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STUTTGART, GERMANY. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I am a little German girl—that is to say, I was born in London and lived there till I was eleven, when we came here. I have read your nice magazine with much pleasure, and enjoy reading the stories very much. I especially like "A Boy of the First Empire," "June's Garden," and "Master Skylark.' I also enjoy your lovely illustrations, especially those of Varian, Birch, and Relyea. As I draw a great deal my. self, I often copy them, especially the horses, as I like to draw them best. I read with much interest the letter by Margaret Hitchcock, as I hate bearing-reins (as they are called in England). I have also read 66 Black Beauty," which is my favorite book; besides that, I have five other books about horses. I do as much as I can to make people leave off using bearing-reins. I have already written about it to a great many people, known and unknown.

I belong to a children's society in England, called "The Children's Order of Chivalry," which has a department called Companions, edited by Mr. Sambrook. This appears every month in the weekly agricultural paper of Lord Winchelsea called The Cable. To The Cable I once wrote a letter about bearing-reins, and I received a great many interesting answers. I hope it will soon get out of fashion, as it tortures the poor creatures so; it is especially tightly used in London, which is a great shame, I think. We used to have horses in England too, and they never had one.

It is very pretty in Stuttgart, as it is surrounded on all sides with hills covered with vineyards and woods; there are lovely woods here, into which we often take walks. We have a little dog called "Waldmann," of which we are all very fond. He is a "dachshund," as they call them here; once he nearly caught a hare in the woods. He is very watchful and a dear little fellow. Now I must close, as I still have to do my lessons; besides, I will tire you with so much news about an unknown little reader.

Your constant reader and admirer,
SOPHIE EISENLOHR (age 13).

ERIE, PA.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: On my birthday all my Brownies came to dinner. My mama called it a "Brownie Banquet." In the center of the table there was a high dish with paper flowers on it, and paper Brownies peeping out around the flowers; there was a plaster-jointed Brownie at the bottom of the dish, inside of the standard, looking through the glass.

For dinner we had roast duck, brown bread, Brownie and graham crackers, brown cookies, candy, and chocolate ice-cream, because it was brown. There were ribbons from the chandelier coming down to each corner of the table, and they were brown and white, with little packages of brown candy, wrapped up in brown papers, with Brownies printed on them, and pinned on to the ribbon. These were our favors. Yours truly,

WALTER A. CRANCH.

KEOKUK, IOWA. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We have been very much disappointed in our spring vacation this year, for it has rained all the week, and we have found it hard to find

something to do. But at last we hit upon the brilliant idea of having a theatre.

Of course you all have been to the play and know what fun it is, but perhaps you don't all know what fun it is to go on the stage yourself.

The usual difficulty in this game is the want of costumes, scenery, and so on. Costumes can easily be cooked up out of old clothes, and scenery is almost as easy. In a forest scene, I remember, we had the old Christmas tree without its ornaments, and some pine boughs. It really looked quite natural. A darkened stage with chains hanging about makes a cell, a few flower-pots and garden-seats, a fine garden, and a curtain with a hole in it, and the leading lady on a stepladder behind, makes a window, underneath which any number of serenades may be sung.

But some may have more trouble with the curtain than with anything else.

Of course it will be easy to make it slide on a rod or string, but that's not always just right. It's so much better to have the curtain rise.

We fix ours with a slanting row of rings from the lower right hand corner to the upper left hand one (or the other way) and run a string through them. You must be sure to have the string strong enough to bear the weight of the curtain, or it will break and the curtain will come down. Then if you tie the string together the knot will catch in one of the rings.

There are small accidents that always happen, such as losing love-letters, daggers, or poison, at the last minute; actors failing to appear when their time comes, and so on. Hoping that the readers of ST. NICHOLAS Will discover what fun it is to act, I am, DIANA ASHBURNHAM.

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DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: A dear friend you have been to us "ever since I was a little girl."

I am sorry I am a little girl no longer; but I thank you for remembering me every month, just as if I were, and for the delightful visits I have from you.

I am much "interested" in that boy and monkey of "A Winter Evening Problem," in the February number. I have propounded the problems at dinner, to older and wiser heads, and both old and young have enjoyed the merriment from the mental perplexity that always follows.

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monkey and boy go around the pole - the pole being between the monkey and the boy. It might as well be a house between them, around which both are going, it

seems to me.

If the monkey is on the same side of the pole on which the boy is, but manages to twist his face around toward the boy, and retains that position toward the boy, they go around the pole together and at the same time.

