Read Ebook: Mother Nature's Toy-Shop by Beard Adelia B Adelia Belle Beard Lina

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Ebook has 406 lines and 21548 words, and 9 pages

ts widest part, almost seven inches from tip to stem, and the cup held a good supply of water.

Begin to fold by bringing the two lower lobes of the leaf together in the way shown in Fig. 80. This makes the middle bend that is indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 78. Then bring the two lobes around to the left, or to the right if that comes easier, hold them close together and lap them over the upper lobe on that side. That makes the two side bends which join at the middle bend , and rounds the cup into shape.

The bottom of the cup is pointed, as you see, and, of course, will not stand; then, too, the cup falls apart when you loosen your hold, but neither of these things are of any consequence, for you can let your cup lie flat and fold it again very quickly when it is needed. As long as the folds are held tight in your fingers, the cup will keep its shape and hold water without leaking a particle. Use the upper, or green, side of the leaf for the inside of the cup; the under, or light, side is fuzzy and may harbor small insects even after it is washed. Be sure you look into the water before drinking it. This should be done no matter what you drink from or where you get the water.

GREEN-LEAF DESIGNS

Beech-Leaves

REMARKABLY pretty designs can be made entirely of green leaves; also with leaves and their seed-pods, their nuts and berries. You can press a design of leaves alone, but one having seed-pods, berries, or nuts cannot be pressed. It is fun to make it, even if it cannot be preserved by pressing, and you will like to do it.

Fig. 81 is the drawing of a charming design made of two twigs broken off a beech-tree. On one twig were two beechnuts in their pretty green, spiky outer shells; on the other was just one nut. Each twig had three leaves. Nothing was cut off and nothing was added for this design; the twigs were used exactly as they came from the tree. The stems were simply crossed, with the lower leaf of one twig falling over the stem of the other twig, and that finished it. The easiest thing in the world to do if you happen to think of it.

Violet-Leaves

There is one thing about the green leaves of the violet which makes it a joy to use them in a design, and that is, the stems are so pliable, so easily bent and curved, you can do almost anything with them.

See how the stems add to the beauty of the violet-leaf design Fig. 82.

The curve of the stem of Fig. 83 is a natural one for it to take, and you can probably find a leaf with its stem curved very much like it, but it is another thing to come across one of the same size which has a stem curved in the opposite direction, and such a stem is necessary for a design like Fig. 82.

Very well! Since the stem does not naturally curve the way we want it, we will make it do so. All we have to do is to draw it through our fingers several times and, by pressure, gently persuade it to turn as we wish.

Fig. 84 is the under-side of the small leaf at the bottom of the design , and shows how the stem loop above the leaf was made.

Violet-leaves are seldom flat; they are apt to curl at the edges; some are so curled as to form little cornucopias. Choose the flattest you can find for a design like Fig. 82, and paste them to the paper with a touch of paste on the under-part of the tip and of the two lobes at the bottom of each leaf. Paste the stems down also with a touch of paste here and there.

The violet-leaf design can be pressed.

Ground-Pine

Deep in the shadowy woods, often where pine-trees are growing, you will find the ground-pine. Clinging close to the ground, curling in feathery, green clusters on its vine-like root, it runs for yards over the surface, while its root, lying along the top, sends down slender rootlets into the earth. Push away the dry leaves or pine-needles that usually cover the root, and you can pull up long strips and soon gather enough to make the prettiest kind of festive decorations.

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.

When you want to "dress-up" in the woods use the ground-pine for trimmings. Loop it over your skirt and make a wreath for your hair. Last summer at camp we used the ground-pine in this way and the little girls, arrayed for a dance, never looked prettier. For table decorations at camp and for decorating the tent doorways the ground-pine is charming.

Fig. 85 shows how the short, curled clusters grow on the long root, and Fig. 86 gives a wee pine-tree made of one cluster picked off the root and planted in an outdoor doll's garden.

This is what our American writer and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said of the ground-pine:

"As I spoke, beneath my feet The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath."

