WITH a circus folder or animal book for a copy, a few old cigar boxes, and a jack knife, a very lively and life-like menagerie can be made.

Cut the cigar boxes apart, and sandpaper the pieces very smooth. Then take a pencil and sketch as well as you can the animals in the pictures—at least the bodies of them, for the legs are to be attached afterward, so that they can stand and “do things.”

The cutting must be done very, very carefully, for the outlines make so many different angles with the grain of the wood. It is not in the least like straight cutting with the grain, or even straight cross-cutting, and the wood has an irritating habit of splitting off some vital part of the animal’s anatomy.

It is impossible to make the tails out of wood, so they are made of heavy string, glued in place. For the monkey, you can make a tail of wire, so that he can swing by it.