low me to express my grateful tnamra aim 
gratification for tfie same. The stories sent (one 
of which you have already published,) were the 
result of genuine effort or* my part to strive for 
the liberal prizes offered. And since 1 have been 
so successful in ray undertaking, and since you 
have written me such a complimentary note, 
think the rewards deserve more than a common 
acknowledgment. The books are .lust such as I 
have'onged for-my tastes could not have been 
suited better. Considering the source from which 
they come, and the circumstances under which I 
receive them, 1 shall treasure those volumes 
among the best and choicest, or my small, hut In- 
i-raiutlnor library. Oboiwk U. Fuller. 
If I was Slaykkofconceit and could think of 
nothing better to do than trying to pick a fuss 
with some one, I would sit down and copy off a 
piece of poetry and send It. to ttNCW? Mark to be 
published as Miss Rkssie did, and try and make 
the Girls and boys believe you were the author of 
It, which would be Impossible for one with such 
a weak mind. As my letter 1 h getting too long I 
am afraid, I will close, hopeing to hear from you 
all soon And for the present, adieu. 
Young orator. 
'* What can he done, then, If I do not wish to 
see how vain, and sUly, and ugly my wife really 
1 b?” asked the king. 
“ Have her head chopped off, and marry a beau¬ 
tiful princess Instead," said the doctor; “or put 
her away Into a deep dungeon,’’ 
« mo,” said the king, “ 1 will not do that, for I 
used to love her once. Is there nothing that 
could be done to my eyes, to prevent my seeing 
the queen's rauIts?" 
“Nothing, your majesty,” replied the doctor, 
“ except, having your eyes put out-” 
“You have been very clever," Bald the king, 
“come Into the council to-morrow, and l will re¬ 
ward you with a place above all my ministers of 
state,” 
“ I HAVE NO TIME 
GARRETT. 
Save the precious moments 
E’re they fly away, 
Scores of time’s brief fragments, 
Wasted every day. 
Save;ihe precious minutes. 
Victories havo been won 
In the little moments. 
By Borne daring one. 
Never on Ufe’sIJonrney 
Is there time to lose, 
Books with knowledge teeming 
Profit and amuse, 
Always may be near us. 
Back of time, we plead 
To peruse their pages. 
When we’ve all we need. 
If but wisely managed, 
May we seek for light 
To go daily onward 
And use time aright. 
Suspension Bridge, N. Y. 
Boys Sewing with a Thimble. 
Bear Cousins Will wonders never cease? A 
letter lrom Little Washington, and from a Jump¬ 
ing-Jack at thatt Will not Jack give h!» real 
name In his next letter V Now, boys, your atten¬ 
tion. Some girls and 1 were talking the other 
day about boys sewing with a thimble. The girls 
said that some of the boys could sew with a thim¬ 
ble, but would not toll of It. I said that the boys 
would tell of it. Como, boys, confess It- Some of 
you boys say that you are going to be bachelors. 
If you are, who will sew on the missing buttons- 
who? If the Cousins will have patience a few 
minutes longer, I will give a pen picture of my¬ 
self, and tell you about a trip to “I.lttle Moun- 
Unclk True I thank you very muen ioi me 
picture you sent me. I did not think of writing 
for the premium. As the young men think they 
cannot he men until they use tobacco, 1 thought I 
would write you a few letters on that subject; 
would like to write more if you would print them. 
When you print, the first one I will take It for 
granted that you will print the rest, and will be¬ 
gin writing again.— Sylvan Fuller, South Addi¬ 
son, AT, F. _ 
Millie C. Gifford begs that “Uncle Truk’ 
will accept her sincere thanks for the books sent, 
Then the doctor went away rubbing his hands 
because his fortune was made. 
The next day, all the ministers and courtiers 
were assembled, and Queen Los herself loo, and 
the king commanded the court, doctor to explain 
all that had happened. And all the courtiers 
looked very sorry. As for the queen, at first she 
was very angry, and then she began to cry. 
“What reward do you expect for all this?” 
said the king to the doctor. 
“Your gracious and excellent majesty has 
promised me a place above all the minis tore of 
state," answered the doctor, “because I have 
shown myself clever lu caring for your sacred 
majesty's honor and dignity." 
