He reserved the pasting for rainy days and winter evenings, and as he took much pains with the arrangement and neat appearance of his book, this operation was necessarily slow, and formed a pleasant occupation for many hours which would otherwise have been wasted.
In making such a book, do not try to complete it in a week or even a month, but let it, like my boy friend’s, furnish amusement for a year.
Get your father and mother interested, and ask them to save any scraps they may see, and think appropriate for the purpose.
A handsomely bound scrap-book, specially designed for this use, would certainly be the most desirable thing to have; but if such a book cannot be obtained, an old ledger does very nicely in its place, and if, after it is completed, you cover it carefully with a piece of smooth brown paper and print its title neatly on the back, it will look very well on any table where you may wish to keep it.
If the latter is used, cut from it every other two leaves, reserving the third, through the book. Next be careful to trim all your clippings neatly, leaving no extra paper beyond the edges. Fit the different slips nicely on the pages, filling the little spaces left from the longer articles with any little jokes or bits of poetry you may have. Frequently a whole piece of newspaper poetry is hardly worth preserving, but some one of its stanzas may be very pretty and just the thing to fill up a place you may have left.
It is well to collect all these little things you can find, for they always come in nicely when pasting, and your book looks much better when finished if the original surface is entirely covered.
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THE SNAKE.
Cut from a piece of Bristol board, or stiff paper, a circle measuring four inches in diameter; then with a pencil mark it like Fig. A. With your paints and pencil make its head as nearly like a snake’s as possible; and mark the body with stripes or checks, as your fancy may dictate. Cut through the deep black line, put a pin through the dot on the tail, and drive it into a slender stick of wood, which must be held or caught over the stove or register. The rising current of heated air causes the snake to revolve and apparently writhe, in a very natural manner. This little toy, so simple in its construction, affords an endless amount of entertainment to the little folks of the family, and is well worth the trouble and time you may spend in making it.