Adelia B. Beard

“ The wild morning-glory leaf (Fig. 44) is more beautiful in shape, the vine is more graceful, and the blossom just as lovely as the cultivated morning-glory, and all this beauty need not be left behind when you gather the wild flowers which are to make the rooms of your home charming.
[35]
While I write this, July 7, there stands on a table in our living-room a tall glass vase, wide at the top and holding plenty of water. It is filled with a mass of wild morning-glory-vines, and there are four new, entirely open, pink and white blossoms while others are just twisting open. ”

“ Not all at once with a great, blustering rush, but gently, steadily, and quietly they push and keep on pushing until their heads are above ground; then they begin to grow in good earnest, and pretty soon they laugh right out into blossom. ”

“ By the roadside, through the meadows, on the farm, at the cottage door, and in your own yard those dear, familiar little friends, the clover-blossoms, come to greet you. Even in city parks you may find them, and always they are ready and glad to help you have a good time. ”

“ Let a wild boar be plunging out of the jungle, and deep in the bamboo grove you might hide the tremendously large [55] snake called a boa. I don't think there will be a boa in your Noah's ark, but you can make one of bread dough, or of clay. With all these dangerous creatures prowling round, do you think it strange that the Filipino people put their houses on stilts?
If this were a real house in the real Philippines you might see a number of natives, wearing little or no clothes, coming toward you bringing small snakes which they had caught to sell in the towns for rat-catchers. ”

“ There is no mouth, none is needed, for the leaf, below the nose, drops down loosely over your mouth like the curtain on a mask one buys at a shop. The oak-leaf mask will stay on your face if you wet the under parts of each side and stick them to your cheeks.
Another way to make the mask is to turn the leaf around, stem down, and then cut the eyes and nose in the wide part, leaving the narrower stem end for a long chin. This kind you can hold in front of your face by taking the stem in your hand. ”

“ It is best to make a number of corn-husk people at one time. Put the two husks together for each pioneer and Indian, then wind a string around the neck of each to form the head (Fig. 186) . Again tie a string around each at the belt-line (Fig. 187) . Continue making the people in this way, step by step, until all are finished at the same time. Have ready as many arms as you have people, and run the arms through each, one after another.
When bending the arms or legs of the little people do it slowly and gently. ”

“ Apple-Blossom in Apple
Cut the apple into thin slices from side to side through the core. Take one of the slices from near the middle of the apple and hold it up to the light, so that the light will shine through it, then look carefully and you will see in the centre a perfect pattern of the apple-blossom you gathered from the tree (Fig. 212) . Apple-seeds form the centre of the flower. The petals, five in number, are of the flesh of the fruit. They are of the same shape and size as the real blossom. ”

“ You can enjoy your fresh designs for a while and then press them. Do not make the mistake of covering the entire under part of a flower or leaf with paste as if it were made of paper; a drop is all that is needed, more will spoil it.
Flowers do not always grow exactly as you want them for your designs, but a too straight stem can be coaxed to curve by drawing it between your fingers, and leaves and sprays can be cut away or added as has been shown. All this changing about only makes it more fun to work out the design.
Fig. 18 is a running design of clovers which can be used for a border. ”

“ The greenies need not always live in tents. Like other people, they can have houses as well.
It is best to use the wooden toothpicks in making the house. They are stronger than broom-straws and all the same length. Begin by putting the front of the house together. Make the peak first. Choose a large pea, push the end of a toothpick into it, then not far from that push in the end of another toothpick slantingly so that the lower ends will be separated as you see them in Fig. 168. On each of these lower ends stick a pea like Fig. 169. That is the peak for the roof. ”

“ They do not grow only that we may have something delicious to eat. They ripen and fall on the ground, where some of them take root and grow up into trees themselves. If you plant a hickory-nut a little hickory-tree should come up, and it will if the conditions are all right. If you plant a walnut it will be a walnut-tree that will appear; so you see a nutshell is the seed-vessel of the nut-tree.
English walnuts do not grow wild in this country, but are cultivated here and you all know what the English walnut is like. Our American walnut is very hard to crack ”

“ They can be fairy children at school, if you like, with the short, fat thumb fairy for the teacher; and you can make the fairy pupils stand close together, shoulder to shoulder, then at a word from the teacher, separate and stand alone again. ”

“ Don't let the beans, that you have taken out of the pod when making the fish, get dry and hard. They can be turned into a
Lima-Bean Man
Three beans and several strong, straight broom-straws you will need for making this comical little fellow, who, upright and independent, stands squarely on his own feet. That is a good thing for any one to do, let alone a little bean man (Fig. 150) . ”

“ Divide the grass into bunches, each bunch about as thick as your thumb, and have the heads of all the grasses together at one end of the bunch, and the stem ends together at the other end.
Fig.70 - Use a strong string for tying the grass fringe.
Tie a strong string around the stem ends of one bunch. Hold this tied bunch under your left arm, stem ends to the front, and take up another bunch (Fig. 70) . Bring the long end of the string across the front of the second [59] bunch and form a loop (A, Fig. 67) . ”

“ Hold the cup in your left hand with the short, green stem hanging down; the stem is the animal's head; then break off about half an inch from the blunt ends of four wooden toothpicks and use the longest parts for legs. Push the pointed ends of the tooth pick legs up into the under-side of the long, slender cup as it is held in your left hand. Keep the legs of an even length and the animal will stand firmly. This little [95] fellow, with his green head and long green nose, is very comical (Fig. 107) . He can dance on the tin tray too, and run about when you tip it. ”

“ Festoons of the ground-pine are very pretty on walls, stair-banisters, porch-railings, over picture-frames, and hanging from chandeliers, and this ready-made evergreen rope is as suitable for outdoor as for indoor decoration, as beautiful in summer as in winter. ”