Then the king gave a signal to bis servants, 
and t hey put a strong rope round the neck of the 
court, tioctor, and swung him up to a place over 
the heads or the ministers of state, and there he 
hung till he was dead. 
And this is all the king said to him before ho 
was hung up— 
“ What Is the ubo of curing a man of his happi¬ 
ness?” ^ __ 
king oos and QUEEN LOS, 
by quoin. 
he thought she was the fairest and best wife who 
ever lived; but this was all because the king’s 
eyes had been bewitched, and had a film over 
them, lor uobody else thought well of the queen. 
She was so cross that, her maids were afraid of 
her - so ugly that no one liked to look at her; yet 
so vain and proud, that, the counters had to pay 
her compliments every time they came to the 
palace. 
But to King Cos she seemed the model of all 
goodness. He gave her a rich purse of gold, and 
said “ My dear queen, you can spend this bettor 
than 1 can.” lie gave her a new lute to play on, 
aud said, “ Your voice is sweeter than the bu- 
hul’s ” lie brought her rich dresses, and said, 
“ These are for tho lovllest of woman.” one 
smile from lier lips, or one kiss, more than paid 
him for all hl» trouble. So King Cos and his 
Queen Los lived very happily tor many years. 
Now King Cos did not think lie had much wis¬ 
dom, so he let Queen Los sit, on a throne next to 
him whenever he talked with Ills ministers ot 
state, and King Oos used to think that she spokd 
more wisely than they all- As tor the minister* 
of state and tho courtiers, they talked with ono 
another and said, “ The queeu is as stupid as she 
is ugly, sue is as silly as she Is vain. hut. It la 
no business of oure. The king may think Just 
what he likes.” 
But the court doctor noticed all this, and won¬ 
dered why the king dhl not ace the queen as 
others did; and one day he found out that the 
king’s eyes had been bewitched. Ihcn said thi 
doctor to himself, “Now 1 can roach to a high 
fortune. It looks very silly of the king to have 
such a stupid queen Bitting by his side In the 
LETTERS FROM BOYS AND GIRLS, 
From an Elmira, N. Y., Ctrl. 
Dear cousins: —Since Slaykkofconceit has 
been so condescending as to Inform mo that he 
lias been amused by the contents of iny letters, l 
feel compelled to try your patience with another of 
my mixed-up epistles—tor children must he amus¬ 
ed, to keep them quiet I hardly know how to 
begin, but this 1 will say, that “ Queen" before 
Is very Inappropriate, as yon would soon 
happen to meet the Cousin against, 
ILLUSTRATED CHARADE, 
my name 
see U you ever __ 
whom you seem to have such spite. 
If you are In earnest when putting “ Queen” 
before my name, I assure you 1 would not be of¬ 
fended If you should leave it, off. But if, on the 
contrary, you ouly use it, to be sarcastic, I would 
advise you to be careful, for I may be old enough 
to be your grandmother; for sometimes, you 
know, old people’s hearts feel as young as the 
youngest, and It IB never considered gentlemanly 
to make fun of your elders. 
Quite a sermon i Uave been preaching to you, 
haven't I? Docs the shoe fit ? I rather think It. 
does, by the way you are fidgeting around In your 
seat, over there by the window. Ho you think that 
1 thought 1 hftd silenced you? Well, sir, 1 dislike 
to cont,radio® you, hut truth to telL 1 have not, 
t nought of you at all. In fact, I believe I would 
have forgotten that there ever was such a person 
as Slaykkofconceit If 1 had not chanced to see 
your letter In the last Rural. Ido not like to 
I hurt your feelings, but must, say that at times 
IW Answer In two weeks, 
hidden capes 
1 . Will Ruth or Nancy go to Troy ? 
2. Eleanor Thorn will graduate soon. 
3. I will never deserve tho prize. 
4 . Remember this, Amasa, “Blessed are the 
peacemakers." 
5. He came from a noble family, 
c. I Inquired for a yellow rose. 
