Press your thumb on the rounded edge of a fresh, fat green pea-pod, and, pop! it goes splitting open at the top. Then push your thumb into the opening, run it down the pod and the two halves separate, showing a row of fine, large peas that look like great green pearls in a soft, silk-lined case made expressly for them.
Fig.164 - The Green Pea Greenies, cousins of the Brownies.
You have done this ever so many times when helping mother, haven't you? And you know that the next thing to do when the pod is open is to run that same little thumb down again and scoop out all those round green peas, letting them fall with a patter into the pan in your lap.
Now as a reward for such helpfulness suppose you ask mother or the cook to give you a good big handful of peas which have not been shelled, and ask also for some wooden toothpicks such as are used in the kitchen for fastening meat together; or a number of nice, straight, strong broom-straws if there are no wooden toothpicks. Take all these out on the porch if the day is fine and sit down comfortably to make the remarkable things which I am going to tell you how to make. It is a good plan to have a box and its cover to hold the shelled peas and their pods, but it does not really matter except that the round peas are apt to roll away and get lost if you put them in your lap.
Fig.165 - Parts of the Greeny Girl and how to put them together.