There is an abundance of lovely ferns here. Will you please tell me the best way to press ferns and flowers?

EDITH LOWRY, Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Illinois.

Ferns and flowers should be laid carefully between two sheets of clean paper, the leaves artistically arranged in graceful shape, and placed under heavy pressure until they are dry. If the ferns are to be used for decoration, a warm iron, not too hot, must be pa.s.sed over them, always putting clean paper between them and the iron, otherwise the heat of the room will curl them as soon as they are placed upon the wall. It is better not to iron them until they are dry, as the suddenly applied heat is liable to change the color of fresh ferns, causing them to look dull and faded. The sugar-maple leaf you send is well pressed, and beautifully varnished. What kind of varnish did you use? No doubt some little girls who are preserving leaves would like to know.

I would like to exchange postage stamps of foreign countries with some other boys who are readers of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.

SIDNEY ST. W., 326 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York city.

MAY 31, 1880.

I am making a collection of birds' eggs, and as soon as I collect a few more, I would like to exchange some with Samuel P. Higgins, if he will send me his full address. I have seen morning-glories in blossom this year, and would like to know if any other correspondents have seen them so early.

THOMAS HORTON, Care of Benjamin J. Horton, Lawrence, Kansas.

If Mary Wright will send me some leaves, I will be very happy to send her some. And I would like to exchange flowers with Mabel Sharp, if she will send me some as soon as possible. I will send her some in return as soon as I receive hers. I would like to exchange leaves or flowers with any others who would like to do so. Those sending any will please mark each specimen distinctly, so that I may know the name. I am fourteen years old, and my pets are birds and flowers, which I will write about another time.

IDA P. SMITH, P. O. Box 380, Holyoke, Ma.s.sachusetts.

I take YOUNG PEOPLE, and like it very much. I have two pigeons that laid eggs and hatched two little ones. I am making a collection of birds' eggs, and would like to exchange eggs with any of the correspondents of YOUNG PEOPLE. My address is No. 308 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, New York; but after the 25th of June I will be at Glen Cove, where I get almost all of my eggs. My name is T. Augustus Simpson, and my address this summer will be care of S. M. c.o.x, Glen Cove, Long Island.

T. A. S.

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.

I send a recipe for Puss Hunter's Cooking Club. It is for Florentines. Make a rich pie crust, using b.u.t.ter instead of lard; mix with cold sweet milk, roll it thin, spread it with b.u.t.ter, fold it, then roll it again into a sheet one-eighth of an inch thick; now spread it with jam, and place it in the oven. When it is baked, frost it; strew it plentifully with minced almonds or nuts of any kind; sift sugar over it, and place it in the oven a few moments to brown.

WINIFRED B.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

I tried Nellie H.'s recipe for candy, only I used maple sugar instead of mola.s.ses, and I liked it very much. Here is another recipe for candy Puss Hunter may like to try: Six dolls' cups of sugar; one of vinegar; one of water; one tea-spoonful of b.u.t.ter, put in last, with a little pinch of saleratus dissolved in hot water. Boil, without stirring, half an hour, or until it crisps in cold water; flavor to taste, and pull it white with the tips of your fingers.

SADIE MCB.

AYLETT'S POST-OFFICE, VIRGINIA.

I have never written to the Post-office Box before, and I thought now I would send Puss Hunter some recipes for her cooking club. I have tried hers, and I liked it very much. One of mine is for nice mola.s.ses candy: One quarter of a pound of sugar and one pint of mola.s.ses. Boil quickly, and drop a little in water occasionally until it crisps. A small piece of b.u.t.ter is an improvement. When done, cool it in b.u.t.tered tins. Here is a recipe for Everton taffy: One pound of brown sugar; three ounces of b.u.t.ter; a little lemon flavoring. Boil about twenty minutes, until it crisps, stirring constantly.

LOUISA W.

CLOYD D. B.--Write again, and tell us how you amuse yourself while you are sick, and we will try to print it. Your last letter was so much a business communication that we could not put it in the Post-office Box.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA.

