Should you be so fortunate as to be able to locate your house over
A Soft Bottom,
make the corner piers by driving a number of stakes in a circle (Fig. 84), over which slip a barrel (Fig. 85) which has previously had both its heads removed. If you have no barrels a box, similarly treated, will answer the purpose, and in case you have no boxes, cribs, made in the form of boxes open at the top and bottom, may be used. Should you be ambitious to build in
Fig. 85.—Placing the Barrel.
True Robinson Crusoe Style,
drive a number of long stakes securely, in the form of a circle, in the bottom of the pond, as in Fig. 84, and then with grape-vines and other creepers weave a basket (Fig. 86). “Crusoe” should know how to do all these things. “The Parrot” should have charge of the transportation of material, and “The Goat” collect the lumber, cobblestones, stakes, and vines. All kinds of vines and creepers are good for basket-work, and almost any sort of stakes will answer, but “The Goat” must see that neither poison-sumac nor poison-ivy is used. Both of these plants must be avoided in any work of this kind, as they are extremely dangerous to comfort, and may cause an amount of irritation which will confine the victim to his bed for days.
Fig. 86.—The Basket.
Where vines are scarce, almost any sort of green branches may be made to answer the purpose, willow being especially adapted for basket-work; but all the larger branches should be split in half to make them pliable enough to bend without breaking. You may now