7. When rye Is harvested, please let me know. 
8. Can Nathan earn the money ? 
3. Are Smith & Co. doing well ? 
10. Buy your hat of L. or Ida Brown. 
11. Mat. a panacea Is needed uow. 
12 . The best friends part, Ellen. 
tw~ Answer In two weeks, s - c - 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA 
some of the cousins passi,ue ioujs evemusa. * 
one, study so as to have good lessons, for I go to 
school, perhaps some would not find that enter¬ 
taining though. What do you suppose Slayekof- 
conceit does these long winter evenings. 1 sup¬ 
pose true to his name, he slays the conceit of 
some one. I should like to keep up correspond¬ 
ence with my Cousin Madcap Mollik. Why can 
we not be more sociable Cousin? And some of 
us keep up a private correspondence, besides In 
the dear old Rural. 1 hope to see more letters 
in the Rural after this, for there is no one that 
loves to hear more from the cousins than Snow¬ 
flake. _ 
Thanks for the Prizes. 
Uncle True : allow me to express my thanks 
for your most acceptable reward lor my hum¬ 
ble endeavors; also, please accept apologies foi 
not acknowledging sooner, 1 have just finished 
reading Master Slayekofconckit's most elo¬ 
quent effusion. He remarks that he modestly 
stood aloof, and " gave the young Ideas a chance 
to shoot.” What a noble sell-denial, to rerratn 
from charming a multitude with that wondei- 
f «1 irentus. which we are sure he Is capable of 
I am composed of 9 letters 
My e, 7, s is a preposition. 
My 9, 3, 2 a sailor. 
My 1,3, 9 au adjective. 
My 7. s an adjective. 
My o, 3,4 used by ladles partle 
My 9,3, 4 , s a reservoir for water 
My 1 , 2, 8,4, & Is an udjective. 
My 4, 7,2 is a coujunction. 
My 5 , 4 , 7, 9 is a substantive. 
My whole Is a large town In Germany, 
Answer In two weeks. 
PYRAMID PUZZLE 
From North East, Pennsylvania. 
Dear Uncle and cousins: —As tt ha‘s been 
some time since I wrote last, I thought 1 
would write again. For some reasons for which 
1 can’t now account, most of the best writers 
have stopped wilting, — such as Ahele W 
and Rocky mountain Joe, aud some others 
whom I will not stop to mention now. But while 
1 think or It I will tell that “Kentucky Orator,” 
preteuds to call himself, souietutug that he 
doesn’t know. Now, I would like to know which Is 
the thief, the one that steals or the one that 
doesn’t ? In the first place, you saw something 
that you wanted to claim and could think of no 
better way to get It than to steal it; and wrote 
and toldthe girls and boys thatl stole your name t 
which is not true. You might Just, as wen have 
said that Solomon Sap stole your name as to say 
I did. Aud as for the orations which you claim 
you have delivered, T guess they are like a 
good many I have heard, “ rather soft.” Jump¬ 
ing Jack need not take the trouble t o take such a 
long Jump again, for when ono grasshopper Jumps 
b And in November 24, 
WORD-SQUARE ENIGMA. 
2. A giant. 3. An open 
1. A useful mineral, 
surface. 4. A jump. 
l' 0 - Answer in two weeks, 
throne that day, and all toe courtiers saw mat ut 
looked very thoughtful, and very sad. 
Now the court doctor had been waiting for this 
to happen; so now he felt sure that his fortune 
was made, and he went Into the secret chamber 
to see the king, ' 
“ May It please your majesty,” said the court 
doctor, “ It is I who havo cured your eyes, so that 
you cau see Her Royal Highness Queen Los as 
she really Is, because 1 thought It a great shame 
that your majesty should he deceived and look so 
foolish before all the courtiers." 
And then the doctor told all about the matter, 
and asked the king to make him a great minister 
of state, because he was so clover. 
But the king sat silent and very unhappy a long 
time, and then he said: 
PUZZLER ANSWERS.-Nov. 24. 
Diamond puzzle, 
numbered charade— Belfast. 
Hidden Coins.— 1, Duoat; 2,Dollar; 3 Anna; 
Coheo j 5, Ree; 6, Real. 
DIAGONAL PUZZLE.— 
W E 
OWN 
another will follow, as we 
where Madcap Mollie took a Jump too. Also, 
Slayerofoonckit who, Instead of Jumping In, 
sneaks in like a thief with his dog Snip, which I 
suppose he has got to shake the conceit out of 
him when there are no girls around to do It. Now, 
