which you can make yourselves by following these directions:
The three cheese-box lids will answer nicely as shelves for a work- or bric-à-brac table, and the broomsticks, which are all the same length, will do for the legs.
Upon each broomstick mark the distances for placing the shelves, allowing six inches from each end of the stick for the top and bottom, and the exact centre between these points for the middle shelf. With a pocket-knife cut narrow grooves around each stick, one-half inch on either side of the points marked on them (Fig. 327). This will make six grooves on each stick. Now measure the box-lids to find their circumferences, and divide them into thirds, marking the distances on the rim to obtain the true position for the legs. At these points bore four holes with a gimlet, one inch apart, two above and two below (Fig. 328). Through one of the top holes pass a piece of pliable wire, place one of the broomsticks against the rim of the lid, pass the wire back through the other upper hole (Fig. 329), fit it into the upper groove of the stick, and draw it tight. Twice the wire must be put through the upper holes and around the stick in the top groove; then, bringing it down on the inside of the lid, you must put it twice through the lower holes and around the stick in the lower groove; then twist the ends and tuck them under the wire on the inside of the lid (Fig. 330). In this way each leg will have to be fastened to each shelf. When the table is all put together paint it black, and, as soon as it is dry, tie a bright ribbon on one of the sticks at the top, and a charming little bric-à-brac table will be the result of your labor.
You can make a very pretty
Lantern
of the old tin can; but first you must have some tools to work with; not many, only a piece of wood, rounded on one side to fit into the can, a hatchet or heavy hammer, and a few wrought iron nails. If the piece of wood is not large enough to fit the can, another stick can be put in to hold the first one firmly against the can. That being arranged, you must decide upon some kind of a pattern to be made by the holes, and indicate it on the can with a small paint-brush and paint or ink; then, laying the can on its side, the rounded piece of wood being at the top, with one of the wrought iron nails puncture the holes where you have indicated the pattern. With the hammer drive the nail through the tin into the wood; then draw it out, make another hole, and so on until all the holes you wish are driven through that part of the can held in place by the rounded piece of wood.
Lantern.
This wood, you see, keeps the can from bending when the nail is being driven through. In moving the wood as the work progresses, you must always keep it under that part of the can being punctured. To make the large hole, you will have to put a number of the small holes close together, and then drive the nail through the partitions, cutting them away. The pattern being completed, puncture three holes, close to the top of the can, at equal distances apart. These are for the chains to pass through, by which to suspend the lantern. In the cover of the baking-powder can make three holes at equal distances; then divide the chain, which is about one yard and a quarter long, into three equal lengths, separating the pieces by prying open the links. Put an end of each piece through the holes made for them at the top of the can, and fasten them by hooking the open links through the links of the chain a little farther up, and hammering them together again.
Now pass the ends of the chains through the holes made in the lid of the baking-powder can, and, bringing the ends together, fasten them by joining the links.