Read Ebook: The Child's Rainy Day Book by White Mary

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Roll a length of No. 5 rattan into a ring, as described on page 38, so that it can be soaked in warm water till it is pliable. Cut it into three pieces, each forty-seven inches long. Tie an end of one of these pieces into a ring seven inches in diameter and twist the long end in and out once around this . At the end of this row the ends, where they meet, should overlap an inch. If they are longer, cut them off with a slanting cut and tie them tightly together with a piece of raffia. Two more rings, the same size as the first one, are made with the other pieces of rattan. Hang one of the rings where you can reach it easily, on a low bedpost, for example. Double a strand of raffia and tie it through the ring as shown in Fig. 21, drawing the knot up quite close. Twenty-two strands are knotted on in this way. Space them along the ring about an inch apart, and, beginning with any pair of strands, tie the right-hand one with the nearest strand of the next pair on the right, making an even mesh at an inch from the first row of knots. Continue this all around the ring, when you will have made one row. Ten more rows are knotted in this way. Then bring the ends of all the strands straight down together and tie them below the centre of the ring with a piece of raffia. The ends are cut off evenly at about two inches and a half from where they were tied, to form a tassel.

The two other rings are used for the handles of the bag. Lay one of them against the ring at the top of the bag so that the places where the rings are tied will come together. Thread a tapestry needle with raffia and bind the rings together with buttonhole stitch for an inch. Then sew through and through the binding to make it secure and cut the end close to the ring. The other ring handle is bound to the opposite side of the top ring in the same way.

Even simpler to make than the sponge bag is a doll's hammock of raffia. It is knotted in just the same way.

Lay twelve strands of raffia evenly together. Bend them to find the middle, or "middle them," as the sailors say. Lay the short end of another piece of raffia on the middle of the twelve strands, with its tip turning toward the left, and wind the long end round and round from right to left, binding them together for two and three-quarter inches. Bring the two ends of this binding together to form a loop, wind a strand of raffia tightly around them , and tie the ends securely. You will then have twenty-four ends to knot together, two and two, as the knots in the bag were made. Pin the loop on the cushion of a chair or tie it to a low hook or to the doorknob, so that you can pull the strands taut. The first row of knots is tied about two inches from the loop and after that the rows are only an inch apart. The finishing of the edge of the hammock is of course different from the bag.

It is done in this way: In starting the second row of knots the left strand in the first pair is of course left untied, and, after knotting the row across, the right strand of the last pair is also left free. When the third row is started the loose strand on the left side of the hammock is knotted in with the left one in the first pair of strands in this row . In other words, the strands which are left untied at each side of the hammock when the second, fourth, sixth and all the even numbered rows have been knotted, are tied in with the outside strands in the next uneven numbered row. To make a hammock for a little doll thirteen rows of knotting will be enough. When the last row has been tied bring the ends of the strands together, start a new strand at two inches from the last row of knots, and bind the ends together tightly for two and three-quarter inches to make a loop like the one at the other end. After the loop is finished cut the ends close to the binding, and with a tapestry needle threaded in the end of the binding strand sew it through and through, to secure it, and cut its end close to the binding.

Once upon a time a little girl was carrying a bundle of cookies by the string, when suddenly the knot slipped and the cookies rolled in every direction, over the sidewalk and into the street. If the baker's wife had known how to tie a square knot instead of that useless "granny," the accident would never have happened. I wonder if you have ever had an experience of this kind. If so, I am sure you will like to learn how to tie the ends of a piece of string together so that they cannot slip.

Take the ends of a piece of string, one in each hand. Cross them and bring the upper end down under the long end of the other piece . Now turn it back in the opposite direction above the first part of the knot, to make a loop, and pass the other end down through it . In this way each end of the string will come out beside its own beginning.

Another use for the half hitch is in the process that sailors call "kackling" . This is used to prevent two ropes from rubbing against one another, or chafing. A beautiful handle for a basket or bag may be made with this knot.

