The Project Gutenberg eBook of Recreations for Girls, by Lina Beard and Adelia Beard.

Cut the head-dress like Fig. 172 of white paper. Paint all the paper horse-hair tips on the paper eagle feathers red, the tops of the feathers black, and the band in which they are fastened yellow, red, and green, leaving white spaces between the colors (Fig. 173). Cut out, then turn the end of the band F (Fig. 172) until the loop fits the Indian's head, and glue the end of the loop on the strip (Fig. 173). Paste fringed yellow paper around each of the chieftain's feet, fringed edge uppermost, to serve as moccasins. Part the Indian's hair at the back, bring the two divisions in front, one on each side of the head, and wind each with scarlet worsted as the real Indian wears his hair, then wrap around your red man a soft, dull-colored cloth extending from the waist to the knees. Pin the drapery in place and the chief will be ready to take charge of his bronco pony, which may be any toy horse you happen to possess. The horse in the illustration is an ordinary cloth toy.

Red men are not fond of remaining long in one place, and naturally your Indian will soon want to break camp and carry his belongings elsewhere. Help him prepare by making

You will need four slender poles, two fifteen and one-half inches long, one five and one-half and another six and one-half inches long. Bind the six-and-a-half-inch pole across the two long poles four inches from their heavy ends; fasten the five-and-a-half-inch pole across the long poles two and one-half inches above the first cross-piece. Instead of thongs of buffalo hide, such as the real red man would use, take narrow strips of light-brown cloth to form the rude net-work over the space bounded by the four poles. Tie the top ends of the long poles together (Fig. 174), then tie the travois to the horse, as in Fig. 175. In most of these conveyances the thongs are tied across one way only, from short pole to short pole, forming a ladder-like arrangement.

or "pipe of peace," to smoke and pass around the council circle, when all the leaders of the different tribes meet to talk over important matters concerning the welfare of their people. Real calumets are generally large and of goodly length, some of them being four feet long. They are made of dull-red stone, which, when first cut from the large mass, is soft enough to be carved out with a knife; later the pipe becomes hard and capable of receiving a polish. But as the red stone is not within our reach, we must use dull red-colored straw for the calumet. Soak the straw in hot water to render it less brittle. Then cut a three-inch length piece; make a hole in it a short distance from one end (Fig. 176, G) and insert a three-quarter inch length of straw for the pipe bowl (Fig. 176, H). For the mouthpiece take a half-inch length of white straw (Fig. 176, I), and slide it in the other end of the pipe. Glue both bowl and mouthpiece in place and decorate the calumet with red, green, and white silk floss tied on the pipe stem (Fig. 177).

must not be forgotten. Soak a stick two and one-half inches long in hot water; when it is pliable, split an end down one inch, no more (Fig. 178, J), and in true Indian fashion bind a stone hatchet (Fig. 178, K) between the split sides of the stick handle with thongs of hide. Whittle the little hatchet from a piece of wood, cover it with glue, then with sand. When dry it will be difficult for others to believe that the implement is not of real stone. Instead of thongs use thread (Fig. 179).

is of hide taken from the neck of the bull bison; the piece must be twice the required size for a finished shield to allow for the necessary shrinkage. Over a fire built in a hole in the ground the skin is stretched and pegged down. When heated, it is covered with a strong glue made from the hoofs and joints of the bison, which causes the hide to contract and thicken. As this process goes on the pegs are loosened and again adjusted until the skin ceases to contract and absorb the glue. Then the hide is much smaller and thicker than at first. When it has slowly cooled, the skin is cut into a circle and decorated. Though pliable, the shield is strong enough to ward off blows from arrows or spears.

Bison hide is something you cannot obtain, so take writing paper for the shield. Cut it into a circle an inch and a half in diameter, with an extension for the handle (Fig. 180). Glue the free end of the handle on the opposite side of the back of the shield. Make ten paper eagle feathers (Fig. 181), hang seven on the bottom of the shield with red thread, after first decorating the centre of the shield with given designs and the edge with colored bands, using any or all of the following colors, but no others: positive red, blue for the sky, green for the grass, yellow for the sun, white for the clouds and snow, and black. To the Indian color is a part of religion. Purple, pinks, and some other colors, the red man, loyal to his beliefs, can never bring himself to use. Attach two of the remaining feathers at the top and another on the centre of the shield, as shown in Fig. 182.

of triangular flakes of flint chipped from a stone held between his knees and struck with a rude stone hammer. The pieces knocked off are carefully examined, and only those without flaws are kept. Stones for arrow-heads must be very hard. When found, the red men bury them in wet ground and build fires over them, causing the stones to show all cracks and checks. This enables the arrow-maker to discard those unfitted for his work.

