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

Remember all the time you are playing, that this is the way your colonial ancestors cooked.

One of the easiest for you to make is the long-handled iron shovel called a "peel" (Fig. 224), used to place bread and pie in the great oven. Cut the peel from stiff cardboard, paint it black and stand it up by the side of the chimney (Fig. 204). Trace the toaster (Fig. 225) on cardboard, paint it black, bend up the four semicircular rings and bend down the two feet, one on each side (Fig. 226).

Chicken and other eatables were placed between the front and back rings on the toaster and broiled before the fire, which was so hot that it was necessary to have long handles on all cooking utensils.

Several pieces of iron of varying lengths, generally made into the shape of the letter S, were called "pot-hooks"; they hung on the crane. Make two or three pot-hooks of cardboard and paint them black (Fig. 227). When you are not using the little toaster, bend up the handle and hang it on a pin stuck in the wall (Fig. 204).

Just look at your little colonial friend, Thankful Parker! (Fig. 228). The tiny maid seems almost to be stepping lightly forward and backward as she spins out long threads of the soft, warm yarn, singing softly all the while a little old-fashioned song. How busily she works, and listen! you can all but hear the wheel's cheery hum, hum, hum! That's the way the real colonial dames used to spin. Such a

belonged to every family, for all had to do their own spinning or go without the yarn, as they could obtain no assistance from others.

Cut from cardboard the spokes (Fig. 229) for your miniature colonial spinning-wheel, the tire (Fig. 230), and the two small wheels (Fig. 231). Bend forward the fan-shaped ends of each spoke (Fig. 229) and glue the tire (Fig. 230) around on them; let one edge of tire lie flush on the edges of the bent ends of the spokes.

With the exception of the square spaces AA and BB on the stand (Fig. 232) cut the heavy lines and the little holes; score, then bend the dotted lines. Bend down the long sides and the ends fitting the corners against and on the inside of the same letters on the sides, glue these in place and you have a long, narrow box with two extensions on one side (HH and GG). Bend these extensions, also their ends II and JJ, and glue the ends on the inside of the opposite side of the box against the places marked II and JJ.

Turn the box over, bringing the level smooth side uppermost. Cut out the wheel brace (Fig. 233), turn it over on the other side, then bend AA backward and BB forward, and glue the brace on the box-like stand (Fig. 232) on the squares AA and BB. See Fig. 228.

Make the upright (Fig. 234) of wood; shave both sides of the end, KK, until it is flat and thin, then glue a small wheel (Fig. 231) on each side, raising the wheels above the wood that the flat end of the upright may reach only to their centres. Glue the wheels together to within a short distance of their edges.

With the red-hot end of a hat-pin bore the hole LL through the front of the upright, and below bore another hole, MM, through the side. Make the screw (Fig. 238) and the block (Fig. 239) of wood. Run the screw through the side hole MM in the upright (Fig. 234), and push the screw on through the hole in the top of the block (Fig. 239). Break off more than half of a wooden toothpick for the spindle (Fig. 236) and pass it through the hole LL (Fig. 234).

Make the hub (Fig. 235) of wood and thread it in through the wheel and brace (Fig. 233), to hold the wheel in place. Use two wooden toothpicks, with the ends broken off (Fig. 237), for legs; insert these slantingly into the holes, GG (Fig. 232), on the under part of the stand, allowing the top ends to reach up and rest against the under side of the top of the stand. Spread out the bottom ends of the legs.

Run the upright (Fig. 234) through the single hole near one end of the stand (Fig. 232) and pass it down through the under hole on HH. The lower part of the upright forms the third leg. See that all three legs set evenly when the wheel stands, and that the box part is raised slightly higher at the upright end, slanting downward toward the other end (Fig. 228). Glue the three legs firmly in place.

Connect the two small wheels (Fig. 231) and the large wheel together by passing a string between the small wheels and over around the outside of the tire of the large wheel, fastening it on here and there with a little glue (Fig. 228). Twist a piece of raw cotton on the spindle and tie a length of white darning-cotton to the end of the cotton (Fig. 228).

Stretch the thread across to the hand of your colonial-dressed doll, glue it in place, and the next time your mother attends a meeting of the Society of Colonial Dames tell her to show your little maid Thankful Parker and her spinning-wheel. When you

coil her hair up on top of her head (Fig. 240) and fasten it in place with common pins (Fig. 241). Make the straight bang look as nearly as possible as though the hair were drawn up into a Pompadour such as was worn in Colonial times.

Make the cap (Fig. 243) of thin white material cut like Fig. 242, and the band (Fig. 244) of the same color as the dress. Cut the thin white kerchief like Fig. 245, and fold it as in Fig. 246. Fig. 247 gives the design for the dress waist, and Fig. 248 the sleeve. The skirt is a straight piece gathered into a waistband. The apron (Fig. 249) is white. When the doll is dressed it should resemble little Thankful Parker (Fig. 228). An

with its long, slender barrel was used almost daily by our forefathers for securing game as food.

The gun was kept hanging in plain sight over the kitchen mantel-piece, ready for defence at a moment's notice, for in those early days wolves and other wild animals were numerous and dangerous, and enemies were also likely to appear at any time.