If you try to go around a house, and the house starts and moves with you, so that you see but one side of the house, you have not been around the house. The house has turned around on its foundation, and you have walked around its foundation, with the house as it moved.

Or, if two jockeys are riding their trotters about a race-course, and the two horses keep "neck and neck" (although the one may make the extreme inner circle, and the other the extreme outer circle of the track, yet if one keeps opposite the other, if they move together), will they not both have gone around the track, but neither around the other?

If a platform, circular in shape, was placed at the top of the pole, and the monkey walked on the extreme edge of the platform, and the boy described a smaller circle below, and they kept apace, could the monkey be said to walk around the boy?

P. S. It just occurs to me: The circle that the boy describes goes around the pole with the small one the monkey describes in his struggles to keep opposite the boy; and, after the boy's manly and conquering footsteps have formed the outer circle, that circle is around the inner circle of the monkey's manoeuvers, and around the monkey

But the boy did not conquer the monkey- the monkey faced him, and the monkey had the boy at an advantage; he was above the boy, in thought and action—that time.

If you walk around a mountain, you may walk at its summit or at its base. But if the summit of that mountain decides to turn on its center, and you walk around its base, while the summit turns with you, you have not walked around the summit, have you?

It seems to me the boy did not go around the monkey. Humbly your friend,

ELINA RUTH HUBBARD.

MAY we suggest to our bright correspondent that the solution to the puzzle lies in the words “walked around”? This phrase may mean either "described a path about," or "was upon all sides of"; and as we take one meaning or the other in the different cases suggested, we shall decide that the boy has or has not walked around the monkey. In other words, the puzzle is really a "catch" or play upon words.

We print with pleasure three poems written by a young friend of ST. NICHOLAS, Miss Florence R. Langworthy. The poems were written when the author was thirteen years of age.

"I AM WELL."

"AH, good morning, Jones; how are you, pray tell?" "Thanks, Mr. Smith; I am well- very well.

But there's a stitch in the small of my back,
I've a sore foot where I stepped on a tack,
And I must confess that both my ears ache,
And then my head feels as though it would break;
I broke my arm as I slipped on the floor,
And then bumped my shin on a nail in the door;
And I made my neck stiff by a bad fall;
My stomach is n't in order at all;

My cold has made me as hoarse as a crow,
So I'm prescribed for wherever I go;

I had a very bad toothache last night,

So my cheek's swelled as though I 'd had a fight.
Aside from these, which are too small to tell,
I'm well, Mr. Smith; exceedingly well!"

ARBOR DAY.

COME, children, come,
Sing a merry lay;
For it is spring,
And 't is Arbor Day.
Chorus:

Sing, children, sing,
For it is spring;
Sing, children, sing
This Arbor Day.

Children, be glad,

For birds now have come,

And flowerets

To perfume our home.

Chorus.

Come, children, come;
To the woods we 'll go-
Yes, to the woods
Where the flowers grow.

Chorus.

Sing, children, sing; Oh, happy are we That spring has come! Let us thankful be.

HOW SAD!

'T IS sad to see our hopes depart,
Our earthly treasures go;
But sadder still it is to see
My dear, sweet papa mow.

LINDA VISTA TERRACE, OAKLAND, CAL. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We have taken your magazine for about four or five years. We all enjoy it very much. I have a little canary bird that we call "Jennie."

One night about nine years ago, my oldest sister was looking out of the window when she saw what she thought was a little white dove in a tree. My papa went out and caught it, and found it was a little yellow canary bird. He brought it in, and ever since it has been a great pet in the family. It does so many tricks that I must tell you about them. It loves to play house with us. It will lie in a bed and pretend to be asleep. and jump up. It jumps over a stick, and will lie in my When we say, "Wake up," it will kick off the covers hand and pretend to be dead.

Your little friend,

FLORENCE TAYLOR.

WE thank the young friends whose names follow for pleasant letters received: Isabel M. Gates, Arthur P. Payson, L. G. C., Louise "C. A. T.," S. C. H., Marietta Edwards, Jack Rose Troup, May Stone, Noel B. Van Wagenen, Eva Louise Notingham, Swift Trow, John P. Reynolds, Dorothy Green, Francis Bayard Rives, Gerald S. Couzens, Ethel P. Slocum, Hanford B., Elsie B. M., Willie Walker, Florence Taibot, Rhoda E. Peter, Arthur Betts, Elizabeth Johnston, Jack Miller, Frances C. Reed, Ethel Land, Vera Ingram, Edith E. Maxon, Helen S. Lawrason, Felice Marshall Safford.

