w its natural instincts, it
would not have died.

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PROVINCETOWN, MASSACHUSETTS.

I am seven years old. I want to tell all the boys who read YOUNG
PEOPLE that I live where they catch those big whales. My uncle
goes in a vessel after them. He has killed nine this spring. The
largest one was over sixty feet long, and made fifty barrels of
oil. They shoot the whales with a bomb-lance.

FREDDIE R. A.

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BENTON, ILLINOIS.

I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and I think it is a very interesting paper. I
am living in Benton now, and very soon I will have a little dog, a
lamb, and a pig. Some of you that live up North will think a pig
is a very strange pet; and yet when you think that the pig is
white and clean, then perhaps you would like him better. Perhaps I
shall have a canary-bird and a kitten, but I am not sure.
To-morrow I am going to see somebody weave a carpet. I have to
study history and French every day except Saturday and Sunday. I
like to study them when they are easy enough.

LILIAN MCD.

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JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.

I found hepaticas on the 7th of April, and anemones a little
later. Violets, shooting-stars, Solomon's-seal, wild geranium, and
jack-in-the-pulpit are in blossom now (May 14), as well as other
wild flowers. I have seen woodpeckers, orioles, lots of robins and
blue jays, brown thrushes, and bluebirds. When I was going out in
the yard this morning I saw several chipmunks.

ALICE C. L.

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PROSPERITY, SOUTH CAROLINA.

I live down in "Dear old South Carolina." We have a nice flower
garden, and there are plenty of flowers in blossom already. It has
been very warm this winter. I did not start to wearing shoes till
nearly Christmas, and I pulled them off again on my birthday,
which was the 4th of March.

My father is an editor, and we get a great many papers to read. I
am very much interested in "Across the Ocean." I used to live up
in the snow, on the banks of the Potomac.

J. W. H.

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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

I live in the city, but I have got some chickens, and am very much
interested in them. I have raised some; but there is an old cat