Take two pieces of rope and some light cord, or, if it is to be the handle of a basket, two pieces of heavy rattan, No. 5, and some No. 00 rattan with which to do the knotting. If you use the rattan be sure to soak it for ten minutes in warm water and choose a soft piece of the fine rattan for knotting. Hold the heavy pieces of rattan side by side, lay an end of the fine rattan upon them at the middle , with its tip turning toward the left, and hold it there with the left hand, while with the right you bring the long end up and around both of the large pieces of rattan up and under the short end of the fine piece. It is then brought down and around the two large pieces of rattan and the end is passed down through the loop made in starting the hitch . Draw the tying strand up tight and bring the long end up and around the large pieces of rattan and up under the loop it left in starting . Take care to keep the fine rattan wet so that it will be very pliable; if it dries it will surely crack as you tie it.

If you would like to make a ping-pong net or a net for crabbing, you will find it quite easy to do and very interesting. After you have made these small nets you may feel like trying a tennis net if you have plenty of time and patience.

At a hardware store you can buy tightly twisted cord of the size you wish to use in making your net. It is generally sold by weight. If you are planning to make a ping-pong or tennis net you will also need a heavy piece of cord for the head rope. A crab net would of course be netted on to an iron ring attached to a long wooden handle. A needle such as is shown in Fig. 31 may be made quite easily by any boy who can whittle.

When you have wound your cord on the needle, stretch the head rope taut between two convenient points, the backs of two chairs, for example, and begin at the left by tying one end of the cord to it. Make a loop the size you wish the mesh to be and fasten the cord to the head rope with a clove hitch, or two half hitches . When you have worked as far as you wish, get on the other side of the net and work back again. This row of meshes and all that follow after are made by fastening them to the upper row with a sheet bend . After the second row is finished come around to the other side again and knot the third row. When the net is wide enough knot it to a piece of rope the size of the head rope with a row of clove hitches.

In weaving bead chains on a loom, and in doing other things, you will often need to tie a new piece of thread or cord to a very short end. The weavers have a knot they use for this purpose, and as it is a simple one perhaps you would like to learn it. Hold the old end in a vertical position , lay the new piece back of it, its short end turning toward the left and reaching an inch or more beyond the vertical thread. Bring the long end around in front of the vertical thread, up back of its own short end on the left and across in front of the vertical thread . All these threads are held in position by the fingers and thumbs of the left hand, while the right hand brings the thread around. The vertical or old end is now turned down through the loop in front of it and there held by the thumb, while with the fingers of both hands the long and short ends of the new thread are pulled up tight.

There is a beautiful knot called by sailors a "Turk's head." Girls will find that they can make the prettiest buttons imaginable with it, using silk cord of any colour, and both boys and girls will enjoy making napkin rings of rattan with a more open arrangement of the same knot.

To make a button take a yard of cord, and at about four inches from one end bend it into a loop , about half an inch across. The long end should come above the short one. Next make a second loop lying above and to the left of the first one , bringing the long end under the short one left in starting. The long end is then brought over the left side of the second loop, under the left side of the first loop, over the right side of the second loop, under the right side of the first and around to the beginning, inside of the short end . This makes one row, or the beginning of the button. If you have a bodkin with a large eye, the long end of the cord can be threaded into it and this will make the work easier. The next row follows the first one exactly--close to it and always on the inside. When the cord has followed in this way four times, to complete four rows , a firm little button will have been made.

With a piece of rattan in the natural colour or a length of coloured rattan you can make a useful and very pretty napkin ring by following the directions just given, with only one change. In beginning the second row , the long end is brought to the left or outside of the short end and continues around on that side. Five rows may be made instead of four. Keep the ring form in mind all the time, have the rattan wet and pliable and mould it into the shape of a ring, keeping the top and bottom as nearly the same size as possible.

When your mother was a little girl her mother used to make with linen twine a kind of coarse, heavy lace called macram?. One of the knots she used was called "Solomon's knot," and that is the one you will use if you decide to make this work bag. A length of No. 4 rattan and a bunch of raffia, both in a soft shade of green, will be needed. These you can buy of a dealer in basket materials for a few cents. Twist three rings like those for the upper edge and handles of the sponge bag described in the first part of this chapter. Hang one of these rings on a low bedpost or on a hook placed so that you can reach it easily when seated. Take two strands of raffia, double them around the ring, and with the four ends thus made tie a Solomon's knot as follows: Hold the two upper strands straight and taut. Bend the under strand on the left across them to the right , and bring the under strand on the right over the end of the left strand, back of the middle strands and through the loop made by the left strand in starting. Another pair of strands is knotted on in the same way, and another, until there are twenty-two groups around the ring. Starting anywhere on the ring, the two strands on the right of a group are brought beside the two on the left of the next group to the right. The middle pair of these four strands are held straight down, while the strands on the right and left are tied upon them in a Solomon's knot. This knot should be half an inch from those in the first row. Make a double knot this time as follows: After tying the knot , take the end which is on the right after the first knot has tied, bring it over to the left, above the middle strands, and bring the one on the left down over the end of the strand which was on the right, back of the two middle strands and up through the loop left in starting the right strand . The whole row is made in this way. Ten rows are knotted, each one about half an inch from the row above. The bag is finished in the same way as the sponge bag, with a tassel and two handles. If you choose you can line it with silk of the same colour as the raffia, or, if it is to be used for a duster bag or to hold grandmother's knitting, it will not need a lining.

