Before the flags are placed, the whole surface of the boat should be washed, if she has become soiled while being put together, and after the flag-staffs and stays are painted and have dried, the whole should be covered with the shellac dissolved in alcohol. Be sure and use white shellac, as the other would stain the white to a light brown and spoil the whole effect.
A hole is bored horizontally through the bow three-quarters of an inch from the extreme end, of sufficient size to admit a piece of large fish-line, the ends of which after it is inserted can be tied together to give a better hold for the hand.
This boat is modeled after the ordinary bay and river excursion boats common to the northern and middle Atlantic sea-coast, but if any boy residing in the West should care to make one resembling those he is accustomed to see, he will find little difficulty in modifying these directions to suit his own particular taste in naval architecture.
—————◀▶—————
THE BOTTLE IMP.
Take one or more small bottles, such as are generally used by homeopathic physicians for their pellets; cover them with a bit of closely-woven white cloth, and fasten it with a string around the middle. With oil paint make a grotesque face upon the upper part, and draw stripes or figures to represent a clown’s dress upon the lower and loose portion of the covering of each. Varnish this with the shellac, dissolved in alcohol, and when perfectly dry they are ready for use. Have a large-mouthed, perfectly clear glass jar nearly filled with water; then, after filling the little bottles about one-third full of the liquid, place the finger over the opening and immerse them, one at a time, bottom upward, into the jar. Be sure and keep the finger over the tiny mouth till they are well under the surface of the water. Should they sink in the jar, you have too much water in them.
The quantity of water they contain should be such that they will barely float, that is, the bottom of the little inverted vials should just touch the surface. This adjusting of the equilibrium is a matter of some delicacy; a single drop will make a difference: but by half-filling the bottle, placing the finger over the mouth, and removing it an instant to allow a drop or two to escape, the proper degree of buoyancy may be attained. Three or four of these bottles, in masquerade, should be introduced into the jar, and if they are, as they doubtless will be, of slightly differing degrees of buoyancy, the amusing effect will be enhanced. Now stretch a piece of thin rubber, such as toy balloons are made of, across the mouth of the jar, and tie it down, as seen in the illustration.
To make the imps dance, one has only to press upon the rubber top, as the air, in the top of the jar, is thus forced downward, the water is driven up into the small bottles, compressing the tiny quantity of air they contain, and they, in consequence, fall lower in the jar; but when the pressure is removed, the air in them expands, and they instantly rise to their normal position again.
