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46 chapters
Foreword
Foreword
THIS book has a purpose beyond that of mere amusement. Its aim is to aid parents in furnishing not only entertainment but profitable employment as well, for their little ones—profitable, in that work under the guise of play, makes for character. The value of the things made is not in their finish, but in the training which they afford—a value ethical rather than intrinsic. Children throw aside as uninteresting the finished toys from the shops when they have once learned to make playthings for th
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Lady Hollyhock and Her Daughter
Lady Hollyhock and Her Daughter
Hollyhock Place was as beautiful a spot as children ever had for a home. Hollyhocks were blooming everywhere. All about the house and along the lane leading to it were great stalks bearing satiny blossoms of all shades, from delicate shell pink to the deepest, richest red. Besides, there were countless white and golden yellow ones. When the little Wests came to live there it seemed like fairy land to them. All their lives they had lived in the city with its severe looking houses and hard brick a
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The Cucumbers
The Cucumbers
During the summer and the winter following many friends visited with Lady Hollyhock and her family. From Cucumber Hill came a most dignified Englishman. At a glance one knew him to be English for he wore a single eyeglass. A large brass headed furniture tack occupied the place of one eye while the other was filled by a small black carpet tack. Though a trifle stiff in his manners, this gentleman always wore an agreeable smile. The lady who came with him could not be called beautiful. Her neck wa
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Radishes and Corn
Radishes and Corn
The beautiful red radishes from the garden made the most charming of babies, with their leaves turned down for clothes and tied around with blades of grass. These and the corn babies were Florence’s favorites. When the tender roasting ears were brought in from the garden the children all agreed that they were such dainty babies, just as they were, that it would spoil them to change them in any way. All they needed to do was just to open the green husk a little and there lay the most beautiful cr
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The Radish Baby’s Song
The Radish Baby’s Song
(Tune: “The Corn Lullaby”)...
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Radish Babies
Radish Babies
SOMETIMES Radish Babies too were put to sleep in spool box cradles, but more often they were eaten by their fond mothers, for Radish Babies were not only good to look at, and good to play with, but good to eat, as well....
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Pansy Ladies
Pansy Ladies
Pansy dolls were made in several ways—and pansy verses with them. Of these dolls the easiest to make were the paper ones, folded and cut as all children cut rows of doll dresses. Then a small hole was cut in the top of each dress, and the pansy stem put into it. Without further work there stood a pansy lady with a paper body and blossom head. Other pansy dolls were made by covering tiny pill bottles with grass blades, or leaves, putting one end of each leaf in the bottle, turning them all down,
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Poppy Maids
Poppy Maids
GREAT beds of poppies grew at the end of the cottage at Hollyhock Place. To make poppy blossoms into dolls is the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is to turn down the soft, silky petals, tie a blade of grass round them, and there you have a poppy maid, all finished and growing on a stem—a real flower fairy. There is a small green seed pod inside, you know, and that is the poppy maid’s head. After making a number of these without breaking their stems the children often laid a cucumb
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Acorn and Burdock Eskimos
Acorn and Burdock Eskimos
ALONG the orchard fence grew great broad leaved burdocks crowned with purplish pink tipped burs, which early in the season were made into all sorts of useful and beautiful objects—baskets, hanging baskets, cradles, sofas, chairs, tables and many other things. In autumn, when the large acorns with fringed cups began to fall, the children gathered them and made them into Eskimos. One acorn was used for the body, and one for the head, with the point on the end for a nose. Twigs of the oak served fo
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Pigs
Pigs
“Why don’t you make animals as well as people out of fruits and vegetables, children?” said papa one day. Why hadn’t they to be sure? They had never thought of such a thing, but when they did it was not long before the place was stocked with all sorts of strange animals. The first piece of vegetable live stock the little Wests owned was a lemon pig which Uncle John made for them from a lemon, two white headed pins, and four matches. With a knife a small gash was cut for a mouth; then ears were c
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Burdock Leaves and Clothes-Pins
Burdock Leaves and Clothes-Pins
Burdock leaves as well as the burs were used by the children in their plays. Hats and shawls were made of them—but best of all were the burdock leaf wigwams. To make these twigs or tent poles were stuck in the ground and burdock leaves folded round them in tent fashion. The points of the leaves were torn off to make them the right shape. Then there had to be Indians to live in the wigwams and these were made of clothes-pins. Nothing could be easier to make than a clothes-pin Indian. First the fe
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The Clothes-Pin Tribe
The Clothes-Pin Tribe
JOURNEYING across the country a lone traveler chanced upon an Indian village. Such Indians as he saw there were unknown to him, and neither did he know that Indians of any kind dwelt in that part of the land. Strange to him, too, were the wigwams, or teepees, of the unknown tribe. All of the wigwams with which he was familiar were covered with either blankets or skins. These were of the leaves of the burdock and much smaller than any he had ever seen—fit only for the homes of a pigmy tribe—and s
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An Irish (Potato) Woman and Her Family
An Irish (Potato) Woman and Her Family
