  WHO remembers the mill pond down at the farm, clean, and high, with trees all about—a capital place for sailing boats? It is so small that, directly a toy ship is started on its voyage, you can run around the other side and meet her. There is the trout brook, too, down in the woods, where everything is cool and still. There isn’t a sound as you sit on the bank save when a mouse comes rustling along, pushing his way through the leaves with his queer little pointed nose, or a hedgehog plods by, blind and deaf, never seeing you at all. If you should launch a toy boat in the brook, where do you suppose it would sail to? You will follow it a little way. Sometimes it will get caught in the ferns, or it may lie for a minute, stranded, on a rock, or it will overturn as it shoots the rapids. You start it on again with the long pole you cut from the willow tree, but presently the boat will sail away, out of a child’s sight, down the brook. Perhaps it will pick up a crew of little brownie A boy can make himself a whole fleet of toy boats to play with in the mill pond and the trout brook. If one of them does go sailing away to Fairyland—why, what does it matter with all the rest of the fleet just tugging away at their ropes, waiting to be launched? The little boats are the nicest of all, because one may have so many of them. Out in the woods there are some of last year’s walnuts lying on the ground. Split one in half with a jack-knife, and take out all the meat, leaving the inside smooth and white. Glue a scrap of paper to a toothpick, and fasten this little mast to the inside of the half walnut shell with a drop of glue. There is a real fairy craft, fit for a dragon fly to ride in. Just watch it toss and float and sail away on the make-believe waves. A CORK RAFT A CORK SAIL BOAT There are so many eggs in the barn, you can surely have one. Do you know how to blow an egg? Make a tiny hole with a pin in each end, then, by blowing steadily into one end, the contents of the egg may be emptied out of the other. You will be able to cut the egg shell lengthwise, Out in the barn where you found the egg, there is a whole big bin full of corn cobs. Such light, clean playthings they are! They will make a stout little raft to float about in the mill pond. You will need to select eight corn cobs, all of the same size and length. Lay them side by side on the barn floor. Then split up an old berry basket, and cut two or more of the thin strips of wood from the side exactly as long as the raft is to be wide, lay these strips of wood across the corn cobs and nail them in place with tacks. The corn-cob raft is done. It is so light that it can be loaded with quite a cargo, two or three rubber dolls who do not mind the water, or a toy horse, or a rubber pig. Then, if the current is right, it will float way across the mill pond, and the toys can land on the other side. Corks make a fine raft, too, and such a light one! A cork raft will almost never sink. You must collect corks for quite a while before you have enough for the raft. They will need to be A very large, flat cork, such as mother puts in her pickle jars, will make a fine little sail boat. All that it needs is a toothpick mast and a white cambric or paper sail glued on. A paper row boat is very easy to make. Choose an oblong of heavy paper that will not soak with the water quickly. Fold a cocked soldier’s hat. Every boy knows how to do that. Hold the cocked hat in the middle of each side and pull it out into a square. Bend back the two open sides to form another cocked hat, but smaller than the first one. Pull this out, also, into a square. Then, if you pull hard on the two closed corners, the paper will open into a fine little row boat. You can fold so many of these paper boats that a new one may be launched as fast as the old one sinks. A boy who is clever with his jack-knife will be able to make a stout little sail boat from a piece There are other boats which will want to join this toyland fleet. Peanut shells may have very tiny paper sails pinned to the ends. A race between two rival peanut boats will be great fun. A cigar box boat may have squares cut from the sides with a knife for oar locks; with meat skewer oars, it will make a very creditable scow, flat-bottomed, and perfectly safe for any doll to go clamming in. Clam shells may have paper sails fastened on with glue, and any kind of flat shell loves to go sailing away by itself on the water. A strong square of birch bark may be folded and cut rounding at the ends to resemble a canoe. The ends are then sewed with a needle threaded with strands of sweet grass or stout cotton, making a tiny Indian craft. If you wish the canoe There will be fun for all summer long for the boy who makes and sails his own fleet of toy boats. WHITTLED TOY SAIL BOAT |
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