are one of the best kind of fireworks and furnish lots of fun. We will make some and send them flying through the air. Cut strips of paper eighteen inches long and two inches wide, fringing them seven inches on one side (Fig. 304). Commence at the unfringed end, B, and roll them like lamplighters (Fig. 305), folding each over at top end to keep it in place (Fig. 306, C). These are the sky-rockets, and are best made of stiff, bright-colored paper, but may be of any kind except very limber paper. Make a number of sky-rockets and “fire them off” by the aid of a large, empty spool with a piece of elastic adjusted loosely over one end, but tied securely (Fig. 307). Place one sky-rocket at a time through the hole in the spool, fringed end out, and, grasping the tip end in the elastic (Fig. 308), pull the sky-rocket toward
Fig. 306. you and let it fly back as you would send an arrow from a bow. There is another paper sky-rocket which rivals a real one in brilliancy, and is much easier to fire. Make the rocket of a hollow stick—a bamboo handle from a Japanese fan or parasol, or an old dried sunflower stalk will do—and
Fig. 307. cut the stick about seven inches long. Near one end tie on firmly a stout rubber band (Fig. 309). The stick of the sky-rocket should be strong and slender and about twelve inches in length. Have it small enough in diameter to slide easily through the sunflower stalk. Fasten many gay-colored streamers of tissue-paper on one end, making them fully a yard in length. When all is ready, place the stick with streamers uppermost in the tube, draw back the rubber band with the stick (Fig. 310), and fire (Fig. 311). The sky-rocket goes swiftly through the air, carrying a stream of paper fire in its wake. As with the real fireworks you must be careful not to aim any of these in a direction where they will strike anyone.
Fig. 308.
Fig. 309.
