CHAPTER III
STRAW AND PAPER FURNITURE
A handful of straws, such as are used for lemonade and soda-water, several large sheets of writing-paper, and some small-sized pins—these are your materials. A pair of sharp scissors, a ruler marked off into whole, half, and quarter inches, and a lead pencil—these are your tools.
Fig. 17—The old-fashioned bedstead.
We will begin with the old-fashioned four-post bedstead with its canopy and valances ([Fig. 17]). It is easily put together, but you must be careful to cut the straws for the posts all exactly the same length, making them about seven inches long, and to have your measurements for the other parts quite correct, in order that the bedstead may stand perfectly upright. Select four straight straws for the posts—sound and whole. Split straws will not do.
The mattress and canopy are exactly alike; each has its valance, and they are just the same size; so directions for one will answer for both. Cut an oblong of writing-paper eight and a half inches long and six and a half inches wide. Be sure that the ends and side edges form perfect right angles; if they do not, the bed will be crooked. The edges of your sheet of writing-paper are at right angles to one another, and if you use the top edge of your paper for the top edge of your oblong, and the side edge of the paper for one side edge of your oblong, the rest will come out all right.
