WN TERI RANG Hl IEE

(First Series.)

[Rae is a real girl and these are real letters. She is a little city waif without schooling, who spends a
winter with her adopted mother on the ranch of an English gentleman in the Rocky Mountains; the ‘ young
youth” mentioned being a lord in embryo. Necessary changes made in spelling and grammar have de-
stroyed much of the piquancy of these letters. — EDIrors WIDE AWAK«. |

DECEMBER 12th.
AM in a beautiful place. The mountains are very high up in the sky. The
rocks seem to point out like the steeple of a church. The snow is on the
ground. It is cold early in the morning, and late at night. In the daytime
the sun shines very bright. It is quite hot sometimes. I am sitting on the
piazza while I write this letter.

I like to stay out here very much. We have pigs, and cows, and horses, and
mules, and two little calves, and two big ones. We have a dog named Shax,,
and we have two cats. One cat is black, and one cat is gray. The black cat is.
very polite, but the gray cat is not, and we do not like her so well. Shax is not.
always in time for his meal. He goes off when it is ready, and sometimes he
comes when we do not want him.

I had a pleasant ride coming up here. I had a very pleasant ride to-day out.
in the woods. We went to get wood, and we piled it up in the wagon. We had
to sit on the wood. Jt was very hard for the mules to drag it over the snow and.
stones. The gentlemen cut the wood, and we burn it. There are four gentle-
men here. One of them is quite a young youth. They are very polite. We
get their meals for them. ‘There are no children here. I would like a little
girl to play with. We like to look out and see the gentlemen throw sticks for
Shax to go after them. When he does not see where the stick went, then they
motion. ,

One day one of the gentlemen went out to shoot a rabbit. After a while he
found it and shot it and brought it home. He cut all the skin off and laid it on
the cellar door, and brought the rest of it in for mamma to cook. After a little
while I saw the cats carrying the skin off, and he ran out and pulled it away
from the cats, and hung it over the clothes-line. He gave me the skin. I put.
it further on the line, and it blew down, but the cats did not touch it for I was
watching them. I put it back on the line. Then one of the gentlemen nailed it.
to the shop. And the wind blew and the skin blew down. And the pig ate it up.

I found a bluebird in the snow, and I picked it up. It was dead. I asked
one of the gentlemen to cut the wings off. They are very pretty.

I like it here very much. There are trees all over the mountains. It is.
more beautiful every day. The snow falls on the mountains, and the sun shines: