Insert sticks for legs into crooked-neck squashes and convert into animals of various kinds, the kind depending upon the size of the neck and general shape. Sweet potatoes by their queer shapes will often suggest animals: pigs, dogs, etc., or ducks, swans, ostriches, and birds. Use tacks or shoe buttons for eyes. Dolls can be made also.
CORN HUSKS—GREEN
Mat (Husks, needle, thread)
Take four smooth husks and press between blotting paper for 24 hours. Then tear into ¼ inch strips. Lay eight of these on the table. Take eight more and weave these under and over the first eight, making mat for doll-house. Put again between blotters. The next day, slide the strips together till they lie smooth and even, and close together. Fasten by sewing the outside strips lightly to the interlacing ones. Cut the extending parts off about one inch from outside strips.
Feathers (Husks, scissors)
Take a dozen leaves of the husks; cut slits slant-wise down the edges about ¼ inch apart. Let dry 24 hours. Then use as feathers for Indian head dress, using design on copper cent as model.
CORN-COBS—DRY
Corn-Crib (Cobs, hammer, nails, cover of starch-box)
To a small piece of thin wood like the cover of a starch-box nail four short cobs of equal length for legs (half an inch or an inch long). Around the four sides, on top, nail a row of slender cobs for the walls of the corn crib. Make roof of cobs or lay a piece of cardboard across. Nail from below, through the board. It will require a little thought to determine just where the nail must go in order to run through the board and into the cob above, but tell the child that he is a little carpenter and must make careful measurements. Ask if he can think why the crib is raised thus from the ground. (To preserve the corn from the rats and mice.)