Though you cannot make a real flint arrow-head, you can manufacture a toy one. Take a piece of stiff pasteboard and cut it like Fig. 183. Let the length be a trifle over half an inch. Cover the arrow-head all over with a light coat of glue, then dip it in sand, and the arrow-head will come out as if made of stone. Were it actually hard stone and large size you would be obliged, as the Indians do, to trim and shape more perfectly the point and edges of the arrow-head. You would hold a pad of buckskin in your left hand to protect it from the sharp flint, and on your right hand would be a piece of dressed hide to guard it from the straight piece of bone, pointed on the end, which you would use to strike off little bits of stone along both edges, working cautiously as you neared the point in order not to break it. But such work will not be needed on your arrow-head.

hunt up a piece of wood strong and straight. Cut it three inches in length, remove the bark and scrape the wood until it is about the thickness of an ordinary match. Notch one end and split the other end down one-quarter of an inch, insert the arrow-head (Fig. 184), then bind the shaft and head together with thread (Fig. 185), in place of the wet sinew an Indian would use for a real arrow, after he had first fastened the head in the shaft with glue from buffalo hoofs.

Cut three paper feather strips (Fig. 186), each an inch in length, paint black bands on them, bend at dotted line and glue the feathers on the shaft one-quarter of an inch from the notch, allowing them to stand out at angles equally distant from each other (Fig. 187). Bind the extensions L and M (Fig. 186) to the shaft, and tie tufts of white and red worsted on immediately above the feathers to help in finding the arrow (Fig. 188). Paint the shaft in brilliant colors.

for your little Indian. Cut the piece of wood four inches long and an eighth of an inch wide. Scrape it flat on one side and slightly rounded on the other, notch the stick at each end, wind the centre with red worsted and paint the bow in bright hues (Fig. 189). Tie a strong thread in one notch and bring it across to the other notch; tighten until it bends the bow centre half an inch from the straight thread; tie the thread around the notch (Fig. 190). Now try the wee weapon; hold it vertically and shoot the little arrow into the air. It will fly very swiftly away, landing many yards from where you stand.

Make the bow case (Fig. 192) of ordinary wrapping paper cut like Fig. 191, three and a half inches long and two and a half inches wide. Fold the paper lengthwise through the centre and glue the sides together along the dotted lines; then fringe the edge up to the dotted line and decorate with gay paint.

fold the skin and let one half form the front, the other half the back. Cut the garment like the half N, in Fig. 193, stitch the sides together, stitch the under part of the sleeves together and fringe both sleeves and bottom of the dress (O, Fig. 193). Belt the gown in with scarlet worsted and load the squaw down with strands of colored beads; then seat her on the grass (Fig. 194) while you make the primitive loom for her to use in weaving one of the famous

Paint a two by four inch piece of white cotton cloth with a blanket design in red and black, with white between the markings, and pin it securely on a board (Fig. 195). Tie stones to a pole six inches in length (Fig. 196); with long stitches fasten the stone-weighted pole to the bottom edge of the painted cloth blanket (Fig. 197).

Two inches above the blanket attach a six-inch pole to the board with pins and use a coarse needle and heavy thread to make the warp. Run the thread through the wrong side of the blanket and up around the pole. Cross it on the under side of the long thread (P, Fig. 197) which extends from blanket to pole.

Carry the thread along the pole a short distance, loop it over (Q, Fig. 197) and bring the thread down through the right side of the blanket. Take a long stitch and again carry the thread up over the pole. Continue until the warp is entirely across the blanket. Pin another pole six and a half inches long, three-quarters of an inch above the top pole, and fasten the two poles together by tying loops of string across from one to the other (Fig. 198).

Make the loom frame of two seven-inch poles four and a half inches apart and crossed at the top by another seven-inch pole, the three firmly tied together and made to stand erect on the grass by planting the two upright poles in holes bored through the cloth grass into the board ground. Hang the loom on this frame by winding a narrow strip of cloth loosely around the top of the frame and top of loom (Fig. 194).

