ens.

Since being here, we have seen pink and blue chickThey are really white, but the natives dye them, and sometimes a puppy is dyed, and they all look very funny.

When we were in Manila we went to see all the old churches; they were very interesting. Some of them have very beautiful altars with silver trimmings.

We visited a church at Oton (a very small town near here), and it has the altar in the middle of the church.

In Manila we went to see the old wall and the old forts, and where the moat used to be, there is green grass. Inside these fortified walls is the "Walled City." In some of the entrances you can see where the drawbridge used to be, and the pulleys which they used to draw up the bridge at night or in war-time.

I wait anxiously every month for ST. NICHOLAS, because I enjoy it so much.

Sincerely yours,

CATHARINE ANNA HAMILTON (age 11).

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have read your magazine for more than two years, and I think it is time for me to write and tell you how much I appreciate it. I am not the only one in the family who likes to read your magazine, for Mother likes to read the poems and stories written by children.

There is also another person in our house who enjoys your magazine very much. This person is an old man who works for us; he cannot write, and can read very little. Often when I go into the kitchen I find him bending over the latest ST. NICHOLAS trying to read it, and he thinks that he never saw nicer pictures than those in your magazine.

Does n't it give you a nice feeling to know so many enjoy you?

Lovingly,

PEGGY FAY (age 11).

NEW YORK, N. Y. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have been taking you for only one short year, but during that time you have become one of my dearest friends. To us, the coming of ST. NICHOLAS is indeed considered a "red-letter day." Although I am very interested in your serial stories, you have published some short stories that I shall not soon forget. Among my favorites are "Larry Goes to the Ant," "Black on Blue," and "The Freshman Freak.”

I am especially grateful to you for the play entitled "Everygirl," which you published in the issue of October, 1913. We girls played it at school for our literary

club, and it proved a wondrous success-and why not? For is it not a ST. NICHOLAS play? Shortly after our first performance, our principal requested that we present it at our graduation exercises. Then of course we held a grand council concerning costumes, and we decided to have them exactly in accordance with those illustrating the play. There were about a thousand persons present at graduation, and the play was a most brilliant success. One and all declared that a more suitable play could not have been found. There is a certain quality in "Everygirl" that appeals to the heart as well as the brain.

I want to mention one more thing before I close, that is, how much I admire the clever contributors to the League, especially Miss Lucille Fitch, many of whose poems I have memorized. Your loving reader,

FANNIE I. MARX.

HYATTSVILLE, MD.

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have been a member of the League for five years, but I am unable to contribute, as we get you a month after the date.

I am an Argentine, but my parents are North Americans, and I think the United States is a lovely country. I go to high school, so I know how to write Spanish better than English.

So many people are mistaken about Buenos Aires; they think it is a small pueblo (town); it is a big city of about 1,600,000 inhabitants.

I have traveled over a part of the country, and in the small villages you still find the old Spanish customs that have disappeared in the big cities. We have bananatrees here, but they never give fruit, as the climate is too cold. The winters are very severe, though it never snows, but rains for weeks at a time, until the streets are flooded.

Thanking you for all the pleasure you give me, I am, Your devoted and loving reader,

ROSE PURCELL HUNTINGTON (age 13).

ITHACA, N. Y.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: This will be the second year that I have taken you. I am sure that there is no book or magazine that I like better. At present, my favorite stories are "Peg o' the Ring" and "The Boarded-up House."

Quite a while ago there was a letter published from a girl in Erie who told all about the Perry Centennial. I would be very glad to have her know that Commodore Perry was my great-great-uncle, and that I was in Erie at the time of the celebration. It certainly was wonderful. I probably saw her in the parade.

I am a Camp-fire girl. We have awfully good times, and we have a perfectly lovely guardian. Your enthusiastic reader, DOROTHY PERRY (age 12).

ILLUSTRATED CENTRAL ACROSTIC

EACH of the eleven little pictures may be described by a single word. When these words are rightly guessed and written one below another, in the order in which they are numbered, the central letters will spell the name of a famous man who was born in Hartford in 1758. He had a great deal to do with letters.

OBLIQUE RECTANGLE

IN solving, follow the accompanying diagram, though the puzzle contains many more cross-words.

CROSS-WORDS: I. In Tennessee. 2. The woolly surface of cloth. 3. Black. 4. A celebrated Roman naturalist. 5. To follow. 6. A river of Alaska. 7. Pertaining to the god of the winds. 8. A nest. 9. A dwarf plant. 10. Silica. II. The post of a staircase. 12. A small Mediterranean vessel. 13. A nocturnal mammal allied to the monkeys. 14. A Hebrew measure of length. 15. Part of an umbrella. 16. In Tennessee.

ANITA L. GRANNIS (age 14), League Member.

BIOGRAPHICAL DIAGONAL

ALL of the surnames that appear in this puzzle contain the same number of letters. When these have been rightly guessed, the diagonal, from the upper, left-hand letter to the lower, right-hand letter, will spell a famous battle of the Revolution.

CROSS-WORDS: 1. A famous man associated with Concord. 2. "The Pathfinder." 3. An American general. 4. A British general of the Revolution. 5. A famous orator. 6. A President of the United States. 7. Another President of the United States.

MARGARET BLAKE (age 13), League Member.

WORD-ADDITIONS

EXAMPLE: To a pronoun add a circle, and make a fish. Answer, her-ring.

1. To raced add a bag, and make to plunder. 2. To a kind of meat add to ridicule, and make a swinging couch. 3. To abroad add to throw, and make a vagabond. 4. To a familiar abbreviation add a string, and make to refuse. 5. To a feature add a snug retreat, and make serious. 6. To sick add nurtured, and make vulgar. 7. To a body of water add a harbor, and make a

10. To

maritime city. 8. To constellation add a number, and make resembling the king of beasts. 9. To a branch add a cavity, and make an aperture in a coat. novel add a period of time, and make a holiday. 11. To a retreat add a German coin, and make a European country.

All the words are of equal length. When rightly guessed and written one below another, the initial letters will spell one of the United States.

RUTH BROWNE (age 13), League Member.

FROM 1 to 2, always on the dinner-table; 2 to 3, a strip; 3 to 4, lair; 4 to 5, at no time; 5 to 6, a deep track; 6 to 7, winding; 7 to 8, units of weight; 8 to 9, a large body of water; 9 to 10, fragrance; 10 to 11, a feminine name; II to 12, one of the United States; 12 to 13. monkeylike; 13 to 14, an ugly old woman; 14 to 15. lean; 15 to 16, a prefix meaning "three"; 16 to 17, to embrace; 17 to 18, a South American parrot; 18 to 19, a pronoun; 19 to 20, made of oak; 20 to 1, a person devoted to a religious life.

The letters represented by the figures from 1 to 20 may be arranged so as to form the names of three famous Presidents of the United States.

JESSE CARMACK (age 15).