letter two, each package six. The Special Delivery letters are worth ten

points each, and the person who is so unfortunate as to have the letter with "D.L.O." upon it loses ten points from his score.

_Flying Rings_

=Materials Required:= A flour-barrel top, 3/4 yard of yellow cheesecloth, 5 large wire nails, 3 lengths of No. 4 rattan, A bunch of red raffia, A bunch of green raffia, A bunch of yellow raffia, A tapestry needle, Some small tacks, A hammer, A tube of glue, A sheet of note paper.

Boys and girls will enjoy this game, and both can help in making it. The materials are simple and easily obtained, which is also an advantage. First of all we shall need a flour-barrel top. This should be covered with yellow cheesecloth drawn smooth and tight and tacked in place along the outer edge. Measure with a rule to find the exact centre and make a pencil mark on the cheesecloth at that point. Another mark is made above this one, half way between it and the edge. A third mark is placed at the right of the middle one and half way between it and the edge, as well as one to the left and one below it at the same distance from the centre. A large nail is driven into the barrel top at each of the five marks (see Fig. 4). Two screw eyes are then put in at the top, about a foot apart, so that it can be easily hung. Next draw on note paper that is not too stiff the figures 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50. Make them about an inch high and quite thick and go over them with ink. With a small pair of scissors cut out these numbers and paste each under a nail, as shown in Fig. 4.

Next there are the rings to be made. Follow the directions given on pages 6 and 7, using No. 4 rattan instead of No. 6, and these rings should only be two and a half inches across. Make three rings of each colour, green, red and yellow, and the game is complete.

_To Play It_:

Hang the barrel top on the wall or against a screen and see who can throw the most rings on the nails standing six feet away. Each player has three rings of a different colour, and each in turn throws his rings at the mark. When he succeeds in tossing a ring on one of the nails he scores as many points as the number under the nail indicates.

_How to Make a Cork Castle_

=Materials Required:= A number of old corks, the larger the better, A tube of glue, A penknife, A piece of pasteboard a foot square, A sheet of dull green tissue paper.

Such fascinating castles can be made from old corks--or if you live near a cork factory you can get plenty of odds and ends of cork bark that will be even better for the purpose. With a penknife cut small bricks, half an inch long by quarter of an inch wide and an eighth of an inch thick. If you are planning a round tower, such as is shown in Fig. 5, make the bricks in the wedge shape shown in Fig. 6. Cut them as nearly alike as possible, but it will do no harm if they are not perfectly regular; the castle will only look more ancient and interesting. It is wonderful how much the bits of cork look like stone.

When you have a good supply of bricks ready you may begin to build. Use glue to stick the blocks together; the kind that comes in a tube is the easiest and cleanest to handle. Leave spaces for doors and windows, and for the roof use a large flat cork from a preserve jar. Mark it off into battlements such as are shown in Fig. 5, and cut them out carefully. Then glue the roof securely on the walls of the castle.

Where shall we place it now that it is made? A green mountain side is a good location for a castle, and it can be made quite easily. Bend a piece of pasteboard about a foot square (an old box cover will do) into dents that will almost break it, these look quite like hills and valleys and sharp crags, especially when they have been covered with green tissue paper. To do this spread a layer of paste or glue all over the pasteboard and then press the paper upon it. If it wrinkles, so much the better, for it will look more like grass and growing things.

_A Doll's Shaker Bonnet_

=Materials Required:= A piece of fine straw about 4 x 6 inches, Some scraps of plain-coloured china silk, 1/2 yard of straw-coloured ribbon, 1/4 of an inch wide, 1/2 yard of narrow ribbon the colour of the china silk, A spool of straw-coloured sewing silk.

The daintiest little Shaker bonnet may be easily made by a little girl to fit one of her dolls. From the brim of an old leghorn, or other fine straw hat, cut two pieces, the shapes shown in Figs. 7 and 8. For a doll six or eight inches long the front piece will need to be about five inches long by an inch and a half wide. Bind the curved edge of the front piece with the straw-coloured ribbon, sewing it through and through with small stitches, using straw-coloured sewing silk. Sew one edge of a piece of the straw-coloured ribbon close to the curved edge of the back piece from A to AA (see Fig. 8). Mark, with a pencil, a dot at the middle of the curved edge of the back portion and one at the middle of the straight edge of the front part. Pin the two parts together at these dots and sew the edges together. In doing this you will have to turn back the ribbon which edges the back portion. Next bring the ribbon forward to cover the rough edges of the straw where the two parts join and sew its loose edge along on the front portion. Cut a piece of China silk seven and three-quarters inches long by an inch and three-quarters wide. Make a narrow hem all around it. A tiny pencil mark is then made on the lower edge of the back piece and another at the middle of the silk strip. Gather the silk just below the hem on the upper edge and sew it to the lower edge of the bonnet at the back. Stitch a piece of narrow ribbon eight inches long at each side of the front, for strings, and the bonnet is done.