(Fig. 199). Sharpen the bottom and drive it into a hole in the ground. For the foliage cut a fringe of soft green and olive-brown tissue-paper folded lengthwise in strips. Crimp the strips with a blade of the scissors, then open out the fringe; gather each one through the centre, give the paper a twist, and the two ends will form bunches of foliage. Work the twisted centre of one piece down into a crack at the top of the tree. Over across this at right angles in another opening, fit in the second twist of paper foliage and crown all with a bunch standing upright as shown at Fig. 199.

bound in its stiff cradle is one of the drollest things imaginable. Paint a small doll copper color, make its hair black, and bind the baby in a cradle cut from brown pasteboard (Fig. 200). Cut along heavy line and bend forward the tongue R along the dotted line, bring the strap S across and glue the end on the under side of the cradle; then line the cradle with white tissue-paper and place the Indian child on it; spread a piece of vivid red tissue-paper over the infant, bringing the sides of the cover on the under side of the cradle, where you must glue them. Fold over the lower end of the paper and glue that also on the back of the cradle. Paint the cradle and portions of the cover white, green, black, and yellow (Fig. 200); then hang the cradle and baby on the limb of the tree (Fig. 199), where the little papoose will be safe while his squaw-mother works at her weaving.

It is made of shells found usually along the borders of rivers and lakes. The Indians cut the thick part of the shell into cylinders about an inch long, bore holes lengthwise through the centres and string them like beads on fine, strong sinews (Fig. 201), but this money is not as pretty as glass beads, for it resembles pieces of common clay pipe stems. A certain number of hand-breadths of wampum will buy a gun, a skin, a robe, or a horse, and when presented by one chief to another the wampum means good-will and peace. Of course, you will want to supply your Indians with their own kind of money. You can string the wampum into a necklace and decorate the strand with eagle claws, bright beads, and tufts of gay worsted.

Find some beads much smaller, but as near as possible in color and form to real wampum, and string them with tiny eagle claws made of wood cut like Fig. 202, only smaller. Paint the claws very dark gray, almost black, and bore a hole through the heavy end with a hat-pin heated red hot. The claws will then string easily and give quite a savage appearance to the necklace (Fig. 203).

Let the colored worsted tufts, which must take the place of hair, be bright-red, and the strands of round beads on each side of the necklace of various colors (Fig. 203).

Indians when they cannot obtain beads use gayly colored porcupine quills for their embroidery. You need not try the embroidery, but be sure to make the entire Indian encampment with everything pertaining to it.

CHAPTER XIII

WOULD it not be fun to see a yoke of real live oxen come slowly walking into the kitchen dragging a load of logs? That is what many of the colonial boys and girls saw every day, and frequently the boys helped their fathers cut the logs which were for the big kitchen fireplace. And such a fireplace! Large enough for the huge, roaring fire and the chimney-seats also. These were placed close against the sides of the opening, making fine places for the boys and girls to sit and listen to thrilling tales of adventure or delightful fairy stories.

The kitchen in those days was the chief apartment and the most interesting room in the house. Who would want to go into the stiff, prim "best room" when they could be so much more comfortable in the spacious kitchen where everyone was busy and happy, and where apples could be hung by a string in front of the fire to roast and made to spin cheerily when the string was twisted, that all sides might be equally heated? Any girl or boy to-day would be only too glad of a chance to sit on a log in front of such a fire and watch red apples turn and sputter as the heat broke the apple skin, setting free the luscious juice to trickle down the sides.

As the Indian's first thought was for shelter, and he put up his wigwam, so the early settler's first thought was for shelter, and he built, not a wigwam, but a log-house with a kitchen large enough to serve as a general utility room. It was filled with various things, and all articles in it were used constantly. Everything not brought from the mother country the settlers made by hand. The colonial kitchen you can build may be of gray or white cardboard. Old boxes, if large enough, will answer the purpose.

I will tell you exactly how I built the colonial kitchen seen in Fig. 204. I made the floor (Fig. 205), the two side walls both alike (Fig. 206), the back wall (Fig. 207), and the interior of the fireplace (Fig. 208) of light-gray cardboard. I cut all the heavy lines, scored and then bent all the dotted lines.

Now you do the same thing. Get your measurements correct and be careful to make the lines perfectly straight. Before putting the kitchen together, fasten the rustic brackets, cut from a branching twig (Fig. 209), on the wall above the mantel-piece to support the flintlock gun. Take two stitches through the wall around each twig, as shown in Fig. 210, at the dots A and A and B and B (Fig. 207).

upon which to hang the pots and kettles over the fire. One end of the crane was bent down and attached to the side chimney wall by iron rings. These rings allowed the crane to turn so that the extending iron rod could be swung forward to receive the hanging cooking utensils and then pushed back, carrying the pot and kettles over the fire for the contents to cook. The crane was black and of iron. A hair-pin (Fig. 211) makes a fine crane. Bend yours, as shown in Fig. 212, then with two socket-rings made with stitches of black darning-cotton fasten the crane to the side of the chimney at the dots C and C (Fig. 207), and tie a piece of the darning-cotton on the little crane immediately below the lower socket-ring; bring the thread diagonally across to the top arm of the crane an inch and a quarter from the free end and again tie it securely (Fig. 213).

