The Cross,
and if you make one of the proportions of five squares, each of the three arms of equal size, and equal to the square space in the middle, you may, by
Two Cuts, make the Cross into a Square.
This will, at first glance, look like an impossibility, but if you find the middle of the top end of the cross (Fig. 215), and lay a straight-edge from the middle point E, touching the corner F, and rule the line E F G, then rule a line from H to F, and cut where the lines are ruled, you will have four irregular pieces, A, B, C, and D, which you may fit together in the form of a square (Fig. 216).
This is amusement enough for one rainy day, and for the next one you may try something more artistic, and consequently more difficult and interesting.
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW TO PREPARE AND GIVE A BOYS’ CHALK-TALK.
A natural taste or talent for art is almost universal. If any of my readers doubt this statement let them supply all the youngsters in their neighborhood with colored chalks and note the result.
My word for it, there will not be a paving-flag, wall or fence in the ward, which offers an opportunity for a picture, which will not be profusely decorated with brilliantly colored, grotesque figures.