drawingsFig.27 - Parts of Wild Mustard design.
Fig.27 - Parts of Wild Mustard design.
There are four flower-clusters and five leaf-sprays in the design. You can have as many as you wish but must end them with a leaf-spray.
drawingsFig.28 - Buttercup design.
Fig.28 - Buttercup design.
Buttercups are so beautifully golden, so glossy and bright, you would think they could be made into manynice things, a gold necklace for instance. And so they could if they only would not wilt almost as soon as they are gathered. To be sure, they will revive and freshen up when put in water if they are not too much wilted, but we cannot make them into jewelry while their stems are in water.
Still there is something buttercups can be used for, and that is designs.Fig. 28is a drawing from the simplest kind of a buttercup design but a pretty one. It shows five wide-open blossoms placed in a row at equal distances apart with a little spray of leaves and bud at the lower end of each stem. These sprays do not grow as they are in the design but are added after the flowers are placed in a row.
As in all other designs, each flower, bud, and stem is touched with paste on the under-side to hold it in place on the paper. A design likeFig. 28should be pressed after it is arranged, and it will last a long while and keep its bright color. A number of other and very beautiful designs can be made of the common wild buttercup.
Weall welcome and love the dear little pussy-willows (Fig. 29) whose fur is so soft and silvery. How pretty they look sitting along the slender, bare branches of the small American willow-tree which is their home. The pussies like to come early to assure us that spring is here. They are very tame little kitties, and will allow you to carry them away to your school or to your home.
drawingsFig.29 - Pussy-Willows.
Fig.29 - Pussy-Willows.
Sometimes pussy-willows turn into little rabbits, squirrels, bumblebees, and mice, but they need your help, they cannot make the magic change alone. It will be lots of fun helping them if you do it this way.
drawingsFig.30 - The Rabbit and the Rabbit's ears, enlarged.
Fig.30 - The Rabbit and the Rabbit's ears, enlarged.
drawingsFig.31 - The Pussy-Willow Bunnies.
Fig.31 - The Pussy-Willow Bunnies.
drawingsFig.32 - Pussy-Willow Squirrel, enlarged.drawingsFig.33 - Paper tail, enlarged, for squirrel.
drawingsFig.32 - Pussy-Willow Squirrel, enlarged.
Fig.32 - Pussy-Willow Squirrel, enlarged.
drawingsFig.33 - Paper tail, enlarged, for squirrel.
Fig.33 - Paper tail, enlarged, for squirrel.
Take a small branch of the very largest pussies you can find, have ready some scraps of smooth, fresh writing-paper, a piece of cardboard, pair of scissors, and some good paste. It only requires long ears to change the pussy-willows into bunnies. Cut the ears from your writing-paper like the patternFig. 30. Put paste onthe strip between the letters G and H, then take a pussy from the branch and stick the paste-covered strip just above the small end of the pussy, which will be the bunny's head. The arrow I,Fig. 30, points to the place for the ears. When the paste has dried bend the ears up like the ears of the rabbits inFig. 31. Make three or four rabbits to keep each other company and paste them in a row on your piece of cardboard.
drawingsFig.34 - The Pussy-Willow Bumble-Bee.
Fig.34 - The Pussy-Willow Bumble-Bee.
This little gray squirrel (Fig. 32), sitting up in such a lifelike pose, must be made of a slightly bent, rather long,slender pussy. Pull forward some of the fur near the small end so that it will look like the front legs of the squirrel when he holds a nut in his hand-like front paws, and push up two tufts on the head for ears. The pussy from whichFig. 32was made already had these tufts for legs and ears, and it looked so much like a squirrel one simply had to add the tail and let it be a squirrel.
drawing bee bodyFig.35 - Parts of bumble-bee.drawing bee legsFig.36 - Draw the legs of the bee like this.
drawing bee bodyFig.35 - Parts of bumble-bee.
Fig.35 - Parts of bumble-bee.
drawing bee legsFig.36 - Draw the legs of the bee like this.
Fig.36 - Draw the legs of the bee like this.
