CHAPTER XX

BURDOCK-BURRS

The Little House of Burrs

NOW let us build a little woodsy house of burrs (Fig. 124) and put it in a little garden. Gather two heaping handfuls of large-sized burdock-burrs, small ones are not strong enough, and begin building. These burrs grow on a bush; they are about the size of a marble, are almost round, are prickly, and are pinkish at the top.

Make the roof first (Fig. 125). Stick ten or twelve burrs together in a row with pink heads all pointing in the same direction. Place this row on a flat, smooth surface, a board, flat stone, table, or, perhaps, the hard earth, and attach another row of burrs along the side edge of the first row. Continue to add more burrs until you have six or seven rows fastened into one flat piece.

Be sure that this piece does not bulge out or sink down in places, for the roof must be perfectly flat. Make the two side walls (Figs. 126 and 127) and the back wall of the house as you made the roof; the back wall must be the length of the roof and the height of the side walls (Fig. 128). The side walls must each fit on the ends of the roof and be high enough to look well.

The front wall of the house must have a doorway and a window (Fig. 129). But first make it solid, exactly like the back wall and exactly the same size, then lay it down on the flat surface that you are using for a table, and open a hole for the doorway by taking out five or six burrs, counting from the bottom up, and two or three burrs, counting from side to side. That will make about ten or twelve burrs to be removed. Take out the burrs for the window and make the opening three or four burrs high and two burrs wide. (See Fig. 129).

Use four burrs for each side of the hollow square chimney (Fig. 130), which is open at top and bottom.

To put the different parts of the house together lay the roof down flat and stick the edge of the back wall on top of the outer row of burrs which forms one of the long edges of the roof. Fasten one side wall on one short edge of the roof in the same way and press the edge of the back wall and the edge of the side wall together, making the corner firm and square. Next attach the second side wall, and lastly fit in the front wall.

Now lift the house carefully, place it right side up on the ground, and adjust the chimney to the roof. As you work keep the picture of the house in front of you so that you may see at a glance whether you are building it correctly or not. If you cannot find large burrs, let the sides and the roof of the house be two layers of burrs stuck firmly together. Make a path leading up to the door of very small shells, sand, or fresh earth.

Pond, with Water-Lilies, in the Garden

Would you like to have a little pond near the house, with white water-lilies floating on its surface and wee cattails growing here and there in and near the water's edge?

You can easily make such a pond. Sink a shallow pan in the ground, a hole must be dug to fit it, you know, and fill the pan with water. Cover the edges with moss or earth and plant short-stemmed heads of timothy-grass (Fig. 131) and slender, stiff grass-blades in scattered groups near the water. It is timothy-grass that looks so much like cattails, and also the grass called foxtail.

Some of the cattails can be made to look as if they were growing in the pond if you make a flat-bottomed ball of burrs around the ends of the stems to hold them upright (Fig. 132), and put some small stones on top of the ball to weight it down in the water.

For the little water-lilies select perfect white clover-blossoms (Fig. 133), and for the leaves, or lily-pads, use any rather small, smooth, round leaves. The marsh-marigold leaf will answer, or you can cut out water-lily leaves from oak or maple. Make them the shape of the pattern Fig. 134. The pattern here is laid on a maple-leaf ready to cut out a leaf for the water-lily. Make a number of lilies and float them and the leaves on top of the water.

A Pea-Pod Canoe

You might add a pea-pod canoe (Fig. 135), with a tiny American flag standing proudly erect at the bow.

When you make the canoe, open the pod where you see the dotted line in Fig. 136. To keep the pod open make little braces of broom-straws, and put them in crosswise with one end against each side of the canoe. There are four braces in the canoe (Fig. 135), but you may not need that many.

The Trees

In the picture given here the tree on the left of the little house of burrs is just two stalks of the common grass called meadow muhlenbergia, which are held up as if really growing, by several green burrs left from building the house. The burrs are squeezed up tight to the grass-stems and then pressed down tight to the ground. You can find the grass for these trees almost any place; it is very social and loves to make its home with other grasses.

The graceful, drooping tree on the right of the house is made of the grass called brome-grass. Keep your eyes open and you will find it some time while playing out-of-doors. As soon as you see it, run to the brome-grass and whisper its name. You will be glad to discover it and will remember its name afterward whenever you see the grass.

Look at the picture again and notice the odd plants near the brome-grass tree. Their name is Bermuda-grass. See how they spread out their long, slender fingers. They look very much like a grass named the small crab-grass, and another the large crab-grass, and like another still called the wire-grass; but if you put all these side by side and examine them closely you will see how they differ.

Burdock-Burr Game

Besides making things of burdock-burrs, you can play a game with them. The game is something like archery, only, instead of shooting arrows at a target, you throw burrs at it.

Get a good-sized piece of woollen cloth or some kind of material with a rough surface to which the burrs will cling. Tack this up on the fence or on a board; then, with a large piece of chalk that will make a wide mark, draw four circles, one inside the other like Fig. 137. It doesn't matter if your circles are not perfect. Do the best you can and finish your target. Number the spaces between the circles 1, 2, 3, 10. The outer space is 1, the next, 2, next to the centre 3, and the centre 10. The centre, being the bull's-eye, counts most.

Have ready a lot of burrs for each player; mark a boundary-line on the ground, beyond which no one must step in throwing the burrs, and, standing at the boundary-line, let each player in turn throw three burrs at the target. The burrs that stick to the target make the score if they are in the numbered spaces. Fig. 138 shows how to hold the burr. Suppose one burr sticks to the space numbered 2, and the two others are in number 1, the player would then have two ones and one two which, added together, make four; her score then would be four.

Always pull the burrs of one player off the target before the next player takes her turn, and there will be no question as to who should claim them. After each player has had three turns, let every one add up her scores. The player who has the highest wins the game. If divided into sides, the players on the side having the highest score are the winners and they should be given a hearty cheer by the losing side. Even very little girls and boys should learn to be good losers and to help celebrate the victory of others.