Part 3

About an inch and a half from either end of your box, mark a door space four inches high and two inches wide. Use a pencil and ruler for the work, so that it will be even. Half-way between the door spaces you have drawn, mark off an oblong window space two inches high and three inches wide. Now, you can take your scissors and cut the doors in the box. (To cut doors, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.) Cut the top line of each door space. Cut the bottom line also. The doors must open toward each other, so cut each door space down the side next to the window space. Push each little door inward.

Next, cut out the window space. Cut it around on all four sides, and keep to the line you have drawn with pencil. (To cut window, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.) When you have finished this, take a piece of the waxed paper you have and paste it inside the station building over the window space to make window-glass. The waxed paper should be cut a bit longer and wider than the opening of the window. You can measure it by the cardboard piece you cut from the box.

If you wish, you may color the doors of your station building green or brown. Use whatever colors you have, but if you use your water-colors, keep the work as dry as you can. If you do not, the doors will not be straight. They will curl.

Place two shoe-box covers end to end upon the floor or table, for you can put the building upon them now. See, it is placed far back, so that there will be a platform in front. Place the building at the left of the platform made of the shoe-box covers.

The third shoe-box cover is the roof of the station building, and you must fit it down over the station. If you wish to have a roof over your station platform, you will need the fourth shoe-box cover to make this. To secure it in place, just cut two end corners on the box rim as far as the top of the cover. Then, turn this end rim upward and slip it under the right-hand rim of the cover which forms the roof of the station building itself. You will need two pillars at the right-hand end of your platform to keep the long roof up. These pillars are long lead-pencils. Press the point of a pencil down through each right-hand top corner of the long station platform’s top, and secure the points below by running them into standards made of spools. The pencil point will be firm when run into the upper hole of a standing spool, and when both pillars are so fixed, the roof will be quite firm. (See Diagram Three, _G_, page 172.)

Next, make a signboard for your station, and glue it to the roof.

You will need to have a bench or two and a ticket office in your station building. A little doll can be placed in the ticket office. If you look at the picture of my Boxville Station, you will see a lady buying her ticket of the ticket agent.

The ticket booth is the lower half of a box that is about four inches wide and an inch or so deep. You will need to stand it on its rim and cut a window in the part of the box that is the front of the ticket office. You do this just as you cut the window for your station, only you must make the ticket-booth window smaller. Draw the outline of the window first with help of pencil and ruler. Then cut it out. To cut window, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.) When window is cut, paste some waxed paper over the window opening on the inside of the box. Cut a round opening in this, near the bottom. The ticket agent will need this, you see. Now, the ticket booth is finished! Place it between the doors where it should go.

You will need a bench at either end of the station waiting-room. Cut these from covers of two boxes three inches long. (For cutting benches, see Diagram Three, _AA_, page 176.) With pencil or pin-point mark a dot at the center of each short end rim of the covers, and cut through each rim thus marked till you have reached the top of the cover. Half of each division so made will be the high back of the bench. Half will form the seat and legs. Cut legs in the rim of one end. Leave the corners at the front of the bench and remove the cardboard that is between them, making your cutting to the right and left of each front corner. Then cut the rear legs in both side rims. Bend the other half of each box upward. This is to be the high back. Cut off the little pieces of cardboard that are left on the narrow end rims. Bend what is left of the cover’s rim upward to make the rest of the high back for each bench. Color the benches black or brown.

Toot-too! Don’t you hear the whistle of the toy train? The baggage, that is made up of boxes, is waiting on the station platform, and the little dolls are ready to start on their travels.

Miss Doll is waiting on the station platform. She has just purchased her return ticket to Boxtown.

Boxtown is the next stop. Everybody goes there on Circus Day—Mr. Doll, Mr. Mulligan, Mr. Swartzenheimer, Polly Ann, Susan Smith, _all_ the Noahs! The station platform is crowded!

When all the sky is dark with storm, Then with my train I play. I build a Boxville Station, And I stay indoors all day.

It is always pleasant weather When you’re happy as can be; And when I’m playing Boxville, There’s no storm that _I_ can see!

B. R. R. FREIGHT STATION AND SHOE-BOX TUNNEL

=Material Required to Make a Boxville Freight Station=: one shoe-box cover, one shallow cover of a box about eight or nine inches long and seven or eight inches wide, and the lower half of a deep box about six inches long and four or five inches wide.

=Material Required to Make a Dark Tunnel for B. V. R. R.=: the lower half of an ordinary shoe-box.

