Various

“ The early history of America is always a subject of great interest to boys and girls; and although they may get ahead very slowly in the school history, which is invariably dull, as its statements are of necessity as condensed as possible, put a volume in their hand in which the story of their country is told in picturesque and easy style, and made more interesting than many works of fiction, and the rapidity with which it is absorbed by young readers is wonderful. ”

“ At last Cornwallis had pushed the little army of Americans away northward to the foot of the mountains, and wrote to New York, "The boy can not now escape me." But marching all night by a back road through the woods, and leaving his baggage and tents and heavy guns behind him, Lafayette appeared to the astonished eyes of the British commander in a strong position, from which he could not be driven. Just at this point Lafayette got some more men from Washington's camp and from Virginia, and then commenced one of the most remarkable campaigns ever known. ”

“ Hannah was a tender-hearted woman, and as good as she was gentle. She longed to have a little boy who might grow up and be trained to be a teacher of the true God among the people around her, who were very ignorant and wicked in those days. So she prayed, and God heard her prayer. Upon the birth of the little fellow she named him Samuel, which means Asked of God. So happy and grateful to God was this Jewish mother that she wrote a wonderful song, which has been preserved all these years, and may be still read in the Bible. ”

“ We like Young People very much. Mamma makes out all the puzzles and enigmas, and we love to read the stories. We are very grateful to the kind gentleman in New York who sends it to my sister. He comes here every fall with some other gentlemen to hunt, and that is the only time in the whole year when we see many people. We have no little girls to play with, for our nearest neighbor, who lives six miles away, is an old man seventy years old, who lives all alone. Twelve miles away there is one more family, but we have to cross three lakes to get there. ”

“ A tall man turned in surprise, and bent over him. "Did you call my name, my boy?"
"Be you Johnny Welford's father?"
"Yes, I am John Welford."
"Be you a-goin' home to Thanksgivin'?"
"I—hope so"—his voice broke—"thanks to you."
Jim smiled. "I guess mother sent some 'un to help me. Where's George?" The dog had crept close to his master, and no one had driven him away. "Hello, old feller.—Give Johnny Welford my dog—he'll know. Tell Johnny Welford I can't—come to his house—for—Thanksgivin'." The voice died away. ”

“ What with elections and harvest-homes, her hands were full to overflowing; for she takes great interest in politics, besides being a social body, without whom no apple bee or corn-husking is complete.
Still, worn out as she was, when her thirty sons and daughters clustered round, and begged that they might have their usual family dinner on Thanksgiving-day, she could not find it in her hospitable heart to refuse, and immediately invitations were sent to her eleven brothers and sisters, old Father Time and Mother Year, to come with all their families and celebrate the great American holiday. ”

“ There the British felt safe, thinking that they could at any time get to New York by water, or with a few more men could sally out and drive Lafayette from Virginia.
But Lafayette expected a French fleet off the coast, and contented himself with carefully watching his enemy, and writing to Washington to hasten south with his army and make the capture of the British certain. At last the French fleet came, and poor Cornwallis, with all his skill and courage, was surrounded. He could hardly believe his eyes, and tried in one way and another to break through ”

“ From this new book children will learn about the hardships and sufferings of the pioneer settlers of the United States—how they fought with frost and snow, and desolate, rocky lands, living in constant fear of attacks by Indians, to whose tomahawks many a brave man and many women and little children fell victims; and how, in spite of all obstacles, they struggled ahead with the courage of true men, never faltering and never stopping until the liberty and prosperity of this great country were firmly established. ”

“ The cruise of Harry and his three friends in the Whitewing—a neat little boat, well stocked with provisions and camping-out comforts by Harry's uncle John—is accompanied by many innocent and amusing adventures. It takes the boys some time to learn how to manage themselves and their boat, as new difficulties are constantly arising ”

“ One of the most delightful stories ever written for boys is The Moral Pirates, [2] which is now published in a small, neat volume, with fifteen full-page illustrations. This has been one of the most popular serials published in Harper's Young People, and many of the little friends of Harry Wilson, Tom Schuyler, and Joe and Jim Sharpe, will be happy to renew their acquaintance with them in this pretty little book, while those who have not read the story have some delightful hours in store. ”

“ Before you put your sails on, or, in fact, any of the spars, standing or running rigging, you must remember that you have not put the runners on yet, nor got the rudder in place. See that the blacksmith has made the iron-work according to the drawings. Bolt the rudder to the rudder-post, screw the irons to the runners, the chocks to the under side of the runner plank, and then to the runners. ”

“ I will be very glad to exchange foreign postage stamps with any readers of Young People. Correspondents will please send a list of their stamps for exchange.
O. L. Welch,
40 Bank Street, New York City.
I live on the San Jacinto River. My papa has a plantation on the Trinity. He has a plum orchard, and we go up there and eat plums. Mamma is going up there to preserve some. I am collecting snail shells. I have about four hundred.
I would like to exchange birds' eggs or postage stamps with any little boy or girl. I am nine years old. ”

“ With a few tools, the aid of your friends the carpenter and blacksmith, and last, but not least, a little ingenuity, you may continue to scud over the "briny," and not forget all your nauticalities.
WORKING PLANS FOR AN ICE-BOAT.
Perhaps you remember that model ice-boat at the Centennial, the Whiff. Yours need not be as large nor as elaborate, but it will serve your purpose. The principal parts of the hull consist of eight pieces in all, and straight at that, viz., keel, runner plank, mast bench, two side boards, and three runners. That certainly don't look like a great undertaking. ”

