Timothy or straw can be used to good advantage for thatching material, and if it is employed it should be woven with the heads up and not too close together, as the air should get through the thatching to keep the occupants of the hut cool. Of course a house may be made larger or smaller than the one described, but the principle of good construction is the same. Never depend on the four sides to hold together without the corner-posts, as the first good wind that happened along would blow it flat, and perhaps beyond the possibility of repair.
The edges of each side are lashed fast to the corner-posts with grass or string, and when the roof is made it should be lashed fast to the top of the sides and front with long reeds or grass.
The roof is woven the same as the sides but is thatched closer; and about four inches of the roof should extend over the sides, front, and rear.
A Brush “Lean-to”
The general lines of a miniature barn are shown in the illustration of a brush “lean-to” (Fig. 18). This is constructed in nearly the same manner as the brush-house, and thatched with grass or reeds as shown in Figs. 16 and 17.
The corner-posts are three feet high, the ridge-pole seven feet and six inches above the ground, and the hut may be from five to eight feet square or made oblong, as a matter of choice.
A frame of scantling should be made for this lean-to the same as if a wooden structure were to be built, and it must be nailed together well to stand the strain of the wind blowing hard against it. In general construction the frame should appear like Fig. 19; and to the sticks the edges of the thatched framework of reeds is to be lashed fast with grass, either before or after the thatching is done.
A brush-house or any hut built on or near the ground is not so cool to stay in as one in the trees, but it is, of course, much easier to construct, as the boy builders do not have to move about so carefully when at work, and their materials can be picked up quickly.
Brush huts and houses can be built on the plains where trees are scarce, but in a country rich in woods and forests the boys prefer the tree huts, not only for their cool location, but on account of the romance involved in the climbing up to an inaccessible eyrie.
Chapter XXI
WALKING-STICKS
How to Grow Them for Pleasure and Profit
Here are some suggestions for an entirely new and fascinating out-of-doors occupation.
It has become a habit with me when walking in the woods to keep a sharp lookout for stocks for walking-sticks, so that in the course of many years I have got together quite a unique collection. To these a number have been added through exchanges with friends.
This hobby has borne other fruit than the mere gathering together of curious sticks. For have I not learned the scientific and common names of most of our trees and shrubs, their habits, and their values, their uses in the arts and sciences, their medicinal qualities! So you see, my young reader, what unthinking people would call a useless and eccentric occupation (this gathering of old sticks) has in reality proved to be an innocent and instructive pastime, and I propose to continue to ride this walking-stick hobby just as diligently as I used to ride grandpa’s walking-cane to “Banbury Cross” when a child.
My first interesting cane capture consisted of a very curiously shaped natural stick as shown in Fig. 1. It was of a young hickory sapling at whose roots grew a bitter-sweet vine, which, being of an ambitious turn of mind, had taken many turns around the sapling in its eagerness to climb up in the world. The sapling in the mean time extended its bark well over the leader of the tough and clinging bitter-sweet till but little of it was to be seen. At last the sapling, feeling unusually vigorous, burst asunder the clinging bitter-sweet vine, the result being a very unique walking-stick, and a good illustration of the “survival of the fittest.”
The dead bitter-sweet vine was withdrawn from the hickory, and from its root a handle was carved and bent. On many occasions I have twisted vines of bitter-sweet and the fox-grape around saplings of oak, hickory, and chestnut, and have obtained very satisfactory results.
Where a vine is situated some distance from the sapling selected for a cane, the vine can be “piped” (laid under the ground) up to the sapling, and then twisted around it and securely fastened at the top with wire, from three to four feet above its root. If the sapling is so situated that it obtains a bountiful supply of food and sunlight, a unique cane of natural growth will be the result.
Having taken a hint from nature in the case of the bitter-sweet vine and the hickory sapling, I extended my experiments in many directions. Taking three cuttings (slips) of basket-willow, I planted them close together as shown in Fig. 2. After they had taken root and begun to push out branches, I reduced the number of branches to one for each cutting, always retaining the most vigorous branch.