After you have built your Boxville Railway Station, I am sure you will like to build a Freight Station for your railway system. You will have so much freight to go from Boxville! There is no end to the little boxes! It will take you about five minutes, or less, to build the freight station. It is so simple that you can almost see how from looking at the picture. The shoe-box cover is the platform. The lower half of the deep box you have is turned upside-down and placed upon the left end of the shoe-box cover. A double door is outlined with pencil at one end of this box. (See Diagram Two, _B_, page 167, for double door.) Mark a square three inches wide on the end of the box where the door should come. Draw down the center of this from top line to lower line. This gives the two divisions of the door. Cut the top line of the door space. Cut down the center line of it and across the lower line. Bend the two doors of the doorway outward. Color them, if you like.

To make the square flat roof, take the box cover and place it down over the freight building at the top. That is an easy way to make a roof, isn’t it? And now that the freight office is made, I am sure you will agree that it is a very fine one indeed. Isn’t it fun to build your own?

Do you want to have me tell you how to make a tunnel too? It will be fine to have one for your railway system. To make one you will need a box—almost any that is deep, like a shoe-box, will answer.

How high is the smoke-stack of your train? Two inches? Well, how high is it from the ground? Five? Then, the holes made for the tunnel opening in either end of the box will need to be higher still by an inch or a half-inch. (For cutting a tunnel, see Diagram Four, _B_, page 173.) Turn your box over. The lower half is the only part you will need to use, so put aside the cover. In either end of the box cut out a round opening large enough for your toy train to pass through at a sixty-miles-a-minute rate. There is your tunnel!

If you have any crape paper, you can cover the sides and top of your box so that it will look like a big square hill. The ends of the box should be painted with black paint to look like stone masonry.

Let’s see how well your train goes through the tunnel—toot-too! Here it goes! Isn’t that the nicest toy you ever saw?

Little bits of boxes make a pile of freight For my Boxville Railway. It is simply _great_! Just a cardboard shoe-box makes a tunnel too— Very black an’ _spooky_ when my train goes through!

HOTEL BANDBOX AND HOW TO FURNISH IT

=Material Required to Make a Hotel Bandbox=: one large bandbox with its cover, the cover of another square bandbox that is larger. These make the building and its roof. A shallow box cover will make the roof over the front door. Two long pencils are pillars. The hotel is furnished with furniture cut from small boxes. Spools, lace-paper, pinwheel paper, bits of wall-paper, and the glacine paper covers from books may all be used.

Did you ever before hear of a dolls’ hotel? If you look at the picture of Hotel Bandbox, you will see one that may be made from a square hat-box. Its porch is a large hat-box cover. The building is a hat-box, smaller than this cover. The roof of the hotel is the cover of the hat-box itself.

Windows and front door are cut in the rims of the bandbox.

In starting to make a hotel, begin by marking off windows. Each window must be two inches wide and three inches high. It will help you to place windows evenly if you mark a horizontal line around three sides of your bandbox about three inches from the top of the box. Use a ruler, and make all marks as light as possible. They are only intended to guide you, and must be rubbed out after you have cut out the window spaces.

Below the line you have drawn, make another, three inches farther down the sides of the box. This line forms the base of windows.

Next, make the windows that come nearest each corner of the box. Measure two inches from each corner. This gives the right spacing from the corner. Measure two inches more on your horizontal line at the top of the building, and this will give the width of a window. Make the end windows first. Then make the ones that come between. Space evenly, so that windows may come at regular intervals. Cut out each window on all four sides. (For cutting a window, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.) Arrange your lower story windows as you have the upper ones.

At the center upon the front of your building outline a large double door four inches square. It should come at the very base of bandbox. (To cut double door, see Diagram Two, _B_, page 167.) Cut its top line. Cut its base line. Cut the cardboard between these two lines in half vertically to make the door.

When windows and door are made, then you may paste some three-inch squares of glacine paper back of each window inside the box. The window-glass is made this way. If you like, you may leave some windows open.

The building is ready, now, to stand upon the larger bandbox cover. As you see, this makes a porch.

Place the smaller bandbox cover over the upper part of your hat-box to make a flat roof.

Over the front door you may make a flat roof. (See Diagram Three, _G_, page 172.) Use for it a narrow box cover. Glue one long rim of this cover to the cardboard over your doorway. Press a pencil point downward through each forward corner of the cover to make a pillar. The pencil points may be secured in the holes of two spools and thus keep the roof upright. If you wish, you may glue the spools where they should go.

Cut a narrow strip of cardboard and write the name of your hotel upon it. Glue this over the doorway.

