CHAPTER XXI

THINGS TO MAKE OF ENGLISH-WALNUT SHELLS

NUTS are the seed-vessels of the nut-trees; did you ever think of that? They do not grow only that we may have something delicious to eat. They ripen and fall on the ground, where some of them take root and grow up into trees themselves. If you plant a hickory-nut a little hickory-tree should come up, and it will if the conditions are all right. If you plant a walnut it will be a walnut-tree that will appear; so you see a nutshell is the seed-vessel of the nut-tree.

English walnuts do not grow wild in this country, but are cultivated here and you all know what the English walnut is like. Our American walnut is very hard to crack; its shell is rough and deeply grooved, but the English-walnut shell is smooth and without sharp edges, though its surface is uneven. There is a shallow groove running round the shell, like a seam, and the shell cracks open along this seam evenly and easily.

To Open an English Walnut

The easiest way to open an English walnut so that the shell will be in two perfect halves is to push the tip of a penknife-blade into the groove at the large end of the nut, and then slowly and carefully turn the knife to pry the halves apart. When opened this way the shell is never broken (Fig. 139).

After you have opened several nuts and taken out the kernels, use the knife to cut away the thin, papery divisions inside the shells. You will then be ready to make

The Professor

and one half-shell is to be his head. Draw a face on the shell like the face of the professor (Fig. 140). The narrow part of the shell is his chin, the wide part, the top of his head. He has an intellectual forehead, high and broad, with furrows of thought showing plainly on it.

The Professor's Robe

As a rule professors wear black robes when they wear any, but our nutshell professor wears white because it is more becoming to his dark complexion, and because it is more effective and draws attention to him.

To make the robe, fold an oblong piece of white paper into a square, which makes the square double. The edges should measure about four inches. If you have a large white envelope cut off one end to make it square and use that. Fold the square diagonally across from point to point, as is shown by the dotted line in Fig. 141. Now turn back first one side point, then the other side point, and make them meet over the first fold to form a fanlike pleat, wider at the bottom than at the top. The dotted lines on either side of the middle one in Fig. 141 show where the folds should come. The middle fold is bent out, or toward you; the side folds are bent in, or away from you. The side points now extending toward you are the wide, flowing sleeves of the professor's gown.

Take the robe in your hand at the bottom point, holding it from the back, and on the top point hang the professor's nutshell head (Fig. 140).

While the head balances quite securely on the point, you can make it wag from side to side, make it shake and tremble when the professor grows very earnest in his discourse, and make the chin thrust itself forward when he is emphatic. You do all this merely by shaking and tipping the paper robe. He is an amusing little lecturer, this English-walnut shell professor, and seems very much alive.

English-Walnut Shell Mouse

It is a far cry from a lecturer to a little mouse, yet one English-walnut shell will make both, half a shell for each.

This is a nice, cosey-looking little mouse who crouches down comfortably and does not show his legs (Fig. 142).

The point of the shell is the nose of the mouse; above it make two round, black eyes and then paste on two brown-paper ears. Cut the ears like Fig. 143, bend back the little stems at the bottom, put a touch of paste on each stem and stick the ears to the mouse's head in the position shown in Fig. 142. Cut a piece of string about three inches long for the tail and paste one end of it on the inside edge of the shell at the large end.

If you make three of these mice and glue them to a piece of cardboard they will look very cunning. Or you can glue one mouse to a small card and use it for the top of a Christmas pen-wiper.

English-Walnut Shell Thimble-Box

A pretty way to give a small present at Christmas or on a birthday is to put it into an English-walnut shell box. A thimble fits in the box beautifully (see Fig. 144).

Open the shell of an English walnut in the way described (Fig. 139). Cut away the inside partitions and, with jeweller's cotton, make a soft little bed in one-half of the shell. Press down the cotton in the middle to make a hollow, and in this hollow fit the new thimble. Put a layer of cotton over the top of the thimble and tuck in the edges. The way to close the box is to cover the edges of the other half-shell with glue and then fit it on the half that holds the thimble, just as it was before you opened it.

Now you have a whole nut again, but the meat inside is very different from that which you took out. You can gild the nutshell after the glue has hardened or leave it as it is. Its own brown color is pretty enough. In either case you must have a piece of narrow ribbon to tie around the box and form a loop by which to hang it (Fig. 145).

Pass the ribbon under the small end of the nutshell, then bring it up and tie it securely at the top of the large end. The ribbon should not be over the seam but should pass across the middle of each half-shell. It will then hold the two parts together and keep the glue from loosening. After the ribbon is tied at the top of the nut, make a long loop above it and tie again in a bow-knot.

_PART VI_

VEGETABLES