Part 4

My Boxville Residence has a garden. Mrs. Doll is very fond of gardens, and so is Mr. Doll also. I made the garden from a wreath of flowers that was on an old summer hat. I made an arbor. It was easy to make that. The arbor is cut from a candy box. It is just half the rim. I stood it up on its ends and trimmed it with the flowers. Of course, if you play out-of-doors with your Boxville Residence, you can have real flowers to play with. You can lay out walks with pebbles and gravel when you do not play in the house. I made a fountain or a pool for the garden from a hand-glass. At almost any penny store you can buy a little round mirror that will make a garden pool. You can make a sun-dial also. It is a spool with a pill-box placed over one end of it. You will have to mark off the face of the sun-dial with pencil.

Don’t you think that this makes a comfortable home for a Boxville resident? I do. I almost wish I were a little doll, so that I might open the front door and begin furnishing the inside of the house with box furniture and spools.

’Mid pleasures and palaces where’er you may roam, There is no place like Boxville for a little doll’s home! A charm from the fairies seems magic play there, Which, seek through the world, is ne’er met elsewhere.

THE BOXVILLE GARAGE OR STABLE

=Material Required to Make a Boxville Garage or Stable=: one deep letter-paper box with its cover.

Here is a toy garage. It belongs to the residence of Mr. Doll of Boxville. Would you like to make a garage like it?

The box you will need to use for making a garage must be deep and square. Place it upon the table standing upon its rims. Then, the bottom of the box will become the top of your building, and you may place the cover over this and glue it to make a flat roof.

Upon the front of your box, draw a large square four inches in size. Let the base of this square come upon the outer rim of the box. The square is to be the large double door of the garage. (To cut the door, see Diagram Two, _B_, page 167.) Cut the top line. Cut the base line. From top to base line cut another line dividing the doorway into halves to form the doors.

The doors will fold outward when you have finished cutting them. Paint them green, if you wish.

On each side of your box, you may draw a window with blinds. The window should be two inches square, and should be placed in the center of each side. Draw a line vertically from top to base of the window space to make the divisions for the blinds. This line should divide the window space evenly into halves. (To cut window with blinds, see Diagram One, _C_, page 166.) Cut across the top of each window you have marked out. Cut down its center line, and cut its base line. Press the cardboard outward against the sides of the little building to make blinds. Color the blinds to match the door.

There! The garage is finished. Wind up your toy automobile, and let us see how nicely it runs right through the doorway!

Here is Boxville Garage—just the very toy For an automobile owned by a small boy! Takes a half a second just to cut a door And two little windows. There is nothing more! Anyone can make it, for the garage here Is a box of cardboard. Isn’t it just _dear_!

MAKING A BOXVILLE GARDEN

=Material Required to Make a Greenhouse=: the half of some deep box from five to seven inches long and about five inches deep (the half of a box such as is usually to be found at a hardware store), about twelve square inches of cardboard from which to cut a roof, and a sheet of waxed sandwich paper.

=Material Required to Make a Pergola=: half of a ordinary white shoe-box, and a strip of cardboard about thirteen inches long and seven inches wide.

=Material Required to Make the Garden Itself=: artificial flowers, some spools for flower-stands, sand paper for roadway and gravel walks, a penny mirror for a sunken-garden pool, boxes for benches, green crape paper for grass, a long box to make a hedge, moss, pebbles, shells, and pretty twigs from out-of-doors.

It is such fun to play in a garden that I made one for Boxville. It belongs to Mr. Penny Doll’s residence. It has a pergola and a greenhouse, a sunken pool, flower-stands, gravel walks, benches, and everything that a garden _should_ have.

Green crape paper placed upon the floor will make the garden lawn. Sandpaper cut in strips and laid upon it forms the garden paths. A roadway may be made from sandpaper too. If you have none, ordinary brown paper will answer. A long box covered over with green crape paper looks just like a garden hedge. The paper should be pasted over the sides of the box quite flat. Garden stands are made by gilding spools and then poking into each spool, as it stands upright, some artificial flowers.

Greenhouse for the garden is made from the deep half of some box about seven inches long and five inches deep. If you like, your greenhouse may be made smaller, but this size is an easy one to handle.

The box itself forms the greenhouse building. Its roof is of bent cardboard, and the glass in it is waxed sandwich paper.

Shall I tell you how to make the greenhouse so that you may make one like it? First, take the half of the box you intend to use and place it upon its rims, open at base.

Next, one inch above the base, on each corner make a pencil dot.

Cut the top off the rims of your box.

On each _end_ rim, at center, make a pencil dot to indicate the middle top of each box end. (Leave sides without marks.)