Flower-stands for the hotel veranda are simple things to make. One spool will be needed for each flower-stand. Press the stems of some artificial flowers into the hole of the spool. If you have gilt paint, you can gild the stands. I painted mine with black water-color paint.

Penny dolls make guests for the hotel. They come already dressed, but you can take one or two of yours and dress them like men dolls. I inked mine. You can see them in the picture.

How are you going to play _inside_ the hotel? If you look at the second picture of the hotel, you will see that it is the back of the box, and that each corner at the back of the box has been cut. When this is done, the back lets down. You can cut your hotel building this way. As you see, it may be closed up again, when you are not playing inside.

Partitions for downstairs rooms are made with two shoe-boxes—just their lower half is used. Cut the ends off each box. Place each lengthwise inside the hotel so that there is a space between them. This space forms the hotel hallway.

Cut a piece of cardboard to fit into your box and put it over the top of these two shoe-boxes. It forms the floor for the second-story rooms. Another shoe-box—or two, if you prefer—makes partitions for second-story rooms.

Doors may be cut in these partitions. (For cutting a single door space, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.)

Samples of wall-paper make good carpet for the hotel. You may cut it into squares to make rugs.

Window curtains may be made from tissue-paper or lace-paper.

The furniture, itself, is cut from very small boxes. Tables are made with spools.

The lower half of a small oblong box may be cut to form a chair by removing its rim, half-way around—beginning to cut the rim at the center of one long side of the box. The part from which the rim is removed is the back of the chair. Press its cardboard upward. The part that has the rim left upon it is the seat of the chair, and legs are cut at its two front corners and in each side at the rear. (See Diagram Six, _C_, page 177, for making a chair.)

Place a pill-box over an upright spool to make a table. Round pill-boxes make round tables. Square boxes make square tables. (See Diagram Six, _DD_, page 178.)

An oblong pill-box rested on its side will form a doll’s bureau. Mark off the drawers upon its front, and glue a strip of cardboard, upright, at its rear. Paint a mirror frame on the strip of cardboard.

Beds for the hotel chambers may be made of small oblong boxes and their covers. To make the upper part of the bed, cut off the long rims on each side of the cover. This leaves headboard and footboard to be glued to the lower half of the box when this has been turned over to rest upon its rims. At each corner of the lower half of the box, cut a leg for the bed to stand upon. Remove the cardboard from between each. (To cut bed, see Diagram Six, _AA_, page 175.)

Little dolls touring through Hat-box County stop at the hotel overnight. Drummer dolls, on their business trips to Boxville General Store, find comfortable accommodations at Bandbox Hotel too. As soon as the toy train stops at Boxville Station, you may see them making a bee-line for the hotel.

There are splendid accommodations at Hotel Bandbox. The meals are always good. You only need to pretend what the dolls want and then give it to them. Some want their steak well done and are _very_ particular about it, but the waiter _always_ does right and everybody is _always_ satisfied. After dinner the guests take a walk over to Mirror Lake and watch the man who is fishing on the bridge there. Or else, perhaps, they sit on the hotel piazza and watch the people come to the Village square to get water at the town pump.

Hurry, hurry with the scissors! Bring the glue-pot or some paste: We must make a Hotel Bandbox, The proprietor’s in haste!

Touring through the Boxland Country, Penny dolls may wish to stay In this splendid Hotel Bandbox That we’re building here to-day!

THE SHOE-BOX APARTMENT HOUSE

=Material Required to Make a Shoe-box Apartment House=: one shoe-box with the whole of its cover, one small box about two inches long, and small boxes and spools for furnishing the apartment house.

You may make a whole row of apartment houses. They are shoe-boxes that are placed to stand on end. Windows are drawn upon the fronts of the boxes as they stand. Each apartment house must have a porch and front door as well.

Would you like to erect an apartment house? Find a shoe-box, then.

Take its cover off. Stand your box on end with the opening at back. Let the bottom of the box face you. Mark off upon it three window spaces, each With its base five inches from the top of your box. See that end windows are equally distant from the sides of your box. Make each window two inches high and one inch wide.

Arrange second-story windows evenly between top and base of your box, and place below them the first-story window. Leave a place for a door just above the base of your box at the left, as the picture of Shoe-box Apartment will show you. Make the door a little larger than your window spaces—about three inches high and two inches wide. Next to it, draw a Window space for the first-floor window.

