LETTERS FROM LITTLE FOLKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2298, 17 March 1898, Page 51

LETTERS FROM LITTLE FOLKS.

Dear Dor, — The place I live in is called licchiel. It is a very ptetty place in summer. I read the letters fiotn little folks every week, and I think gome of them are very nice. We are having cur harvest holidays from school just now, hut we have only got a month. A concert and dance are to be held in tbe school on March 16. Dear Dot, I have two little kittens ; will you please give me nieo names for them. One of them is pure black and the other 13 white and light grey. I musS now say good-bye, Dot. — ■Sours truly, Maetha Jane Sfowaet. Loehiel, March 8. LI hope your concert and danca have proved a success, Martha, and that you all enjoyed yourselves. Call the kittens Night and Day. — Dot.] Dear Dot, — When I was hunting for rabbits the other ds,y I caught my foot in a horrid trap. It is my Itfa hir,d leg, and ib is very sore. I am, in fact, quite an invalid, and my mistress allows me to lie all day on a nice woolly rug in front of the fire. My mistress has returned from her journey — likewise the old parrob. Horrid old bird ! He runs after me all day crying, " Poor puss ! Got a soro foot? Very bad indeed — call the doctor ! Poor puss ! " He makes me frantic. I have not much news to teli you this time, Dot, so you must be content with a short letter. I like somo of the letters in the "Witness very much. 1 always read it after I come home from school on Fridays. You will think it funny that a cat goes to school ; but I do. I learn French, music, drawing, and many other things. lam quite an educated cat. — Youzs truly, Miss Mepho-cat. St. Clah-, Ahaura, March 1. P. 5. — I enclose one dozen penny stamps for the cats " wotlarn in the kindgardur." [It is very kind of Mepho-cat to think of the little people of the kindergarten, but of course one expects something good of an educated cat;, notwithstanding tha name selected, which is certainly a little forbidding. — Dot.] Dear Dot, — I am going to tell you about the North Island, as we came from T aranaki province. The bash there was very pretty and full of flowers and ferns and moss. The rata tree has a lovely, velvety red flower, and a whits flower used to climb all around the tops of some of the highest trees. There were also a great many different kinds of berries, some poisonous and others not. The fuchsia berries are nice when ripe, and so are those of the the bull-a-bulls." It is a shrub about Bft or 10ft h'gb, and very bushy. It ggrows all along the roads and where bush has been felled. The berriea are a bright orange colour or near red when ripe, and are very sweet, with something like the flavour of a pineapple. Three of my brothers used to go away all day amongst the bush and logs, but they always turned up ai; dinner time. It was a habit they had, unless they could tell the time by the sun. It was not because they were hungry, because they could always get berries. They used to be off as soon as they got breakfast, and then away again after dinner, and I am sure mother was glad to get them away out of the road. We used to milk a lot of cows — sometimes 25 — and they were good ones, all but one or two. We had a separator. There was a lot of hard work, but it was worse setting all the milk before we got the separator, though the cream was harder to churn after, because the separated cream is thinner than the set cream. One day cne of my little brothers — the youngest one that used to go away — saw the large churn ready to start. The lid was off, but he did not know, so he caught the handle and pushed it up with all his might. It turned and emptied out three or four bucketsful on to the dairy floor. It was an ear.th.en. floor* too, ft was a very

large, square churn, and we made about 801 ft in it at once. It had a square lid, which fitted on with bars, and the churn itself wentf, round. It was not hard to turn, as the creator falling from side to side helped to tend I'd round. Father was just gone a minute, eitheE' for more cream or water to pat in, and thai was when the little fellow thought he'd have m turn at the churn. My letter is getting toy long, so good-bye just now. — Yours truly, Cheviot, March 9. Christina Blowat, [That would be a lesson to yonr liifcla brother not to meddle with the churn, I should think, Christina. What a mess it must have made. I should think your brothers miss their; bush rambles very much, for you have no bush at Cheviot, have you ? — Dot.]

Dear Dot, — We are two schoolgirls, who, having nothing to do, thought we would write to you, if you would be so kind as to publish our letter, though it won't be a very long one. Wa go to a private school in Dunedia where there are only about 30 girls, some of whom are very nice and jolly, while others we dojnofc care for so much. One of us lives at St. Clair and the other at North Dnnedin. Another of our school mater, whom we like very much, is coming up to spend this afternoon with us, and we expect to have a grand time. We are both very fond of reading, and we have read a great many books. We like stories of adventure best, and as we both have brothers we can easily procure them. We are afraid that we are very naughty at school sometimes, and. we are always getting into what we call "rows," but we are generally very sorry afterwards, and make it up by knowing our lessons to perfection next day. As we are called to dinnur we must now close. — Yours truly, Two Schoolgirls (C. and D).

[I hope to hear from C. and D. again, as they write a very nice letter, and heva no dcubb plenty to tell us about their school life.— Dot.]