CHAPTER XIV

A PEANUT NOAH'S ARK

Changing one thing into another is always interesting, and the most charming part of a Peanut Noah’s Ark is that you can transform these ground-nuts into any and every kind of wild creature. At your command they will come trooping from all parts of the tangled jungle, the elephants leading and tigers, lions, bears, wolves, kangaroos, giraffes, and others following. Ever so many insects, too-the curious peanut spider, actually as large as one of those mammoth Southern tarantulas which often travel North on bunches of bananas, and the enormous hard-shelled hornet, whose sting will not hurt half as badly as its smaller cousins who are alive and whose nests are large and round, dark gray in color and appear as if made of paper. In addition to these you can have beetles of different kinds, grasshoppers, and various sorts of moths.

With the help of bits of paper and some wooden toothpicks the ground-nuts may be transformed into

=Denizens of Earth, Air, and Water.=

First we will catch the terrible hornet, but to get him you must select a peanut as near like Fig. 312 as you can find. This is for the thorax or chest; choose a longer nut, resembling Fig. 313, for the abdomen or body. Take six common wooden toothpicks for the legs (Fig. 314), and bend each stick until it fractures near the centre without breaking (Fig. 315). For the waist use a short piece of toothpick (Fig. 316). For the sting take a pin (Fig. 317). To insert the sting in the body make a small hole on the lower side and thrust in the pin so that the point will project from the tail; push the head of the pin into the nut until it is out of sight, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 317, 2A. This diagram gives the point of the pin as it stands out from the nut. Join the chest and body by thrusting one end of Fig. 316 into Fig. 312 and the other end into Fig. 313, leaving a small length of Fig. 316 exposed to represent the slender waist of the hornet, as shown in Fig. 318. This done, put three legs on each side of the insect by forcing the toothpicks into the thorax or chest peanut (Fig. 318).

Now we have a huge ant, and as ants are practically wingless hornets, some of them even having stings like the bee tribe, it is only necessary to add a pair of wings to complete the terrible peanut hornet. If you have any tracing-paper or the waxed paper from a candy-box, the semi-transparent material will form wonderfully natural wings; but any kind of paper will make

=A Pair of Good Wings.=

With a pencil draw the pattern (Fig. 319) upon a bit of paper, fold at the dotted line and you will have Fig. 320. With the scissors cut around the outline through both leaves of the folded paper; the result will be Fig. 321, the two wings joined together. Paste them on the back of the thorax, and you will have Fig. 322. To make it look still more lifelike, ink stripes across its back and head, and stick in the front of the head two fine, small black pins for the antennæ. To prove that this is a live hornet, let anyone who doubts the fact press the end of his finger on the point of the sting and he will be satisfied. Should he still claim that the thing is not alive, dip your finger in a glass of water and allow a drop of the fluid to fall on each joint of the legs where the wood is fractured; the swelling of the wet wood will cause the legs to move in a manner sufficiently lifelike to satisfy the most critical.

It is not commonly known that

=Spiders Are Good to Eat,=

but the newly discovered specimen known as the _Peanuticus spiderencus_ is one which the most dainty little girl may eat without feeling at all nervous as to consequences. Spiders differ in many respects from true insects, but we need only observe the most obvious points of divergence.

Fig. 323.

Fig. 324.

First, they have no waist; that is, their body is jammed upon their thorax (Fig. 323). Next, their heads are driven into their shoulders, so to speak, so that they not only have no neck, but there is not even a line to indicate where the head ends and the thorax or chest begins.

From the quart of peanuts select one which looks most like Fig. 323. Spiders have more legs than beetles or wasps. Garden spiders have eight well-defined legs, and our _Peanuticus_ belongs to the garden spider family. Therefore, take eight toothpicks and, bending them as before described, make eight legs. Push two legs into each side of the large part of the nut—the abdomen—inclining them backward, and two more into each side of the small part of the nut—the thorax—slanting them forward, as in Fig. 324. Make the antennæ of two black pins, bent according to Fig. 325; push the pins well into the head of the spider (Fig. 324). If you thread a fine piece of black elastic through the spider’s back, allowing a length of about a half yard, and weight the body by fastening a little flattened piece of lead or a small stone on the under part with melted sealing-wax, the _Peanuticus_ can be made to dance up and down in the air like a natural spider running on its web. The black elastic will not be noticeable. Tie the end of the elastic on a stick; then you can hold it out from you and have a better view of the curious creature.

