you tell me what Cleopatra's
needle is. I read about its voyage in the papers.--Yours truly,
B. L. F.

The obelisk known as Cleopatra's needle, presented by the Khedive to
England, is a great stone that was cut out in one piece from the quarries
of Syene, Egypt, it is supposed in the time of Thothmes III. (about 1600
years B. C.), when, also, it was set up in the temple of Karnak, at
Thebes. It is a tall, rectangular pillar, tapering from the base to near
the top, where it is pointed like a flattened pyramid; its sides are
inscribed with hieroglyphics. The obelisk was taken to Alexandria by Queen
Cleopatra, and was named after her. Some think that Cleopatra's Needle
was another stone, quarried by order of Ramesis II., and set up in
Heliopolis, the City of the Sun; but several obelisks have borne the name,
and this may have caused uncertainty about them. The former account is
believed to be correct.

* * *

Ashland, Wis.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I saw, in your January number, two ways pictured for
carrying the mails. Here, where I live, on the shore of Lake Superior, we
see both ways at the present time. The mail from Bayfield comes on the
backs of packers, and on the railroad the mails come from Milwaukie and
other points south of us.

We have a jolly fire-place. It is large enough for Santa Claus to come
right down without any trouble; and he filled our stockings full last
year.--From your constant reader, ESTELLE WILMARTH.

* * *

We have received the following letters in answer to Alice Clinton's
question, in the February "Letter-Box," asking for a list of books
pleasant to read:

Ogdensburg, N. Y.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Will you please tell Alice Clinton, if she wants some
interesting and instructive books, to read Dickens's "Child's History of
England" and Higginson's "History of the United States."--Truly yours,
LULIE JAMES.

Brooklyn.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have taken you ever since you were born, and I like
you better all the while.

I think Alice Clinton would enjoy "About Old Story-tellers," by Ik Marvel;
"America Illustrated," edited by J. David Williams: and