Cut the paper tail like the patternFig. 33, fringe it along the edge and bend forward the little lap at the bottom which is separated from the tail by the dotted line. Curve the tail backward, put paste on top of the lap, and stick the lap to the under part of the large end of the pussy; then paste the finished squirrel to a piece of pasteboard cut round or square as you like best.
Mr. Bumblebee (Fig. 34) needs one whole pussy for his body, one-half of a pussy for his big, round throat, anda small piece of the pussy for his head (Fig. 35). On the piece of cardboard which is to hold the bee, draw his legs likeFig. 36, then paste the three parts—body, throat, and head—on top of the legs.Fig. 37shows how it would look underneath if you could see through the paper, so you will know exactly where to paste first the throat, then the head, and lastly the body. The edges of these parts where they join must be pushed close together.
drawing diagramFig.37 - Paste the three parts of the bee on top of the legs.drawingsFig.38 - Mr. Bumble-Bee, enlarged, ready for his wings.
drawing diagramFig.37 - Paste the three parts of the bee on top of the legs.
Fig.37 - Paste the three parts of the bee on top of the legs.
drawingsFig.38 - Mr. Bumble-Bee, enlarged, ready for his wings.
Fig.38 - Mr. Bumble-Bee, enlarged, ready for his wings.
A bumblebee has slightly curved spikes extending from his head which are called antennæ.Fig. 38shows you where to draw them. You will also see on the same diagram how to widen the six legs, making them thicker and more lifelike. Cut paper wings the shape ofFig. 39, making them the proper size to fit your bee. Remember that a bumblebee has small, short wings compared to the size of its body. Bend the lap at the bottom of the wing along the dotted line, and paste the lap of each wing onto the sides ofMr. Bumblebee's chest. The wings turn back over the laps and hide them. (SeeFig. 40). The finished bee is shown inFig. 34.
Fig.39 - Pattern of bumble-bee wing.Fig.40 - Showing lap of wing bent back.
Fig.39 - Pattern of bumble-bee wing.
Fig.39 - Pattern of bumble-bee wing.
Fig.40 - Showing lap of wing bent back.
Fig.40 - Showing lap of wing bent back.
If you cut a leaf out of green paper and put your bumble-bee on that instead of on the cardboard, he will look, with his extended wings, as if just ready to fly, and will make a fine addition to your collection of things made of outdoor material.
drawingsFig.41 - Pussy-Willow Mouse, enlarged.
Fig.41 - Pussy-Willow Mouse, enlarged.
Then there is the pussy-willow mouse (Fig. 41). He is a nice little gray mouse with a long tail.
Choose a large pussy-willow for this mouse, ruffle the fur up on top of the head and it will look like ears. The head is at the small end of the pussy. Paste one end of a piece of cotton string under the large end of the mouse, and that will be his tail. The string should be white.
Fig.42 - Jumping Pussy-Willow Game-Board.
Fig.42 - Jumping Pussy-Willow Game-Board.
Finish by pasting the mouse to a round or square piece of pasteboard.
This is a good game and it will make you laugh to see the pussies leap up in the air, sail along a short distance, and land on a numbered square of the game-board.
The board (Fig. 42) should be ten or twelve inches square. Cut it from a flat, even box lid or any other pasteboard you happen to have. Draw straight lines fromtop to bottom about one inch apart, then more straight lines from side to side one inch apart. This will divide the board into squares like a checker-board. Each of these squares must be numbered and you can draw or paste them in.Fig. 42shows how the game-board should look.
To play the game, lay the board down on a flat surface, a stone will do if you are out-of-doors, or even the ground; and a table, if in the house. In front of the board draw a short line for the starting-post. The line should be ten or more inches from the board according to the distance you can make the pussies jump. Any number of players may join in the game and each player should have his own jumping pussy.
Fig.43 - Place your finger on the Pussy-Willow and make it jump.
Fig.43 - Place your finger on the Pussy-Willow and make it jump.
