The average boy is not usually blessed with overmuch room in which to bestow his many treasures—his bats, balls and marbles, his collection of butterflies and bugs, relics of many a pleasant tramp through field and wood, and last, but far from least important, the treasured books of tale and adventure, so dear to the heart of a genuine boy; therefore the little case or cabinet of the illustration has been contrived, for his own making, as a resting-place for all these and more, and to prove the happy truth of the old adage, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
SKETCH NO. 1.
It may be constructed of nicely-selected pine, for this is easily obtained, is cheap, and any little mistake will not entail too much expense if the work has to be done again, and also it is easily worked, and takes a beautiful golden color when “filled,” and finished with shellac. Pains must be taken not to mar the wood with tool-marks. To make a nice piece of work, you will not use any nails, but put the case together with dowels, screws, and glue.
Now look over the drawings together. Sketch No. 1 shows the completed case as it should look when finished and in place. The first section, A, (Sketch No. 2) is a fair-sized box with lifting cover, and a shelf beneath. This will be found handy for many odds and ends of boyish treasures too cumbersome to be stored away in drawers and boxes. Section B contains the specimen, or butterfly case, with a row of small drawers below, these drawers being handy receptacles for marbles, tops, twine, or like odds and ends that make a troublesome litter when thrown together in a large drawer. Two large drawers below these, and the shelf, will find their uses, without doubt. Section C has a couple of shelves for books, with storage room for bats, hockey sticks, etc., below; and in one corner is a small box large enough to hold two or three balls; outside of this, as the other plans will show, is a receptacle for a foot-ball, made of bent wire. This, if not a desirable addition, may be left off.
Having looked our case over in a general way, let us now go into the details of construction and finish. In Sketch No. 2 will be found all the general measurements. The figuring and lettering on the Detail Sketch all refer to this drawing. We will first get out the stock for the side-pieces of the various sections, four in number, and two of them—those belonging to Section B—of exactly the same size and shape. These should be of one and one fourth inch stock, and of the dimensions given in Detail Sketch No. 3. Mark out carefully the simple outline indicated for each piece, using a piece of charcoal, so the line may be easily wiped out and corrected if unsatisfactory. Go over the corrected outline with a soft pencil to preserve them, and then saw them out. This must be done with care, to keep the edges even and true, using either a draw tool or small saw on the finer outlines.
