A Lima-Bean Pig

—a funny pig with fat sides and a turned-up snout ([Fig. 152]).

Look over all your bean-pods that still have beans in them, and select the one shaped most like [Fig. 153]. Do not take the beans out of the pod; they make the pig fat and solid. The stem end forms the snout and the head.

Fig.153 - Choose a bean-pod shaped like this for your pig.

Cut four broom-straws about one and a half inches long for the legs. Sharpen each of these straws at one end and push the pointed end into the lower part of the body, two on each side, in the places shown by small rings on [Fig. 153].

From part of another bean-pod cut two ears like F, [Fig. 154], and pin them on the pig's head with a short straw as they are shown in the picture of the pig. Run the straw through one ear near the bottom, through the head and then through the other ear on the other side of the head.

Fig.154 - Make these of a bean-pod or of paper.

Pull a narrow strip from the edge of a bean-pod for the tail (G, [Fig. 154]). Curl it by drawing it lightly over the blade of the scissors. Punch a small hole with the point of the scissors in the upper edge of the pig's back at the place marked by the arrow on [Fig. 153], and push one end of the tail into the hole. Make small round dots with a pencil, or pen and ink, for the eyes. The ears and tail may be made of paper if you find that easier to use.

CHAPTER XXIII
SWEET-POTATO ALLIGATOR AND WHAT TO MAKE OF A RADISH

If you have ever seen an alligator, a long-tailed sweet potato will make you think of one immediately.

[Fig. 155] is a baby alligator with a sweet-potato body and paper head and legs. It is just the size of the little alligators they sell for pets down in Florida. That is, the alligator from which the drawing was made is the size of the live ones; the drawing is, of course, smaller.

Fig.155 - The Baby Alligator made of a Sweet Potato.

Fig.156 - Find a potato shaped like this for the alligator..

Find a potato shaped like [Fig. 156]. Cut a slit in the large end and two slits on each side where you see them in [Fig. 156]. When you make the side slits push your knife in with the blade slanting upward and backward for the front legs, and slanting downward and backward for the back legs. This will allow the paper legs to slide in without bending.

Fig.157 - Make the alligator's head like this.

Use brown paper, as near the color of the potato as you can get, for the alligator's head and legs. Make the head like [Fig. 157], cutting along the heavy lines and bending along the dotted ones. Bend down the sides of the head and of the neck, then bend the head first up, then down, to lift it above the neck ([Fig. 155].)

Fig.158 - Cut two front legs by this pattern. Fig.159 - Make the two hind legs by this pattern.

The eyes of a baby alligator are large and prominent. Draw them on the head as you see them in [Fig. 157]. That is as near as we can come to the real eyes.

Fig.160 - The Radish Imp is a decorative little fellow.

Cut out of the same paper used for the head two fore legs like [Fig. 158], and two hind legs like [Fig. 159]. Slide the fore legs into the slits nearest the large end of the potato and the hind legs into the slits near the tail. Push the point of the paper neck into the slit at the large end of the potato. That finishes the baby alligator, which is wonderfully true to life.