Fig. 43shows how to place the pussy under the tip of your right forefinger, with the large, blunt end standing a little out beyond the finger-tip. When ready to shoot, press down suddenly on the pussy and, as your finger slides off the small end, away jumps pussy and lands on a square of the game-board. Each player plays in turn, always, of course, placing the pussy on the starting-line when shooting. The player whose pussy lands on the highest number wins the game. Jumping pussy-willow can also be playedby dividing the players into two even sides; then the side which has the highest score, after the numbers won by them have been added up, is the winner.
A nice, big bunch of pussy-willows makes an attractive bouquet, and a very welcome one early in the spring. "The pussies are out!" we hear some one say, and then the boys and girls vie with one another in their effort to be the first to find and bring home branches of the little catkins as proof that spring has come and they were the first to see her.
Thearrangement of flowers is interesting and means a great deal. It means that this chapter will tell you what wild flowers look prettiest on the dinner-table and in bowls and vases in other parts of the house; what flowers and vines will keep fresh longest, and the kind that do not need water but are beautiful when dry. It means that you can learn not to force a tightly packed handful of all sorts of flowers into a small vase and expect them to look well. Flowers don't like crowding and are quite particular about their associates.
If you come in hot and tired after your walk, put the flowers you have gathered into a pail of fresh water and let them stay there until you have rested and are ready to sort them out and make each kind look its very best. All flowers do not appear well in stiff, straight vases; all do not look well in bowls. That is the first thing to learn, and the next is that while some flowers seem to smile upon and nestle lovingly up to some others, there are kinds that they seem to draw away from and frown upon. Only a few examples can be given here. If you love the flowers you will find out more for yourself.
In your walks through the fields and along the country roadsides have you ever noticed the wild morning-glory? Of course, you have seen it and, perhaps, gathered some blossoms, only to find them in a short time wilted in yourhand or turned into little, long bags, puckered at the top as if drawn up with a string.
drawingsFig.44 - This is the way the Wild Morning Glory looks.
Fig.44 - This is the way the Wild Morning Glory looks.
When I say noticed, I mean have you thought about the flowers while you looked at them? Have you noticed their shape and beautiful color, and have you seen the great difference between the green leaf of the wild morning-glory and that of the cultivated one?
Fig.45 - The Wild Morning Glory blossomed after it was gathered.
Fig.45 - The Wild Morning Glory blossomed after it was gathered.
The wild morning-glory leaf (Fig. 44) is more beautiful in shape, the vine is more graceful, and the blossom just as lovely as the cultivated morning-glory, and all this beauty need not be left behind when you gather the wild flowers which are to make the rooms of your home charming.
While I write this, July 7, there stands on a table in our living-room a tall glass vase, wide at the top and holding plenty of water. It is filled with a mass of wild morning-glory-vines, and there are four new, entirely open, pink and white blossoms while others are just twisting open.
Four days ago, when out for a walk in the country, I gathered the vine by the roadside where it grew in the company of daisies, buttercups, and wild mustard. Lifting themselves up into the light, where the warmth of themorning sun could open the buds and where the leaves could breathe in the fresh air, some of these trailing vines had wound themselves in masses around tall, strong weed-stalks.
I gathered the vines, weed-stalks and all, breaking them off close to the ground; and now these stalks hold most of the vines upright in the vase, while other sprays droop gracefully over the edge and hang down almost to the table-top. Only one or two flowers were in bloom when I found the vines, but there were quantities of green buds which I hoped would open later, and that is just what they are doing. It is like having wild flowers growing in one's window. And as for decoration, nothing can be more beautiful (Fig. 45).
Trailing vines always make pretty decorations, and many wild ones keep fresh a long while when given plenty of water. Some have flowers, some have not, but in any case they are worth gathering when you have large vases to fill.
or as some people call it, the wild cucumber, is very decorative. That means it has beautiful curves and twists, and its small, white flowers, prickly, egg-shaped fruit, and long tendrils twisted spirally, like a steel watch-spring let loose, make us love to look at it. The leaves are pretty, too, being shaped almost like a five-pointed star. Sometimes this vine is cultivated and you will find it trained up on strings to shade the porch, or over the kitchen-door of a farmhouse. Wherever you find it, it is beautiful. A large jar filled with sprays of the wild balsam makes a good centrepiece for the table, or a tall vase holding some upright and some drooping sprays looks very pretty when placed near a window where the light will fall on it. Do not mix other flowers with it, its own blossoms are sufficient.
