k.

"Well, we're pretty near the end of this yarn now, gentlemen. I watched
that fire-balloon till it faded out of sight in the nor'west, and then I
turned in and dreamed all night about ships picking up bottles with
messages in them, and saving shipwrecked crews. And the next day I did
nothing but go aloft and look for a sail, but not one hove in sight. The
following day I did the same thing, and that night I think I cried a
little because no vessel appeared. On the third day I didn't go aloft
till after breakfast, and then I nearly burst my lungs screaming, 'Sail
ho!' Sure enough, there was a vessel about twenty miles off to the
nor'west. The Captain had a big fire started on the rocks, and sent a
good column of smoke into the air. The vessel rose, and in a couple of
hours we saw plainly that she was heading right for us. Maybe we didn't
all dance for joy! In another hour she hove to abreast of the rocks and
sent a boat. The officer in charge of it stepped out, and holding up my
bottle with a tangled mass of wire and pulp, said,

"'How did you get this thing out there?'

"'Out where?' demanded our Captain.

"'We picked it up forty miles nor'west of you.'

"'Hurrah for my fire-balloon!' I cried. 'And was the message all right?'

"'Of course. Ain't we here?'

"And he handed my message to our Captain, who threw his arms around me,
and exclaimed:

"'You little angel! You'll be a sailor yourself some day.'

"And sure enough," said Captain Elias Joyce, rising from the table, "he
told the living truth."

[Illustration: THE PUDDING STICK]

This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young
Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on
the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address
Editor.

If I were you I would make up my mind, once for all, never to talk about
ailments. A headache or neuralgia or a cough is hard enough to bear in
one's own case; there is no need of troubling other people about it.
Among so many girls there are no doubt those who are not always well,
and there may be some who have to suffer a great deal of pain, but the
pain must be kept in its place, which is in the background, not the
forefront of conversation.

Talk always of pleasant things, if you can, and of what is interesting
to others rather than of what concerns yourself. The mistake often made
by invalids is that their world being narrowed by confinement to th