What a Child Can Do with Beads

WHAT A CHILD CAN DO WITH BEADS

Long, long ago when the world was young, the child who wished for a gay and pretty necklace for her little brown throat strung berries and seeds or pieces of shell and bone that her father ground smooth by hand and pierced for stringing. For thread there were grasses and fibres of plants or sinews of deer.

Indian children sometimes used beads of clay, and so did the little Egyptians, for the fine clay by the river Nile made beautiful beads, as well as pottery. The children of the North--the little Esquimaux--had beads of amber, and the Indian tribes farther south strung shells that look so much like the teeth of animals one can hardly believe they are anything else. Look for them at the Natural History Museum and you will see that this is so.

Nowadays there are of course many more kinds of beads--beads of glass, china, gold and silver, and even of semi-precious stones. After all, though, the child who lives in the country or by the sea can gather the most interesting kind of all--such as were strung by those children who lived so long ago--seeds, berries, shells and seaweed. Gather them on a sunshiny day and store them away for use in the dull hours when you are obliged to be indoors.

The seeds of muskmelons are soft enough to pierce; watermelon seeds will take more effort and a stronger needle. Then there are the orange berries of bittersweet and the red ones of holly. Haws or hawthorn berries are a beautiful red, too, and perhaps you will find in a neighbour's garden a bush of Job's tears--gray, white or brown. The grape-like seaweed which bursts with a pop when you step on it makes very pretty beads. Cut each one close to the bulb, yet far enough to leave a short piece of the stem on each side of the bead. Pierce the bulbs while they are still wet, and after they have dried for a few days they will be ready to string. Apple and flax seeds, beans and peas before they have dried, make excellent beads. A few of the small glass beads which come in bunches may be used with these natural beads, and will set them off wonderfully. Although they are usually sold in bunches, eight skeins to a bunch, the skeins can sometimes be bought separately. Olive-green crystal beads of the size that dealers call No. 3-0 are beautiful with red berries, and what could be prettier to string with brown seeds or Job's tears than gold-lined crystal beads? Let us use them in making a chain for a muff or fan.

Have you ever seen any Job's tears--the interesting tear-shaped seeds of an East Indian grass? It grows very well in this climate, and you may like to raise it yourself. Think of being able to pick beads from a plant of your own!

Be careful to boil these beads before stringing, for a little grub sometimes lives in them, and he may appear when you least expect him or may even make a meal of the thread on which the beads are strung. If you have not the Job's tears, apple seeds will look almost as well, or you can buy at the grocer's whole allspice. Use a No. 5 needle and a piece of No. 60 white linen thread four inches longer than you wish the chain to be when it is finished; two yards and a quarter is a good length.

String a seed and draw it down to the middle of the thread, then string some of the gold-lined crystal beads for about three-quarters of an inch. A seed is next threaded on, and then quarter of an inch of gold-lined beads. Keep on in this way, first threading a seed and then quarter of an inch of gold-lined beads, until there are only two inches of the thread left. Tie this end through a bead to keep the others from slipping off. Thread your needle with the other end of the strand and start by stringing three-quarters of an inch of the gold-lined beads, then a seed and quarter of an inch of gold-lined beads. When this end of the strand has been strung--just as the other was--to within two inches of the tip, tie the two ends together and the chain is finished.

Another pretty and simple chain is made of large rose-pink crystal beads strung on pink raffia; or you can use seeds or berries instead of the crystal beads, in which case the raffia will have to be split. Tie the strands of raffia together at one end, and on each of the other ends thread a fine darning needle. String one bead, then pass both needles through a single bead and through another and another . Two beads are then slipped on each strand . Next both needles pass through three beads, and so on to the end of the chain. Tie the ends securely.

