forts. But I can not tear myself away from all that is dear to my heart, without taking leave of Aunt Sue, whom I have learned to love as if she were really my aunt. And now farewell. I go to battle with the world, and whether misfortune or success attend my struggles, your name and your deeds shall ever have a place in my memory, and the recollection of them will serve but to excite my energy and to nerve my arm. I remain, Yours with sincere respect, O. L. BRADLEY. Miss M. S. B. The communication you send me is good, and may perhaps be available in such lands as the editors of the Sunday-school papers, though it is not adapted to my pages. I sympathize with you very deeply in your efforts to make your pen profitable both to others and yourself. You must not, however, expect remuneration until you have had some experience. I had to write at least half a dozen years beforo I received a mill for my manuscripts. You will succeed, though, if you persevere, and if you have the grace indicated in the admonition, "Learn to labor, and to wait." North Industry, O., Oct. 13, 1856. DEAR UNCLE FRANK,-As you permit so many to call you uncle, you will certainly grant me the same privilege. For many years we have taken the Youth's Cabinet, by which I have been amused and benefited, and many times have felt like writing to you, but feared your criticisms would be too severe. Now the ice is broken and I slipped in; and if you will help me out, I will be one of your nephYour nephew, ews. LEWIS F. GOODWILL. So, then, you don't like to be criticized. Well, it is n't pleasant, that is, it does n't feel good to have one's composition, on which he has expended a good deal of labor, and which, perhaps, he has made just as perfect as he is able to make it, cut up without mercy. Still, don't you think, after all, that criticism will do you good? There are a great many medicines which are any thing but pleasant to take. But the doctors tell us they must be taken when we are sick, if we want to get well. So with the criticism. It may be bitter medicine sometimes; but the patient will be likely to be better off if he takes it. Uncle Frank has been very severely criticized in his day, and he is glad of it now. The next letter is from Iowa. It is evidently written by one who has not had much experience in letter-writing; but he need not be ashamed of this effort. It is handsomely done: Davenport, Iowa, Oct. 16, 1856, DEAR UNCLE FRANK,-I take the liberty of writing a few lines to you to let you know I am very well, and hope you are the same. I have been a subscriber to your Youth's Cabinet for the last year, and like it very well. Davenport, the place where I live, is a very nice place, situated on the eastern side of the Missis sippi River, opposite the town of Rock Island. Davenport contains over twelve thousand inhabitants, and has several fine public buildings and private residences. I hope if you ever come to Davenport, you will come to see me. Your affectionate nephew, J. BLAINE MASON. Galena, Ill., Oct. 23, 1856. DEAR UNCLE FRANK,-Tea is just over; the room lighted; a warm fire in the stove, and as the storm is raging without, there is no danger of visitors, so I have taken out my writing-desk to chat with you, and send you answers, etc. We are having strange weather here in the West. September was chilly, and on the last day of that month, we had snow all day. Can you boast of as much as that? Then October came in warm and pleasant, and we have had charming Indian-summer weather, doors and windows all open; until today it is windy and stormy again. I was much pleased to find that one of my enigthe Cabinet. I consider it quite a treat mas was good enough to find a place in to be thus honored. I have been very successful in getting answers this month. I have found nearly all. I think the puz on head could have invented them. I didn't expect to have found them out; but one day, feeling a little lazy, I took up the Cabinet, when it struck me what the first one was, and instantly I had them all. That on your name is excellent, I think, don't you? But I will send my answers, zles, etc., very good, and those anagrams on the special attention of the editor, I "noted personages and things" are think. But aside from that consideration, capital, but none but O. L. Bradley's wise I don't believe that I have any power in my constitution to deny such a request as this from any subscriber, when the request is expressed in such pleasant terms. Yes, I'll write to you, Miss Mary; and you need not be at all surprised to find your kind invitation accepted, one of these days, and to see Uncle Frank make himself at home at " Spring Vale." Mind, now. I don't say I shall come. But don't you be suprised, and hold up both hands with astonishment, if you should see me at your house. or I shan't have room on this small sheet. WINONA. Spring Vale, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1856. MY