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LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

MR. EDITOR,

You will please to excuse me for introducing so many subjects into one letter. By inserting the following, however, you will oblige me very much.

You made some remarks (page 377 of your last volume) on a letter which I sent you. You said that I made a great many mistakes. It must have happened from my being in a hurry when I wrote it. You also said that I did not pay the postage. As to that, I never knew that you wished any postage paid, until I saw it mentioned in the November number.

My 7th, 11th, 9th and 10th is what we sit on. My 10th, 11th and 9th is a useful plant. My 6th, 5th and 2d is a place where wild beasts live. My 11th, 9th and 10th is what we all do. My 7th, 3d and 2d is what we are all guilty of. My 2d, 1st and 4th is a fruit. My whole will give you the name of a portion of the American continent. In haste, I am, yours truly, P. S. While writing the above, I was in a great hurry; if I have made any mistakes, you will please correct them.

P. S.

You wished to know how your readers liked Aunt and Uncle Newbury's Letters. I have in reply to say, that I like them very well, particularly "Think three times before you speak once." am very thankful to H. T. P. for sending you a note about artificial fire-works. If he would send you a description of them, I should feel obliged to him, as I have looked in several bookstores in this city, and cannot find the book he referred to. If he cannot send a descrip tion, will he send part of a description, and continue the other part at some other time.

I also send you the following puzzle. I am a sentence of twelve letters. My 7th, 1st and 2d is one of the heavenly bodies. My 4th, 3d and 2d is a metal. My 2d, 5th and 4th is a thing which is very useful to fishermen. My 2d, 3d, 2d and 5th is one of the digits.

THE BLUE JAY.

THIS is one of the few birds that remain with us during the whole of our long, cold, northern winters. Even he sometimes leaves us, and goes south for a while; but it is not on account of the cold; it is only when he can get no food by remaining.

Our country can hardly boast of a handsomer bird than the blue jay. His usual note, by which he is most familiar ly known, resembles a small trumpet. This, however, appears to be his cry of alarm; for he has a variety of other tones. Some of these are plaintive, some gen

tle, and a few sweet; but others resemble the hoarse whistling of the frog. But though his voice, at the best, is not very musical, his plumage is elegant; he is spirited and lively; and has a most brilliant and beautiful eye.

The jay builds his nest with very little care, though he takes a good deal of pains to conceal the spot. The eggs are generally five in number. They are dark colored, and speckled with brown. They lay eggs and hatch young in almost all parts of America.

Like all other birds of the same description, the jay, though he seems to

tious not to trust himself within his power.

In the summer he exults in wild freedom, and confines himself to the borders of the forest, sallying forth to make depredations on the fruit of the garden occasionally, though he does not despise insects and even humbler fare.

But, when the cold of autumn begins to cut off his supplies, he comes in to glean the field of Indian corn; a laborious employment, since he grinds before he swallows it: if men have left little of this luxury within his reach, he will sometimes content himself with a potato.

In the depths of winter he is often sorely perplexed to find any means of subsistence, and is driven in towards barns and houses, hoping to find some crevice in the one through which he can enter to help himself, or some Samaritan in the other who will have compassion on his sufferings.

Those who wish to form the acquaintance of these birds can easily do it in the cold season of the year, by throwing out to them occasionally a handful of

corn.

At first they will come timidly, and as if suspecting a snare, cracking the corn with their eye sharply fixed on the window, ready to fly at an instant's warning. But very soon they gain confidence, and approach the friendly mansion with as much composure as if it were their home. Those who think it worth their while to exercise a little

LONG-TOED BOOTS.

In the reign of Richard II. king of England, a kind of boot was worn with toes so long that to us they appear ridiculous. It is said by historians, that the toes of these boots were so long and so inconvenient in walking, that the wearer was obliged to loop them up to the knee by means of metal chains. It is also said that once, on the field of battle, the young cavaliers were so encumbered by these unnaturally long toes, that they were obliged to cut them off in the very midst of the conflict.

You laugh, and well you may, for it is a laughable matter. And yet, are we quite sure that there are no fashions among us at which people will laugh, in the same way, three, or four, or five hundred years hence?

AN ACROSTIC.

Most of you, I suppose, know what an acrostic is. It is a little piece of poetry, in which the first letters of the lines, read perpendicularly, spell the name of a place or a person. The following acrostic, taken from the New York Messenger, was addressed to the infant daughter of a friend, whose name, as you will see, was GEORGIANN ELIZABETH SCOTT.

Grateful on the parched hill,
E ve's refreshing dews distil;
O cean, with his pearly waves,
Rich with gems, the sandbank laves;
Gloriously the azure sky

I nvokes her coral minstrelsy;
A urora too, in joyous race,
Night's sable bands away doth chase:
Nature, in all her forms, has grace.

E 'en she too in her glorious dress,
Loved infancy, yet waits to bless!
In childhood's happy hour we see,
S he joyously keeps jubilee!

A bove, too, from yon blissful sphere,
B right angel spirits hover near!

}

E 'en more than this, oh, may'st thou prove;
Th' Eternal bless thee with his love;
His favor tend thy pilgrimage.

S hine on, childhood, youth and age:
Co-existent with his spirit,
Oh, what bliss thou shalt inherit!
Truth and mercy, joy and love,

T hro' endless days thou then shalt prove!

JUMPING. How curious it would be to see a man jump a quarter of a mile; and yet the flea jumps 250 times its length, which, if a man could do, would be equal to a quarter of a mile.

A FABLE.

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WHEN the Lynx was asked why he had attached himself to the Lion, and followed him everywhere, he said, "That I may live upon the refuse of his prey, and be safe under his protection from my enemies." Upon which they inquired, why he kept at such a distance, and seemed shy of a closer acquaintance; and he gave this answer, "Because I do not feel quite safe from his violence.

And it has been said, that a Gueber may worship the fire for a hundred years, but if he falls into it for one moment only it will burn him.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have received many solutions of the puzzle on page 279 of Vol. 4. but have neglected, till now, to notice any. The reasons for neglect we have not room to give; but we will endeavour to be sufficiently attentive to our correspondents hereafter. The solution referred to is "INTEMPERANCE.'

We have also received several other puzzles; one or more of which we intend to insert in each number of the magazine. The long answers of some writers, we cannot use. It is quite sufficient, if we give the whole word, as above. The reader must see whether it is correct.

He that is warm, thinks all are so.