WHAT TO MAKE OF EMPTY SPOOLS
Gather up all the spools you can find, big, little, thick, and thin; no matter how many, you can use them all. There is no end of fun to be had with these always-on-hand, easily found toys; they may be made into almost everything.
Spool Houses
are very simply constructed. Begin building by standing ten spools in a straight row for the front of the house. Make one side with seven spools placed at right angles with the front. This gives you one corner of the house. Build the back parallel to the front by standing nine spools at right angles with the side. You will then have two corners of the house and three sides. Add a row of six spools along the empty space between the front and back of the house for the fourth side, as in [Fig. 56]. Remove the third and fourth spools from the left-hand corner of the front of the house to form the doorway, and examine the foundation—see that it is even and straight before erecting the walls; then continue the building, placing a spool on top of each foundation spool ([Fig. 57]). Build on another layer of spools, except over the second and third spools at the right hand of the doorway opening ([Fig. 58]). Add another row of spools ([Fig. 59]), and another ([Fig. 60]). Lay a piece of pasteboard box over the top of the walls ([Fig. 61]), and make the roof of a piece of almost any kind of paper by bending and creasing the paper down along the lengthwise centre and up along the lengthwise edges. Place the roof on top of the pasteboard ceiling ([Fig. 62]). Do not have the roof project over the end of the house where you are to build the chimney, for the chimney must be quite close to the house. Select large spools for the chimney and build it by standing one spool on top of another until the chimney extends above the roof. You can top the chimney by laying a piece of cardboard over the last spool and placing two small spools on it side by side. Enclose the yard with a spool fence; standing the spools a short distance from each other, as in the photograph. Use spools of larger size for the gateway, topping them with two smaller ones ([Fig. 62]).
Fig. 56—First row of spools.
Fig. 57—Second row of spools.
Fig. 58—Third row of spools.
Fig. 59—Fourth row of spools.
Fig. 60—Fifth row of spools.
Fig. 61—A piece of pasteboard on top.
Fig. 62—Place the roof on top.Make the yard into a cheerful
Sunshiny Garden
([Fig. 63]), with flowers and trees of paper and tubs and flower-pots of spools, where the clothespin people may go for recreation.
