Beside enabling one to see the sun dance, being up early gives time, before breakfast, to help decorate the table as a pleasant surprise to the family. One of the most attractive ornaments is the white dove with its snowy wings spread wide, while it floats and sways in mid-air as if it were really flying slowly and softly through the room. It is easily made. Take a pure white egg, and empty the contents; then cut from writing paper the wing (Fig. 40), head (Fig. 41), and tail (Fig. 42). Pin each in turn on a fresh, smooth piece of cotton wadding and cut the raw cotton out along the lines of the pattern. Make two wings of the cotton wadding, and cut two wing-bones (Fig. 43) from stiff paper; open each cotton wing along the upper edge about a quarter of an inch in depth, according to dotted line O O (Fig. 40), insert a paper bone in each opening and gum it sparingly here and there. Smooth up the edges of the cotton wings, covering the bones entirely; then gum the wings to the sides of the egg according to the dotted line on one end. Fasten the tail in place and, last of all, the head; open the neck a little and paste each side of the open edge on the egg. Bend the wings out, as if the bird were flying.
Fig. 44.
To float the dove in the air, make a knot in a piece of fine thread and with a needle run the thread through a small square of white court-plaster; pull the knot up tight to the plaster, unthread the needle, and with the court-plaster over the knot, dampen it and gum the thread down tight on the back of the dove, something as a leather sucker is stuck on a brick; it will soon dry. In the morning suspend the dove over the centre of the table (Fig. 44) by tying the end of the thread on the chandelier. Let it be about ten inches above the dishes. If you can handle pen and ink very lightly, the bird’s eyes and mouth may be carefully marked, although this is not absolutely necessary, as the effect is almost the same without the features being emphasized.
Fig. 45.
Fig. 46.
One of the minor sports now gladly participated in by the girls, is top-spinning, and the amount of fun they derive from the whirling playthings is only equalled by their skill in the game. All kinds of tops are welcomed and experimented with but the queerest is the
Spinning Egg