The wild clematis is another beautiful vine, and you will find it clambering over fences and bushes along the country road. Its masses of white flowers fill the air with a sweet, spicy perfume that delights you.
You can gather the clematis when it is in blossom, and keep it fresh in water for some time if you put it in root ends down. This vine does not wilt as you carry it. Later in the season, when the white flowers have turned into balls of silvery fringe, the vine is lovely in a different way. Then you can gather great armfuls and take it home to hang over mirrors or picture-frames, letting it become quite dry. It is best to strip the leaves off the sprays at first because they are not beautiful when dry. In a day or two after hanging up your clematis the balls of fringe will become a mass of soft down which will cling to the vine for many weeks. Later, when it becomes dusty, take it down.
Then there is bittersweet, another wild vine that we gather in the fall. It covers fences and bushes as the clematis does, but instead of turning into fringe balls its small, creamy white flowers become bunches of berries.
The berries are yellow at first; when ripe they split open and curl back to show the brilliant red seeds inside that look like coral beads.
Gather the bittersweet while the berries are yellow, strip off the green leaves, and hang the vine up dry or put it in a large vase without water. Then the berries will open and last all winter.
Both of these are pretty flowers and worth gathering. The snapdragon (perhaps you call it butter-and-eggs) does not mind at all where it grows. Field, roadside, or eventhe village streets may be its home, but wherever it lives, it makes the spot shine joyously with its stalks of yellow blossoms. Snapdragons combine well with the wild carrot, whose other name is Queen Anne's lace, and together they make a delicate and beautiful bouquet.
If you have a large glass fish-globe fill it with fresh water, and put in the snapdragon and wild carrot in a loose bouquet. Nothing could be prettier for the August lunch-table than this.
look best in a low glass bowl, for they have no stems to speak of. Short-stemmed flowers do not belong in tall vases. The roses wilt quickly out of water and should have plenty of it.
Do not put any other kind of flowers in the bowl; the roses won't like it; neither will you when you see how much better they look by themselves.
so friendly in the fields, look pretty when arranged in a deep jar together, but I would not mix daisies with any other flowers, unless it is the lacy wild carrot. Buttercups look well with the carrot, too, and buttercups look pretty mixed with grasses. You see they all know each other very well, growing in the fields together.
whose home is along the banks of ponds and small streams, should be put into a tall clear glass vase or pitcher, where its stems will show through, that it may look its best.
There is the yellow iris, the white and the purple, and they are very beautiful when combined but not crowded. Always put some of the long-spiked leaves in with the flowers.
Clover bouquets make delightful centrepieces for the table. Arranged loosely with its own green foliage, the rose-colored clover is especially beautiful in a clear, green glass bowl of water. The sprays should be brought over the edges of the bowl, and allowed to droop down, resting partly on the table.
Yellow clover and its foliage mingled with white clover makes a charming combination as a bouquet for almost any occasion. The name of the yellow clover is hop-clover. It is not as common as the other kinds.
When there are no flowers to be had you can have bouquets and centrepieces of green leaves, ferns, and vines, and you will be surprised to find what pretty ones can be arranged and how much they will be admired.
Ferns will wither soon unless taken up with the roots and the soil surrounding them; but if they have the roots and soil they will last a long while, provided you put them in a bowl or jar and keep themalways wet. That does not mean to water them as you would any other growing plant, but to keep themstandingin waterall the time. Maidenhair-fern kept in this way makes a delicate and beautiful centrepiece for the table.
Sometimes you will find varieties of foliage that are full of color. In early summer the young leaves of the scrub-oak are very brilliant in reds and yellows, and I have made bouquets of nothing but leaves from the rose-bushes. These are often tinged with red and purple. Sprays of the barberry-bush with its rows of dangling red berries are pretty in a green bowl. Be careful of the thorns when you gather this. Cut the stems; do not try to break them.
