the cemetery where he was laid at Paris.
BEATA'S LOCKET. BY LILLIAS C. DAVIDSON.
Twenty-one pearls!—no, twenty-two ”

“ I have nearly two thousand duplicates of foreign stamps, which I will exchange for other foreign stamps, or for stamps of United States departments. I will also exchange postmarks for anything interesting.
John Thomas,
3420 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Penn.
My mamma says she will make a pretty flower out of any little girl's hair, or her mamma's, in exchange for curious shells, minerals, or a genuine Indian bow and arrow. A bunch of hair from one to two feet long and as thick as a goose quill will make a pretty flower. ”

“ I would like to exchange some of the first American pennies and halfpennies, for foreign coins.
Arthur C. Ketcham,
Care of William P. Ketcham. P. O. Box 10,
Yonkers, N. Y.
I will exchange bayberry-tallow, for peacock coal, or postage stamps from Cape of Good Hope or Barbadoes.
A. M. Forman,
116 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Bayberry-tallow is greenish in color, and is obtained by boiling the berries of the bayberry, or wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera) . This shrub, which is very aromatic, grows in great abundance all along the Atlantic coast. ”