Play Village.—It is capital fun for several young people to design and build a miniature village, and it is certainly an instructive and quite inexpensive pastime. Such a village, planned and made recently by a family group of half a dozen youngsters, and facetiously named "Totlet Town," was constructed entirely of old boxes and packing-cases of all sizes up to three feet long, waste pieces of board, shingles, etc.; but when painted and arranged in a corner of the lawn, with dirt roads, and paths, small evergreen shade trees and hedges, well-sweeps, miniature fences, and other accessories, it made so pretty a picture as to be the admiration of all who saw it. If you have as good a time in making such a village as these young people did, the experiment will be a success. You can easily think up many additions to the suggestions here given.
Fig. 171.
The buildings were made by selecting boxes of the desired proportions, sawing out spaces for the doors, adding the roofs and any other alterations. The chimneys were made of blocks painted red. The doors were made of pieces of board and hinged with leather. Bay-windows and the like were made of blocks of the required shape nailed to the boxes. The windows and blinds were represented by painting. Some of the roofs were shingled with pieces of shingles. A suggestion for a light-house is shown in Fig. 171.
Considerable care in the use of the tools is called for to make these buildings neatly. Much of the effect depends, also, upon the care with which the painting is done (see Painting), and the taste used in the selection of the colours. Brighter colours are suitable for a little village of this sort than would be in good taste for real houses. White with green blinds is good, of course; or yellow can be used. The roofs should be painted. Red roofs are very effective.
Before beginning work, read carefully Marking, Rule, Square, Saw, Plane, Nailing, Withdrawing Nails, etc.
Fig. 172.
Dolls' House.—The house shown in Fig. 172 is quite easily made, and a shallow affair like this has the advantage of being more convenient than a deep one about arranging the contents.