I was searching for it behind the scenes, when I heard the voices outside discussing some expected letters. Then Mr. Ludlow called out, "Ruth, did the postman come while you were down stairs?" For an instant my heart beat so wildly that I could not speak; but one idea possessed me: I must not admit to having received papa's letter. All my moral courage fled, and scarcely knowing what it was that I was saying, I answered, "No, sir." There was a silence which it seemed to me I could not endure. Everything seemed to stand still. I had told my first and last lie, and the words burned my tongue. I had found the curtain, but I had no power to move. Finally I roused myself, and rejoined the others. Their voices rose and fell; they were laughing over some joke of Mr. Ludlow's; but to me everything was changed. [TO BE CONTINUED.] [Illustration: WILD BABES OF THE WOOD.--DRAWN BY DANIEL C. BEARD.] [Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.] YELM, THURSTON COUNTY, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. I am a little boy not quite seven years old. I can read YOUNG PEOPLE, and have been a subscriber to it since the nineteenth number. I am delighted with it, and, as I told my papa to-day, wish it were a _daily_ paper. I too like "Toby Tyler" and "Phil's Fairies" best of all the stories, though I am interested in everything in it, especially the Post-office Box. Although I can read YOUNG PEOPLE quite well, I can not write, so I have got my papa to write this for me.