DEAR UNCLE FRANK,-(For I suppose that I may be allowed to address you by that familiar epithet,)-I have long had a desire to write to you; but within this desire was contained the wish that you would write to me. I knew that your time was very much occupied, and feared, as we were not personally acquainted, you probably never having heard of me, that you would think me intruding to ask you to spend even a little of your precious time in writing to me; yet I determined, at the risk of your thinking me presumptuous, to ask this favor, and to do myself the pleasure of writing to you. I have been very much pleased with your Cabinet, which I have taken since 1846 (in my father's name until a few years since). I remember when quite a small child to have thought that I should be sorry when I grew too old and wise to be interested by the little stories in the Cabinet; but that has been improving every year, and now, at the mature age of seventeen, am, far from being tired, delighted with every new number. Your accounts of your travels in Europe have been very interesting to Yet I hope that your health is now too good to demand absence from your own country for the winter. Let me say to you before I close, that we live in a very pleasant villa near the village of Kingston, where Uncle Frank would ever be welcome, and all would be done by the inmates to make his stay agreeable. Now, dear uncle, if you will spare a few moments to write me a letter, it will be prized very much; for I feel much attached to you. Your affectionate niece, me. MARY L. B. I assure Miss Mary that I shall write to her without fail. A person who has taken the Cabinet for ten years, has some claim Winona has sent some excellent anagrams, which are filed for publication. Her enigmatical dinner-party is equally excellent; but as it was written on the back of the same leaf which contained the anagrams, and I had not time to copy it, I was obliged to send it to the shades. Helen. There is only one objection that I can discover to your stanzas. They are not good enough. Jonathan wants to know the origin of our word mum, which is used to denote silence. It was used, no doubt, in the first place, on account of the sound of the word, as it imitates the noise we make in closing the mouth suddenly, while in the act of speaking. The word, it seems, is a very old one. Mumm is a term by which the Danes express the idea of muffling, or masking. It is from this source, I suppose, that we derive the word. Our word mumble, you need hardly be told, comes from the same root. It, too, is one of those verbs which have their origin in the sound indicated in pronouncing the word. W. M'K. "I'll keep up a regular correspondence with you, if agreeable." Well, go ahead; but not as you have begun, though. You have written on both sides of your sheet. AUNT SUE'S BUREAU. HERE is a letter dated August 28th. I wonder where it has been lying all this time; to think I should have missed those grapes and flowers! Thank you, Mollie dear, for your kind offer; write again. With regard to the "little corner," walk in and make yourself perfectly comfortable. "City of Flowers," August 28, 1856. MY DEAR AUNT SUE,-Please, may n't I have a little corner in your great big warm heart? I do so want to have you love me if only a little. I love to read the Cabinet ever so much, and find out the answers to the Puzzler's Drawer; yet I have never sent them, as I was almost afraid you would n't like it. I don't like Uncle Frank, because when he was out West he passed within a few hours' ride of us, and never called. If you will come to see me, I will give you the most beautiful grapes, and, what is better, the dearest little bouquet you ever had, with sweet monthly roses in it. Give my love and kisses to all my cousins, for they are mine, are they not? May I write again some day? MOLLIE E. Here is a letter from Phebe, who seems a little afraid that my lecture on misspelled words might have applied to her. I am happy to say I do not remember the name of one of the offenders; but I don't believe she was among them. The present letter gives no evidence of short-comings in that respect. Touching the likeness, suppose I should send you one through the post-office, am I to direct it "To Miss Phebe, Hazlebank, August 17th, 1856 ?" I pause for a reply. Hazlebank, August 17, 1856. DEAR AUNT SUE,-Yesterday I went to our country post-office, about two miles from here, and what most welcome visitor do you suppose I got?-the Youth's Cabinet. I have not read all of it yet. Mother is now performing that enviable task; or, perhaps I should say, is enjoying that privilege. I looked over part of Aunt Sue's Bureau, and saw what a scolding she gave to us blundering urchins about the misspelled words. Did I make any of those horrid mistakes? If so, I would take back, make right, and return, if I only knew which they were. I do not give it up yet about Aunt Sue's likeness; perhaps it is impertinent in me to do so, but I would so like to see it. I do not believe she half knows, or she would give me some faint hopes of meeting with that picture so much resembling Pope Pius the Ninth. Very affectionately your niece, PHEBE. My friend Theodore seems to feel a little Vexed with me for dropping the S. N. Why, Tete, you surely would n't have two mothers! One is as much as any one deserves, and every extra "Aunt" is "clear gain." Upon re-consideration, don't you agree with me? Boston, Mass., October 6, 1856, DEAR AUNT SUE,-May I take the liberty (though I wish no such liberty had been invented) to begin so? I had a good mind never to write to you for changing your name. My mother's initials are S. N.; so I should have two mothers. Am I not impertinent? I'm However, you may be as formal as you afraid I haven't been formal enough. like in your comments on it. But, just as if my letters would be put into print! Yours truly, THEODORE. Little Georgie's buinp of imaginativeness must be unusually developed. Kiss the dear little fellow for me, will you, George? Cameron Mills, Oct. 9, 1856. DEAR AUNT SUE,-I received the Cabinet for October last Monday. I think that there were some very good pieces in it. I have read what you said about Trenton Falls. I have never been there myself, but my father was born at Trenton, and my mother has been there many times. She freely indorses your opinion of the beauty of its scenery. Father has gone letter. I can not make as good ones as the rest, but I make the best I can.* I will not intrude upon your patience any longer. Please excuse all mistakes and poor writing. Your nephew, to California, and mother and myself board | I like the Cabinet better the longer I read with Aunt Adelia, who has a dear, sweet it. I will send an enigma along with this little boy, nearly three years old. We call him Georgie, and think that he is very cunning. One pleasant moonlight night, about two months ago, there were no clouds, except a few fleecy ones here and there. We went to take a walk, when suddenly a little fleecy cloud passed over the moon, just as it was passing. Georgie cried out, "See, George; see, the moon smokes-the moon smokes !" which made us all laugh. GEORGE F. SLY. Troy, October 9, 1856. DEAR AUNT SUE,-Is that unanswered enigma to be like the charade of Præd? I for one have tried my utmost to solve it, but have failed at last. Will you please to speak to H. B. P. through the medium of the Cabinet? If you do so, I have no doubt but that more than one reader of my favorite monthly visitor will be pleased. Don't you think that that animal is the zles in the October number, and send you onagra? I have solved some of the puzthe results of my labors. HENRY A. DANKER. I believe Uncle Frank has something to say about that enigma. I am not acquainted with your friend "Onagra." I think you must mean the "Onager." The animals I tried were "Tartar" and "Quagga." Those I endeavored to fit on to "trumpet," hautboy," "bag-pipe," "clarion," etc., and I certainly succeeded in turning out some of the most remark able heroes I ever heard of. It is too much for me, and I fairly give it up. Hayfield, Va., October 11, 1856. AUNT SUE,-You will see by this that I have taken the liberty to write a few lines to you. I have received the October number of the Cabinet. I think the puzzles are uncommonly hard; so much so, that I can answer but very few of them. EUGENE F. RANDOLPH. "Angels could no more."-Aunt Sue. Portsmouth, Ohio, October 13, 1856. DEAR AUNT SUE,-I am going to tell you a great secret, and you must not let any but your very particular nieces and friends know any thing about it. When the Cabinet for this month arrived, the very first thing I opened to was your acceptance of my June letter, and a cosy corner of "the Bureau" for myself among the host of warm-hearted cousins which make that section of the Cabinet so very pleasant. Now, when ma saw it, she complimented her little Bettie very much, I do believe I have grown more in the last and gave one of her sweet kisses. Oh! Í tell you, Aunt Sue, it made me feel proud. few days than in six months before, and, by the way, that is no very inconsiderable amount either, for I am now almost as large as sister Rhoda. But this letter is long enough already, and I do not wish I inclose answers to the puzzles, etc., in to tire you with too much at one time. the October number, of every one but the first, which I "give up." Affectionately yours, BETTIE KENDALL. I should not transgress your rule of writ- Dettie, I suppose you did n't think there was much in your "P. S.," but you can't think with what pleasure I read it. I do so love to hear of brotherly and sisterly kindnesses; so if you want to do your Aunt Sue a favor, be kind to one another, and then let the one who receives the kindness write to me about it. |