“Packing” the Slide, or Chute,
is to mix sawdust and snow together, in equal parts, using just enough water to cause it to pack solidly, as a foundation for the top crust of snow or ice. This foundation will make the top ice or snow last much longer, in thawing weather, than it would if spread directly on the wooden bed of the slide. If the snow in the chute is properly and smoothly banked up on this composition foundation, moistened and frozen hard, with the addition of half an inch of fresh snow on top, the slide, in ordinary weather, will last all winter.
It is a Wise Plan
to be ready for any emergency. You may have visitors who come without sleds, and who would have but a chilly time watching the others coast down the wonderful toboggan-slide. To prevent the chance of any such disagreeable occurrences, knock an old barrel to pieces and build yourself a supply of toboggans with the staves. Two barrel-staves, fastened together by a cross-bar in front and a piece of board for a seat in the rear, will make a most excellent toboggan.
The boy in the foreground of Fig. 138 is building toboggans of barrel staves, and a glance at this cut will tell you how they are made.
PART II
RAINY DAY IDEAS