How to Make American History Seem Real—Our First Thanksgiving
Let us play that we are really celebrating America's first Thanksgiving!
You can see one of our long, rude puncheon tables spread out in the mild, sweet air of Indian summer, laden with delectable dishes of clam chowder, oysters, fish, turkey, duck, goose, venison pasties, turnips, dumplings of barley flour, corn bread, wheat cakes, pumpkin pies, grapes, plums, great flagons of cider, and "all manner of tasty eats."
William Bradford, our good governor, with his old flintlock in hand, is just returning from a successful hunt for additional wild turkey. We shall need these, as ninety friendly Indians are to be our guests for three days and nights. Later they, too, will hunt and bring us wild deer.
Elder Brewster, in his festive doublet and hose, has stopped a moment to speak to Master Bradford. Sitting at table, you can see Captain Miles Standish with arms outstretched in glad welcome as he calls more Indians to join the feast, while Massasoit, the mighty chief, stands at the table signalling with his arrow for the braves to approach.
Already Quadquina and Hobomok are at the festive board, seated between Captain Miles Standish and John Alden. Squanto, who tells the boys how to trap game and teaches settlers how to plant corn, is resting on the ground with his feather-bedecked shield in one hand, and the calumet, or pipe of peace, in the other.
The First American Thanksgiving Dinner in the year 1621.
Now winsome Priscilla Alden comes, bearing on a pewter platter one of her savory hot baked turkeys, and her friend, Mary Chilton, is watching the delicious stew which simmers in the big iron pot over the outdoor fire.
Fig.184 - Begin to make the pioneer in this way.
Fig.185 - Fold the husks across the centre.
Mistress Brewster, on her way to cut pumpkin pie, must needs stay her steps a moment to give ear to Governor Bradford's remarks, and Desire Minter is hurrying forward, ahead of the other young women, to serve the men at the feast.
All this would be told you by one of the little corn-husk pioneers shown in the photograph if only they could speak.
At all events, they can stand alone. They can be made to sit down, too, and their arms can be bent in any position. You may lift and place them in various parts of the grounds at pleasure. You might even imagine them to be the real characters they represent, and so live over again that Thanksgiving of 1621.
The making of these little people is most interesting. Use the rather soft between-layers of corn-husks; about two husks for each pioneer. If the husks seem brittle, soak them in water and make them pliable. Lay one husk partially over the top of the other ([Fig. 184]), bend them across the centre ([Fig. 185]), and let the smoothest side be the front of the doll. Fold each side of the front to the back until the front somewhat resembles [Fig. 186]; then wind slender, soft string around to form the neck and head of the doll. Wind another soft string around lower down for the belt-line ([Fig. 187]).
| Fig.186 - The head and neck are made. | Fig.187 - Wind the waist with string. |
Fig.188 - Arms for the pioneer.
Make the arms of soft corn-husk ([Fig. 188]) by turning the lengthwise edges of the husk inward again and again, until the roll is of the desired size. Cut off the ends evenly and wind the arms with string at the centre and near each end.
Run the small blade of a penknife through the shoulders of the doll from side to side. Turn the blade flat side uppermost and allow it to remain in this position while you slide in the arms and screw them through the opening, pushing them along on top of the flat side of the blade. When in place, withdraw the knife and your little woman will be ready for her costume.
Fig.189 - The pioneer is ready for his costume.
To make the man, cut [Fig. 187] up from the bottom to within a short distance of the belt, thus dividing the husk skirts into two equal parts. Wind each half with string at the top, middle, and near the end to form the legs ([Fig. 189]).
Use black tissue-paper for the loose knee-trousers. Cut
Fig.190 - First leg of the trousers.
Fig.191 - The trousers are pushed into shape and coat is ready for its belt.
two strips of the paper, fit one strip over a leg ([Fig. 190]), push the paper up on the inside until it resembles [Fig. 191], then fasten in place with strong paste. Make the other trouser leg in the same way ([Fig. 191]).
| Fig.192 - Pattern of pioneer's collar. | Fig.193 - Make the hair of paper fringe. |
| Fig.194 - Crown of pioneer hat. | Fig.195 - Glue the hat crown on the man's head. |
Fig.196 - How to slash the hat brim.
Cut the coat from a folded piece of dull-green tissue-paper, and just at the neck make a hole large enough for the man's head to slip through ([Fig. 191]). Paste the front edges of the sleeves over the back edges and lay the front edges of the coat over those of the back. Fit the coat in at the belt-line with your fingers. Cut a black belt of tissue-paper, fold it lengthwise, and belt in the fulness of the coat, then paste the belt ends together. Be careful to make the belt loose, for men's waists are large. Make the collar ([Fig. 192]) of white paper and fasten it around the man's neck with a drop of paste in front.