A double chain like the one shown in Fig 39 may be made of crystal E beads strung with seeds or larger beads of a deeper shade. Measure off a piece of white linen thread, No. 60, double the length you wish the chain to be. Three yards twenty-two inches will make a chain sixty-five inches long, which is a good size. In one end of it thread a No. 5 needle and string one large bead, or seed, which should be pushed down to the middle of the strand. Here it may be tied, to hold it in place. Next string two inches and a half of E beads, then another large bead, or seed, and so on to the end of the strand, where the tip is tied through the last bead. The other end of the strand is then threaded and two inches and a half of the E beads are strung, the needle passes through the next large bead on the end first strung , and two and a half inches more of the E beads are threaded. So it goes on to the end of the chain--the needle always passing through the next large bead on the strand already strung, after two inches and a half of E beads have been threaded.

A braided raffia chain with a cluster of three crystal beads every few inches is so simple that any little girl can make it. Choose pale green raffia and beads of a deeper shade, and it will look like clover leaves on their stems. String twenty-two of the green crystal beads, No. 0 size, on a strand of split raffia. On two other strands thread the same number of beads. Tie the thin end of each piece around the last bead, so that it cannot slip off. The other ends are all tied together. Now pin the knot securely to a cushion, or tie it to a hook at a convenient height and braid the three strands together closely and evenly for about two inches. Then slip a bead from each piece up close to the work and braid it in as shown in Fig. 40. This will make a clover leaf. After braiding two inches more slip another bead on each strand up close to the work and make another leaf. When it is finished tie the ends together securely.

Next best to making a daisy chain out-of-doors is to string one of beads. And this rainy-day chain will last as many months as the real chain would hours. First string sixteen green beads, then eight white ones. Run the needle down through the first white bead and string a yellow one. Next pass the needle through the fifth white bead and draw the thread up tightly. This makes a daisy. String another stem of sixteen green beads and make a daisy as you did the first one. The whole chain is strung in this way.

A chain that is very pretty and effective may be made with watermelon seeds and pink crystal E beads, the colour of the inside of a watermelon. The seeds can be pierced quite easily with a No. 5 needle. Take two pieces of white linen thread, well waxed, the length you wish the chain to be, and two needles. Tie an E bead on the end of each piece of thread. Lay them side by side and string four more E beads on the strand at the right. Pass the needle on the left up through the three middle beads of the five on the right strand , and string one more E bead. Next thread a seed on each strand and string the E beads in the same way. So it goes on for the whole length of the chain.

If you are fond of playing Indian and have no Indian costume, you ought to be happy. That seems a strange thing to say, but the reason is this: You can have all the fun of making a costume yourself, you can learn how to do it in the Indian way, and after it is finished it will be far more like the dress worn by Western Indians than those that are sold ready made.

Suppose we begin with the belt.

It is woven on a loom--not an Indian loom, which, as perhaps you know, was a bow strung with several strings which served as the warp threads for the belt or chain. Possibly you have a loom of your own and know how to use it; but if not you can either buy one for twenty-five or fifty cents, or, what is still better, make one yourself. A simple, good loom may be made from a cigar box.

Choose a good strong cigar box, one that is quite shallow, and remove the cover. Rule a line one inch from the bottom of the box on each long side and draw a sharp knife across the line several times until the upper part separates easily from the lower without injuring it. Smooth the tops of the sides with sandpaper. Fasten each of the small sticks of wood inside a corner of the box, to strengthen it. This is how it is done. Drive one of the half-inch screws up from the bottom into the end of the stick, another into it through the side, and two, one near the top and one lower down through the end of the box, into the stick. On the outside of the box at one end six round-headed tacks are driven in a row an inch and a half from the top and about three-quarters of an inch apart. Drive six screw eyes in the same position on the opposite side. Cut a row of notches on the top of each end of the loom, about one-sixteenth of an inch apart, and deep enough to hold a thread. The loom is then ready for weaving. Chalk-white beads are much used by the bead-weaving Indians like the Sioux and Winnebagos, especially for the ground-work of their belts. Let us choose them for the background of the belt and weave the design in Indian red and blue.