From the center top point on each end cut down diagonally to right and left, to form the peaked part of the building under the roof. (See Diagram Three, _CC_, page 170.)

Then, cut the long sides of the box to meet these, lengthwise. Remove the cardboard at the top of each long side.

Now, in the point at one end of the lower half of the greenhouse building, cut out windows. Cut them to fit your box building. (See Diagram One, _A_, page 166, for windows.) Back of each, paste some transparent waxed sandwich paper. If you like, cut a triangular window in the point of the building which is to be under the roof.

Between the lower two windows, cut a door to fit—one inch wide and two inches high should be a good size. (For cutting a door, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.)

You may make the roof two inches longer and four inches wider than the size of the base of your box. Cut this roof from your cardboard. Fold it through the center of its long sides to make a gable roof. (See Diagram Three, _C_, page 170.)

In each side of this roof, cut out windows. Paste back of their openings some waxed sandwich paper.

Glue the roof to the lower half of the building.

Any small boxes that you have will form flower-boxes when filled with small artificial flowers. They may go into the greenhouse.

To make the pergola, you will need the lower half of a white shoe-box. Take the box and stand it upon its rims, base at top, opening below.

Cut out the cardboard that was the bottom of the box, leaving a narrow rim around this between corners on the side that was this box bottom.

Then, cut off each end of the box, leaving the margin around corners and top rim like this first cutting in the box.

In the two long rims of the box cut pillars on each side. (See Diagram Seven, page 181.)

Cut two long cardboard strips from some Bristol-board—each two inches longer than the length of your box. Glue one strip each over the top of the pergola, lengthwise, over the long sides of the box.

Cut five inch-wide strips of cardboard two inches longer than the width of your box, and glue each across the opening made by cutting the top from the pergola box. Each strip should be evenly crossed between opposite pillars.

If you have any pretty artificial flowers left from your garden and greenhouse, twine them around the pillars of your finished pergola.

I have a gardener for my garden. His name is Karl Shepherd. He came to me in a box of toy lambs that I bought at the ten-cent store. I called him Karl because he looked so German. Perhaps, among your playthings, you have a little figure like him. Look and see. I am sure you will find a gardener.

Here’s the little Boxville Garden, Just as cunning as can be; Bring your scissors and the paste jar! It is made with boxes—see!

There shall be a pretty greenhouse, There shall be an arbor, too; Paths and flower-beds we’ll lay out— Oh, there will be fun for you!

BOXVILLE BOAT-HOUSE OR YACHT CLUB

=Material Required to Make a Boxville Boat-house=: the lower half of a deep box about six inches long, and also two shoe-box covers.

Boxville Boat-house is made from an oblong box about two-thirds the size of a shoe-box. Its wharf is a shoe-box cover, and its roof is another shoe-box cover.

If you wish to cut a lake from a sheet of silver paper, the boat-house or yacht club is the very thing for this play. Any water toys, such as swans, ducks, fish, or frogs, may swim on Silver Paper Lake, and from your yacht club, parties of fishermen may angle for magnetized fish. The boat-house may be a part of the summer attractions of Hotel Bandbox in season.

To make a boat-house building, you will first need to turn your box over upon its rims so that its bottom becomes its top.

Draw a three-inch square on one short end of your box. Let its base come to the extreme edge of the box rim. This square is to be the door you see in the picture. Draw a vertical line down the center of this square. This gives two doors for the doorway. (To cut double door, see Diagram Two, _B_, page 167.) Cut across the top line and down the center to the outer rim. Bend outward the two halves of the doorway.

The boat-house is to have windows, and each window is to have an awning over it. To make windows with awnings, first draw on each long side of your box, two one-inch squares. Each square should be drawn about an inch and a half from a corner of the box. Each square should be half-way between top and bottom of the building. (For windows with awnings, see Diagram One, _C_, page 166.) Cut down both side lines and across the base line. Bend the cut cardboard outward and upward to form an awning. Color this awning with red stripes, using your crayons or water-color paints.

When all windows are cut, then you may place your little building at the rear of the shoe-box cover which forms the wharf.

Over the top of your building, fit another shoe-box cover to form a projecting roof over the wharf.

A long pencil will be a fine flagstaff. Run its point through the front of the boat-house roof, and glue to the top of the pencil a triangular piece of colored paper to make the pennant.

My little Boxville people Have a club-house where they go When they want to do some fishing, Or they want to take a row.

It stands beside a paper lake, Upon my play-room floor; It has some pretty awnings, And a dock, beside a door!

Upon the lake float water toys. I put moss by the shore And pebbles: they make splendid rocks! Some day I’ll find some more!