From black, brown, or drab-yellow tissue-paper cut a strip of fine fringe and paste it on the man's head for hair ([Fig. 193]). Then make his hat. To do this, roll a small square of stiff black paper into a cornucopia to fit the man's head, paste the edges together, and trim off the corner which hangs down at the bottom ([Fig. 194]). Glue the hat-crown on the man's head, cut off the sharp top peak, and tilt the crown back a little ([Fig. 195]).
Now cut a disk of the black paper for the hat-brim, slash it across the centre into four points ([Fig. 196]), but only just far enough to make the opening fit over the hat-crown. Slide the brim on the crown, allowing the slashed central points to lie up against it, and fasten them there with paste ([Fig. 197]). Glue the pioneer's feet into holes cut part-way through a small piece of the corrugated flat pasteboard used for packing purposes. In this way the little man becomes independent and able to stand alone ([Fig. 197]).
Fig.197 - The pioneer is fully dressed and wearing his hat.
The corn-husk women also wear tissue-paper clothes. The waists are made in the same manner as the men's coats, only shorter and confined at the belt-line with paste. Straight dress skirts are slipped over the waists, and held in place at the belt by winding string around the pinched-up gathers. Long, severely plain white aprons, minus strings, are pasted to the waist-line, and white-bordered black caps and large white three-cornered neckerchiefs complete the costume.
The cap is a straight piece of black tissue-paper with a narrow strip of white folded over the front edge. When ready, the white-bordered black strip is laid over the head, smoothly brought down on the sides, puckered together at the back and tied around the neck with a string. You have only to clip loose the outside layer of white close to the string at the neck-line to give the flare to the cap's white border.
The crisp dress skirt forms sufficient support to enable the little women to stand alone.
With the exception of Squanto, whose manly chest, back, and arms have no covering, the Indians wear suits of tan tissue-paper made on the same principle as the white men's costume, only the trouser-legs are narrow, long, and have the seam cut in fringe and run up on the outside. The bottom edge of the coat and the sleeve seams are also fringed. The coat is not wide and no belt is worn.
Pieces of colored tissue-paper adjusted blanket fashion over the Indians, and fastened here and there with bits of paste to hold them in place, form the Indian blankets.
The Indians' hair is merely a strip of black tissue-paper pasted over the top, back, and sides of the head with the ends loosely twisted and allowed to hang down in front on either side.
Governor Bradford, Priscilla, Chief Massasoit and Elder Brewster. Made of corn-husks.
The war-bonnet is cut from a strip of white writing-paper, the tips of the feathers are inked, and one end of the strip is then pasted around Massasoit's head, as shown in the picture.
It is best to make a number of corn-husk people at one time. Put the two husks together for each pioneer and Indian, then wind a string around the neck of each to form the head ([Fig. 186]). Again tie a string around each at the belt-line ([Fig. 187]). Continue making the people in this way, step by step, until all are finished at the same time. Have ready as many arms as you have people, and run the arms through each, one after another.
When bending the arms or legs of the little people do it slowly and gently. If they are inclined to spring back, tie them in position overnight and they will stay bent.
When dressing the dolls, cut out all the men's collars at one time. You can do this by cutting through as many layers of paper as there are men. Adopt the same plan with the other parts of clothing for the men, women, and Indians, and your work will be rapid.
With ink draw features on all. The women must have ink hair, parted in the middle.
Remember when making Miles Standish to cut his hair of red paper, for he had auburn hair.
The "sad" colors worn by the pioneers were really the cheerful autumn hues, rich, dull reds, greens, browns, and yellows. These will give you quite a variety of colors for the costumes of both men and women.
Make the puncheon table of a flat, narrow piece of wood. With a gimlet bore holes through the board, slanting them toward the centre, one hole near each corner. Any kind of round sticks will do for the legs. Cut them all of the same length and glue one in each hole.
Pioneer puncheon table spread for America's First Thanksgiving Dinner.
The pewter dishes are made from one of the collapsible lead tubes used for oil-paints and various other things. Cut open the empty tube and smooth it out flat, then cut out round pieces for plates, mould the plates over the tops of wooden spools, and the flagons over a pen-handle or other round stick. Make the flagon-handles of slender strips of the tube bent into rings, and slip one end of the strip over the edge of the flagon.
A piece of yellow paper pasted over the cover of a very small baking-powder can makes a pumpkin pie. The turkey is merely pinched-up paper with brown tissue-paper laid smoothly over the breast. Its wings and legs are of bits of lighter-colored paper rolled and bent into shape, then pasted on the turkey.
Fig.198 - Corn-cob log for pioneer log cabin with notches cut and marked.
Fresh, green, uncooked corn-cobs from which the corn has been cut and scraped make delightful pioneer log-houses. Cooked cobs are too hard to cut. Choose slender cobs, long ones for the front and back of the house, shorter ones for the sides. Cut a notch, or saw it, if the cobs are dry and hard, on the tops of the ends of each of the two foundation logs ([Fig. 198]). Cut a notch on both top and bottom of each remaining log as indicated by the black lines in [Fig. 198].
