well. But you should
beware of cooling quickly afterwards, and of sitting in a draughty or
windy place.

FLORENCE.--As the swelling in your hands is constitutional, your general
health needs very strict attention, as there must be a good deal amiss.
You should live generously, eat heat-making food, take a tonic of a
preparation of iron, and wear woollen under-garments next the skin.

MRS. SWEET tells us she has "asked most important things," which, alas!
we seem to have overlooked, and certainly have forgotten. We are very
sorry, dear little Mrs. Sweet-tooth, and are glad that your kind pa and
ma "like your writing and think it has improved." Try to remember that
you must not steal an "e" from the poor little word "please." We shall
be glad to hear from our small friend again, and hope that her next
letter will not be so long in turning up to the top of our great
mountain of letters.

LOCHABER.--Dante was unquestionably greater as a poet and man of genius
than Goethe; but we could not draw such a comparison between the lady
novelists you name; their styles were very different and equally
meritorious.

FELIX.--You had better apply to the editor of _Parodies_, care of
Messrs. Reeves and Turner, Strand, London, W.C., as we have not leisure
to make the search for you.

S. F. S. T. C.--It is quite natural and harmless to appreciate the
regard and love of those around you. If kind and true and helpful to
them, and you maintain your own self-respect in all your words and
actions, they must value and respect you. Your writing is good. It is
inexpedient to repeat the impertinent assertions of those who have not
sufficient powers of discernment between the painstaking replies to our
thousands of correspondents and what they are pleased to designate "a
hoax."

DAISY LAYLOR.--Lettuce leaves can only serve as a _pis aller_, or
"makeshift" as food for caterpillars before the mulberry leaves come
out, just to save them from starvation; but the latter is their natural
and proper food, and yours are probably dying from want of them.

G. D. C.--You should write to some of the great shipping firms owning
passenger vessels for all such particulars. Rules and terms vary a good
deal, and to give those of one firm would not enlighten you in reference
to others. You ought to understand the duties of a lady's-maid, and be a
good sailor.

NAUGHTY ONE should ask her music teacher whether she should continue her
practising during the vi