_Leather and String Puzzle_

=Materials Required:= A strip of thick leather, 7 inches long by 2 wide, A piece of heavy linen string a foot long, A knife.

With a sharp knife, a small strip of leather and a bit of strong string any boy can make this simple puzzle. It is easier to make, however, than it is to do, as the boy's friends will discover. Fig. 9 will show how it is made. A strip of leather five and a half inches long, an inch and a quarter wide at one end and five-eighths of an inch at the other, is first cut. Then, starting at about five-eighths of an inch from the narrow end, cut with a sharp knife two slits down the middle of the piece three-eighths of an inch apart and three inches long. At three-eighths of an inch from the wide end a small piece, one-quarter of an inch square, is cut out of the middle of the strip (see Fig. 9). From the scraps of leather remaining cut two pieces, each one inch long by five-eighths of an inch wide. Make a hole in the middle of each. Then pass a piece of stout linen cord eleven inches long back of the long, open strip in the large piece of leather, leaving the ends of equal length. Pass both ends down through the square hole and tie each of them securely through the hole in the middle of one of the small pieces of leather. This completes it.

The object is to try to get the string, with the small piece of leather at either end, off the large piece of leather without cutting or untying it. The only way to do this is shown in Fig. 10. Holding both ends of the string, close to where it passes back of the narrow strip in the middle of the large piece of leather, pull the strip out through the small square hole. One of the small pieces of leather can then be slipped through the loop thus formed, releasing the string.

_A Bed for a Little Doll_

=Materials Required:= An oblong pasteboard box an inch or more longer than the doll it is to hold, 1/2 yard of flowered or striped muslin, 1/4 yard of blue and white seersucker or other cotton, Some cotton or wool wadding, 1/2 yard of thin white cotton cloth, 1/4 yard of outing flannel, 1/4 yard of white piqué.

Almost any little girl who chooses to do so can make this dainty bed for one of her small dolls. She will only need an oblong pasteboard box with a cover, and large enough to hold the doll comfortably. If mamma will let her have some pieces of cotton, flowered, striped and plain and a little cotton or wool wadding, she will have all the materials she needs.

First cut from blue and white striped cotton a bag the length and width of the box. Stitch it neatly together around three sides, turn it right side out and fill it with cotton or wool wadding. Turn in the edges on the fourth side and sew them together over and over. With a darning needle threaded with blue cotton or silk the mattress can be tufted here and there. The needle is first run through to the under side, then one little stitch is taken, bringing the thread back again to the right side, where the two ends are tied tightly together and cut close to the knot. If these tufts are made at equal distances, say one inch apart, all over the mattress it will make it look very "real."

The pillow is made in the same way as the mattress, except that it is not tufted. Cut the sheets and pillowcase from thin white cotton, allowing enough for hems. Make the pillowcase a quarter of an inch wider and about an inch and a quarter longer than the pillow. Stitch it around both sides and on one end and hem the other end. Tiny blankets may be cut from outing flannel, and a spread made from a piece of white piqué or other thick white wash material. The bed can now be made up, but it will look very plain. A fluffy canopy and valance (or flounce) of flowered or striped white muslin will improve it wonderfully. The cover is set on end and the head of the bedstead is pressed into it (see Fig. 11), making a frame for the canopy. Measure from the front corner of this frame to the middle of the front and cut a piece of muslin half again as wide as this measurement and long enough to reach from the top of the frame to the bottom of the bed. Another piece the same size is cut, and then both are turned in and gathered at the top, hemmed on the other edges and sewed into place on the top edge of the canopy frame, so that the two will meet in the middle. They are both looped back against the front edge of the frame, see Fig. 11, and sewed there securely. The valance or flounce around the lower part of the bed is cut wide enough to allow for hemming at the bottom and to turn in at the top. It should be long enough to reach once and a half around the bed. Turn in the upper edge of the valance, gather it to fit the bed and pin it in position. Then sew it with a strong needle and coarse thread on to the box through and through. This makes as comfortable and pretty a bed as dolly could wish.