As the three willow-trees increased in height the side branches were constantly cut off. This treatment forced the growth of the willows upward, so that when they had attained a height of five feet I bound them together with a living cat-brier vine, which was planted at their base, and in course of time obtained a light walking-stick of novel pattern as shown in Fig. 3. Another very interesting experiment was grafting three willow stocks together so that they formed a union, and became as it were one tree. This was done by carefully cutting away two slices from three young willows so as to form an obtuse angle as shown in Fig. 4.
The angles so formed were carefully and accurately fitted together as shown in the section Fig. 5. To hold the willows closely together, and to exclude all air, I wrapped them tightly with strips of unbleached cotton-sheeting. As soon as they showed signs of life at their tops by sending out young branches, I felt certain that a union of their barks would form at the points indicated by the arrows in Fig. 5. But it was not till several trials had been made that I was successful in this novel experiment of combining three willow saplings.
It very often occurs that after a tree has been cut down a number of canes or suckers will start up from the stump. These suckers make excellent walking-sticks when properly cured and peeled. For a lady’s riding-whip I know of nothing better than three willow withes plaited together. This plaiting must be done when the willow withes are young, and when attached to the parent tree, on which they are allowed to remain for a year after having been plaited together. By this time they will have grown firmly together in consequence of the bark conforming to the bent strands of the plait.
The following kinds of native woods are used for walking-sticks:
Holly.—Sticks of this wood are found growing out from the sides of older growths, and shooting up in nearly a straight line. Occasionally they may be cut with a crutch-piece across the growing end, or with a crook or knob. These are the most valuable. They may be found on a well-grown sapling in the deep woods. This should be pulled or dug up for the sake of its roots. Saplings and hedge-sticks may often be found from three to four feet long, and from three-eighths to a quarter of an inch in diameter. These are not suitable for walking-sticks, but they make excellent whip-handles. The holly makes tough, supple, and moderately heavy walking-sticks, and its close-grained wood admits of much skill in carving the knob formed by the root and its rootlets.
Ash.—Respectable sticks of this wood may sometimes be cut out of a hedge or pulled from the side of an old stump. Ash sticks must also be roughly trimmed and well seasoned before they are barked and polished. The root knobs admit of excellent grotesque carving.
Oak.—This of all sticks is the most reliable, and stout oaken cudgels are esteemed by most persons as affording the best props for failing legs, as well as the best weapons of self-defence against quarrelsome dogs, ruffians, and tramps. Straight sticks of sapling oak are not always easily obtained, but copse-wood sticks pulled from the trunks of trees form excellent substitutes. These should be selected for walking-sticks that taper from one inch below the knob or crutch to one inch at the ferrule end. Oak sticks split in drying when the bark has been stripped off or the knobs and branches cut too close, or when the sticks are dried too rapidly in a very dry place. They are then rendered useless for walking-sticks and cudgels.
Elm.—From the roots of elm-trees saplings often shoot up to a height of some ten feet; these furnish good walking-sticks of fancy styles, the rough bark serving the purpose of ornamentation when the sticks are dried, stained, varnished, and polished.
Among fruit trees the cherry, apple, and pear furnish some very nice, fancy walking-sticks, being supple and of moderate strength.
When sticks are half dried—that is, when the bark is shrunken, has lost its sappy greenness, and refuses to peel freely—they may be trimmed, straightened, or bent, as required. The wood and also the form of the knobs and roots will admit of much taste being displayed in grotesque and fancy carving.
I know of a young man in Florida, not yet twenty-one years of age, who is paying his way through college by collecting and curing sticks of the wild orange, on the handles of which he carves during his leisure time and vacations full-length figures of alligators as shown in Fig. 6. I have examined several of these sticks, and the entire work seems to be done with small chisels and a parting or V-tool. These sticks are in constant demand with visitors and tourists in Florida, and have become known as “orange-wood ’gator canes.” This fact may be suggestive to some of our ingenious farmer boys who are struggling to obtain a college course.
