TA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA.

I am eight years old. My home is near the sea. There are a great
many visitors here in the summer, and they bathe in the surf. We
have no snow here. The hills are already covered with green (April
4), and soon there will be a great many wild flowers. My teacher
reads stories to us from HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.

EDITH D.

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MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN.

On the 23d of March I picked some willow "pussies." They were the
largest I have ever seen here. I think it was very early for them
up in this cold country.

MAY L. B.

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BENTON, NEW YORK, _April 10, 1880_.

I found the first trailing arbutus in full bloom to-day. It was
very fragrant and pretty. We take YOUNG PEOPLE, and like it very
much. I have a pet rabbit that is pure white.

LOUISE D. T.

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FORT KLAMATH, OREGON, _April 1, 1880_.

I like YOUNG PEOPLE better and better all the time, and it seems
as if Tuesday was longer coming than any other day in the week,
because that is the day I get my paper. The snow is so deep that
the mail-carrier has a hard time getting 'way out to this fort to
bring us our letters and papers, and it is almost night sometimes
before he gets here. I told you that I had a little brother and a
dog to play with, and a pair of snow-shoes to go about the country
on, so I send you a sketch that, looks just like us when we are
out on the parade-ground playing.

SOPHIE L. W.

[Illustration: AT PLAY ON SNOW-SHOES.]

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DUNKIRK, NEW YORK.

I am six years old. I can read the letters in "Our Post-office
Box" myself. I have three little sisters. Helen and Ethel like to
look at the pictures in YOUNG PEOPLE, and hear the stories read. I
have a pet dog. His name is George William. He has a bad trick. He
steals eggs, and will drive the hens off the nests to get them.

GUY H.

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EDNA, MINNESOTA.

I wish to thank the children through YOUNG PEOPLE for sending me
so many nice presents since I wrote. A great many of those who
have written to me have inquired my age. I am sixteen, but I have
been to school only two years in my life. When I was between seven
and