If you have a fret saw, and can use it cleverly, you can make at home as good a puzzle as any that can be bought. The first thing to do is to select a good colored picture, and then to procure from a carpenter a thin mahogany board of the same size. Mahogany is not absolutely necessary, but it must be some wood that is both soft and tough. Deal, for instance, is useless because it is not tough, and oak is useless because it is not soft. On this wood you stick the picture very firmly, using weak glue in preference to paste or gum. When it is quite dry you cut it up into the most difficult fragments that you can. It is best to cut out the border so that each piece locks into the next. This will then be put together first by the player and will serve to hold the picture together. After the puzzle is cut up it is well to varnish each piece with paper varnish, which keeps it clean and preserves it.
A simple puzzle can be made by pasting the picture on cardboard and cutting it up with scissors or a sharp knife.
Soap Bubbles
For blowing bubbles the long clay pipes are best. Before using them, the end of the mouthpiece ought to be covered with sealing-wax for about an inch, or it may tear your lips. Common yellow soap is better than scented soap, and rainwater than ordinary water. A little glycerine added to the soap-suds helps to make the bubbles more lasting. On a still summer day, bubble-blowing out-of-doors is a fascinating and very pretty occupation.
Shadows on the Wall
Shadowgraphy nowadays has progressed a long way from the rabbit on the wall; but in the house, ambition in this accomplishment does not often extend further than that and one or two other animals, and this is why only the rabbit, dog, and swan are given here. The swan can be made more interesting by moving the arm which forms his neck as if he were prinking and pluming, an effect which is much heightened by ruffling up and smoothing down the hair with the fingers forming his beak. To get a clear shadow it is necessary to have only one light, and that fairly close to the hands.
Shadows on the Wall
Skeleton Leaves
Leaves which are to be skeletonized should be picked from the trees at the end of June. They should be perfect ones of full growth. It is best to have several of each kind, as some are sure to be failures. Put the leaves in a big earthenware dish or pan, fill it with rain-water, and stand it in a warm and sunny place—the purpose of this being to soak off the green pulpy part. There is a great difference in the time which this takes: some fine leaves will be ready in a week, while others may need several months. Look at the leaves every day, and when one seems to be ready slip a piece of cardboard under it and shake it about gently in fresh cold water. If any green stuff remains, dab it with a soft brush and then put it into another basin of clean water. A fine needle can be used to take away any small and obstinate pieces of green. It is now a skeleton and must be bleached according to the following directions:—Pour into a large earthenware jar a pint of water on half a pound of chloride of lime. Mix thoroughly, breaking up any lumps with the hand. Add two and a half quarts of water, cover over, and leave for twenty-four hours. Then pour off the solution, leaving the sediment behind. Dissolve two pounds of soda in one quart of boiling water, and pour it, while on the boil, over the chloride solution. Cover it, and leave for forty-eight hours; then decant into bottles, being careful to leave all sediment behind.