Pick up another peanut and see what it suggests. Imagine it with long ears. What would it look like?

=A Rabbit, of Course.=

Cut two ears from white paper and a tail from the same paper; paste one ear on each side of Bunny’s head and fasten the little stumpy tail in place. Then stick two short pieces of toothpicks in the nut for the front legs; bend the back legs at the centre and push the upright part into position so that the lower horizontal portion will be bent forward and rest on the ground. Ink round spots for eyes and a line partially across the front for the mouth.

=Camels=

are curious creatures, always carrying a little mountain on their backs, and chewing as if they had an inexhaustible supply of chewing-gum tucked away in some invisible pocket. Think of the mountain’s back when selecting a [Illustration: Fig. 326.] [Illustration: Fig. 327.] peanut for this animal and find one with a high hump. Cut the head and neck (Fig. 326) of stiff paper or card-board; ink the eyes and mouth, and slide the head into a slit cut in the nut. Make the tail of heavy black thread or darning-cotton and fasten it on by simply sewing the thread in the nut. Tassel out the end. For the two hind and one of the front legs use three stiff, straight toothpicks; bend the other toothpick for the front left leg so that the camel will appear to be walking. The little animal will stand on three legs, holding the fourth up, as in Fig. 327.

Find a nut shaped something like

=A Little Chicken,=

with part of it inclining upward for the head. Stick two short, bent toothpicks in for feet; if properly adjusted the chick rests on them. Cut paper wings and paste one on each side of the chicken. Make the beak also of paper and insert it in the front of the head. The eyes can be marked with ink.

When among the jungle folks, off in the tangled wild woods,

=The Elephant=

grows to an immense size, but things are very different in Peanut Land. There the big-eared creature is a wee thing not much larger than the chicken you have just made. [Illustration: Fig. 328. Fig. 329.] [Illustration: Fig. 330. Fig. 331.] It is a veritable midget of an elephant and not at all dangerous. Look over all your nuts and choose the one most closely resembling the body and head of an elephant; then make two pasteboard front legs like Fig. 328, and two more like Fig. [Illustration: Fig. 332.] 329 for the hind legs. Cut two ears (Fig. 330) and a trunk (Fig. 331). The tail should be comparatively slender and a trifle bushy at the end. Paste ears, tail, and trunk in their proper places and cut four slits in the lower part of the nut for the four legs, which you may then slide into place (Fig. 332). The tusks are two toothpicks stuck into the lower part of the head. By the diagrams it may be plainly seen just how the work is done.

=The Owl=

is fashioned from a nut without the joint-like extension. Ink the eyes, beak, and wings, and with heavy thread or darning-cotton sew the wise bird to a twig or toothpick. Divide the stitches forming each foot into two portions or two toes, as a real owl shows only two when in the same position (Fig. 333).

In the queer Peanut Land

=Storks=

hold an important position. They are very proud and carry their heads high as they stand perched upon their long stilt-like legs. Their Holland relatives delight in [Illustration: Fig. 334.] [Illustration: Fig. 335.]

building nests on the tops of chimneys, and it is always considered a sign of good luck for the occupants of the house when Mr. and Mrs. Stork favor them with their presence. Your stork will not have to remain on the outside of the house, because, not being as large as the others of his family, you can find room for him in almost any place. Make the bird’s body of the most common-shaped peanut, his legs of two stiff wooden toothpicks, and his head (Fig. 334) of stiff paper. Mark eyes on the head and put the different parts of the bird together. He will stand up straight if you punch his feet into a piece of patented paper used in packing bottles (Fig. 335). If you have no such paper, use anything you can find that will answer the purpose.

