Will you kindly tell him, through your magazine, _how_ the children may help abate the terrible cruelty? What _action_ do you suggest for them? He has interested a number of lads in the subject, but does not know how to put forth effort--when the discovery is made that the law is violated. Complain to party giving offence, to police, or what? Your magazine is warmly appreciated in this household by old and young, and we hope for its continued prosperity. Very truly, D.K. LIPPINCOTT'S MOTHER. 194 FAIRMOUNT AVENUE, NEWARK, N.J. DEAR MASTER LIPPINCOTT: I am delighted that you and your little friends are interested in the matter of salting the streets, and that you are eager to put a stop to such cruelty. In the first place, you can help by telling every one about it, and by getting people, old and young, interested. Do you know that not one person to whom I have spoken about it--aside from Dr. Johnson, the people at the A.S.P.C.A., and Mr. Harison--knew anything about it? Strange, was it not? A good many things are permitted because people do not know just how dreadful they are. As to the method of learning just where salt has been used, I know only the one of which the article tells you, and that is: if there is snow or ice in other places, and the tracks are covered with water, then you may know that there is a reason for it. And inasmuch as the water would be twenty degrees below freezing, I believe that you could determine the presence of salt by means of the mercury. If you had a thermometer which would register that number of degrees, and were to plunge it into the slush, the sensitive mercury would tell the story. As to the person to whom you should complain: at any of the offices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The New York Society is at 10 East 22d Street, and there are branches or agents of the Society in nearly every town of importance. Yours sincerely, IZORA C. CHANDLER. BOOK REVIEWS. The editor is pleased to acknowledge the following clever account of Nora Perry's "A Flock of Boys and Girls," published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston. TO THE EDITOR OF THE GREAT ROUND WORLD: If any one wants to read an interesting book, I will tell you one of Nora Perry's books, called "A Flock of Girls and Boys." It is a collection of short stories, and tells of the scrapes they got into and how they got out of them, and it has the language boys and girls use every day. There is one story that I was especially impressed with: the name of it is "Major Molly's Christmas Promise." It was about a little girl who made a promise to a little Indian girl; and she kept her promise; and in doing that, although she did not know it, saved her mother's and father's life, besides her friends having to go to war. MADELEINE H.P. SIMPLE LESSONS IN THE STUDY OF NATURE