A Bridge of Matches.
This bridge requires patience and deft fingers to build, but both patience and skill are necessary in golf, football, boating, the school, the counting-house, and in art or music, so you must not be discouraged if your frail match bridge falls to pieces just when you think the thing is about finished. Remember that an occasional failure is more than half the fun; start over again by placing two matches on the table and placing a third match across them, as in Fig. 172; then another match under them, as in Fig. 173. Some matches are made of such brittle stuff as to be unsuited for this, and others are too short and thick to bend, but good slender matches can be used, and wooden toothpicks are even better.
Figs. 172 and 173.
Fig. 174 shows the next step is to thrust two matches under the under match and over the match which is on top and across the first two; the spring in the matches will hold this frame together. More and more matches may be added, in the same manner as the first (Fig. 175), until the arch is of the required length: that is, until it is long enough to reach from shore to shore of the looking-glass lake.
Fig. 174.
If you will now build