BILLY BOY’S WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

BILLY BOY’S WORKSHOP

MAKING A DOLL’S CRADLE. Here is a nice doll’s cradle which you can make for your- young sister. The. sizes given in the diagrams are for a cradle measuring roughly 12 inches long and five inches wide, with a height of eight inches, but these sizes can be increased or decreased in proportion if a larger or smaller cradle is required. Use ordinary whitewood, planed to a thickness of a quarter of an inch, for the sides, baek, front and floor. Mark out the shapes of these parts, to the sizes given in the diagrams, and then cut them out with a small tenon saw. Cut the curved parts with a fret-saw and trim the edges with your small plane. The .-floor is 12 and a-half inches long and five and a-half inches wide.

Cut the two head pieces from quarterinch wood to the sizes given in Diagram A. The top and bottom edges have to be cut at. an angle to the baek edge, as indicated.

In fixing the parts together, glue and nail the head pieces to the ends of the sides, as shown in the first diagram; then nail the sides to the front end and glue and nail the baek to the edges of the head pieces. For the top, cut a piece of thin fret wood to the size required and nail it, with fine wire brads, to the head pieces and back of the cradle. See that an equal amount overlaps all round. Now glue and nail the floor to thte sides and ends. For the rockers, cut two pieces of three-eighths-inch wood to the sizes given in the diagram, and after smoothing the curved edges with glasspaper, fix them in place by small screws driven in from the top of the floor, inside the cradle. « Lastly, give the finished' cradle a coating of paint in one or two bright colours. , , The Hut Carpenter.

AN ICE COMPETITION. (Sent by Rex Woodley.) Questions: —; 1. An ice that the world would be better without it? 2. An ice that is easier to give than to take? 3. An ice we all hope to enter? 4. An ice that lures? 5. An ice that is cut? 6. An ice that repeats itself? ’ 7. An ice seen at weddings? 8. An ice fixed by merchants? 9. An ice that is dainty? 10. An ice that frightens women? 11. An ice that is definite? . . 12. An ice that is part of a game ? Answers: —■ 1. Vice. 2. Advice. 3. Paradise. 4. Entice. 5. Slice. , 6. Twice. 7. Rice. 8. Price. 9. Nice. 10. Mice. 11. Precise. 12. Dice. SHOES BY THE Boots and shoes nowadays are generally plain affairs, for we rarely break out into pretty buckles and ornaments except for parties. It must have been exciting, not comfortable, to live in the Middle Ages, and wear shoes with toes so long that they had to be turned up and fastened to the knees. This was a very popular fashion, and was carried to such lengths that a law had to be passed forbidding long toes. After that shoes began to spread themselves in other directions, and by Henry Vll.’s time broad shoes became the vogue. For Court wear they were often as much as nine inches wide, and were made of soft, brightly-coloured leather, slashed to show little puffs of silk lining of a different colour. The next great change was when boots grew higher in the leg. At the first the tops were turned down, and later, in the time of Charles 11., they spread into large loose cuffs, which stood away from the leg and were sometimes lined with coloured silk. Heels were unknown until, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, they were attached to riding boots to keep the foot from slipping from the stirrup. They proved comfortable for walking, too, and were soon adopted for ordinary shoes. Pompons and rosettes were favourite shoe ornaments in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were very like the ones we use to-day on indoor and bedroom slippers, but much larger. The stout, buckled shoes worn by the schoolboys of 300 years ago are still worn by Blue coat boys. When the Stone Age man first felt the need of some protection against sharp stones and snake bites, he wrapped rough skin gaiters round his legs and made a kind of moccasin for his feet; these he tied on. with thongs of leather : —the very first bootlaces. STALKING THE DEER. A very good game for boys and girls to play out in the open country or in the bush is that of deer-stalking. One player, with whistle, takes up a position where there is plenty of cover all round—that is, trees, bushes, rocks, hedges, and so on. The other players scatter in all directions and go right out of sight, remaining quite still for two or three minutes. Then the first player blows his whistle, and all the others begin to approach him. But they must not allow themselves to be seen. They take cover behind bushes and other objects, and only run from shelter to shelter when the whistler’s head or back is turned. Directly he catches sight of one of the players approaching he calls out his name, and that player is out of the game. The player who succeeds in coming nearest before he is seen is the winner. Of course, it is essential that all players must move as quietly as possible so as not’to give any indication of their presence by making a noise that the whistler can hear.