Fig. 483.
Fig. 484. Figs. 483 and 484; make the wood a trifle wider than the paper. Place the paper between the bits of wood (Fig. 485) and, holding the instrument tight between your teeth, blow through it; keep on
Fig. 485. blowing until it whistles like the wind.
Of course you should have a number of different instruments in the orchestra you intend to organize, so that each girl may play on her own special instrument. For the next one, try
A Harp.
Harps were valued highly in ancient Egypt, and later in other countries, some of which still retain them. Modern
Fig. 486. musicians, like Meyerbeer, Gounod, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner, understanding the worth of the harp, introduced it in their music. Our instrument may not be as graceful in form, but you can have more real fun with it than you could with any of the big, costly affairs. Get some elastic bands and a deep, empty cigar-box; drive slender nails at intervals along the front and back edges of the box; then take ordinary elastic bands (Fig. 486), and stretch them across the box by slipping each one over two back and two front nails. The elastics must be of various widths; place the heaviest at one end of the box and graduate up to the lightest at the other (Fig. 487). With a quill (Fig. 488) test the instrument. You can tighten the elastics by looping them around and around one or more of the four pins; in this way the strings may to a great extent be keyed as you wish. Practise on the musical box with the quill toothpick until you can make the elastics sing a tune, then put the harp carefully aside where it will not be broken, and hunt up a piece of wood for a modern