Even play eggs manufactured of paper have many possibilities. Of course, all girls would rather make these for themselves than to buy them, be the trifles ever so beautiful; for, after all, the purchased eggs can only be looked at and then put away. You cannot have any real sport with them; cannot take them apart and put them together again any more than “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” could restore “Humpty Dumpty” after his fall; nor can you change these designs from one thing to another, each complete in itself. Only the home-made Easter egg admits of such manipulation. It is an Enchanted Egg and from it can be made
Fig. 80.
Fig. 81.
Fig. 82.
An Ostrich, Rabbit, Penguin, and Rooster
To make the egg, cut from medium-weight water-color paper two egg-shaped designs, Fig. 80; in one of these cut two slits exactly like Fig. 81; lay this over the second paper egg, being very careful to have the two perfectly fitted, and with a pin-prick mark the ends of the slits of the top egg into the under one; stick the pin entirely through, first at one end and then at the other of each slit; remove the top egg and draw a straight line from pin-point to pin-point of the upper and then of the lower slit; these lines are guides and render it easy to cut the slits to correspond with those in the first egg. The two eggs must be exactly alike, as they are in reality the two sides of one egg. Trace the markings of Fig. 82 on one egg and spread strong paste sparingly over the darkened portion, not allowing it to extend in the least across the boundary lines, for the white spaces must be left free, that they may form openings or pockets. Again fit the two sides together (the paste will cause them to adhere), and place the egg under a few books, or some other weight, to dry, and in a little while it will be ready for transformation.
Changing an Egg Into a Rooster