_Floor Baseball_

=Materials Required:= A piece of white chalk, A piece of sheet lead, 2 by 2 inches, and as thick as a fifty-cent piece, 3 or 4 strands of scarlet raffia, A tapestry needle, A gimlet.

This is a delightful game for a rainy day, and the preparations for it are very simple. In fact, when you have fashioned the disk of lead with a raffia covering, there is nothing to provide but a piece of chalk. You can buy, from almost any plumber or tinsmith, for a few cents, a scrap of sheet lead two or three inches square and about as thick as a half dollar. Upon this piece of lead lay a half dollar, draw around it with a pencil and cut out the circle with a sharp, strong pair of scissors. It cuts as easily as cardboard of the same thickness. Bore a hole one-quarter of an inch across through the centre of the disk with a gimlet or sharp-pointed awl. It is possible to use the disk just as it is, but it makes less noise if it is covered with raffia. To do this, thread a worsted (or tapestry) needle with raffia--the grass-like material that you have seen used for making baskets. Tie the other end of the raffia through the disk, as shown in Fig. 12 A, put the needle down through the hole in the centre, up through the loop in the raffia (see Fig. 12 B) and pull your strand up close to the edge. This will make a stitch like that shown in Fig. 12 C--what sailors call a half hitch and mothers a buttonhole stitch. Make more of these stitches around the disk, until finally it is entirely covered (see Fig. 13). If the strand of raffia gives out before the disk is covered sew the short end through the last two or three stitches on the edge of the disk and start a new piece by bringing the end through the last stitch on the edge. The short ends of both strands should be covered with the buttonhole stitches as you go on.

Now mark the diagram shown in Fig. 14 on the playroom floor with chalk, making the diamond two feet long by a foot and a half wide. In the centre of it is a circle, four inches across, which is home. Each player takes his turn at throwing the disk, standing on a line eight feet away. If he throws the disk into the space marked 1 he counts that he has a man on first base; if on 2, that he has one on second; and if on H, a home run is counted. If by chance with his first and second throws he puts the disk into 2 and 3 and with the third throw sends it into H he will have three runs to his credit. Should he throw the disk into F he loses one point from his score, and when he has thrown the disk outside the diamond three times he is out.

_A Rug for the Doll's House_

=Materials Required:= A small wooden frame, A piece of cream-coloured canvas, A ball of dull green worsted, A ball of cream white worsted, A steel crochet needle, No. 2.

Hooked rugs such as our grandmothers used to make are great fun to do. Why should not a little girl make one of finer materials for the floor of her doll's house? Either an empty slate frame or a wooden frame such as is sold by dealers in kindergarten supplies for chair caning will do very well to hold the canvas of which the rug is made. Instead of strips of woolen we shall use worsted of various colours, and a strong steel crochet needle will be needed for "hooking."

When you have decided upon the size of the rug you wish to make cut a piece of canvas an inch wider and longer than it is to be, and make a hem a quarter of an inch wide all around it. With a needleful of white linen thread sew the rug into the frame, taking the stitches through the edge of the canvas and around the frame until it is securely fastened in. Suppose a green rug is planned, with a group of white stripes at each end. It will be well to mark on the canvas where the stripes are to run before beginning the work. The worsted should be wound into balls.

Starting with an end of the green worsted, at the lower right side of the frame, hold it under the rug and hook it up through the canvas with the crochet needle. Draw up a long enough end so that it can be cut off when the rug is finished and leave a thick texture. Do not make all the loops the same height, for if now and then one is left too low to cut with the others it will make the rug wear better. One after another of these loops is drawn through the canvas, leaving two threads of canvas between every two loops, in a straight line across the rug. When the edge of the rug is reached a row is made above the one just finished, bringing the worsted from left to right. So it goes on till the rug is finished, only changing the ball of green worsted for a white one when it is time to make the stripes. After the hooking is done, the tops of the longer loops are cut off with a sharp pair of scissors, so as to make a smooth, soft rug. It will wear better if it is lined.

When you have completed this rug you may want to make others with patterns woven into them. Draw the pattern on the canvas with a soft lead pencil and it will be quite easy to work.

Basket Weaving