SOME of the jolliest visitors were from the potato patch. They were Irish, of course, and every one knows how much fun there is in all Irish people. There was not a serious looking one in the whole family. The mother had a most peculiar face, round and plump and happy, but deformed. Though she had more than the usual number of eyes, they were not located so she could use them as eyes . One was on her cheek just where others sometimes have dimples, so she used that for a dimple. Another was on he
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Creatures of Clay
Creatures of Clay
HAVE you ever made men and animals of mud? You can do almost anything with it when it is just soft enough. If it is too dry it is sure to crack. Clay is best, but any kind of mud will do. The little Wests spent hours and hours making people and villages of clay—for there was a most delightfully damp bank by the brookside, where the clay seemed made for young artists. After modeling a few men, the children began to notice just how large a head ought to be, for a certain sized body, and how far do
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The Corn Husk Lady
The Corn Husk Lady
Through the mail one day the little Wests received a box bearing a Nebraska post mark. On opening it they saw the queerest doll imaginable, all neatly packed in crushed tissue paper. This was a lady doll made entirely of corn husks and corn silk. The silk was for hair, of course, and very real looking hair it made. A bunch of the thinner, softer husks had been tied together for the head and body; a flat piece was laid over the place where the face was to be, and a string drawn tightly around it
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The Corn Cob Baby
The Corn Cob Baby
THE corn cob doll is a hardy little thing, able to endure the hardest usage. It has no features, to speak of, and a dreadfully pock-marked face—yet no play baby is dearer to the heart of its owner than the corn cob baby. Baby Bunnie gave her corn cob child a little more style than such babies usually have, by wrapping it about as babies are sometimes wrapped in foreign countries. Red cobs were made into Indian babies, and bound into bark cradles, and hung up in the trees, like real papooses....
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Apple Jack
Apple Jack
FROM the Orchard came Apple Jack, a most agreeable gentleman. Lady Hollyhock was not the only person who was proud to receive him. Everybody liked him, not alone for his engaging smile and pleasant manner but because of his goodness. Then he could always be depended upon to stand by his friends, and the advice he gave was always of the best. But we will let him tell his own story....
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The Peanut Man
The Peanut Man
THE Peanut Chinese man was made of eight peanuts—one for the head, one for the body, one for each arm and two for each leg. All had double kernels, except the one forming the head. These peanuts were fastened together by heavy thread. The needle was run crosswise through the end of one nut; then through the end of the nut joining it, and the thread tied in a hard knot. The face was drawn with a pen and ink. The back of the head and bottoms of the feet were solidly inked for hair and shoes and th
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The Peanut Chinese Woman
The Peanut Chinese Woman
THE Peanut Chinese woman was not dressed like a real Chinese woman. Living in America, she was beginning to like skirt-like gowns better than the baggy trousers of her own people. Her sleeves, too, had just a little of the American look. But when it came to dressing her hair the real Chinese style suited her best. The heavy black silky loops were caught up and held in place by long pins such as she had used in her native land. Her garments, like those of the Peanut Chinese man, were of crinkled
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The Acorn Family
The Acorn Family
IN the autumn when the acorns began to fall the children found no end of amusement in making them up into all sorts of people and animals. Some were converted into soldiers—Japanese, with blue kimonos and Russians with long fur overcoats—and often they were lined up for battle. Ruthlessly the children shot them down with bean shooters. Since their sympathies were with the Japs, of course the Russians suffered most, yet there were losses on both sides. While the brown of the acorns suggested Japs
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The Haws
The Haws
THE members of the Haw family were not very different from those of the Acorn family. Why should they be? They had lived side by side in the same wood all their lives, and had grown up together under the same circumstances. Their complexions were different, to be sure, but aside from this and the difference in the shape of their heads, they were built on exactly the same lines—round bodies, slender arms and legs. Like the Acorn family some had perfectly stiff limbs, while others were provided wi
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The Gourds
The Gourds
The little Wests each fancied a different style of doll. Eugenie liked dressed up visiting dolls, Florence played mother to baby dolls in long dresses, Tom liked what he called “funny fellows” and Indians, while baby Bunnie always insisted on her children keeping house. Tom’s favorites, the funny fellows, came from the squash patch and gourd vines. It was not necessary to even dress these. All one had to do was to dip a match in ink and mark out faces on them. These faces could be made either su
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Gourd Men
Gourd Men
NONE of the Gourd men ever had the appearance of being either sensible or well behaved. But one ought not to expect sense and dignity from any of their race, for, all over the world, those who have neither are said to be as “green as a gourd.” It was only the gourd babies who seemed to know anything at all about behaving properly. Strange as it may seem, the younger members of this awkward family were as sweet and quiet as any babies in the whole vegetable kingdom. Some of these gourd children w
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The Mender
The Mender
A STRANGE creature made of spools, a thimble, and needles was called “The Mender.” But it was not because he ever really did any mending. He never did anything but stand where he was put, in the stiffest way imaginable. Even though he never did do anything, he was of some use in the world, for his very presence seemed to say, “A stitch in time saves nine.”...
