Material Required to Make a Magic Box: two small oblong boxes with covers that slide over an inner drawer. Both boxes must be about an inch and a half long. Both must be duplicates of each other. About two yards of light twine are needed.

The magic box is truly a wonderful one. It will obey every command you give it—yes, it will! There is a secret that you will have to learn, but when you know this secret the little box will have to do just as you bid it.

The magic box is on a string. As it descends, you cry, “Halt!” The box stops at once. “Go on!” you cry. The box continues down the string. “Faster, faster!” The box fairly flies in its haste to get down to the floor! Wonderful! Wonderful!

Now, let me tell you how to do it. (It is a trick, of course!)

Find a small stick, round and smooth like a half of a toothpick.

Take the sliding cover from one of your boxes, and fit inside the drawer, across the center of it, the piece of wood so that there is space under it and above it.

Next, make a small hole at each end of the drawer of your box, and thread some string through both holes, letting the string pass under the stick of wood in the drawer. (See Diagram Thirteen, A, page 187.)

Place the sliding cover on the box and let the string pass through it at both ends. (See Diagram Thirteen, B.)

The SECRET of your magic box is the piece of wood in the drawer. Tell nobody about this. When you hold one end of the string in your right hand, place the toe of your shoe on the floor over the other end and keep the string taut. Then, loosen your hold slightly, and carefully bring the box upon the string up as far as your hand.

When you loosen the hold upon the string to make it less tight, you will notice that the box slides rapidly down the string; when you hold the string absolutely taut, the box remains firmly in one place. By practising, you will find just how much to loosen your hold on the string in order to make the box do as you wish.

Anyone who sees the box performing so wonderfully will not readily guess the secret of its magic. Here the second box, that is a duplicate of the first, comes into the play. Arrange this second box as if it were the trick box—except for the stick through the drawer. When your friends ask to examine the magic box, give them the second one. Keep both in your pocket. In putting the trick box into your pocket, slide its drawer a little, so that you can easily distinguish between the two boxes by feeling of them. When you give the duplicate, nobody will suspect that it is not the real box, if you manage cleverly.

“Wonderful! Wonderful!” they say. “What a MAGIC BOX you have!”

Diagram One. Cut the cardboard sides of your box as the heavy black lines indicate. Fold outward upon the dotted lines.

A. A plain window without blinds or awning. Cut the cardboard out on all four sides.

B. Window with blinds. Cut the top line, the center line, and the base. Fold outward on the dotted lines.

C. Window with awning. Cut side lines and base. Bend cardboard outward and upward to make the awning over the window.

Diagram Two. Cut the cardboard of your box sides as the heavy black lines indicate. Fold outward where there are dotted lines.

A. Single door. Cut at top and side (if need be, at the base also). Fold the cardboard outward to make a door.

B. Double door. Cut the square at top and down its center. (If need be, cut the base of the square also.) Fold both sections outward.

C. Door with window in it. Cut out a square from the single door. Cut the door at top and side. Fold it outward.

Diagram Three. This shows the shape of the cardboard pieces that are used to form side walls for a sloping roof; also the box-cover roof placed in position, and the hole for a chimney.

A. Side walls of cardboard, glued to box ends.

AA. Box cover placed on side walls. Square cut out so that a box tower or chimney may be inserted through its opening.

Diagram Three. Triangular cardboard pieces are cut and pasted to the upper part of a box to hold a roof made from two interlapped box covers.

B. Gable roof made from two box covers.

BB. Triangular cardboard pieces cut to fit the ends of a box and hold a gable roof.

Diagram Three. Gable roof. This is a piece of cardboard cut oblong and folded through its center, lengthwise, to make a slanting roof. A deep box may be cut down to hold this roof and make a gabled building. Cut where heavy black lines indicate.

C. Roof cut from a piece of plain cardboard or corrugated cardboard.

CC. Box cut down to make the low sides and high-pointed gable ends of a small building.

Diagram Three. Roofs.

D. Round-pointed roof cut from cardboard. Lap edges x to x. This makes a tent also. The Indian Wigwam is made this way.

E. This is a wide box cover folded through its center, rim cut up to the top on each long side. Bent, it makes a tent or tent-shaped roof. This is like the kennel roof.

Diagram Three. Cut Where the heavy black lines indicate.

F. Ramparts are cut from the rim of a box cover.

G. A porch roof may be made by taking the cover of any shallow box and pasting it over the doorway of your building. The porch pillars are long pencils run through holes cut in each forward corner of the box cover.

Diagram Four. By cutting the ends or sides of boxes, tunnels or bridges may be made. Cut where the heavy black line indicates.

