You might cut out of writing-paper two small dolls and bend them so that they will sit on the teeter. The least bit of paste on the ball of the teeter finger of your left hand and some more on the nail of the teeter finger of your right hand will fix the paper children securely on the teeter, and you can make it go as fast as you please without danger of the dolls' falling off. Fig. 462 gives the pattern for the dolls; Fig. 463 shows how to bend them, and Fig. 464 gives a little paper girl seated on one end of the teeter.

Take the dollies off the teeter and let them rest for a while and watch you build a church. Place your two hands back to back, with the ends of the fingers of the right loosely crossing those of the left hand; then, bring the palms of the hands together, fingers inside and thumbs outside and lo!

Leaving the hands in this position, turn your two elbows outward and down, which will bring your hands up; slide your right thumb outside and around your left thumb, the left thumb will then be the minister and, though you cannot see them, the fingers clasped inside the hands are the people, but you can see the thumb, preacher, standing up ready to talk to the people, and you may say, "Here is the preacher who for them cares" (Fig. 469).

If you want to form

To make a

The four fingers working at the same time make it quite lively, but you will find that if the man chops fast, the children will pick the chips very quickly, and if the man works slowly the children will not hurry about gathering the chips. It will be very difficult for you to have the man chop slowly when the children are eager and quick at their task. The feat will be almost as hard as patting your chest with the left hand while you rub the right hand back and forth over the top of your little head. You will laugh to see the left hand rub, when you told it to pat; the poor little left hand tries to mind, but just as soon as its twin brother, the right hand, begins rubbing, the left hand has to stop patting and rub too.

Lay your two hands down showing the palms; lace the fingers together and say,

(Fig. 472). Of course, the fingers are the knives and forks. Turn your hands over while the fingers remain in place, bring the wrists down and say, "Here is my father's table" (Fig. 473). Raise the two first fingers, bringing their tips together, and say, "Here is my sister's looking-glass" (Fig. 474). Then raise your two little fingers and, rocking the hands from side to side, say, "And here is the baby's cradle" (Fig. 475).

There is another little finger game, which we will call

Dampen two bits of paper and press one down tight on the nail of the first finger of your right hand and the other on the nail of the first finger of your left hand. The two pieces of paper are the two blackbirds. Now hold your first fingers, on which the birds are resting, out stiff and double up the remaining fingers; then let your father see how well you have taught these little pet birds to mind, for they will do exactly as you say, going and coming at your command. Place the tips of your two first fingers on a chair, which you must pretend is a hill, and raising first one finger to make the bird fly, then the other, keep the pets flying up and down while you repeat these lines:

As you say the last line raise the right finger up and back over your right shoulder; while there, quickly bend down the right finger with Jack on it and stiffen out the second finger in its place. Bring your right hand down with Jack hidden and put the empty second finger on the chair instead of the first. The bird will be gone and lonesome little Jill will perch on the hill with no playmate, so you must let her go too. Repeat these words, "Fly away, Jill," and make her disappear as you did Jack, bringing down the empty second finger of your left hand and your father will find that both birds have gone; but you may make them return by saying, "Come back, Jack," as you raise your right hand and close down the second finger while you straighten out the first and bring it again to the chair with Jack upon it. Call Jill also that Jack may have some one to sing to, and as you say, "Come back, Jill," bend down the second finger and straighten out the first one with Jill on it, and let her fly down to Jack. You may repeat the lines again and again, making the pets come and go.

You can play

Were I with you now we would play

I would place my right hand down flat on my lap with the back of the hand uppermost, and say to you, "Lay your right hand out flat on top of mine;" then I would place my left hand over yours, and you would cover mine with your left hand. That would make four hands all piled up in a tower; but the moment your left hand came down on top of mine I would pull my right hand out from under the tower and lay it on top, covering your left hand; then you would hurry to take your right hand from under the pile and place it on top. So we would continue to play, always drawing the hand out from the bottom of the pile and placing it on top until we were able to build the tower very rapidly, and, when either of us took too long a time to draw her hand out from under the pile, a forfeit would have to be given to the other.

Ask your older sister or brother to trace the

(Figs. 477, 478, 479, 480, 481) on unruled white writing-paper and cut them out. The strip of paper extending from one side of each little pig must be made into a ring (Fig. 482) to fit the end of one of the five fingers on your right hand (Fig. 476). Begin with "This little pig went to market" (Fig. 477) for the thumb, next, "This little pig stayed at home" (Fig. 478) for the first finger, then "This little pig had roast beef" (Fig. 479) for the second finger, and "This little pig had none" (Fig. 480) for the third finger; to the little finger belongs (Fig. 481) "This little pig said wee, wee, all the way home." Adjust the bands until they fit perfectly, then paste the end of each band under the free side of the attached pig. If the bands are too long they can be cut to proper length. Fig. 482 gives the wrong side of a pig with band curled around and pasted on back of pig, and Fig. 476 shows how the Five Little Pigs will look when on your fingers. If you can give each little pig a flat wash of pink water-color paint, and when dry ink the outlines, they will appear more real. After you have played with the wee pigs, try

(Figs. 483, 484, 485, 486, 487), and ask some one to fold paper into hats for your finger-heads, as shown in Figs. 488, 489, 490, 491, 492. You might ask to have the various children's heads painted, giving each girl and boy different[286]
[287] colored hair—black, brown, red, deep yellow, and pale yellow. If the hats are of colored tissue-paper the effect will be fine, especially if a bit of gay cloth be wound around each finger for clothing. Then the five alive little dolls can bow to each other and dance.