The only part at all difficult to make is the shoe or boot itself. My boot was ten inches high, and eight from the toe to the heel, and it was composed of five pieces of very stiff pasteboard, the two sides shaped like No. 1, enlarged, the back like No. 2, and the sole like No. 3. No. 4 is the little strip in front of the heel. Each piece must be covered with black velvet or cloth, all the pieces sewed strongly together, and the top of the boot lined with green silk for three or four inches down. Then bind the top and sides of the front with red braid, and tack a strip of black velvet in the sides of the front for a tongue. Then take a piece of the red braid, and catch it back and forth, like ordinary shoe lacing.
As the boot is so long and narrow, it would be apt to tip over, so, to steady it, put a bag of shot in the toe, and fill the rest with paper.
Now you have the house, and for the garden get a square pasteboard box cover, and spread over it green silk to represent grass. As no ordinary doll's face would be wrinkled and care-worn enough for this poor lady, get one of the long-nosed, long-chinned, old women who sometimes come in Jack-in-the-boxes. Cut her out, springs and all, and cover the springs with a dark calico dress. Put a white kerchief round her neck, a white cap on her head, and a bundle of switches in her hand.
You want as many children as you have the patience to dress; the more the merrier. Get the little china dolls that come for a penny apiece, and the larger wooden dolls that come, I think, for the same price. If you can get two or three very small woolly dogs, they will look cunning standing in the "garden." Dress the dolls in all the bright colors you can find, and put them anywhere and everywhere, on the box cover, climbing up the shoe lacing, in the mother's lap, and behind her back.
A very pretty addition to the whole is a small ladder leaning against the side of the boot, with a doll on each round.
[OUR NEW WALK.]
BY JIMMY BROWN.
For once I have done right. I always used to think that if I stuck to it, and tried to do what was right, I would hit it some day; but at last I pretty nearly gave up all hope, and was beginning to believe that no matter what I did, some of the grown-up folks would tell me that my conduct was such. But I have done a real useful thing that was just what father wanted, and he has said that he would overlook it this time. Perhaps you think that this was not very encouraging to a boy; but if you had been told to come up stairs with me my son as often as I have been, just because you had tried to do right, and hadn't exactly managed to suit people, you would be very glad to hear your father say that for once he would overlook it.