Patten Beard

“ Your stick or pencil must be one inch longer than the width of your box. Place a blob of glue over each end of the axle and let it dry well, to keep the wheels on. When you have fitted the end of a little box into the lower half of the go-cart to make a seat, all is done. You may use a piece of folded cardboard to make the seat, if you prefer. I painted the handle of my go-cart, but it is not at all necessary to do this. The go-cart is great fun to use when you play house and go out marketing. Then you can take your doll baby with you in the go-cart. ”

“ BOXTOWN ZOO GARDEN Material Required to Make a Boxtown Zoo: some shoe-boxes, their covers, strips of cardboard or toothpicks to make bars for cages.
A zoo is really a splendid thing to make. You can cage all your wild animals—Noah’s Ark animals, or whatever other ones you may happen to have. The cotton animals that are bought in Japanese stores, “three for five,” are just right for zoo animals. You can buy chenille monkeys, one for a penny, at the toy shops.
This is Boxtown Zoo. Its cages are cut from shoe-boxes. Box rims are
used to make enclosures for the animals. ”

“ To make the square flat roof, take the box cover and place it down over the freight building at the top. That is an easy way to make a roof, isn’t it? And now that the freight office is made, I am sure you will agree that it is a very fine one indeed. Isn’t it fun to build your own?
Do you want to have me tell you how to make a tunnel too? It will be fine to have one for your railway system. To make one you will need a box—almost any that is deep, like a shoe-box, will answer.
How high is the smoke-stack of your train? Two inches? ”

“ The tools for your boxcraft, scissors, and paste, and paint-box, may go into the large, deep treasure box too.
Here in this book you will find the toys that the fairies have shown me how to make. There are many, many more. You can try the magic craft of the fairies for yourself in your own way. If your boxes are not always exactly like mine, make them answer by adapting the general plan of the toy to the box which you have. Learn to make much out of little. ”

“ If you wish to add a chimney, any long, narrow box that is small enough to form the right proportion to the roof may be used. Measure its base upon the cottage roof near the top. Cut the cardboard of the roof so that the box end may be slipped through it and stand erect, and you have a chimney. If you use a box which has a sliding cover like a drawer, its outside will be like a real little chimney. You may mark off bricks upon it with a pencil, and color it bright red. A wad of cotton will form the smoke for a chimney. ”

“ A long box covered over with green crape paper looks just like a garden hedge. The paper should be pasted over the sides of the box quite flat. Garden stands are made by gilding spools and then poking into each spool, as it stands upright, some artificial flowers.
Greenhouse for the garden is made from the deep half of some box about seven inches long and five inches deep. If you like, your greenhouse may be made smaller, but this size is an easy one to handle.
The box itself forms the greenhouse building. Its roof is of bent cardboard, and the glass in it is waxed sandwich paper. ”

“ Cardboard boxes are to be found everywhere. They are in your home and in everybody’s home. Butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, milliners, druggists, jewelers, stationers, grocers, drygoods firms, shoe stores, book stores, toy stores, all keep them. Everywhere, everywhere there are cardboard boxes—big boxes, little boxes, middling-sized boxes; wide boxes, narrow boxes, deep boxes, shallow boxes; round boxes, oblong boxes, square boxes! Boxes, boxes, BOXES everywhere! All you need to do is to ask for them.
People at home are throwing them away. ”

“ MAKING A BOXCRAFT AUTOMOBILE Material Required to Build a Box Automobile: a one-pound candy box with cover, a sample candy box (oblong ten-cent size) , one round box three inches in diameter, about ten inches of cardboard from which to cut wheels, four round-headed paper-clips for wheel-hubs, a toothpick and a round cardboard key-tag for steering gear, two metal buttons for lamps.
It is not difficult to make a box automobile, for nobody needs knowledge of mechanics to do it. Paste, scissors, boxes—and a pair of hands to do the work, these are all that you will need. ”

“ The chair takes no time at all to cut. Just find the cover of a box about eight or nine inches long. Cut the rim off from it half-way around, starting at the center of one long side. Bend the part that has no rim left on it upward to make the back of the chair, and cut the legs from the lower rim of the rest of the cover as you cut legs for the desk. (To cut a chair, see Diagram Six, C, page 177.) It is fun to have a doll’s office. With it you can play at business. What is your business going to be? Are you going to be a lawyer, or the principal of a little doll’s school? ”

“ THE BOXVILLE RAILWAY STATION Material Required for Making a Boxville Railway Station: one shoe-box and four shoe-box covers, one small box about four inches square and without a cover, the shallow covers of two small boxes three inches long, two long pencils, and a small square of waxed paper.
Boxville’s Railway Station is a real railway station. It is not a tin thing such as you buy ready-made in a toy shop. Boxville Station has a waiting-room with a real ticket booth and benches. You can make just the same kind of little station as you see in this picture. It is easy to make. ”