Although this shirt and the moccasins and leggings that go with it are so simple to make, you are almost sure to need the help of your mother or governess in planning and cutting them. The shirt is the size for a child of seven or eight, but it can easily be enlarged so as to fit a boy of twelve or fourteen. It is made by the pattern shown in Fig. 44, which is drawn on the scale of one inch to a foot. One large chamois skin and two of medium size will be needed. Double the large skin lengthwise to cut the upper part of the shirt. This should be ten inches deep and a yard wide. Cut at the centre a slit about nine inches long for the neck. The ends form the sleeves. Lay the two smaller skins together and cut from them the lower portion of the shirt. The back and front are alike, each measuring nineteen inches wide at the top, twenty-two inches at the bottom, and fifteen inches deep. Make a pencil mark at the centre of each lower edge of the upper part and one at the middle of the top of both of the lower pieces. Turn up an inch at each lower edge of the upper part of the shirt and baste the doubled edge of one side against the top of one of the lower parts, keeping the pencil marks at the middle of each together. Sew the edges together over and over with No. 90 white linen thread. Join the other side in the same way. The overlapping edges of the upper part of the shirt should be kept on the right side. Sew the sides of the shirt together with a row of backstitching, four inches from the edge. The edges are cut into a fringe four and a half inches deep at the ends of the sleeves and three inches on the sides and bottom of the shirt. The edges of the upper part which hangs over the lower are also cut into a short fringe. Work two narrow bands of bead embroidery round the neck, and if you like you can also work a band half way down the lower part of the shirt and one near the lower edge just above the fringe. They are made in this way: Thread a No. 11 needle with white linen thread and make a knot at the other end. Start at the right of the neck close to the edge. Bring the needle through to the outside of the shirt. String four beads, press them down close to the shirt and bring the needle through to the inside. This makes a stitch which runs up and down at right angles with the neck opening. Bring the needle out again on a line with the place where it went in and close beside it, string four more beads, bring it up and run it in again just at the left of where the work began . This simple stitch is the one that is most used by the Indians in embroidering their buckskin shirts, leggings and moccasins. String different colours, according to the pattern. Several designs for this work are shown in Figs. 46, 47 and 48. If you wish to decorate the shirt still more, cut strips of chamois about a quarter of an inch wide and five inches long, pierce a row of holes, two together, at intervals of an inch and three-quarters across the shirt , bring the strips of chamois through them and tie them once. String a large Indian-red bead on each end and tie a knot to keep it from falling off.

Nothing could be easier to make than Indian leggings, and you can put as much work or as little as you choose into the embroidery. Cut from two small chamois skins two pieces in the shape shown in Fig. 49. They should each be eight and three-quarters inches at the lower edge, twelve inches at the top and twelve high. The design shown in Fig. 50 will be simple and effective, and narrow bands like those in Fig. 51 may be worked along the edge that laps over and across the bottom. Six strands of chamois about eight inches long are brought through the leggings on each side at an inch from the edge. These form the fastenings.

To make the pattern for these moccasins you need only stand on a sheet of brown paper and draw with a pencil around your bare foot so as to get its exact size and natural form. Cut the pattern out and take it to a shoemaker, who will cut from it a pair of leather soles. The uppers you can cut from a paper pattern copied from the shape shown in Fig. 52. It will not be difficult to plan them to fit the soles, for you have only to measure the distance around the outer edge of the soles and make the uppers measure about an inch more along the outer edge, to allow for the seam at the back and for a little fulness across the toe. Work them in some simple design, like the one shown in Fig. 53. A pretty beaded edge is made with a stitch which is very like the one used in working the bands. Thread a needle with No. 90 white linen thread and bring it through the top of the moccasin close to the edge. Fasten the end by taking two or three small stitches. String six beads of a colour used in working the bands and bring the needle through the edge from the inside of the moccasin out, about a quarter of an inch from the beginning, making the stitch shown in Fig. 54. Before starting the next stitch pass the needle under the first one. Work the whole upper edge of the moccasin in this way, then stitch it together up the back, making a seam a quarter of an inch wide. It should be stitched on the inside and then turned right side out. The uppers are stitched on to the soles with a No. 3 needle and a well-waxed piece of white linen thread, No. 25. Should this prove too hard work for small fingers the moccasins may be taken to a shoemaker to finish.

