Fig. 161 shows the first match, which has been split at the tail-end with the blade of a pocket-knife; Fig. 162 shows another match, which has had the tail-end whittled to a wedge-shaped edge, and Fig. 163 shows the two matches joined by forcing the wedge end of one match into the split end of the other. Fig. 164 shows the third match, placed across the ends of the other two matches.
If you will now pass the toothpick under the first two matches and over the last, as illustrated by the diagram, Fig. 164, it is a simple task to lift the three matches and show your playmates how a seemingly impossible proposition becomes a thing of great simplicity when it is solved (Fig. 165.)
A Spring-Bed.
Now take a toothpick, Fig. 166, and place another one across it, as in Fig. 167; cross these two toothpicks, in their centre, with a third, as in Fig. 168; then run a fourth under the ends of the two side toothpicks and over the end of the middle one, as in Fig. 169.
Fig. 166 and 167.
When the fifth toothpick is run under the other ends of the two crossed picks and over the free end of the centre toothpick, you will have Fig. 170.
Figs. 168 and 169.
What is Fig. 170? Well, it is almost anything you wish: it is a gate, a section of a fence, or a spring-bed. Fig. 171 shows the spring-bed, and to prove that it is a real spring-bed, if you will set it on the hearth, where there can be no danger from fire, you may light one leg of the bed with a match, then stand back and watch the flame eat its way to the first joint. When this joint is reached the spring is freed, and the bed flies to pieces, which proves that it is really a spring-bed.