end on the way a thing's said!"

[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]

_To our Young Friends:_

As we can not expect to receive letters from you until you have been
notified of the existence of our Post-office Box, we open the
correspondence by writing to you, and asking you to think of us in the
future. We should like to hear from you upon any subject which may
interest you. If you have any questions to ask regarding your studies or
your reading, we shall take great pleasure in advising you; or should
you desire any information which you can not obtain from books within
your reach, we will do our best to aid you. We shall also be glad to
hear about your sports, your pets, or about any curious thing in nature
which may come under your observation.

You must bear in mind that your communications must be very brief,
because there are so many of you that we can not give a great deal of
space to any one. We will endeavor to be kind and attentive to each and
all alike.

It is very easy in these times to send letters in Uncle Sam's big
mail-bag; and when you write on your neat, delicate note-paper, and put
the pretty postage-stamp on the right-hand corner of the envelope,
perhaps you never think of the way your great-grandparents went to work
when they wanted to send a letter. First they took a very large square
sheet of coarse blue paper, or, if they were young ladies and
fancy-minded, one with a bright tint of pink or yellow. As postage was
high, when they had written the pages full, straight across, they would
turn the sheet sideways, and write at right angles to the other lines,
and then corner-wise, perhaps, with a different-colored ink. There were
no envelopes in those days, and the sheets had to be ingeniously folded,
so that no curious postmaster could pry into family secrets. There was
always a portion of the last page left blank, to form the outside of the
letter, which, after being folded and directed, was sealed with a big
red wafer. It was then ready to be started off the next time the
stage-coach came through the town, for there were no railroads in those
days, and often the mail-bag was carried miles and miles on horseback
through wild regions where now the steam-engine whirls along with its
long train of cars.

It was not necessary in those days to prepay the postage, which was much
dearer than it is now. There were no postage-stamps, and big figures
were written or stamped on the outside of the