Someof our grasses appear like very large trees to the little grass fairies who, we like to pretend, hide in their midst; while other grasses, with their jointed, bamboo-like stems, seem to these tiny people to be tall forests of real bamboo.
Why not play that you are a little fairy and live among the grasses? But to see the grasses as the fairies see them you must lie down and bring your eyes very near the ground; so stretch yourself out flat, face down, with your head lower than the grass tops; then look steadily ahead through the tall grass stems. What do you see?
The five fairy-trees standing by themselves inFig. 46are four short-stemmed tops of the Scribner's panic-grass.Fig. 47shows exactly how the grass looks before you pick it, andFig. 48gives a simple design that you can make by placing the tips of the four grass tops together, allowing the stems of two heads to lie in a straight horizontal line (that means a line running from left to right), and the stems of the other two heads to lie in a straight line vertically (that means up and down).
drawingsFig.46 - Trees of Scribner's Panic-Grass.
Fig.46 - Trees of Scribner's Panic-Grass.
While you are playing with the grasses you can begin to learn something about them. The beard-grass, whichsome people call the little blue-stem (Fig. 49), has near relatives named forked beard-grass and bushy beard-grass. These are stiff and angular, with bamboo-like stems, just the thing for trees in a little Japanese garden which some time you will want to make. You may run across them anywhere, for they are common in all parts of our country.
drawingsFig.47 - Scribner's Panic-Grass as it grows, Panicum Scribnerianum.
Fig.47 - Scribner's Panic-Grass as it grows, Panicum Scribnerianum.
Make friends with these and with other grasses. As you find them learn their names just as you would learn the names of new playmates. Take the grasses home, show them to your father and to your mother; if theydo not know their names, carry them to school and ask your teacher about them. In case she cannot tell you, go to the public library with your grasses and persuade the librarian at the desk to help you find their pictures and names in some of her books. All grasses have names, sokeep asking and hunting until you know what to call them. When you know their names you will be glad to see your friends, the pretty green grasses, whenever you find them.
drawingsFig.49 - You will run across these anywhere.
Fig.49 - You will run across these anywhere.
InChapter XVIII, which tells how to make a burdock-burr house, you will find more about grasses.
drawingsFig.48 - Scribner's Panic-Grass. Design made of four grass heads.
Fig.48 - Scribner's Panic-Grass. Design made of four grass heads.
Realpeople live in grass houses way off in the Philippine Islands. That is, their houses are made of bamboo, which is a kind of giant grass. It must be a pretty airy, comfortable house in summer, and it is always summer in the Philippines, but we never see that kind of houses here. One reason is because in most of our country a grass house would be very cold in winter, and another reason for not building them is because the bamboo grows only in the extreme south, and even down there people want more substantial homes.
A prettier playhouse, though, could not be devised, and if you could see a Filipino house you would want it immediately, but since you cannot have a real one you can have the fun of making a little doll Filipino house, and of making it exactly as the little brown Filipino men make theirs. Suppose you gather some grass and twigs now, and build the little house for your doll.
Some of the queer little people whose home is in the Philippine Islands perch their houses like birds' nests up in the trees, but often they are built on stilts to lift them high from the ground. Our little house (Fig. 50) shall be on stilts. We will make the floor first. If you do not understand how to measure by inches, ask an older person to help you.
Find two straight, round sticks, not quite as large round as a lead-pencil. The sticks must be cut six and a halfinches long, then two sticks of the same kind five inches long; after that there must be six more sticks five inches long. Split these last six sticks in half lengthwise.
The Philippine people do not use nails, or screws, or glue, and not even wooden pegs, in building their houses; they bind and tie the parts together with rattan, and as we are going to build just as they do we, too, will tie the parts of our house together, but will use raffia in place of the rattan.
drawingsFig.50 - The little Grass House you can make.
Fig.50 - The little Grass House you can make.