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Hickory-Nut People
Hickory-Nut People
HICKORY nuts were rather hard to make into dolls, for it was almost impossible to make their heads stay on. But by putting close fitting caps on them under their bonnets, and bringing the cloth down and tying it at the neck with a string, this extended cap made a very good foundation for a body. It was found that bonnets and long capes were the most becoming garments for these dolls, as they seemed to harmonize best with the caps. Since Nuns and Nurses both dress in this way, the greater number
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The Kelp Maiden
The Kelp Maiden
IN August Uncle John came all the way from California to make a visit at Hollyhock Place. The little Wests never tired of hearing him tell of the wonderful things that grew in that western land—of trees higher than church spires—of sea-gulls and pelicans—and of the queer California Woodpecker that bores holes in the trunks of dead trees and pounds an acorn into each hole for future use. As the family sat out under the trees this jolly old uncle of theirs seemed to take as much interest in the fu
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Morning-Glory Ladies
Morning-Glory Ladies
MORNING-GLORY ladies were made by slipping a flower cup upside down over the stem of a seed pod, leaving the pod for a head. Morning-glory ladies always died young. Indeed, they hardly lived at all. The spirits of these lost flower children were not only seen in the sunset skies but in the rainbow, too. And when the little Wests saw the great, beautiful bow in the sky, they always repeated the words of old Nokomis to Hiawatha:...
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Jack O’Lanterns
Jack O’Lanterns
THE children planted pumpkin seeds early in the season and hoed and cared for the vines themselves, that they might have their own pumpkins for Hallowe’en, and what fun they had with them! And how delightfully scarey they were, when made into Jack O’Lanterns! Some one said they were pumpkin ghosts. Two dreadful ones were placed on the gate posts to frighten Papa when he came home after dark. He guessed right away who had put them there. Others were carried about on poles with sheets hanging abou
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Pumpkin Pies
Pumpkin Pies
NOT all of the pumpkins were used for Jack O’Lanterns, though. Some were given to Mamma to make into delicious pumpkin pies. Poor little Tom ate too much of the pies, and his greediness made him have frightful dreams and a terrible pain in his stomach. The verses Cousin Charlotte and the others made about his dream made greedy Tom feel very much ashamed....
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Rastus Prune
Rastus Prune
RASTUS was a peculiar looking negro, with wrinkled face and goggle eyes. Paper teeth with a red lip line running around them were fitted into a wrinkle of his prune face and fastened by a touch of mucilage. His paper eyes were fastened on in the same way. With a light paper vest neatly fitted over his prune body and a paper collar round his peg neck he was as neat a colored gentleman as could be found anywhere. Then his chamois-skin suit with hat to match, gave him such style as any one might be
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Dinah Prune
Dinah Prune
DINAH, the mother of Rastus, was just a plain sensible colored woman, wearing a dark gown, and a bandana head dress. Like most colored women of her age, she always wore a neat kerchief folded across her breast, and a large apron to protect her gown. Though she was no beauty, she was good. All who knew her liked her, and the same might be said of her son. Like him, she was made of prunes and toothpicks, and stood on raisin feet....
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Pipe Dolls
Pipe Dolls
Not all the dolls made by these children were of fruits, flowers and vegetables. In fact it was a poor scrap that they could not make into a satisfactory plaything. And not only the little Wests enjoyed them but Mamma was just as much interested in the making as were the children themselves. One evening a little party of friends was gathered together at Hollyhock Place and for amusement Mamma gave each a clay pipe, a lead pencil, a square of white and a square of colored tissue paper and request
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Paper Dolls
Paper Dolls
THE paper dolls were more like real people than any of the others. They were made by cutting heads from colored picture cards or from magazines and pasting them on cardboard bodies. Then double dress patterns were folded and cut to slip over the heads of the dolls, and on these patterns were pasted gowns of tissue paper in all colors and styles. The children were very particular about dressing their dolls in good taste, for they knew that by making neat, sensible doll clothes, they would learn h
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Handkerchief Dolls
Handkerchief Dolls
NO collection of make-believe would be complete without the handkerchief doll. Surely she is a simple child, just an ordinary handkerchief rolled from each side toward the center, then the top turned down, and the corners pulled out and tied around the body for arms, leaving a stuffy little head at the top, and a long skirt at the bottom. The handkerchief doll’s little brother is made to look a trifle different from her, by having the lower corners of the handkerchief, of which he is made, pulle
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Pill-Box Dolls
Pill-Box Dolls
ONE of Baby Bunnie’s especial favorites was the handkerchief doll made over a round pill box. With a pencil a face was marked out on the box and around this a handkerchief was folded three-cornerwise and pinned under the chin. On dress occasions this little one wore around her neck a pretty fresh ribbon tied in a large bow with long ends. Could a more dainty child be found anywhere?...
