The frontispiece to this number of ST. NICHOLAS shows how the mails were carried in winter over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada before the Union Pacific Railroad was finished (1869), and how they are carried now. In 1867, to the perils of the snow and wind and of mountain travel, were added dangers from desperadoes, white as well as red, so that mail deliveries were few and far between, and very irregular, while too often both the carriers and their packs were lost. Slow as the old way was, however, the snow sometimes makes the new way even slower. In spite of miles and miles of snow-sheds and snow-fences, and ever so many steam snow-plows, the railroad is blocked now and then until a way can be dug through huge heaps of drift. Thus, sometimes, whole days are lost on the steam road, when a man might be speeding and coasting on his queer foot-gear, over the snow-crust like the wind, to reach the destination perhaps a week ahead of the snorting snowed-up monster. However, year by year, as sheds and fences and other preventions are multiplied, railroad delays caused by snow become fewer and fewer. * * * * * Georgetown, D. C. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I was so much pleased with the little figure of a nun in the November number, that I made eight like it. I have been taking the ST. NICHOLAS ever since it came out, and think it gets nicer every time it is published. I am not quite seven years old, but I composed all of this letter. JOHN WM. MITCHELL. * * * * * MY VERY DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We really don't know what we should do without you. We took the "Young Folks" for a great many years, and have taken you ever since you were first established. We went, a short time ago, to see a man who swallowed swords for a profession. Now, can any of our ST. NICHOLAS friends tell us whether he really swallowed them or not, and explain how it is done?--Your loving friends and devoted readers, FANNIE CHANDLER, MARY WHITE. * * * * * Painesville, Ohio. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: My children learn the names of English kings and queens, the books of the Old Testament in their order, and other matters of importance to remember, through having found and committed to memory certain rhymes containing them. I have seen several embodying the books of the New Testament, but they all have been too difficult or long for children to learn. I inclose an easy one, written for my own children which may prove useful to your large family of young folks. W. BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.