A. The bridge is made by cutting a semicircle from the long sides of an inverted box. The box cover, turned upward, forms the bridge railing. At each end, cut the corners. A cardboard strip is pasted to each end rim to complete the bridge roadway.

B. The tunnel is made by cutting a circular opening in the two ends of a deep box which has been inverted.

Diagram Five. Take a square piece of paper. Fold it through its center once. Fold the two halves to make quarters. Draw the outline Z on the piece of paper folded into quarters, and cut this as is indicated by the heavy black line. This gives ZZ, the pattern for the windmill sails, which are cut from it in cardboard.

Diagram Six. Cut your box when it is inverted where the heavy black lines show.

A. A bench form is made by cutting to right and left of each corner of the lower half of an inverted box. Remove cardboard evenly from between these cuttings to make legs of the bench.

AA. This is the cover of a box from which long side rims are cut. It is glued to the bench form to make head and foot of a bed.

Diagram Six, B. To make the bench with high back, use the lower half of a box, inverted. Cut the rim where the heavy black lines are shown. Cut front legs from the box rim on one long side. Turn up the other long rim of the box to add to the height of the back. Fold upward on the dotted line running lengthwise through the middle of the box.

Diagram Six, C. To make the chair, turn the lower half or cover of your box so that it stands upon its rims. Cut where the heavy black lines are shown in the diagram. Fold the back of the chair upward where the dotted line is indicated.

Diagram Six. Tables are made from deep boxes by inverting the lower half of the box and cutting legs in the rim as is shown by the heavy black lines. Small boxes, square or round, placed upon upright spools will form tables, stools, stands.

D. A table cut from a correspondence-card box. Cut where the heavy black lines are shown in the diagram.

DD. A round table made with a spool and a box glued to its top.

Diagram Six. Cut where the heavy black lines are indicated. Glue at y.

E. A school desk is made by standing the lower half of a small oblong box upon one of its long rims. Cut in the box rim where you see a heavy black line in the diagram. A piece of box rim is fitted below the top of the desk inside the box to make a shelf.

F. Glue a narrow box across a larger box that is placed upon one of its long sides at yy to make a piano with keyboard.

Diagram Six, G. Stand any box you may have upright on one end or on one of its long rims. Cut from the front or back of the box an opening as shown by the heavy black line in the diagram.

Diagram Seven. The pergola is made from an inverted shoe-box. The lower half of the box is used. Cut the bottom from the box, leaving a narrow rim around the bottom. Cut the ends as shown in the diagram by the heavy black lines. Mark off pillars upon the long sides of your box with pencil, and cut these as shown by the heavy black lines of the diagram. Two cardboard strips are glued lengthwise at the top over the lengthwise edges left. Strips of cardboard are crossed over the open top which was the bottom of the box.

Diagram Eight. Cut the cardboard box sides as indicated by the heavy black line in the diagram. Zoo cages are cut on each side. Circus cages are cut top and bottom of the box, and the box is then placed upon one long rim to have wheels added to it. The wheels for circus cages are cardboard disks.

Diagram Nine. The theater is made from a deep square box placed to stand upon its rims, upon its cover. The opening A is cut upon one side of the box and bent inward where the dotted line is shown. This is the stage. B is the stage opening through which the dolls are let down by black cord to walk upon the stage and act. Cut an opening like this shown in the diagram by the heavy black line. C shows the slit back of the stage opening. Through this, postal-card scenery is let down upon the stage.

Diagram Ten.

A. A sled is made by cutting the cover or lower half of a box that has been placed to stand upon its rims. Rims are cut off at each end of the box or cover. The long rims make the runners. Cut the rims Where you see heavy black lines in the diagram.

B. A sleigh top is added to a sled by cutting the cover of a box to the shape of the upper part of a sleigh. The lower half of the same box makes runners for the sleigh. Glue the cover to these. In cutting your box follow the heavy lines indicated in diagram.

Diagram Eleven.

A. This is the way to draw the sections for the game-board of “Ringfling.” Draw from corner to corner of the box upon its top. Number one section 1. Number another 2. Number another 3. Leave one section blank.

B. Cut two rings from cardboard like the one shown. Cut where the heavy black line is in the diagram. Make one ring smaller than the other.

Diagram Twelve. Draw this figure upon the top of your box. Draw from corner to corner, and from center of side to center of side, across the top of the box. Paint sections marked x.

Diagram Thirteen. This shows a small box with sliding cover which draws over an inner drawer.

A is the drawer. At its center, crosswise, there is a piece of stick fitted into the box. Holes are pierced at either end of the drawer.

B is the box ready for its magic play. Its drawer is replaced within the sliding cover. The box is strung upon a yard or so of string.