Walking-sticks can be gathered at all seasons. The sticks should be laid aside in a moderately dry and cool place, and should not be worked or the bark taken off till they are half dry. They are then most supple, and may be bent or straightened without injury. When laying by sticks to dry, the knots and spurs should not be trimmed close; it is best to trim them only roughly, leaving the spurs of branches and roots on the stick fully an inch long.
To straighten or bend the sticks, they should be steamed until they are supple, or buried in hot, wet sand until they become soft; they must then, while still hot, be given the form they are intended to keep, and kept in this form until they are cold. Straight sticks are tied firmly together in small bundles, and wound with a coil of rope from end to end; they are then suspended to a beam by their knob ends, and a heavy weight is attached to the ferrule ends. Crooks may be turned by soaking the end in boiling water for half an hour, then bending it to the desired form, and retaining it in its position by means of a tourniquet (as shown in Fig. 7) until the stick is cold.
The bark may then be taken off with a sharp knife, but care must be taken not to split or chip the wood. Knots may be trimmed at the same time, and the root knobs turned into grotesque shapes. There are no rules that can be given to guide one when carving the roots into handles, since their forms are governed by the outlines of the roots, these often being very suggestive of themselves. The group of heads shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11 will illustrate what I mean. Figs. 8 and 9 show the rough stick, Figs. 10 and 11 the finished heads.
One or two points should receive considerable attention when designing the handles. If the stick is to be a fancy one to be carried and swung in the hand, the roots can be carved into grotesque or fancy forms. But if for use, the handle should be round and smooth, so as to fit comfortably in the hand. The head of a dog, or a swan or goose, forms an appropriate design for a stick that is to be held on the arm when lighting a match, or when wishing to have both hands free. The crutch and hook are also comfortable forms.
Wooden handles are given touches of rich brown by applying a red-hot iron to the parts to be colored.
All sticks with the rough bark left on should be neatly trimmed naked around the neck of the handle, and the whole lightly gone over with fine sand or emery paper. The cane should then receive several dressings of boiled linseed-oil and be left to dry. When dry, a coat of shellac varnish is applied. Oak canes look best when carefully barked in hot water, the loose bark being removed by rubbing with coarse canvas, and the cane then dried, dressed with boiled linseed-oil, again dried, then polished, and varnished with shellac or furniture varnish, and again polished.
Dogwood and Osage orange sticks can be stained black by brushing them over with a hot and strong decoction of logwood and nut gall. When this is thoroughly dried, brush them over with vinegar in which a few rusty nails have been steeped for two or three days. Some persons use ink for a black stain, others introduce “drop black” in the varnish; a brown or mahogany stain may be obtained by adding some “dragon’s-blood” to the varnish. The lower ends of the sticks should be guarded from excessive wear by a neat brass ferrule; these are cheaper to purchase at a hardware store than to make, though I have often used brass thimbles and tailors’ steel thimbles as a substitute. These can be fastened by means of hot shellac, or with a brass pin driven into a hole in the thimble and passing through the wood of the stick.
For fastening carved or rustic heads or handles on sticks hot glue or thick shellac varnish is used. A good-sized hole is first bored into the handle and a hole of similar size in the stick; a dowel is driven into the hole in the stick (using plenty of glue), after which the handle is driven on to the dowel-pin. Handles may be made of horn, which can be softened for bending by boiling in oil (not kerosene) or hot fat. Hard-woods that will take a polish, and vegetable ivory, which is very easy and pleasant to carve, are good materials to use for handles. For small sticks, bone will be found an easy material to shape into handles.
All the manufacturers of walking-sticks and umbrella and parasol handles state that the demand for native woods suitable for canes and sticks is constant all the year round, and that the sticks may be gathered at all seasons of the year and sent to market, both straight and crooked sticks being salable, also roots for handles.
With this we reach the end of our out-door handy book, which we trust may become the daily and invaluable companion of all healthy, active American boys. The in-door handy book, the book of electricity, and the book of mechanics for boys, which are to follow, will form, we believe, the distinctive American boy’s library of practical handy books.