Always make a larger notch in the small end of the cob than in the large end, so that the large end of another cob may fit in it; for, when building, it is necessary to place small ends and large ends together, and never two large ends or two small ends, or the house will be unevenly balanced.
Lay the two foundation cobs down parallel to each other and a short distance apart; then bridge across the ends with shorter cobs, fitting the notches into each other. Continue building in this log-cabin fashion until the house is of sufficient height.
On the front of the house draw two straight lines down across the cobs, one for each side of the doorway. Then take your house apart and cut the doorway out from the marked cobs. Rebuild the house, gluing layer upon layer. Make the doorway jambs of straight pieces of corn-stalk, and glue them on each side of the open doorway.
Pioneer log cabin made of corn-cobs.
Before the roof can be added, corn-cobs, graduated in length and without notches, must be laid at each end of the house to support the roof and give it its gable ends. These graduated cobs are the "trap-logs." They rest upon long strips of corn-stalk, called "ribs," which are placed across from one end of the house to the other. Build the roof log-cabin fashion as you built the body of the house, laying a rib between the ends of each layer of graduated cobs, and as you build, fasten the parts together with glue.
Cut enough clapboards of corn-stalk to cover both sides of the roof. Make them all of the same length and long enough to reach from the top of the roof to a trifle beyond its lower edge.
The clapboards must be held down by means of "weight-poles" laid across, and to keep the weight-poles from rolling off use pegs called "knees."
Make the knee-pegs of corn-stalk. Cut a hole near both ends of four of the clapboards and glue in pegs, slanting them upward. You will then have two pegged clapboards for the front of the roof and two for the back. Place them near the ends of the roof and glue all the clapboards in place. Cut four slender lengths of corn-stalk for weight-poles, and lay them across the roof, resting against the knee-pegs. Glue them to the roof only where they buck the knee-pegs. When finished, set the house aside until the glue is entirely dry. It may then be moved.
Corn-tassels standing in empty spools make fine trees.
It is fitting that the story of our country's first Thanksgiving should be retold this year by means of corn. You remember, of course, that friendly Indians showed the pioneers how to plant and cultivate corn, which, to them, was a new grain. Later, when a wonderful harvest had been gathered, our forefathers decided to set aside a day to thank God for His goodness. That was the first Thanksgiving.
PART VII
FRUIT
CHAPTER XXVI
THE FUNNY ORANGE HEAD
You will hardly believe it is only an ordinary, everyday orange when you have made it into the head that I am going to tell you about.
Select a small, firm, perfect orange and with a pencil mark features on it, first the eyes like [Fig. 199]. Carefully cut out the little spaces of skin between the lines, then mark the nose ([Fig. 200]); cut this and mark the mouth ([Fig. 201]); cut this and at each side of the head draw the ears like [Fig. 202]. You will see that the line of the ear does not continue all the way around; that means that you are simply to run your knife along the line, cutting through the skin so that the ears may be lifted up and peeled forward to stand out from the head; the front part remains attached ([Fig. 203]).
Make the neck of a slender, strong, round stick sharpened to a point at one end. Push the point up into the under part of the orange, where the neck should be, by twisting the stick around as it goes in ([Fig. 204]).
The orange is the head, but your hand and fingers are to be the body and arms to go with it. Look at [Fig. 204]. That will show you how to hold the stick firmly and at the same time leave your first finger and thumb free to use as arms.
Fig.199 - Eyes marked on orange head. | Fig.200 - Eyes cut, nose marked. |
Fig.202 - Ear marked, ready to cut andpeel forward. | |
Fig.201 - Nose cut, mouth marked. | Fig.203 - Mouth cut, ears cut andpeeled forward. |
Pin a handkerchief, or other soft cloth, around Mr. Orange's neck, bring it around to cover your hand and then pretend he is talking while you move his arms and say as many funny things as you can think of. By moving the stick while you hold it in your hand, you can make the orange head turn in various ways ([Figs. 205] and [206]), and a little paper hat fitted on it will make it still funnier ([Fig. 207]).
Fig.204 - Hold the orange this way.
The orange need not always be a man. You can play it is a little girl and make a cunning little wreath of flowers for her small head; or pretend it is a baby and have it wear a baby's cap made of paper. If you want to turn it into a young lady, pierce the ears and fit in earrings made of violets. You do this simply by threading the flower-stems through the holes you have pierced, and drawing the blossoms up close to them. Then, you can make believe the orange is an old man and put a pipe in his mouth. Make the pipe of an acorn with a twig for the stem. If you want the baby to cry, squeeze the orange a little and tears of orange-juice will roll from its eyes and stream down its face. Little holes must first be punctured in the eyes to let the tears run out.
Fig.205 - "Now I'll tell you a funny story."