oll, but they laughed till Sue
got up and ran into the house, where I could hear her screaming on the
front-parlor sofa, and mother crying out, "My darling child, where does
it hurt you, won't you have the doctor, Jane do bring the camphor."

Mr. Martin gnawed away at the earth, and used swear-words to himself,
and was perfectly raging. After a while he got the peg, and then he got
up with his face about the color of a flower-pot, and put on his hat,
and went out of the front gate rubbing his face with his handkerchief,
and never so much as saying good-night. He didn't come near the house
again for two weeks.

Mr. Travers gave me a half-dollar to go to the post-office to make up
for the one I had refused, and told me that I had displayed roaming
virtue, though I don't know exactly what he meant.

He looked over this story, and corrected the spelling for me, and told
me to send it to the YOUNG PEOPLE. Only it is to be a secret that he
helped me. I'd do almost anything for him, and I'm going to ask Sue to
marry him just to please me.

A CHAT ABOUT PHILATELY.

BY J. J. CASEY.

Philately? What is that?

Many years ago, beyond the longest recollection of the oldest of the
young people, a school-teacher in Paris (so one story goes) advised her
pupils to get specimens of different postage stamps, in order the better
to study their geography. There was a general searching among old
letters to secure these little bits of bright-colored papers. Parents
and friends were asked to save the stamps from their letters; strangers
at the post-office were pounced upon, the moment they received their
letters, for the stamps; and from this little beginning sprang
stamp-collecting.

At first it was limited to boys and girls; but the older people, seeing
the interest excited over these little pictures, and led on by their
endeavors to please their young acquaintances, began themselves taking
an interest in the things. From a pleasure it gradually became a study,
and a most fascinating one; and soon there were no more enthusiastic
collectors than the people advanced in years, wealth, position, and
social, literary, and scientific attainments. And to-day many great
people turn with pleasure from the cares of their life to the pages of
their stamp albums, to look over the numerous evidences of the growth
of the postal system, or to help some young friend in the filling up of
a modest little blank-book.

In spite of the ridicu