CULTIVATED FLOWERS

PHLOX

Phlox Tower and Phlox Design

IN a great bunch of garden-flowers given me by a friend I found some pink-and-white phlox , and from it I made first a

Phlox Tower

As you know, the blossom is trumpet-shaped and flares at the open end into five petals. The tube part is long and narrows to a point, so it is easy to push one flower into another. That is what you do in building the phlox tower. You pull the blossom off its stem and out of the little green calyx which holds it, then you push the end of the tube part into the round red eye in the centre of another flower as far down as it will go. Then you push another blossom into that one and build up until your tower is as high as you want it, or as high as it will stand without toppling over. A bud stuck in the top flower makes a good finish .

Phlox Design

The design Fig. 89 was made by first putting three blossoms together, sticking one inside the other as for the tower, to form the long side sprays, and afterward arranging three blossoms below the side sprays and one above with their stems meeting at the middle, as they are in Fig. 89. On each side of the upper flower was placed a sprig of buds; then the tube part of a blossom was cut off and the petal part fitted in the centre of the design to cover the ends of the other flowers where they met.

The tube parts of three more flowers were cut away, and the petal parts arranged in the position shown in Fig. 89. This formed a scattered design quite different from any of the others made of flowers.

Touches of paste on the under part held all the flowers in place. The phlox design is a good one to preserve by pressing.

The Tiger-Lily Leopard

From the brilliant-orange tiger-lily, with its dark-brown or black spots, we are going to make a--tiger? No, a leopard. Tiger-lilies may have spots, but tigers, you know, are striped.

It is really wonderful how much this little animal, made of parts of a beautiful flower and broom-straws, looks like the stealthy, prowling, wild creature which lives in Africa and Asia. The yellow coat of the live leopard is covered with black spots, and so is that of our flower leopard. The fierce living animal has a long tail that it moves slowly back and forth in anger or when it threatens to attack another animal or a man. Our little leopard also has a long tail which, if it does not really move, looks as if it were just going to. But while the live animal is ferocious and will kill, we can only pretend that of the tiger-lily leopard. 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 was made. You will notice that at the right of the flower there is the stem and pistil of a blossom that has fallen apart.

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. The pointed ends of two of the legs are pushed into the stem at the front, and the other two in part of the pistil at the back, as shown in Fig. 92. That makes the skeleton.

Now we have to fit on the skeleton the leopard's spotted coat. After pulling the perfect flower apart we select the petal best suited for this purpose , and then take the curl partially out of it by pressing it down on the table with our fingers. The tip of the petal will have to be cut off because it comes down too far over the tail.

The blunt end of the petal will be the leopard's head, and it can be rounded up and moulded with your fingers until it looks like the head of the leopard in Fig. 90. Small ears of bits of broom-straw, pointed at one end, we must stick in the head where they belong and then, in order to make the coat stay in place, we will pin it to the skeleton at the neck, in the middle of the back, and again at the tail, with fine broom-straws. So we have the little leopard complete.

CULTIVATED FOXGLOVE

Fairy-Caps

DO you know the cultivated foxglove with its tall spikes of thimble-shaped flowers, prettily spotted inside? And do you know that these flowers will fit on the ends of your fingers like tall caps on the heads of little fairies?

Perhaps there are foxgloves growing in your garden now. If there are, pick five blossoms off the stalk, selecting a large one for your thumb and a small one for your little finger; the others should be of a size in between these two.

Turn these blossoms upside down and they at once become fairy-caps. Fit the caps on all five fingers of your left hand. Then on your fingers, just below the caps, draw little faces with pen and ink. Now you have five living, moving fairies who will do all sorts of things and be very spry about it . They will nod at you joyously, they will bend low in solemn salute, and they will put their little heads together to plan some piece of mischief.

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.

It will be fun to name the fairies, such names as Pepper-grass, Mustard-seed, and Catnip, and with the teacher standing before his class, have him call the roll and have each fairy bob his head as he answers to his name.

Perhaps you will want the teacher to require each pupil to sing a little song or recite a short verse. When a fairy does that, he moves forward in front of the others, and stays in that place until he has finished. Here is a pretty verse for a flower-capped fairy to recite:

"I wonder what the Clover thinks, Intimate friend of the Bobolinks, Lover of Daisies, slim and white, Waltzer with Buttercups at night.

Oh, who knows what the Clover thinks? No one! Unless the Bobolinks."

Sweet Pea--the Peacock

You use a little pretended magic when you turn a sweet-pea blossom into a peacock, and that makes it seem more mysterious and more interesting. It doesn't take a second but while you are doing it you must repeat this transformation rhyme:

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