Swimming Fish Made of a Lima-Bean Pod
A fish that really swims, not on top of the water but in it, is the little fish ([Fig. 146]). You won't find that in a shop or anywhere else, for I have only just discovered how to make it myself.
Fig.146 - The Lima Bean Fish will swim.
Fig.147 - The pod for the fish must be open at the bottom.
A paper tail and two paper fins must be added, but that won't take five minutes when you know how to do it. The tail and fins make it wonderfully lifelike, for when the fish swims around in a big basin or dish-pan, the tail sways this way and that, the fins move back and forth exactly as they do on a living fish in a real lake or in the great ocean.
Fig.148 - The fin of Bean-pod Fish
Fig.149 - Tail of Bean-pod Fish.
Fig.150 - The Lima Bean Man will stand.
Choose a good, firm bean-pod, one as flat and even as you can find, open it carefully along the straight edge and take out the beans. Save the beans, for you can make something of them too. Do not let the pod close again after the beans are out. It must be open about half an inch, or maybe a little more, at the middle. You can widen the opening by pushing your finger in. Be careful not to split it along the upper edge. It should be like [Fig. 147], which shows the opening at the bottom.
With the small blade of a pocket-knife make a slit on each side of the pod at the large end where it is marked C in [Fig. 147].
These slits are to hold the fins. Directly on the curved edge of the small end of the pod, at the place marked D, cut another short slit. Don't let it reach the lower edge. This is to hold the tail.
From writing-paper, not the very heavy kind, cut two fins like [Fig. 148]. Double the paper and cut out both at once so that they may be exactly alike. From the same kind of paper cut the tail like [Fig. 149]. All you have to do now is to push the sharp point of one paper fin into the slit on one side of the pod, the other fin into the slit on the other side of the pod, and the sharp point of the tail into the slit in the edge of the pod, and there is your fish. You see the fins and tail are not pasted on and they really seem a living part of the fish. Notice that the top of fins and tail are different from the bottom, and be sure to have the top edge up when you put them in the slits.
Fig.151 - Parts of Lima Bean Man
The way to make the lima-bean fish swim is to place it, open edge down, in a large basin of water; then with a stick or spoon begin at the centre to stir the water gently and gradually round and round until it all moves faster and faster, and keeps on moving after you stop stirring. Then your little green fish will swim. Round and round the basin he will go, his tail waving and his fins moving so naturally you will shout with delight.
If at first the fish insists upon turning over on his side and floating about like a dead fish, don't give him up. He is only playing 'possum. He can swim and he will if you are patient and keep setting him upright until he gains his balance and becomes used to the water. Remember to put the fish in the water, not on top.
Don't let the beans, that you have taken out of the pod when making the fish, get dry and hard. They can be turned into a