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The Straw Indian
The Straw Indian
LADY HOLLYHOCK’S visitors differed greatly in many ways. It was not only in looks that they varied, but in their very natures. And strange to say, many were different from what they seemed. Some who appeared bravest and strongest were the weakest. For instance, who would have thought, to look at the fierce appearing Straw Indian, in all the bravery of war-bonnet and blanket, that he was one of the weakest of them all? It was not his fault, poor fellow. He really wanted to be brave and strong. He
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The Dried Peach Indian
The Dried Peach Indian
THE Dried Peach Indian was just as different as could be from the Straw Indian. Being both strong and brave, he went out and did great deeds, as you can see by his war-bonnet. If he had been just an ordinary Indian brave, he would have had only two or three eagles’ feathers at the back of the band encircling his head. But as every feather in an Indian’s war-bonnet means some great deed done, any one can see the Dried Peach Indian had led a busy life....
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Pastry Creatures
Pastry Creatures
BUT of all Lady Hollyhock’s visitors, the little Wests enjoyed most those who came from the kitchen. When baking day came, Mamma always allowed the children to have a little pastry dough to make up into the forms they liked best. Pie crust was fashioned into all sorts of animals as well as into people. These kept their shape beautifully. Doughnut creatures, though good to have, were likely to lose their shapeliness as they grew in the fat. They did not suffer long, however, for they were soon ea
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The Doughnut Man
The Doughnut Man
( Tune : Old Grimes is Dead )...
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The Gingerbread Maid
The Gingerbread Maid
The great round cooky moons were fine, too. Cooky dough seemed made on purpose for modeling....
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The Yarn Child
The Yarn Child
THE yarn child had a hard time in the world. You would not think it to look at her, but she did. The very first day of her life she was given to a baby who was so fond of her that he bit her, and tried to pull her to pieces; then squeezed and hugged and picked at her till it was a wonder she ever lived through it all—Lady Hollyhock never could have endured such treatment. But the yarn child did. Her main business in life was to amuse that baby, and, no matter how she was treated, her yarn eyes w
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Rag Dolls
Rag Dolls
AT Lady Hollyhock’s all visitors were treated alike. Those who came in rags were just as welcome as any. Here is one pair, Mr. and Mrs. Dry Goods, who came all in rags even to their faces. Indeed, they appeared so well that one hardly thought of their garb until attention was called to it. They were just as neat and clean as could be, though every part of them, from bodies to bonnets, had come out of the rag-bag. These rag people were made by first taking a small wad of cotton wool for the head
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Rag Babies
Rag Babies
Then there were the rag babies—I almost said the little rag people—but that would not have been true, for strange to say the babies were larger than the older members of the family. This does not seem so strange after all, when one stops to think, for in the whole rag world, everything grows smaller as it grows older. Some of these were just ordinary white babies while others belonged to the colored race. The Topsies were made of brown cotton or silk, with faces done in water colors, and hair of
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Tissue-Paper Ladies
Tissue-Paper Ladies
OTHER tissue-paper ladies were made by gluing an upright strip of wood to the center of a horizontal piece, like an inverted T, and wrapping it with cotton for a foundation. A ball of cotton was fastened to the top for a head, then covered with white tissue paper on which a face was drawn with a pencil. These ladies wore loose, flowing gowns, long capes, and large, comfortable bonnets tied under the chin. Tissue-paper ladies of this kind could stand alone....
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Humpty-Dumpty
Humpty-Dumpty
HUMPTY-DUMPTY was made from an empty egg shell. First, holes were carefully picked in the shell and the egg blown out. Then the face and cap were drawn in ink on the shell. Wires covered with dark tissue paper were then put through the holes and bent into shape for arms and legs. If light-weight hair pins are used, two or three may be twisted together for legs and spread at the ends to form feet. These dolls can stand alone....
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Cinderella’s Coach
Cinderella’s Coach
“I wish a fairy godmother would come and make a Cinderella’s coach for us out of this squash,” said Baby Bunnie one day. “We can be our own fairy godmother,” said little Florence, as she set to work to make the wish come true. Soon there stood before them a wonderful coach made of that very squash—drawn by handsome peanut horses—and in it rode a beautiful peanut Princess, while a little dark raisin footman with toothpick arms and legs rode at the back on a seat cut out for him. A hairpin was the
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