“ Step your mast; draw taut as you possibly can the standing rigging; but don't forget to put brass rings on your mast and jib stay, or you'll have to unrig. Then bend your sails, reeve your running rigging, and, with a little oil on the working parts of the rudder, you are ready to run a race with a locomotive if one is at hand and you've got a clear sheet of ice under you. ”

“ One person selects a sonnet from the works of any author—the less known the better—and covers the printed lines with a sheet of paper, leaving the last word of each line only visible. He then reads aloud the word which concludes the first line, and waits until every player has composed a line ending in this word in any metre, and on any subject. When all are ready he reads the next word, and so on until every person present has composed a poem, all of which differ in every way excepting that the last words are alike. ”

“ But early in 1781 Washington sent Lafayette south into Virginia with a couple of thousand men to capture an English garrison at Portsmouth, near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. This he was to do with the help of a French fleet, which was to arrive there at the same time. But an English fleet got ahead of the French fleet, and beat it in a sea-battle off Cape Henry. Lafayette was about to return, when Washington wrote him to stay and try to protect the State of Virginia, which the British were about to overrun. ”

“ All children are by nature fond of small living pets. There is scarcely a child who, if it has a home, does not spend hours in petting its old Maltese cat or aged dog, and the smallest tricks performed by these common domestic animals are matters of intense interest to the youthful master or mistress. ”

“ Place a small card upon the tip of one of the fingers of the left hand, and on the card, immediately above the finger, put a coin. Now give a smart blow to the card with the second finger of the right hand, and it will be whirled from under the coin so swiftly that the latter will be left on the tip of the finger. A similar feat can be performed with two wine-glasses. Place a sheet of card-board over both, and then, with a smart fillip, send it spinning from under the coins you have placed upon it, and they will drop into the glasses. ”

“ Such of your family as remains to you would honor any one, even the highest man in the land, and I am assured that you are sincerely desirous of forsaking evil courses and devoting your life to this—family. Old friends, classmates of yours, who are held in high respect wherever they are known, are ready and willing to assist you to regain your lost manhood ”

“ As a paint it may be applied to a diver's dress, to cards, clock dials, sign-boards, and other surfaces exposed to sunlight during the day; the paint gives out a pale violet light at night sufficient to enable the objects to be readily seen in the dark. ”

“ No doubt you have become quite nautical in your habits the past season, and it seems a pity that you should be obliged to give up being a jolly tar, with your blue shirt and tarpaulin, just because the weather is a little cooler, and the wind inclined to be rather fresh. ”

“ Books containing stories of animals are always welcome, and one of the best writers of books of this description is Olive Thorne Miller, whose last publication, entitled Queer Pets at Marcy's, [3] is destined to be very popular with young readers. ”

“ Say, what's his name?"
"Well," said Jim, in a half-apologetic tone, "his whole name's George Washington, but I call him George for short. You see, I ain't got no folks, and I make b'lieve he's folks, and I talks to him, and he 'most knows all I say, and it seems 'most like he was my brother. I had a little brother once, and my mother was a real good woman, and—"
"There's my mamma," said the boy in the carriage. "Just show her that dog." ”

“ The oldest extant Jewish coins, specimens of which may be seen in the British Museum, are the shekel and half-shekel of Simon Maccabæus, "the priest and prince of the Jews," to whom Antiochus VII., the son of Demetrius I., granted the right of coining money about 139 b.c. The silver shekel and half-shekel had for their devices on one side the almond rod with buds (Numbers, xvii. 8, 10) , with the legend, "Jerusalem the Holy"; and on the other the pot of manna (Exodus, xvi. 33) , and the legend, "Shekel of Israel," or "Half-Shekel." ”

“ Make full-size drawings of runners and rudder iron-work, and show these drawings to your blacksmith, and let him attend to that part of the business. Be careful in drawing the details of the runner irons, rudder-post, etc., to use the right scale—that marked B.
Now for your spars. Mast, white pine, eight feet nine inches from end to end, four inches at base, one inch at head. Put the stick in your bench vise, and shape it with a spokeshave. Boom, eight feet six inches long, one and a half inches thick at the middle, and one inch at either end; fasten it to the mast with a staple and screw-eye ”

“ My brother has taken Young People ever since it started, and now we could hardly do without it. I like "Who was Paul Grayson?" best of all the stories.
We have a juvenile band here, and we can play some very fine music. We have a drum-major and all, and when we parade we look something like the picture "Sons of the Brave." The band consists of fourteen boys, all about the same size and age. ”

“ Cotton is planted here every year. If they are in good soil the plants are usually four or five feet high. Marsh grass, which grows between the salt creeks, is sometimes used as a fertilizer for "Sea Island" cotton, which is the only kind raised here. ”

“ Portsmouth, Virginia.
I am seven years old. I have a very pretty rooster. I wish some little girl would name him for me.
I think the story about Coachy was very pretty. My sister Allie has a hen like Coachy.
Johnny B.
Prince Edward Island.
I am a little boy not quite nine years old. I take Young People, and like it a great deal better than any paper I have ever seen. I have a pair of pigeons, which are very tame. I expect soon to get a guinea-pig from Charlottetown. I get my paper from Halifax.
F. R. S.
New York City. ”

“ When cold, the mass is broken up, and the whitest pieces are placed in a clean glass bottle. On exposing the bottle to bright sunshine during the day, it is found that at night its contents will give out a pale light in the dark. ”

“ There are stories of all kinds of animal pets from lions to mice: parrots climb about, making all sorts of funny speeches, mischievous crows make havoc in peaceful households, and dogs and cats do most wonderful and intelligent things. ”

“ I like Young People very much. I think it is a very useful paper. I live on Big Sandy Creek near the railroad, six miles from any neighbor. There are antelopes, buffaloes, wolves, wild-cats, rabbits, owls, and eagles here. ”