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ANSWERS TO PUZZLES PATRIOTIC PRIMAL ACROSTIC. Fourth of July. 1. Franchise. 2. Oppression. 3. Union. 4. Revolution. 5. Tory. 6. "Heathen Chinee." 7. Office. 8. Flag. 9. Justice. 10 United States. 11. Liberty. 12. Yankee.

HEXAGONS. I. From 1 to 2, bye; 3 to 4, love; 5 to 7, avail; 8 to 9, hart; 10 to 11, bee. II. From 1 to 2, cut; 3 to 4, duos; 5 to 7, sheet; 8 to 9, iron; 10 to 11, e'er.

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3. Together. 4. Pleasure. 5. China. 6. Forget. 7. Season. 8. Abandon. 9. Hatred. 10. Target.

DIAMOND. 1. D. 2. Car. 3. Nahum. 4. Calabar. 5. Dahabiyeh. 6. Rubicon. 7. Mayor. 8. Ren(t). 9. H. DIAGONALS. I. Holly: 1. Hotel. 2 Rough. 3. Filly. 4. Folly. 5. Rally. II. Fruit: 1. Fancy. 2. Arabs. 3. Abuse. 4. Cubit. 5. Sweet.

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field Scott. 1. Horn. 2. Acorn. 3. Nut. 4. Canoe. 5. Obelisk. 6. Coat. 7. Kangaroo.

COUNTRIES IN DISGUISE. Turkey, Hungary, Samoa, Sandwich Isles, Chili, New Zealand, Cape of Good Hope, Roumania, Wales, Ireland, Tunis, Greece, Ashantee, Queensland.

A FLIGHT OF STAIRS. 1. Car. 2. Carrot. 3. Rotten. 4. Tender. 5. Dermal. 6. Malaga. 7. Agaric. 8. Richer. 9. Hermit. 10. Mitten. 11. Tendon. 12. Donate. 13. Ate. NOVEL HOUR-GLASS. From 1 to 9, Telephone; 10 to 17, Audiphone. Cross-words: 1. Telephone. 2. Environ. 3. Limbo. 4. Eph. 5. P. 6. Ich. 7. Ditto. 8. Unicorn. 9. Audiphone. TO OUR PUZZLERS: Answers, to be acknowledged in the magazine, must be received not later than the 15th of each month, and should be addressed to ST. NICHOLAS "Riddle-box," care of THE CENTURY Co., 33 East Seventeenth St., New York City.

ANSWERS TO ALL THE PUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER were received, before May 15th, from G. B. Dyer-W. L.- Josephine Sherwood-Walter and Eleanor Furman-"Class No. 19"-Louise Ingham Adams-"The Buffalo Quartette"- Mabel M. Johns"Four Weeks in Kane"-Madeline, Mabel, and Henri- Katharine S. Doty - Sigourney Fay Nininger - Nessie and Freddie. ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER were received before May 15th, from Francis Tack, 1-Mary B. Smith, 1- - Mary Taber, 2-We, Us, and Co., 8- Helen C. Gross, 1- Bessie and Cornwall, 2- Irwin Tucker, 1-W. A. K., 1-"Spooks," 2- Margaret D. Latta, 1- Margaret Lyall, 1- Blanche Shoemaker, 1-Florence Freiler, Thomas Ellis Robins, 2- - Kent Shaffer, 1- Alma L. Knapp, 1-Wm. K. Dart, 3-Elizabeth W., 6-D. H. D., 1-"Honor Bright," 3-John W. Brotherton, 3-John de Koven Bowen, 2-Arthur and Posie, 3-Gertrude Brown, 1-"Queen Mab," 2-"Jersey Quartette," 10-"Two Little Brothers," 10- Mary Helen Lynch, 1-Marston Boughner, 2- Rhoda E. Peter, 2- Vera M. Freeman, 1-"Two Little Sisters," 1- Marion Hackett, 4-"G. G." and Caroline, 8-John P. Reynolds, 3rd, 1-Allil and Adi, 10-"V. V. V.," 2-Minnie Armans, 3- Frederick G. Foster, 2-"The Duet," 7" Big Headed," 3- Marion E. Larkspur, 3-Ada M. Burt, 6- Marjorie V. Smith, 2-Sumner Ford, 1-Theodora B. Dennis, 7- "Rikki-tikki-tavi," 4-"Femci," 7" Thistle," 3-Emily Foster, 3-Margaret Buckley, 2-"Firenze," 4-Roderick A. Dorman, I- Paul Reese, 10-"The Trio," 8- Howard B. Peterson, 10-E. Everett, Uncle Will, and Fannie, 7-Truda G. Vroom, 5Grace Levy, 10-Jo and I, 10-Winnifred Hanns, 4-1 Marguerite Sturdy, 8- "Ermyntrude," 2- Mary E. Meares, 1-"C. D. Lauer Co.," 10-Belle Miller Waddell, 10-Helen and Louise A. Little, 3-Howard Lothrop, 10-"The Bright Puzzlers," 9- Clara A. Anthony, 9- Florence and Edna, 7- Daniel Hardin and Co., 9- Helen S. Grant, 1.

