The wire framework, E, is soldered to a circle of tin, C, which fits on the top of the lamp. As the figure has to be small it should be as long as possible.
A pair of scissors should be kept for cutting tin, or tinman's snips can be used; cutting pliers and centre punches will also be needed. Holes, however, can be punched in tin with strong round nails and a hammer. Round files are needed for making holes smooth.
Empty tin canisters form a supply of tin plate.
Adjustable cycle spanners are useful for bending wire at right angles; a hide mallet is a great convenience.
Before making a toy like one of those described it is well to practise bending wire with vice, hammer and mallet.
In the last toy, if tinned plate and tinned steel wire are used, the soldering is a fairly easy matter, because the tinning has already been done.
[CHAPTER XXVII]
BUILDINGS AT HOME AND ABROAD
A Farmhouse. Young children, having cut out of cardboard or fret-wood the animals and trees described in Chapter XX, having constructed a bridge, a well, a dove-cot, and other small models scattered through this volume, take considerable pleasure in arranging their toys into pretty groups and attractive combinations. At this stage the lack is often felt of some object of central interest, of something to 'pull the composition together,' as an art critic would put it: the farm scene requires a farm, the domestic scene a villa, the Eastern animals and trees an Indian temple, or some such building, to complete the picture.