et too old to be one of
your children, you see.

What I want to tell you is how easily some of your pictures can be
turned into _tableaux-vivants,_ or even acted. There was
"Pattikin's House;" I am sure we had the greatest fun with those
pictures, we being so many girls: and "The man all tattered and
torn that married the maiden all forlorn;" that was on p. 652 of
the volume for 1876: "The Minuet," in January, 1877: "Hagar in the
Desert," in June, 1877; my aunty did that, and it was lovely: the
little girl in "The Owl That Stared," in November, 1876; and
"Leap-Year," in the same number. All these we had at our own home,
but there are lots of others that might suit some folks better than
they would suit us.

This winter some of your pictures will be used in a series of grand
tableaux for our Sunday-school entertainments. A number of people
belonging to the school can paint scenes, get up costumes, and all
that. It is going to be splendid.

I thought that your other children, you dear old ST. NICHOLAS,
would surely like to know about this, and I hope I have not made my
letter too long. From yours lovingly,

MINA B.H.

* * * * *

MARY C. WARREN answered correctly all the puzzles in the October
"Riddle-Box," but her answers came too late for acknowledgment in the
November number.

* * * * *

Black Oak Ridge, Passaic County, N.J.

MRS. EDITOR: Excuse me writing to you, but I want to ask you if you
think it is right to be killing cats all the time, for my brother
Eddie has killed fifteen this year, and whenever I scold him about
it, he begins to sing pilly willy winkum bang dow diddle ee ing
ding poo poo fordy, pilly willy winkum bang. There, there he stands
now behind the barn with his hands full of lumps of coal watching
for one that killed his chicken a month ago. O dear, if he would
only stop killing cats what a good boy he would be! He always gives
me half of his candy, and he raises such nice melons in his garden.
O, O, as true as I live there he goes now after the poor cat. Good,
good, good--neither piece of coal hit her. What can I do to stop
his bad habit. I think it is too bad even if they do kill his
chicks once in a while. I have only got two cats left, Dick and
Mizy, and he watches them awful cl