Hold one of the six-and-a-half-inch sticks (letter J,Fig. 51) upright in your hand while you cross it a short distance below the top with a five-inch-round stick (letterK,Fig. 51). The distance from the top of the upright stick to the crossing and the distance from the short end of the other stick to the crossing must be the same.
drawingsFig.51 - Begin binding them together.
Fig.51 - Begin binding them together.
drawingsFig.52 - Carry the raffia over and between the two ends of the sticks.
Fig.52 - Carry the raffia over and between the two ends of the sticks.
Begin binding them together as shown inFig. 51. Then carry the raffia (string will do if you cannot get raffia) over and between the two ends of the sticks (Fig. 52), and wind it opposite ways several times around the sticks, bringing the raffia between as well as over them. This will lash them firmly together. Now turn this beginning of your floor around so that the short stick will be upright and the long one extend from side to side. Do not let the binding loosen; hold it tight and cross the long stick with one of the split five-inch sticks (Fig. 53). Be sure that the flat side of the split stick is next to the long stick, and that you leave a slight opening between it andthe first crosspiece. Pull the raffia tight and bind it over this second crosspiece (Fig. 54), then back, crossing it as inFig. 55.
drawingsFig.53 - Turn the sticks, bringing J in horizontal position.Fig.54 - Bind raffia over second stick.Fig.55 - Then bring raffia across front of second stick
Fig.53 - Turn the sticks, bringing J in horizontal position.Fig.54 - Bind raffia over second stick.Fig.55 - Then bring raffia across front of second stick
Bind on the next split crosspiece in the same way, and go on adding crosspieces until they reach almost to the end of the long stick, then let the last crosspiece be the second unsplit five-inch stick. When all the short crosspieces are properly bound onto the long stick, bind the other six-and-a-half-inch long stick under the opposite ends of the crosspieces in the same way, and just as carefully (Fig. 56). This makes the floor and we must lash it to the stilts, which are four upright sticks, each seven and one half inches long. Fit the stilts in the outside corners made by the crossing of the end and side sticks of the floor, and, holding the floor about four and a half inches above the lower ends of the stilts, bind floor and stilts together (Fig. 57). Of course you can put the stilts on only one at a time.
Make the framework for the walls by binding and tying onto the stilts near the top two sticks, each six and a halfinches long, one stick on each side. Across these sticks, from stilt to stilt, at each end, bind a five-inch-length stick (Fig. 58).
drawingsFig.56 - Make the floor this way.
Fig.56 - Make the floor this way.
To support the roof there must be two upright sticks, each seven inches long, and these sticks must be bound and tied to the middle of the end sticks of the floor and the end sticks of the wall. They are lettered L and L inFig. 59
drawingsFig.57 - Lash the floor to the stilts.
Fig.57 - Lash the floor to the stilts.
drawingsFig.58 - Bind on four more poles making framework for walls.
Fig.58 - Bind on four more poles making framework for walls.
Fig. 60shows the framework of the house without the bindings, so that you may see exactly how the sticks are put together. There is a ridge-pole which forms the top ridge of the roof. This must be a stick about seven inches long, and it is to be tied to the uprights lettered L and Lthat you have just fastened on the two ends of the house. (SeeFig. 59, L and L.) Four other sticks, M and M and N and N, long enough to reach from the ridge-pole, crossing above it, to the side crosspieces of the wall, you must tie to the ridge-pole and the side-wall sticks, placing them slanting, as you see them inFig. 60, at each end.
Like many other people, the Filipino wants a porch to his house. Perhaps he sits there to smoke his curious little pipe, which is not much larger than the one you make of an acorn. I have never seen him on his porch, but I have seen him smoke and afterward tuck his pipe away in his long, fuzzy hair, where it remained in safety even while he leaped and pranced about in the wild dance he loves so much.
drawingsFig.59 - End poles are added to hold up the roof.
Fig.59 - End poles are added to hold up the roof.
drawingsFig.60 - This is the way the house is put together.
Fig.60 - This is the way the house is put together.
