nquires how to ask for an autograph of a person whom
she admires, and which she thinks would add to the interest of her
collection. Such a letter might be written in this way:

DAISY MEAD, BROOKVILLE, NEW YORK.

_Mrs. Sarah Maria Chester:_

DEAR MADAM,--I am making a collection of autographs, and would
feel much honored if you would kindly allow me to add yours to the
number I have already received. I enclose a slip of paper and a
stamped and addressed envelope, and thanking you in advance for
granting the favor I ask, I am,

Very sincerely yours,
ELEANOR ALICE AMES.

Or perhaps you may like better this simpler form:

NO. 189 ASHTABULA STREET, ROME, ILLINOIS.

DEAR MRS. LADYLOVE,--I am a little girl twelve years old, living a
great many miles from you, but I have read your poems and stories,
and like them very much. It will make me very happy to receive
your autograph. Please use the slip of paper which I enclose in
the stamped and addressed envelope, which I add to save you
trouble.

Admiringly yours,
EMILY ANNE JINKS.

The form of address, you observe, is not arbitrary. But you must be
polite. You are soliciting a favor. And you must certainly send the
envelope addressed to yourself, and stamped. Always enclose return
postage in a letter which asks a friend to do you a kindness, to send
you information, or in any way to oblige you. One little two-cent stamp
is not very much to either your correspondent or yourself, but
postage-stamps soon count up when one has a great many letters to write
and answer.

Another girlie says, "Please tell me how soon I ought to answer my
friend's letter--the same day, or the next, or in a week, or what?"
Bless your dear heart, my child, answer as soon as you please, and if
you are writing to somebody you love, who loves you, the sooner the
better. A lady who has a large correspondence tells me that she always
replies to her friends while their letters are fresh in her mind, before
the glow and tenderness have faded. It is, as a rule much easier to
answer a letter when you have recently read it than when it has been put
aside for days and weeks. Still, much depends on the style of the
correspondence, and on the tie which binds you to your friend.

I have lately been reading some very remarkable letters. They are
published in a book called _Letters from the New Hebrides_, and are by
Maggie Whitecross