F and F (Fig. 207) as in Fig. 213. Bend forward the interior of the fireplace (Fig. 208) at dotted lines, and fit Fig. 208 on the back of Fig. 207 to form the inside of the fireplace and the mantel-piece. Slide the slashed top strips of the sides of the fireplace D,D,D,D (Fig. 207), back of the slashed strips D,D,D,D (Fig. 208), which will bring the two centres E and E of the sides in Fig. 208 behind F and F in Fig. 207, and will thus form two layers on the sides of the chimney. Push the edge G and G of Fig. 208 through the slit G and G in Fig. 207 to form the mantel-piece, then bend down the edge of mantel-piece along dotted line.

at one side of the great fireplace for baking the wholesome "rye and Indian" bread, and the delicious home-made apple, pumpkin, rice and cranberry pies. In colonial days thirty large loaves of bread or forty pies would often be baked at one time, so spacious were the ovens. These side-ovens used to be heated by roaring wood fires built inside of them and kept burning for hours. When the oven was thoroughly hot the cinders and ashes were brushed out and in went the pies with a lot of little ones called "patties," for the children. When these were cooked to a golden brown each child was given his own piping hot "patty."

Make your box-like oven according to Fig. 214, cut the heavy lines, score and bend the dotted lines. Bring the side H to the side I; lap I over H so that the two slits, J and J, will exactly fit one over the other; then bend the back down and run the flap J on the back through the two slits J on the side, and the flap K through the slit K.

Adjust the oven back of the oven door L (Fig. 207), and fasten it tight on the wall by sliding the flap M of the oven (Fig. 214) through the slit M (Fig. 207) above the oven door; bend it down flat against the wall. Bring the bottom oven-flap N in through and over the lower edge of the oven door-way N (Fig. 207) and bend that also flat against the wall (Fig. 213). The two side oven flaps will rest against the back of the wall on each side of the oven door-way.

in a few moments. Lay the floor (Fig. 205) down flat on a table; bend up the two diagonal sides O and O, and slide the slit P in the side wall (Fig. 206) down into the slit P of the floor (Fig. 205), bringing the wall (Fig. 206) in front of the upturned floor-piece O (Fig. 205). In the same way fasten the other side wall on the floor. Slip the two slits Q and Q of the back wall (Fig. 207) down across the top slits (Q, Fig. 206) of the side walls. While bringing the back wall (Fig. 207) down to the floor, slide its outside strips S and S over and outside of the upturned pieces of the floor, S and S (Fig. 205), to hold them in place.

As soon as the Indian's wigwam was up, he had a brisk fire to cook by, for after shelter came food. The white man did likewise after his house was built. Though he had andirons to help with his fire, even then to

in the immense fireplace required some skill. Cut two andirons of cardboard (Fig. 215), bend at dotted lines, paint black, and the andirons will stand alone and look like real ones (Fig. 216).

Cut from red, orange, yellow, and black tissue-paper flames like Fig. 217; bend at dotted line and paste the mingled flames one at a time and turned in varying directions on a piece of cardboard made to fit the bottom of the fireplace. Adjust the little black andirons to the fire and glue them in place; select a large log for the "back-log," and a more slender one to lay across the front of the andirons. Place smaller wood in between with the flames, and scatter a few bits of black paper on the hearth underneath to appear like fallen charred wood. When finished the fire should look as if it were actually sparkling, roaring, and blazing (Fig. 218).

to hang over the flames. Break an egg in halves as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 219; even off the edge of the larger half shell with a pair of scissors, paste a strip of tissue-paper over the edge and glue on a stiff paper handle (Fig. 220). Cut three pieces of heavy, stiff paper like Fig. 221, bend at dotted line and pinch the two lower corners on part T together to form the pot legs (Fig. 222). Turn the egg-shell upside down and fasten the legs on by gluing the flap U (Fig. 221) on the bottom of the shell; the legs should enable the pot to stand upright. Turn the egg-shell into iron by painting the handle and outside of the pot jet black (Fig. 223). Swing the crane forward, hang on the pot, pretend you have something to cook in it, then move the crane back over the fire.