=Lobsters=

which will not pinch also live in Peanut Land. They have eight bent toothpick legs, a tail of paper (Fig. 336), and [Illustration: Fig. 336.] [Illustration: Fig. 337.] paper claws (Fig. 337). The antennæ are toothpicks. Real lobsters have one front claw larger than the other, but on peanut lobsters these are of the same size. When you have made the lobster (Fig. 338) you might boil him by dipping the funny little thing in red ink, for lobsters are always red after being boiled.

All these animals need a

=Noah=

to keep them in order in the Ark. Make Noah entirely of peanuts; a small one for the head, a large one for the body, two for the arms, two for each leg, and two small nuts for the feet. String the nuts together with strong, coarse thread. Make the hair of a number of strands of black thread tied together in the centre. Pin this wig on the peanut head, part the hair and spread it out to meet in the back and gum it in place. Mark the face with ink and dress the doll with loose trousers and loose sack coat. Cut the hat of common wrapping-paper. First make the brim of a circular piece of paper, with a round hole in the middle; then the crown of a strip of paper slashed on each side. Fasten the ends of this together, turn out the slashes on one side and slide the brim over the crown down on the turned-out slashed portion. Paste it on tight. Next turn in the slashes on the top edge of the crown, fit a disk of paper over them as you would put a lid on a pan, and gum the top of the crown in place. You will find Mr. Noah rather loose-jointed, but that does not matter; he is better so, for he is not too stiff to run about and attend to his collection of animals. Make Mrs. Noah of peanuts as you did Noah, and dress her in bright colors with a gay little hat fastened firmly on her head.

=The Ark=

may be an ordinary pasteboard box, with a gabled roof pasted on the lid. Take a box like that shown in Fig. 339, bend a piece of stiff paper (Fig. 340), paste the sides of Fig. 340 on the lid (Fig. 341), and over the two open ends gum triangular paper cut as in Fig. 342. Paint windows and a door on the sides of the Ark; then paste the Ark on a piece of another larger box-lid cut like Fig. 343. Put Noah and his wife in the box with all the animals, and tie a string through a hole pierced in the front of the stand of the Ark, so that the Ark with its entire cargo of peanut animals may be dragged from one place to another (Fig. 344).

Noah’s Ark and all its animals has ever had a great attraction for young folks, and it is not an uncommon sight to see baby grab Noah, Mrs. Noah, or some of the gorgeously painted animals, and put the [Illustration: Fig. 343.] toy in its mouth. Many of the colors used in painting the shop toys contain poison, but the present Mr. and Mrs. Noah and all the zoölogical collection described in this article are healthy, wholesome food. So when you tire of playing with them you may eat them, with no danger of ill consequences. [Illustration: Fig. 344.] Just think! Elephant and camel for first course, stork and lobster second, and dessert of spiders, wasps, and small birds. What a novel bill of fare! One little girl may eat a couple of elephants, several giraffes, a rhinoceros or two, and still have a good appetite for her regular dinner.

Should you think of some favorite animal not here described, which would be an addition to your collection, put your wits to work and hunt up a peanut suitable for the purpose; then find a photograph or printed picture of the animal, that you may be sure to have it as perfect as the materials will allow. In this way almost

=Any Animal, Fish, or Insect Can be Made,=

for after working out the given examples you will have gained sufficient knowledge of the governing principles of the work and enough skill to enable you to continue the manufacturing of peanut toys alone or with the help of other girls and boys.

=Different Lines of Objects=

can also be formed from the nut. Break open one with only a slight indenture at the centre and make the two halves into fairylike little sailing vessels by the addition of a sail and mast cut all in one from white writing-paper, and gummed to the bottom of the boat near the large end. It requires but a moment to make these tiny crafts, and they will sail across a basin of water as if they were in reality large affairs on the salt sea, their white wings gleaming out in the most charming manner. Stir the water slightly with a stick and see how the boats dance; blow gently on the sails and off the two will race for the opposite side of the basin. If you are near any small stream or pond you may launch your tiny boat and watch it bravely breast the little ripples.