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"Oh, yes, indeed," was the reply. "I will get my (7) quaces and be ready at once."

66

Very well," said the (8) tannelmeg, " and take a (9) slapoar with you; I have an (10) aulmerlb, so we will be prepared, whatever the (11) hawtree may be.

They started off with (12) tenrimmer and (13) thulrage, and after a short (14) rujenyo they came to the pemidthoro. It was in a large (15) lignbiud and Tericabe was a little (16) fetherding when the (17) sailman roared. And, too, there were so many on (18) teniboxihi that it seemed like (19) hintgader a (20) nylrbhiat.

But Mr. Sandvoid only (21) hagudle, and said it was (22) ubosivo his hadgerut was a (23) yechnotp.

After a (24) looqucyl with one of the (25) tedtantans, he told Tericabe that the (26) soollsac (27) ornieschor was the largest ever (28) hurtbog to this (29) yurnoct, and as the (30) hertbad of the (31) ruetrace was (32) moonsure, Tericabe could well believe the (33) tststsiaci.

After they had seen all the (34) dunflower (35) beisixth, they took their places to behold the (36) campoferren, and such (37) salvorume feats did the (38) scotarab perform that Tericabe almost (39) demraces out in (40) mix

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RIDDLE.

An incorporated town. 8. To unite. 9. Frisks. IO.
A full suit of defensive armor. II. One who ponders

A layer. 15. Evaded. 16. Part of an arrow. 17. To
exasperate.
J. M. C.

IT is sleek, and it 's lithe, and it rubs round your knee; studiously. 12. Wonderful. 13. A small anchor. 14.
It swims, and it also sails over the sea;
It warbles and trills in the top of the tree;
Sometimes it has one tail, sometimes it has nine;
Come, tell me the name of this strange beast of mine.
L. E. JOHNSON.

ILLUSTRATED DIAGONAL.

CHARADE.

WITHOUT my first the clergy would despair;
Without it where were conscience? self-control?
Consistency? contrition of the soul?

Yet, but for it, conversion, I declare,
Were a translation. Blind of heart, beware!
Behold the swine in second, "cheek by jowl";
Or else recall the saying, quaint and droll-
"It's in your eye," and look for second there.
'T is but a step to third, for it is, too.
Shun fourth! shun fourth! yet do not ask me why.
Is thy whole broken? Then I pity thee.

Thou may'st repair; thou canst not make anew.
Oh, whole! for thee well might brave freemen die,
Thou guardian of our priceless liberty.

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I. UPPER DIAMOND: I. In tragical. 2. A couch. 3. Ruins. 4. Middle. 5. A county of England. 6. To utter. 7. In tragical.

II. LEFT-HAND DIAMOND: I. In tragical. 2. Cunning. 3. Fright. 4. Step by step. 5. A very desirable card. 6. A chart. 7. In tragical.

III. CENTRAL SQUARE: 1. Large bundles of goods. 2. An old word meaning "to let fall." 3. A large basin. 4. The French word for "pupil." 5. Withers.

IV. RIGHT-HAND DIAMOND: 1. In tragical. 2. A weight. 3. A body of soldiers. 4. A barnyard fowl. 5. One who takes notice. 6. By. 7. In tragical.

V. LOWER DIAMOND: 1. In tragical. 2. A very open fabric. 3. A Roman historian. 4. To fold again. 5. To warm thoroughly. 6. To rest. 7. In tragical.

THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK.

ROGER HOYT AND FRED KELSEY.

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