The daintiest little silk bag may be made by any small daughter for mamma or a dearly-loved aunt to carry a bit of lace work or some other treasure. A piece of soft ribbon five inches wide and seven and three-quarters inches long in a pale shade of lavender makes a charming bag. A network of lavender crystal beads of the same shade, with a pearl or gold-lined crystal bead at the point of each diamond-shaped mesh, gives the finishing touch of daintiness . Start by threading a fine needle with a piece of sewing silk the colour of the bag. Fasten the end by taking one or two small stitches near the left side of the strip of silk at about two inches from the lower edge. String six lavender beads, one pearl and seven lavender beads, and take a stitch a quarter of an inch from the beginning and on a line with it. Now run the needle down through the last bead strung , and string six more lavender beads, one pearl and seven lavender. Another stitch is made a quarter of an inch from the last one, the needle is run down through the last bead, and it goes on in this way until a row has been made across the piece of silk. The bag is then stitched up the sides and around the bottom on the wrong side and turned right side out. Bring the needle attached to the beadwork down through the six lavender beads and one pearl one, at the left side of the first half diamond made, and string six lavender, one pearl and six lavender beads. Pass the needle through the next pearl bead on the right in the row above and string another six lavender, one pearl and six lavender beads to make another half diamond. So it goes on around the bag. This row and all the other ones are only attached to the row above, not to the silk. The last row of netting should reach a little below the bottom of the bag. A twisted fringe is then made as follows: Run the needle down through the beads on the left side of the first mesh in the row just finished, through the pearl bead at the point, and also pass it through the pearl bead on the back of the bag which lies just beneath it. String thirty lavender beads and pass the needle up through the beads on the right side of the first mesh and down again through those on the left side of the second mesh. It runs through the pearl bead at the point of the mesh and the one under it at the back of the bag. String thirty more beads and twist the thread on which they are strung once around the right side of the loop just made. The next loop is made in the same way--passing the needle up through the beads in the right side of the second mesh, down through those in the left side of the third one, and through the pearl bead at the point of the mesh at the front and the one below it at the back. Thirty more beads are then strung. When you have made this fringe all across the bottom of the bag, fasten the end of the silk by sewing it two or three times through the bottom of the bag. Finish the top of the bag with drawing strings as follows: Turn in a hem three-quarters of an inch wide at the top of the bag and baste it. Hem it around neatly with the lavender sewing silk and make a casing for the drawing strings to run through, by putting a row of backstitching a little over a quarter of an inch above the bottom of the hem. There should be two little holes made on each side of the bag on the outside of the hem between the stitched seam and the bottom of the hem. They are put there so that the ribbon drawing strings can run into the casing. You can make them with an ivory or metal piercer called a stiletto, or any other tool that has a sharp round point. The neatest way to finish these holes is to sew the edges over and over with a needleful of sewing silk. Half a yard of narrow ribbon should be allowed for each drawing string. Thread it in a bodkin, or ribbon needle, which is run into one of the holes at the side of the bag, through the casing at the lower part of the hem, all around the bag and out of the hole beside the one where it went in. Now tie the ends of this drawing string together, thread the other one through the bodkin and run it into a hole on the opposite side of the bag, through the casing all around the bag and out of the little hole beside the one where it went in. The ends of this piece are also tied, and then the bag is done.

Clay Working

CLAY WORKING

Have you ever noticed how, when it rains, one road will dry at once, and on another your footprints will hold the water like a cup for hours? Do you know the reason for it? The first road is sandy, and so the water filters through the coarse particles and soon disappears. The other is mostly of clay, which is close and fine, and after your foot made that little hollow it was doubtless half baked by the sun so that it became like natural pottery. You probably know all this, and have felt with your own fingers the difference between the sand, in which you have built forts and dug with your shovel in the summer and played with on the kindergarten sand table in winter, and the soft, smooth clay that you have formed into bird's nests, eggs and other things in kindergarten.

Years and years ago, before our great-great-great-grandfathers were even thought of, some man noticed the same thing that you do--that one part of the earth held water for hours, while it disappeared so quickly from other parts--and it set him thinking. Why not make a bowl in which he could carry water when he was travelling or hunting in dry places? This is the way, some wise men think, the making of pottery began. Cups and small vessels could easily be moulded from small lumps of clay, but large pieces--great bowls and jars--it was soon found would have to be formed in a mould. Shallow baskets, pieces of gourd or fruit rind, were the moulds in which these large pots were started.

