There are many other toys, besides useful articles, which can be made of empty spools. Find out by experimenting what they are, so you may have the triumph of originality, of making things which differ from articles made by others.
The empty spools do not cost money, nor does the pasteboard from old pasteboard boxes, yet they may furnish more genuine enjoyment than could be derived from the most expensive toys.
CHAPTER XXI
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS
When the air is cold and frosty, and people move quickly through the streets, stopping to loiter only in front of the shop windows; when groups of merry girls hurry along on their way to school, their cheeks, glowing rosy under the brisk greetings of a northwest wind; when the evergreens displayed for sale upon the sidewalks send forth a spicy odor which ascends like incense and the very atmosphere seems pulsating with pleasurable excitement, there is no need of a calendar to tell us that the holidays are close at hand. As surely as a cloudless sky betokens a fine day, so surely do these signs indicate that Christmas will soon be with us.
Purse-strings, even if kept tightly drawn the rest of the year, are loosened now, and money is spent freely and ungrudgingly, not only for gifts, but also for Christmas greens with which to decorate and beautify the home.
Some of the Portières are Woven in this Style.