THE HOUSEBOAT “BOXCRAFT”

=Material Required to Make a Houseboat=: the covers of two large shoe-boxes, and the lower half of a child’s shoe-box.

Here is a jolly houseboat, the very thing to sail on Silver Paper Lake. Little dolls may spend their vacation upon it. Would you like to make a houseboat to play with? It is not difficult.

First, take the two shoe-box covers and glue them top to top. Place them on the floor flat. There is the lower half of the houseboat.

Upon both long sides of your small shoe-box, draw three one-inch squares, keeping the two at either end of the same side equally distant from the nearest corner of the box, and making the third window on each side half-way between them. (To cut windows with awnings, see Diagram One, _C_, page 166.) Cut the window squares at both sides and along their base lines. Bend the cardboard outward and upward to make the awnings. Color these with red stripes, using either chalks or water-color paints.

On the front and rear ends of the houseboat, you will need a door and window. Make an upright oblong space for the door. Mark it out with pencil about three inches high from the rim of the box. Make a window beside each door. (To cut door space, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.) Cut top line and down one side. Bend the door outward on the third side as if it were on a hinge.

A flagstaff for the houseboat is made by pressing the point of a long pencil down through the top of the houseboat in front. A paper pennant may be glued to the side of the pencil.

A piece of string will make a tow-line for the houseboat. Fasten it to any little donkey or toy horse you have, and start penny dolls on a voyage around the play-room floor. The houseboat, of course, is not meant to sail upon dangerous water. It might be safely anchored on the shore of Mirror Lake or Silver Paper Lake.

I built a little houseboat with some windows and a door, And I made an inland voyage all around the play-room floor! At last I moored my houseboat beside my little chair: There was a carpet hassock that was an island there.

CAMP BOX ON MIRROR LAKE

=Material Required to Make Camp Box=: a yard or two of green crape paper for grass and foliage of trees, two or three clothes-pins to make tree-trunks, a sheet of silver paper or a cheap ten-cent mirror to form a “lake,” the halves of shallow letter-paper boxes to make tents, and any pebbles, moss, or shells you have among your treasures.

It is great fun to make a Mirror Lake Camp—almost as much fun as being in a real camp! Mirror Lake Camp may be made on the play-room floor.

First, if you have some green crape paper, lay it flat on the floor. This is the grass.

Next, if you have some silver paper, cut out a circle of it, and paste it to the crape paper to form a lake. Instead of the silver paper, you may substitute a cheap mirror. Place this under the crape paper and cut out a circle above it.

You will need a grove of trees near the shore of your lake. These trees are made by standing some clothes-pins on end with forks in the air. Cut some green paper and press it in between the forks. It makes the foliage of trees.

The tents are made from the half of a shallow white box like a letter-paper box. To make a tent, cut through each long side rim of your box as far as the top or bottom of the cover, as the case may be. Bend the box downward to each side of this cutting, making a tent roof, slanting to each side downward. (For cutting a tent, see Diagram Three, _E_, page 171.)

You may have as many tents in your camp as you like. Perhaps your tin soldiers might like an encampment on the shores of Mirror Lake. Small oblong box covers will make smaller tents for these. When it is summer, maybe it would be nice, on some warm, sunny day, to take the tents outdoors under the trees on the lawn and make a really true camp on the really true grass, with real growing things for trees in a woods. Perhaps so!

Cut bits of twigs and use these for trees. Pebbles will help to make a rocky shore for a _real_ water lake that is a shallow pie-plate filled with water. Its sides should be covered with moss or short grass. Of course, after playing out-of-doors with the camp buildings, you will have to pick them up, when playtime is over, for the cardboard tents will be spoiled if you let them stay out over night. I know it because I tried it! I had a really darling little doll and I let her stay out in a tent after my play was finished. It rained in the night and she was all spoiled—and I had to make a new tent, too. I think you’ll like to know about this so you won’t try it. It really is better to pick up after play, I think!

I made a grove of clothes-pin trees, And had a splendid time with these! My china rabbits ran in play Beneath the trees the whole long day!

I made some little camp tents, too— It was a jolly thing to do! Some penny dolls a picnic laid Beneath the green crape-paper shade.

THE GIPSY CART OF BOXVILLE HIGHWAY

=Material Required to Make a Toy Gipsy Cart=: a deep oblong box such as correspondence cards are packed in, also five square inches of cardboard, four round-headed paper-fasteners, and two small boxes.

Do you think it would be fun to make a gipsy wagon like the one in the picture? It is a very simple thing to make.