But we must not forget the porch. If the Filipinohas one to his house, we must have a porch to ours. We won't make it separately and add it to the part already built, but, as the Filipino does, we will use part of the house-floor for the floor of the porch, and let the roof cover that as well as the house. To do this we must separate the house part from the porch part by putting up two more uprights, one on each side, a little way back from the front of the house, and these uprights will form the boundary-line. Letters O and P inFig. 60are these last uprights, the sticks which form them being long enough to reach from the wall side-piece to the floor, and extend a little above and below where they cross the upper and lower sticks.
drawingsFig.61 - Fresh grass instead of palms over one side wall.
Fig.61 - Fresh grass instead of palms over one side wall.
drawingsFig.62 - Strips of wood to bind down the grass on wall.
Fig.62 - Strips of wood to bind down the grass on wall.
Now we come to the real grass part of the house, for we have had to use small sticks for the framework instead of bamboo, and where the Filipino uses palm-leaves we will use grass.
Gather some long, coarse, fresh blades of grass forthatching both the roof and walls, and begin with the walls. Bunch the grass evenly, the stem ends all together, bend the bunch at the centre, then spread it out at its centre, and hang it thickly over one side-wall beam, which is the upper stick (Fig. 61). Have the stem ends inside the house hang down as long as the tip ends on the outside, and let the outside ends hang down below the edge of the floor; then take a flat strip of wood and place it near the top of the grass-covered wall, bend the ends a little and slide them back of the uprights (Fig. 62). Smooth the grass down evenly and put in another flat stick, this time at the bottom (Fig. 62). If you want the inside of the house as perfect as the outside, slide in two other strips on the inside of each wall to hold the grass down.Fig. 62shows the grass partially trimmed off to make it even at the bottom.
drawingsFig.63 - Pole rafter being thatched for roof.
Fig.63 - Pole rafter being thatched for roof.
drawingsFig.64 - Shows exactly how the raffia is tieddrawingsFig.65 - Hang grass over ridge pole of roof.
drawingsFig.64 - Shows exactly how the raffia is tied
Fig.64 - Shows exactly how the raffia is tied
drawingsFig.65 - Hang grass over ridge pole of roof.
Fig.65 - Hang grass over ridge pole of roof.
To thatch the roof you will need two more sticks for rafters. Over one stick, near the end, tie a bunch of grass into a tassel, using a piece of raffia to bind it; hang more grass over the stick or rafter, and tie it into another tassel, and with the same piece of raffia tie a third tassel (Fig. 63).Fig. 64shows exactly how the raffia is tied. Make the tassels ratherthick and put them close together so that there will be no space between.
When this rafter (the stick) is covered with thatch lay it across the side of the roof half-way between the ridge-pole (top stick on the roof) and the stick forming the side wall of the house, and tie the ends securely to the slanting sticks of the roof. Thatch another rafter and fasten it on the opposite side of the roof, then cover two shorter sticks with thatch and tie one across the front, the other across the back peak of the roof on a line with the thatched rafters on the sides.
Fasten more thatch at the front and back peak of the roof, tying it to the ridge-pole, also to the two slanting sticks. Allow the grass to hang down far enough to cover the top of the thatch below it (Fig. 50). This thatch must entirely fill up the ends of the roof made by the peak. Now hang grass over the ridge-pole at the top of the roof as you would hang your doll's little sheets on your toy clothes-line (Fig. 65), and bring the ends down over the thatched rafters on each side of the roof. Hold this top thatch in place by laying sticks across the grass just below the ridge-pole on each side of the roof. Bind and tie these sticks at each end to the framework of the house (Fig. 50).
If grass cannot be had for thatching, soak hay in water to make it soften and take the stiffness out, then use that. Raffia dyed green might do, or should all else fail, take fine broom-straws softened in hot water for the thatch, and use loosely twisted string for binding and tying. Of course the string should not be white, but you can dip it in coffee and dry it; the color will then be like the color of rattan.
The spry little Filipinos use ladders instead of stairs to reach their living-room, so we must make a rustic ladder for our house.