MORE BOX PLAYS
ONE of father’s empty note paper boxes, a starch box, a box that held spools of thread once—one, or all of these will furnish delightful play material for an afternoon in the house. A box has not finished its usefulness when its contents are gone. It is strong and tough often still, and ready for all kinds of fun.
Some cardboard boxes, large and small, will make the toy farm establishment shown in the picture. A box that once was filled with writing paper serves for the barn. The box stands on one side, leaving the entire front open that toy animals can be put in and taken out with greater ease than if there were a door. The long edge of the box cover is cut to fit the box, inserted and glued in place to form the front of the stalls which hold the toy animals. Shorter lengths of the cover edge are fitted in between the back of the box and this front partition to separate the stalls and are also glued in place. When these are in, a door can be cut. The stalls must be furnished with little grain boxes for the play horses to eat from; and this is the way to make them.
Measure with a school ruler and cut out a four-inch square of heavy wrapping paper. Lay the paper on a table in front of you and fold, first, the front edge up to the back, and then the front and back edges down to meet the center fold. Now turn the paper around, repeating the folding until there are sixteen squares. Cut off a row of four squares, leaving an oblong piece of paper that contains twelve squares. Make two cuts in the opposite narrow ends of the paper, one square long and one square apart. Fold up these squares and paste them, one on top of the other, forming a little oblong box. One of these boxes pasted to the back of each stall looks just like a grain trough, and may be filled with oats, if a country boy is making the farm, for the little horse to eat.
Some of the wrapping paper that remains after the grain boxes are finished makes the roof of the barn. Cut a strip as wide as the barn is deep and once and a half as long. Fold it once through the center and, at the ends, fold down flaps by means of which the roof can be glued to the top of the box forming a hay loft. When spring comes you can cut grass blades with a pair of gardener’s shears, dry them in the sun, and fill the loft of this little box barn with real, play hay.