You should have one of those queer old guns to adorn your kitchen wall. Get some heavy tinfoil off the top of a bottle, or take a collapsible tube and from it cut a wide strip like Fig. 250, one narrow, straight strip and two medium-wide straight strips, four in all. Cut the butt end of the gun (Fig. 251) of stiff cardboard. Break a piece measuring four and one-half inches from a common coarse steel knitting-needle for your gun-barrel and use a slender, round stick, or the small holder of a draughtsman's pen, cutting it a trifle more than three and one-half inches in length for the ramrod groove.

In the centre of one end of the stick bore a deep hole with the red-hot point of a hat-pin and insert the pointed end of an ordinary pin for a ramrod (Fig. 252). Split the other end of the stick up through the centre not quite half an inch and work the butt end of the gun in the opening (Fig. 253).

Lay the gun-barrel above the wooden part (Fig. 254) and fasten the two together with the four bands of tinfoil (Fig. 255), allowing the top part of Fig. 250 to stand up free to represent the flintlock. We must be content without a trigger unless you can manage to make one by bending down and cutting a part of Fig. 250. Paint the butt and wooden portion of the gun brown before binding on the barrel, and you will find that you have made a very real-looking little rifle to hang upon the rustic brackets over the mantel-piece.

to send fresh air circulating through the smouldering embers. The bellows are easy to make. Cut two pieces of pasteboard like Fig. 256, and cut two short strips of thin paper. Paste one edge of each strip to each side of one piece of cardboard bellows, fold the strips across the centre (Fig. 256), and attach the free ends of the folded strips to the other piece of pasteboard bellows, forming a hinge-like connection on each side between the two pasteboard sides. Paste the points of the two sides together up as far as the dotted line (Fig. 256). When thoroughly dry you can work the bellows by bringing the handles together and opening them as you would real bellows (Fig. 257).

much of it has the same dull, leaden color and the peculiar look of old pewter. Should the pieces of tinfoil you find be twisted and uneven, lay them on a table and smooth out the creases with scissors or the dull edge of a knife-blade; then cut out round, flat pieces and holding one at a time in the palm of your left hand, round up the edges by rolling the ball of a hat-pin around and around the plate; press rather hard and soon the edges will begin to crinkle and turn upward (Fig. 258). You may mould some deeper than others and have a row of different-sized pewter plates on the kitchen mantel-piece, and you can make a wee pie in the deepest plate, open the oven-door and shove the pastry into the oven with the little iron peel. Try it.

to place over the bare board floor, and it will be fun for you to weave it. Take a piece of smooth brown wrapping-paper the size you want your mat, fold it crosswise through the centre and cut across the fold (Fig. 259), making a fringe of double pieces which we will call the warp. Unfold the paper and weave various colored tissue-strips in and out through the brown foundations (Fig. 260), until the paper warp is all filled in with pretty, bright colors. You can weave the rug "hit or miss" or in stripes wide or narrow as you choose, only make the rugs as pretty as possible.

(Fig. 261). It would never do to forget the clock, for poor little Thankful would not know how long her many loaves of bread were baking in the big oven, and the bread might burn. Cut Fig. 262 of cardboard and score all dotted lines, except NN-OO, which forms the hinge of the door. Mark this with a pinhole at top and bottom, turn the cardboard over and draw a line from pinhole to pinhole; then score it on this line that the door may open properly outward. Try to draw the face of the clock correctly. Make it in pencil first so that any mistake may be erased and corrected. When you have the face drawn as it should be, go over the pencil lines with pen and ink. Begin the face with a circle (Fig. 263). Make it as you made the circle for the wigwam, only, of course, very much smaller. Above the circle, at the distance of half the diameter of the circle, draw a curve with your home-made compass (Fig. 264). Lengthen the compass a little and make another curve a trifle above the first (Fig. 265). Connect the lower curve with the circle by two straight lines (Fig. 266), draw a small circle above the large one (Fig. 267), connect the two circles by two scallops (Fig. 268), and bring the upper curve down into a square (Fig. 269). The small top circle stands for the moon; draw a simple face on it like Fig. 270, then make the numbers on the large circle (Fig. 271) and also the hands (Fig. 272). Both numbers and hands must be on the same circle on the clock. They are on two different circles in the diagrams that you may see exactly how to draw them.

Leave Fig. 269 white, but paint the other portions of the clock a light reddish brown with black lines above and below the door, and a black band almost entirely across the bottom edge of the front of the clock that the clock may appear to be standing on feet. Gild the three points on the top to make them look as if made of brass.

Be sure that the four holes in the top (Fig. 262) are fully large enough to allow a coarse darning-needle to be passed readily through them; then bend the clock into shape, fitting the extension PP over the extension QQ; the two holes in PP must lie exactly over those in QQ. Glue the clock together, using the blunt end of a lead-pencil, or any kind of a stick, to assist in holding the sides and tops together until the glue is perfectly dry.