The windows may be cut out, if you like. (For windows, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.) Cut out the squares you have drawn on top, side lines, and base. Back of each window opening, paste a bit of waxed sandwich paper to form glass. Outline on the front of the box around the windows, the window-sashes. Use black ink or water-color paints to do this work. Paste tissue- or lace-paper curtains over the waxed paper inside the apartment house to make the windows trim.

Cut the door of the apartment house out. (For door, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.) Cut the top line, down the side next to the window, and across the base line.

The porch roof is half of a small box glued over the doorway. The porch itself is the half of a box glued below the doorway.

Now, put the finishing touch to the building by adding a flat roof. Take the cover of your shoe-box. Cut off all its rims except at one end, a third of the way around. This end is the roof. Cut it off with rims and fit it down over the building. Paste it in place.

The floors of the apartment are made by pasting the rest of the cover into the inside of the box, horizontally. Cut the remaining part of the cover in half. Fit each section into the box where the floors should be. Glue the edges that are fitted into the box. Let them dry thoroughly. Then, you may furnish the interior with boxcraft furniture such as is used in arranging Hotel Bandbox.

Penny dolls and Noah’s Ark ladies will surely take up light housekeeping there, if their husbands approve. In the picture, you will see the janitor, Mr. Jinks. The Noah’s Ark ladies have come to look at the rooms.

There is a fine apartment “To Let” in Shoe-box Flat— But those who wish to rent it may not own a dog or cat! When Mrs. Noah came there, the Janitor said, “No! We cannot take your animals! We cannot have you—_go_!”

A BOXVILLE RESIDENCE

=Material Required for Making a Boxville Residence=: a deep, square letter-paper box with its cover, the cover of a flat letter-paper box about ten inches long, the cover of a drawer-like pill-box, some glacine or waxed paper, some artificial flowers, lace-paper cut from candy boxes, and some box rims.

See what a darling little house I have made for a Boxville Residence! The husband of Mrs. Doll, who owns the house, goes in his motor car to Boxville Station every morning. He commutes to Boxtown. You can see Mrs. Doll and her sister in the picture. Mr. Doll has gone to Boxtown, but in the picture of the garage that goes with the Boxville Residence you will see Mr. Doll’s motor and the chauffeur. Don’t you think it would be fun to make a Boxville Residence like mine? I will tell you how to do it.

First, of course, you will have to hunt for a deep, square letter-paper box, and the other materials that are needed to use in building. When you have found your box, turn it over so that it stands upside-down. Take off the cover. That will be the roof, but you are not ready yet to put the roof on to the building.

Upon two opposite sides of the box, mark off two window spaces. (For windows, see Diagram One _AA_, page 166.) Each window space measured off, with help of ruler and pencil, must be an inch and a half square. Have the bases of the windows, as well as their tops, made a uniform distance from the base of the box building. Each window should be an equal distance from the corner of the box nearest it.

When the two sides of the box are marked out with window spaces, you can begin upon the front of the house. Draw a door space about four inches high and two inches broad, and let it come an inch from the right-hand side of the box building that faces you. (For front door, see Diagram Two _C_, page 167.) Let the base of your door space come on the very outer rim of the front of the box. When you have outlined the door, draw a square in its upper part to indicate where the plate-glass window is to be in the door. Cut the top line of your door and down its right side. Then cut out the square you made for the window in it. There, the door will open and close, you see, when you bend it on the side where the hinge should be! Waxed paper pasted in a square under the window opening will make the glass window. Lace-paper makes curtains. A round-headed paper-fastener with its prongs pushed through the cardboard door and bent to one side will make a door-knob with a latch. By turning the knob you can open or fasten the front door tight.

After the door is finished, draw a window space half-way between the door and the corner of the building on the front of the house. Now, you can begin to cut out all the windows. Cut each one evenly, and paste a square of waxed paper or glacine paper back of each, inside the box, to make window-glass. You can outline the window-frames on the outside, using black ink or paint.

Doesn’t the box begin to look like a real house? Yes! But it has no roof yet! Where is the cover of your box? Slip it down over the building. There you are! The cover of a small drawer-like pill-box will make a fine chimney. Glue it on end to the top of the roof at the center.

Where is the flat letter-box cover? That is to be the porch. Place it on the floor or table, and then brush the rims of the box that is your Boxville Residence with paste or glue so that it will stand well back upon this veranda. Be careful not to have any paste under the door. See, there is the front porch. The veranda railing is just a box rim cut from a box and pasted to the edge of the veranda on the cover of the letter-paper box.

If you wish to have a step up to the front porch, a small box or its cover will make this.