First, find a box such as correspondence cards come in from the stationery store. Take its high cover off, and cut from the lower part of the box almost all of the deep inner rim, leaving only about a half-inch of it all around. Put the cover back over this, and glue the two parts of the box together. The box is to be the gipsy wagon now. A door will need to be cut at one end of the box, and windows will need to be made on the sides of the box rim.

Turn the box over so that its base becomes the top of your wagon. Make the outline of a door with pencil on one end of the box. To make it, mark off an upright oblong space an inch wide and two inches and a half high. Have its base come at the very edge of box rim. (To cut door, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.) Cut one side line from the base of the box up to the top line, and cut along the top line of the upright figure you have drawn. Bend the cardboard outward to make a little door. See, it will open or close as you bend it.

Next, make the windows on the sides of the cart. You may make these with or without shutters. If you make them without shutters, you will only need to cut two one-inch squares in each side of your box. Each should be evenly distant from a corner. (To cut plain windows, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.)

If, however, you wish to have shutters on the windows of your wagon, cut these squares at top and base. Then cut a line through each center, vertically, from top to base. This gives you the shutters. Press them back against the outside of the cart. (For making blinds, see Diagram One, _B_, page 166.)

Window-shutters and door may be painted. Dry them while you make wheels for the cart. Color them with water-color paints. Make them green or red.

The wheels are circles cut from stiff cardboard. Find your compass to help draw them round. If you have no compass, use the outline of a small round saucer about two inches and a half in diameter to guide you in drawing the four wheels in outline. Draw a hub and spokes on each, if you like.

When you have drawn them, cut each out, and press through the axle of each one a round-headed paper-fastener. Bend its prongs to either side after you have pressed the wheel into place on the cart. The wheels may be glued, if you have no paper-fasteners to use for making axles.

Your cart will need a seat for the driver. This is made from the lower half of a small, narrow box about two inches in length. Cut off the short end rims, and glue one long rim to your wagon in front, so that it makes the dashboard and floor of the front of the cart under the seat. Paste a small pill-box on this to make the seat itself.

At the rear of your cart, you may make some steps by folding a strip of box rim twice and fastening it under the door with mucilage.

Shafts for the cart are two narrow strips of cardboard pasted to the forward part of the wagon.

There! The gipsy cart is finished. Penny dolls or tumble toys will be the gipsies.

Here come the gipsies a-jogging up the road! They’re going up to Boxville. The horse has quite a load! Good fortune’s coming to you, and it isn’t far away: We’re going with the penny dolls a-gipsying in play!

THE SHEPHERD’S HUT AND THE SHEEPFOLD

=Material Required for Making the Shepherd’s Hut=: a yard or two of green crape paper, some corrugated cardboard, half a small square box about four inches high, and, if you have it, silver paper to make a lake.

Here in the picture you see the shepherd’s cottage. I had a little flock of white woolly lambs given me. They came in a box, with a shepherd boy and his dog to tend them.

One day, I decided to build a cottage for the shepherd and make a sheepfold for his flock. You can make one for your toy lambs, too, and, if you like, I will tell you how to do it.

First, lay some green crape paper upon the floor to make grass. There must be grass, you know. Of course, if you have no green crape paper, you will need to pretend that the carpet of the floor is grass. Perhaps it will answer just as well. But, if you have the paper, you can make a hill or two behind the place where you intend to build. It is made by putting some blocks or books under the paper.

Next, I made a long fence by cutting some corrugated cardboard into long strips. Three rows made the width of this long fence. After you have cut your fence, stand it upon its rim. By bending the strip at one end, you can make a gate. The fence is made of very heavy corrugated cardboard, such as comes wrapped around very heavy things. There is a lighter kind that you may also use. From this kind, I made my sheep-pen. It came wrapped around a small glass jar.

To make the sheep-pen, cut a long strip of the corrugated cardboard. Cut it crosswise instead of lengthwise, and slip through each undulation in the cardboard the end of a toothpick. This gives the effect of a picket fence.

The shepherd’s but is made from the lower half of a deep box. Its roof is a piece of corrugated cardboard cut long and bent through the middle downward.

To make the house, turn your box over so that the bottom becomes the top and the box rests upon its rims.

Measure the size of its ends, and cut two triangular pieces of cardboard to fit over them and form gables. Glue each to an end of the house. (For cutting triangular roof supports, see Diagram Three, _BB_, page 169.)

Cut a door and a window in the front of your house. Both must first be outlined on the box in pencil. Mark the door an inch wide and two inches high, an oblong with base at the edge of the box rim. (For door, see Diagram Two, _A_, page 167.) Cut the top line and down one long side. Bend the door outward as if it were on a hinge. One-inch squares may be cut in the box rim to make windows. (For cutting a window, see Diagram One, _A_, page 166.) Cut the square on all four sides.