Thread a piece of heavy black darning-cotton in the largest-sized long darning-needle you can find; on one end of the thread mould a cylinder-shaped piece of beeswax, cover it with thin tinfoil, then open the clock-door and hold the clock with its head bent outward and downward from you. Look through the open door and see the holes on the inside of the top; run your needle through one of these holes and across the top on the outside, bringing it down through the other hole into the clock. Slip the needle off the thread and mould another piece of beeswax on the free end of the thread, make it the same size and shape as the first weight, cover this also with tinfoil and you will have clock-weights (Fig. 273) for winding up the old-fashioned timepiece. Gently pull down one weight and the other will go up, just as your colonial forefathers wound their clocks. When the weight is pulled down in the real clock it winds up the machinery, and the clock continues its tick, tack, tick, like the ancient timepiece Longfellow tells us of, stationed in the hall of the old-fashioned country-seat.

Do you like real country buttermilk, and have you ever helped churn? If you live in the city or for some other reason are not able to make the butter, you can still enjoy manufacturing a little

that will look capable of producing the best sweet country butter (Fig. 275).

Cut Fig. 274 of heavy paper or light-weight cardboard; mark three bands on it (Fig. 275). Make your churn much larger than pattern, have it deep enough to stand as high as Fig. 275. Glue the sides together along the dotted lines, turn up the circular bottom and glue the extensions up around the bottom of the churn. Fit a cork in the top for the churn-lid and make a hole through the centre of the cork for the handle of the dasher (Fig. 276). Make the handle by rolling up a strip of paper as you would roll a paper lighter. Glue the loose top end of the handle on its roll; then cut the large end of the handle up a short distance through its centre (Fig. 277). Cut the dasher (Fig. 278) from cardboard, slide it over the divided end of handle (Fig. 279), bend the two halves of the handle-end in opposite directions, and glue them on the dasher as shown in Fig. 280. Slip the handle of dasher through the cork lid (Fig. 281), and fit the lid in the churn (Fig. 275). Paint the churn and handle of dasher a light-yellow-brown wood color, the bands black, and when dry you can work the dasher up and down the same as if the churn were a real one. Stand the churn in your kitchen not far from the fire so that little Thankful may attend to the cooking while she is churning.

CHAPTER XIV

FRAGILE, quaint and full of sunshine and color are the typical houses of Japan. They are so simple in construction a child might almost build them, generally only one story in height and always without a cellar, chimneys, fireplaces, windows, and even without a door. Yet the dainty abodes are flooded with light and fresh air. How is it managed? Simply by sliding the entire front of the house to one side, leaving the building wide open. Often the back walls, too, are opened, and in some houses the sides also. These cottages are usually part wood and part paper. It seems strange to think of people actually living in paper dwellings, but the Japanese understand how to manufacture strong, durable paper. They delight in making all sorts of paper, from the tough, well-nigh indestructible kind to the delicate, filmy variety, and it is adapted to innumerable uses. In Japan people not only build paper walls, but the very poor wear paper clothing.

entirely of paper (Fig. 282). Take medium-weight water-color paper, or any kind that is stiff enough and not too brittle, cut a piece sixteen inches long and seventeen inches wide and on it mark the plan of the large room (Fig. 283). This should measure sixteen inches across the back from A to A, seventeen inches along the side from A to B, and thirteen inches across the front from B to C. The back division forms the foliage and the back of the room, the centre division the roof, and the front division the front and sides of the room.

No paste is used in making the building; the design is merely cut out, bent into shape, and fastened together with projecting tongues run through slits. Cut all the heavy lines, lightly score, then bend all the dotted lines, except the two immediately across the front of the room at top and bottom. This front is five inches wide and four and a half inches high, with two openings in it and a portion extending down in front to form the little porch. Make a pinhole at each end of the two lines forming top and bottom of the front of the room A and B, then turn the paper over and draw a top line and a bottom line across on the wrong side of the paper from pin-point to pin-point. Score these on the wrong side of the paper, for they must bend from that side in order to extend inward from the right side to form the projection of the roof and the top landing of the veranda. Fasten the room together, then cut out the floor (Fig. 284), slide it in place and also the steps (Fig. 285), marking straight lines across the diagram to indicate steps.

Build the small room (Fig. 286) in the same way that you made the large one. Cut it from a piece of paper nine and one-half inches wide and thirteen and one-half inches long. This room has no floor. When finished run the tongues extending out on the back of the room through the remaining four slits at the side of the foliage on the back of the large room (Fig. 283). Work carefully and you will be fully repaid.

Paint the roof of each room in little black squares with white markings between to represent black tiling. Paint the outside of the house yellow, the back wall of the large room pale blue, the floor light brown. Paint the back of the small room mottled green and pink. Make a band of light blue edged with black across the outside top of the front opening and a red band across the bottom. Let the projecting veranda be yellow, with vines across the lower part. Edge the openings of the large room with two narrow bands, one purple the other black, and mark black lines from side to side crossed with lines running from top to bottom to form a lattice-like work on the side of the smaller opening (Fig. 282).

Fig. 246.—Fold the kerchief like this.	Fig. 247.—Pattern of waist.
Fig. 248.—Pattern of sleeve.	Fig. 249.—The apron.