ls the
soldiers when to get up, when to go to work, when to stop work,
when to change guard, and when to go to bed. We always feel safe
here, because we are guarded by soldiers.

EDNA S. B.

* * * * *

NEEDY, OREGON.

I like to read the letters in the Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE
so much that I thought I would write one from 'way out here in the
backwoods of Oregon. I live in the Willamette Valley, where we can
see Mount Hood any time when the weather is clear. It is a
glorious sight, especially in the evening just before sundown. In
the winter and spring the mountain is hid behind clouds more than
half the time. Sometimes the top of it will peep out above the
mist. Then it looks so strange. It is considered to be nearly
12,000 feet high.

ESTELLE M.

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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

It is so nice to have a new YOUNG PEOPLE every week. My papa is an
artist, and I am going to be one too. I draw a picture from YOUNG
PEOPLE almost every day, and I read about Rosa Bonheur, and Miss
Thompson, and all the great painters.

I have been to the Zoological Gardens. I rode the donkeys and the
elephant, and I have made their pictures. I have a little Zoo in
our back yard. I have a nice cat, two rabbits named Jack and Jill,
and a turtle, and a fish in an aquarium that eats flies from my
hands. My bird died, and papa painted its portrait. I called the
picture "The Burial of the Dead Bird."

M. ELECTA F.

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OTTAWA, OHIO.

I am nine years old, and for my birthday present mamma gave me one
year's subscription to YOUNG PEOPLE, beginning with the first
number. I like "The Moral Pirates" very much, and I was just
wishing for a serial with girls in it, and the very next paper had
the beginning of "Miss Van Winkle's Nap." I was delighted with it.
I think the stories about Mr. Martin and Miss Pamela Plumstone's
piano are so funny.

As Fourth of July came on Sunday this year, we had no public
celebration, but some of the children in our neighborhood got up a
celebration of their own at our house. Mamma made the oration, and
played the national airs on the piano, after which we had a
parade. We all had paper caps, and we had a flag and a