I saw a letter from Indian River, so I thought I would write too.

I have a little sister, five years old, who goes to a Kindergarten school. I have a little turtle, and I would like to know how to feed it. I am almost nine years old.

RALPH D. P.

Turtles like a diet of flies, and small insects, and fruit. You will find directions for the care of different kinds of turtles in the Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE No. 5 and No. 18. The "Letter from a Land Turtle," in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 27, will also give you information.

I thank Zen.o.bia in regard to the whip-poor-wills, but she does not say when was the earliest she heard them this year. The first one I heard was on the morning of March 30, which is the earliest I ever heard one in this locality. Zen.o.bia lives farther north than I do, and probably whip-poor-wills are not so early in her vicinity. I want to learn all I can of this mysterious bird, and would be thankful for any information concerning its habits. If Zen.o.bia will send me her address, I would like to exchange pressed Missouri flowers for Illinois flowers with her. I have pressed flowers from California and Tennessee, and I have been studying botany this spring.

WROTON M. KENNY, Pineville P. O., McDonald County, Missouri.

The whip-poor-will is a native of North America, and is found from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In winter it travels southward, and spends the cold season in the forests of Central America. It is a brownish-gray bird, and has a large mouth, armed with bristles at the base of the bill, with which it retains the moths and other soft-bodied insects upon which it feeds. It is a very shy bird, and hides itself all day, coming out at evening and early morning to skim along with noiseless flight near the ground, seeking its food. It is sometimes called the night-swallow. It makes no nest, but deposits two greenish eggs, spotted with blue and brown, in some snug corner, among fallen leaves, on the ground.

ELK CITY, KANSAS.

My paper comes on Sat.u.r.day, and I read all the letters in the Post-office Box first. I have a pet. It is a very funny one. It is a h.o.r.n.y toad. I found it near Pocket Creek. I would like to know what to feed it with. Papa found a little bug this morning on the sweet-potato vines. It changes its color very often. Sometimes it is gold, sometimes green, sometimes red. Can any one tell me the name of it?

MARY W. (11 years old).

Your bug is probably one of the small iridescent beetles, of which there are many varieties. As they move about in the light, the color appears to change, like the color of the head and throat of a South American humming-bird. If the appet.i.te of your h.o.r.n.y toad is like that of a common toad, it will prefer an insect diet. But it will live weeks without eating anything, and unless you allow it to hunt for itself, it will probably die of starvation some day.

GEORGE H. M.--A neat black walnut box, about five inches deep, will make a good case for b.u.t.terflies. Glue pieces of cork in the bottom, on which to mount your specimens, and have a tightly fitting gla.s.s cover. You must scatter bits of camphor in your case, to keep away moths, as they destroy dried insects, and when your case is full, paste thin paper over the cracks to make it as air-tight as possible.

L. B. POST.--See Post-office Box No. 18.

"ADMIRER."--The _Pa.s.sion Play_, which is celebrated once in ten years in the peasant village of Oberammergau, in the Bavarian Tyrol, is a relic of the ancient Miracle Plays and Mysteries which were so popular among the common people throughout Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The _Pa.s.sion Play_ represents the closing scenes in the life of Christ, and sometimes includes, as it does this year, _tableaux vivants_ of incidents in the Old Testament. Usually about five hundred performers appear on the stage, although the speaking roles number only a little over two hundred. All the characters are represented by the peasants of the village, the princ.i.p.al ones being selected fully two years previous to the performance, that they may become perfectly drilled in the parts allotted to them, and allow their hair or beards to grow to imitate as nearly as possible the best existing pictures of the various characters they are to represent. The theatre is an immense wooden structure erected for the purpose, capable of containing nine or ten thousand spectators; for, so widespread is the fame of this peasant festival that crowds flock to see it from every part of Germany, and travellers from England and the United States make efforts to be present at this strange performance. You will find a full account of the _Pa.s.sion Play_ in HARPER'S MAGAZINE for January, 1871.