MARIE LOUISE USHER, Wild Wood Post-office, Catahoula Parish, La.
Any one, whether a subscriber or not, may write to our Post-office Box.
There are three cats which I would like to tell you about, but as it would be too long a letter, I will divide it into two, and send you the other another time. The first was a little half-bred Persian, and as she had beautiful fur, we called her Fluffy. She belonged to my sister, so we took her to a boarding-school in England, for we lived there then. After breakfast at school we used to have prayers, and I am sorry to say Fluffy used to behave very badly. She would jump up on the table and lick the butter off the bread, or run up the curtains, and look down from the top with such a catch-me-if-you-can air that it was very difficult to keep from laughing. We had great fun with her, for she used to walk into the school-room in the middle of lessons, and of course we used to try and hide her from the governess. We had her at school about a year, and then she died. All the girls were very fond of her, she was such a bright, loving little creature, so all the boarders went into mourning for her for a week.
I have written once before, but my letter was not printed. I suppose you have a great many letters to attend to. I have a sweet little brother. He has been very sick, but he is getting better now. We have a cute little kitten, and its name is Toby Tyler. My papa is going to New York to open a studio this winter. I am very sorry, because it will be so lonesome here without him. He says maybe he will go where they publish this nice paper, and then he will write and tell us all about it. When Toby Tyler's monkey died, my little brother cried like everything, and I felt like it too. Please ask Jimmy Brown to tell us some more of his sad mishaps.
I have written two letters to HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, and have never seen them in print; but I will try once more. I thought the first one went into the waste-basket, but I have since found out that both were put safely into a pigeon-hole. One day not long ago I was sitting in school, and I heard a curious noise at my ear. I stopped studying, and listened. I distinctly heard the words: "Oh dear! I am so tired squeezed in here so tight. This morning when the mail came, that great monster of a man pushed a whole lot more letters in beside me. I am going to get acquainted with them." I then heard a rustling noise, and then: "How do you do? Aren't you rather tired?" "Oh my! I should think so. I am packed in so that I can scarcely breathe. How long have _you_ been here?" "Ever since last April." "I have just come this morning, but I have been on the road three days. I came from Kansas, and the name of the little girl who wrote me is Maudie B. She has seven kittens, a pet lamb, and a little pony, besides a whole family of dolls." I heard another curious noise, almost like thunder, only not so loud, then a bang and--awoke to find it half past two, my lesson not learned, and a boy beginning to ring the bell which is always rung just before recess.