DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: In the December number of ST. NICHOLAS, in "A Chat About Pottery," I find on page 105 the question, "Who ever saw a blue dog?" and the answer, "In life, no one, my dear." During the past month I have seen, several times, a dog as blue as the sky on a summer's day. He is of the "Spitz" breed, and, as his master keeps a dye-house, we think he is used as an advertisement. He attracts a good deal of attention when on the street.--Yours truly, EDWIN S. T. * * * Shawangunk, N. Y. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: My uncles have taken the ST. NICHOLAS for me for three years, and I like it very much. I see in your "Letter-Box" a letter from Alma Aylesworth asking how apples were made to grow sweet on one side and sour on the other. They take a sprout of the sweet and another of sour, just as near the same size as possible, split each in two at the middle, press one-half of each to a half of the other, put grafting-wax up the cracks, and set it in like any other graft. For a few years, this limb will bear apples sweet on one side and sour on the other; but when the tree gets old, the apples will be of one flavor throughout.--I remain your faithful reader, MAMIE C. COCKS. * * * Franklin, Pa. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I would like to have you tell me what Cleopatra's needle is. I read about its voyage in the papers.--Yours truly, B. L. F. The obelisk known as Cleopatra's needle, presented by the Khedive to England, is a great stone that was cut out in one piece from the quarries of Syene, Egypt, it is supposed in the time of Thothmes III. (about 1600 years B. C.), when, also, it was set up in the temple of Karnak, at Thebes. It is a tall, rectangular pillar, tapering from the base to near the top, where it is pointed like a flattened pyramid; its sides are inscribed with hieroglyphics. The obelisk was taken to Alexandria by Queen Cleopatra, and was named after her. Some think that Cleopatra's Needle was another stone, quarried by order of Ramesis II., and set up in Heliopolis, the City of the Sun; but several obelisks have borne the name, and this may have caused uncertainty about them. The former account is believed to be correct. * * * Ashland, Wis. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I saw, in your January number, two ways pictured for carrying the mails. Here, where I live, on the shore of Lake Superior, we see both ways at the present time. The mail from Bayfield comes on the backs of packers, and on the railroad the mails come from Milwaukie and other points south of us.