“ Gather the bittersweet while the berries are yellow, strip off the green leaves, and hang the vine up dry or put it in a large vase without water. Then the berries will open and last all winter.
Snapdragon and Wild Carrot
Both of these are pretty flowers and worth gathering. The snapdragon (perhaps you call it butter-and-eggs) does not mind at all where it grows. Field, roadside, or even [38] the village streets may be its home, but wherever it lives, it makes the spot shine joyously with its stalks of yellow blossoms. ”

“ Come into the green woods and hear what we can tell you of beauty and love and kindness; of courage and perseverance and strength, for plants must have courage and perseverance as well as strength in order to live. ”

“ As you work keep the picture of the house in front of you so that you may see at a glance whether you are building it correctly or not. If you cannot find large burrs, let the sides and the roof of the house be two layers of burrs stuck firmly together. ”

“ Like a good shopkeeper, this kind of oak shows his customers leaves of various sizes, but it is the very largest that you must take, and only the ones that are dark-green in color. The pretty new light-green or brownish leaves will soon wilt and curl on the edges, while a hat made of the older, tougher ones will last in good condition several days if left out in the dew at night or kept damp in the house. ”

“ As in the large department stores in big cities, the goods in Mother Nature's shop are changed for each season of the year; so the little shoppers have constant variety and hail every new season with fresh delight. This book is written to call attention to the beautiful and wonderful things to be found in Mother Nature's toy-shop and to tell what to do with them, for one must know how to use the amusing material that is furnished. ”

“ You will see right away that the turned-down petals at the sides are the wings, the upright petal at the back is the tail, and the closed middle part is the body. [86] The tipped-up point of the body part makes a very good head for the little sweet-pea peacock.
Fig.98 - The blossoms of the cultivated Snapdragon are large. Snapdragon—Lady's Head and Lion's Head
The magic that turns a blossom of the large, cultivated snapdragon into a little lady's head, upon which rests a dainty, ruffled sunbonnet, or into a ferocious-looking lion's head, is the magic of pen and ink, not of rhyme. ”

“ Suppose you gather some grass and twigs now, and build the little house for your doll.
Some of the queer little people whose home is in the Philippine Islands perch their houses like birds' nests up in the trees, but often they are built on stilts to lift them high from the ground. Our little house (Fig. 50) shall be on stilts. We will make the floor first. If you do not understand how to measure by inches, ask an older person to help you. ”

“ Some people who love the woods and the wild flowers can understand Jack's wild-wood language. They will tell you that over and over again he is saying: "Come into the clean, shady woods and learn to love all the wonderful living, growing things to be found here. ”

“ For arms that will make Jack seem more like a little man, push a short piece of grass-stem through the spike near the top where you see it in Fig. 9. Make a hole all the way through the spike with a pin so that the arms will slip in easily.
When you are ready for Jack to preach put him in his pulpit, sliding the grass-stem through the hole at the back. While you hold the stem of the pulpit in one hand take the grass-stem in the other and, by moving it up and down, twisting it one way, then the other, and tipping it up, you can make him rise up tall and straight, then sink down ”

“ The head and body of the horse and of the man are buckeyes. The neck, ears, tail, and legs of the horse are smooth, straight twigs; the neck, arms, and legs of the man are also twigs.
The Buckeye Horse
When you make a horse let the light-colored part of the buckeye be his face. This part usually has a dark spot on it which looks like an eye. You will see it in Fig. 121. He will have only one eye unless you put in another with lead-pencil or pen and ink, but very frequently horses are blind in one eye, so it will not matter whether he has two eyes or one. ”

“ Last of all cut two three-cornered feet like the one in Fig. 165 from a pea-pod and push a foot on the end of each leg. Turn the toes in and the little figure will look very comical. To give her a face, dip a pen in black ink and make two round eyes in the head, a round nose, and a wide mouth turned up at the corners. The pen must be pushed through the skin of the pea to do this. When the greeny girl stands up, her dress hides the support at the back so that it cannot always be seen, and she looks as if she stood on her two feet just as you stand on yours. ”

“ Daffodil Dancers
To make a flower stand alone and give it feet to dance on, push three wooden toothpicks firmly up under the little yellow skirt into the centre of the blossom. It doesn't matter if a flower has three feet; like an insect, it may have more than two and it won't stand on two. Spread the bottom ends of the toothpicks out a trifle like a tripod to make the flower stand steady (Fig. 106) . ”

“ Always make a larger notch in the small end of the cob than in the large end, so that the large end of another cob may fit in it; for, when building, it is necessary to place small ends and large ends together, and never two large ends or two small ends, or the house will be unevenly balanced. ”

“ Though he looks dangerous, he cannot even nibble a green leaf.
The illustration of the tiger-lily given here is a drawing of the one from which the lily leopard (Fig. 90) was made. You will notice that at the right of the flower (Fig. 91) there is the stem and pistil of a blossom that has fallen apart.
Fig.91 - The leopard is made from a Tiger Lily like this.
When we make the leopard we cut off this lily-stem close to the stalk, leaving the pistil attached, to use for the back-bone and tail. Four broom-straws, about an inch and a half long and sharpened at one end, we use for legs. ”

“ Fig.151 - Parts of Lima Bean Man
The way to make the lima-bean fish swim is to place it, open edge down, in a large basin of water; then with a stick or spoon begin at the centre to stir the water gently and gradually round and round until it all moves faster and faster, and keeps on moving after you stop stirring. Then your little green fish will swim. Round and round [127] the basin he will go, his tail waving and his fins moving so naturally you will shout with delight.
If at first the fish insists upon turning over on his side and floating about like a dead fish, don't give him up. ”