In beginning the bottom, either a small piece of clay was patted flat into a form like a cookie and fitted into the bottom of the mould, or else a strip of clay was coiled round and round into a mat shape, working the coils together with the fingers. The sides were almost always built up with coils of clay, then, with the fingers and some rude tools--smooth stones, bits of shell or pieces of gourd--they were smoothed and polished. Soon the potters began to decorate their vessels with patterns cut or pressed into the damp clay and even painted them with coloured clay, ground fine and mixed with a liquid. The clay objects you enjoyed making in kindergarten were not very strong. A bowl or cup that is moulded from such clay will not hold water for very long either. It will soon soften and fall to pieces. That is what happened to the first clay bowls and cups.

If clay is baked in the sun it becomes a little harder and more useful--but not much--so the first clay workers found that they must bake their clay pots more thoroughly if they were to be really strong. Some of the old potters--like the Catawba Indians--baked their vessels before the fire, and as the clay they used was very good they found it made them hard enough. In other tribes the potters made a bed of bark, set fire to it and baked the pot until when it came out it was red hot. At first the clay workers used the clay just as they found it, but when they began to make large pots and cauldrons to cook in they found that powdered shell or sand mixed with the clay made them stronger and less liable to crack in baking.

The cooking vessels had almost always rounded bottoms, because in those days the floors of houses were of sand or soft earth into which the rounded bottoms would set and hold the pots upright. These pots were set directly over the fire and kept in position by stones or sticks of wood. Some that had handles or flaring rims could be hung over the fire by cords or vines.

The Indians moulded all sorts of things out of clay besides these utensils. Drums were made by stretching buckskin over the tops of earthen pots. Then there were whistles and rattles, trowels, modelling tools, figures of men and animals, and many toys like those shown in Figs. 57, 58 and 59. Beads were also made of clay, and so were tobacco pipes in many shapes. One would have the face of a man on the bowl, another a goat with open mouth, or a bird with its neck outstretched and bill parted, and on another the bowl would be formed by a natural-looking snake coiled up for a spring.

In time men learned more about clays and how to mix and form and bake them, until now, as you know, pottery that is beautiful and serviceable is made all over the world, and in great factories china and porcelain made of the finest clays are moulded, decorated and fired for our use. It will be interesting to you sometime to see one of the factories where such ware is made, but although it is so fine and smooth and perfect and so useful to us, I doubt if the workmen who make it have half the pleasure in their task that the first potters had in moulding their rough cooking utensils and clay pipes. So I am glad to think that although you may never be able to make china, you can work in clay as the Indians used to do, for that you will enjoy far more.

Of course you would like to make something that you can use, something that will not crumble and break like the things you modelled in kindergarten. To do this you will need to get a clay which can be baked--or fired, as potters express it--and you must have a clay that is so mixed or arranged as to bake well in the kiln to which you are going to send it. If you live near a pottery where flower pots or gray stoneware are made you can probably arrange to buy your clay there, and after your pottery is finished have it baked at the same place. The clay that is used at a stoneware pottery is arranged so as to fire at a much greater heat than the flower-pot clay, and so the ware is stronger, but the flower-pot ware will be strong enough for the things you will make. Although this clay is gray before it is baked, it comes from the kiln a beautiful Indian red.

You will not need many tools beside your own fingers and thumbs. One boxwood modelling tool the shape shown in Fig. 60, and another with more flattened and rounded ends will be enough to begin with. These you can buy at a kindergarten-supply store. Later you may need the sheet-steel tools shown in Figs. 62 and 63. Dealers in hardware sell the sheet steel, and these tools can easily be cut from it--doubtless the dealer will do it for you.

Buy fifteen or twenty pounds of clay at a time, ready mixed if possible. If it comes to you in the dry state--in rock-like pieces--you must first pound it to a powder. This you can do out of doors by spreading the lumps of clay on a paper laid on flat stone and pounding them with a smaller stone, or, if it must be done in the house, spread the clay on a strong bench or table and pound it with an old flatiron. It is now ready for soaking. Put a little water in an earthen crock and add the powdered clay to it, mixing it with your hand and adding clay until it is the right consistency to mould. If you find you have too much water, pour off some after the clay is well mixed, and if it is still too moist, spread it on a board in the air until it has dried out sufficiently.

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