[CHAPTER XVIII]
SOME OLD-FASHIONED TOYS—A MONKEY-UP-A-STICK, A JACK-IN-THE-BOX
A Monkey-up-a-stick is a very easy toy to make. First cut out a cardboard or wooden monkey as in Fig. 420. See that the legs and arms turn freely on paper-fasteners, A and B. Paint the monkey grey or brown. With a pin make holes, C and D, in the feet and hands. Next saw two lengths of stripwood, one 1´ × ¼" × ¼", the other almost twice as long. Drill a hole near one end of each of these sticks. Pass a pin or piece of wire through the holes in the monkey's feet and the hole in the shorter stick; bend down the pin on each side to keep the feet from slipping off. (The point of the pin should be cut off with pliers.) In the same way fasten the monkey's hands to the longer stick. See that the limbs (note that they come one on each side of the stick) revolve freely on the pins or wire. The two sticks may be kept together by pieces of elastic; this however rather prevents the one stick from moving freely up and down the other. It is better first to file the sticks (or one of the sticks) round or to use dowel rods. These round rods can then be kept together by cardboard or wooden discs. The disc must have a hole in the middle large enough for the rod to move freely up and down in it. The thicker the piece of wood or cardboard the better. The hole must be made in the wood with a brace and bit (a bradawl will make the hole in cardboard, and it can be filed to the right size with a round file). The longer rod, A, Fig. 421, goes through the hole; the bottom of the shorter rod, B, is glued and nailed to the disc.
By moving the disc C up and down the monkey performs its usual antics at the top of the stick.
The monkey, or a clown if preferred, looks very effective cut out of three-ply wood and riveted together.
For a small model wooden meat skewers may be used as sticks. Other suggestions for C in Fig. 421 are: a reel (though rod B when glued to a reel tends to break off); half a cork.
Fig. 420
Fig. 421