“ You can lay out walks with pebbles and gravel when you do not play in the house. I made a fountain or a pool for the garden from a hand-glass. At almost any penny store you can buy a little round mirror that will make a garden pool. You can make a sun-dial also. It is a spool with a pill-box placed over one end of it. You will have to mark off the face of the sun-dial with pencil. ”

“ A door will need to be cut at one end of the box, and windows will need to be made on the sides of the box rim.
Turn the box over so that its base becomes the top of your wagon. Make the outline of a door with pencil on one end of the box. To make it, mark off an upright oblong space an inch wide and two inches and a half high. Have its base come at the very edge of box rim. (To cut door, see Diagram Two, A, page 167.) Cut one side line from the base of the box up to the top line, and cut along the top line of the upright figure you have drawn. Bend the cardboard outward to make a little door. ”

“ Wheels may be added to the cages, so that the animals may go out on parade. The wheels are small circles cut from cardboard. There should be four for each cage, of course. When they are cut out from the cardboard, fasten each through its center to the base of a cage by a round-headed paper-fastener. The prongs of the paper-fastener should be bent to right and left inside the covers of the box. This holds wheels firm. If you have no paper-fasteners, sew the wheels to your box with raffia, or glue them to your box. ”

“ Well, if you have not been there, you can very well make a fairyland upon the play-room floor, and in it you may gather together all the people of your Red, and Blue, and Green, and Yellow Fairy Books. These people will be Knights, and Princesses, Witches, Goblins, Fairies. All are toys, and it is an easy matter to get them together—quite as easy as it is to make a fairyland castle. ”

“ Cut a little weather-vane from a strip of cardboard, if you like, and paste it to the front of the barn roof.
The farmyard is made from box rims cut from any shallow cardboard box you have. The box rims stand if you cut them with corners. They make a good enclosure.
A small box, placed on end, will make a shed. The cover of a small box will make a drinking-trough. Little boxes make chicken-coops.
Mrs. Tumble Toy lives on my farm. You see her in the picture. Her husband’s name is Bill. He is chasing the pig. ”

“ I am sure you will have a good time making a circus. It is ever and ever so much fun, I think. You can use any animals that you happen to have among your playthings.
Benches for performing animals at Box Brothers’ Circus are made from an assortment of cardboard boxes and spools. The cover of a large round bandbox makes a circus ring. ”

“ Toys like trains may be built with little more than a long cracker box for a coach and some oblong box for engine. The engine’s smoke-stack is a round box. Its coal-car is a cover taken from a candy box. Its wheels are buttons or button molds placed on the ends of wire hair-pins that have been pressed through the sides of the cardboard boxes. ”

“ It is the little toys that you will like best to use in boxcraft play. The toy figures and the animals will pack into very small space. The corrugated cardboard for roofs, the green crape paper for grass, the pretty shells, pebbles, and artificial flowers for garden building, take but small space. ”

“ You will need a pill-box for a counter. Glue its cover on tight, and put a number one on its top and a number two on its base.
Play in turn, and toss the counter to see how far you can move. When the counter falls, take the number that is on its top and move as many triangles in either direction as the counter indicates.
Each player takes a different colored button to begin the game. Each button is placed in an opposite corner of the board. Each player must try to catch the other player by getting onto his triangle. The first to catch the other player three times is winner. ”

“ You can hang the hammock under the railing on the porch, or fasten it to the rungs of a chair when you play indoors with it. I am sure your dolls will be delighted to have you make this for them. If you are a boy, you can make one for your sister. Boys ought to know how to use needle and thread as well as girls. Soldiers and sailors know how to sew. (I know a man who can do embroidery, but, of course, that is going pretty far.) ”

“ From boxes of uneven size, men and animals may be made. Round boxes or small oblong boxes form heads. Larger boxes make bodies. Legs and arms are boxes of equal size.
The faces are drawn with pencil upon the back of boxes where there is no print. A wire hair-pin will keep the arms in place. It will need to be pressed through the box sides and bent so that the arm boxes may be slipped upon it. Men of all sorts may be made. ”

“ If you are playing with some other child, you will find that it is amusing to divide your store of boxes, each choosing one at a time till the supply is exhausted. Then, you may each see how many different things you can build. ”

“ When you loosen the hold upon the string to make it less tight, you will notice that the box slides rapidly down the string; when you hold the string absolutely taut, the box remains firmly in one place. By practising, you will find just how much to loosen your hold on the string in order to make the box do as you wish. ”