bookcase or shelving unit built from flat craft components. The
structure is rendered with a pale pink color block fill and features
five horizontal shelves enclosed by a tall backing and two side panels.
On the exterior of the right side panel, the rectangular interlocking
tabs of the shelves are visible projecting through vertical slots. Fine
cross-hatched lines create shading inside the right corners of each
shelf and along the ground beneath the unit.]
“Yes, I see,” said Polly. “That will make it one and three-eighths
inches from the top edge. And by the same token the bottom edge of the
neck of the lower bolt must be just one inch above the bottom edge of
the side piece, for the lower slit is one inch from the bottom edge of
the back piece. Is that right?”
“You’ve got it,” answered Donald.
“That is the way it works; now draw the shelf lines across your side
pieces to correspond to those on the back piece, and make them exactly
the same distance apart. The top line must be one-quarter of an inch
from the top edge, remember.”
Along the shelf lines Polly made slits for holding the shelves (L,
Figure 15); the lower edge of each slit is _on_ the line, the upper edge
of the slit _above_ the line. Each slit is three-quarters of an inch
long. The left-hand ends of the slits are five-eighths of an inch from
the left edge of the side piece.
Figure 14 is the shelf. Donald made five of these shelves. They are four
and one-half inches long; not including the bolts, and one and
three-quarter inches wide, just the width of the side pieces. The bolts
LL are the same size as the bolts OO on the side pieces. The lower edge
of the neck of each bolt is five-eighths of an inch from the bottom edge
of the shelf. The bottom edge of Figure 14 is the front edge of the
shelf when it is put up.
When all the parts were finished the children first fitted the shelves
to the side-pieces, sliding the bolts L through the slits L and pushing
them forward until the bolts held fast and each shelf fitted the sides
exactly. Then they slid the slits O in the back over the bolts O on the
sides, pushed the sides down, the bolts slid into place and the little
bookshelves were securely fastened together.
[Illustration: The giraffe is long-necked and awkward]
Wild Animals for the Menagerie
Invented by Adelia Belle Beard
One of the Authors of Things Worth Doing
“‘The giraffe belongs to the ru-minant group of the—’” “Skip that,
Polly. What I want is to know the kind of horns he has and how many
toes. This picture doesn’t show; it’s no good for that, and while we are
making the animals for our menagerie we may as well have them as nearly
right as we can.”
“To be sure, little brother. Well, here it is: ‘The giraffe possesses
two solid, bony ap-pen-da-ges’—that means horns, I suppose—‘which are
completely covered with the skin of the forehead, and are ter-mi-na-ted
by a tuft of bristles.’ Queer kind of horns, aren’t they, Donald, with
bristles sprouting out of the top?”
“That’s all right. What about his feet?”
“Why—wait a minute, I’ve lost my place. Oh, yes: ‘It’s feet ter-mi-nate
in a divided hoof.’ There, he hasn’t any toes, after all; just hoofs
like a cow.”
“How big does it say he is? We want our animals in the right proportion
to one another.”
Polly fluttered the leaves of her book; she had been taking a peep at
some of the other animals. “It says this: ‘The giraffe is the tallest of
existing animals, and is usually from fifteen to sixteen feet high.’”
“That’s measuring from the ground to the top of his head,” commented
Donald.
[Illustration: You cut out the giraffe according to these patterns]
“It must be,” returned Polly, “because he slopes so you would never know
where else to stop in the measurement.”
Donald worked away in silence, and Polly, with elbows on table,
continued to read aloud. “It’s dreadfully interesting, isn’t it?” she
said when she had finished the description of the giraffe given in
Donald’s natural history, “and it really would be a shame to make all
the animals and not know anything about them except their names. I feel
quite intimate and friendly with the giraffe now that I know what
country he comes from and what he likes for dinner.”
“There is your friend, then,” said Donald, standing his little giraffe
on the table (Figure 1.)
The various parts of the giraffe are shown in Figure 2. They are cut
from cardboard and made to be put together by means of the slots. You
can trace the patterns and make the animals without trouble.
The slot A of the fore legs fits into the slot A of the body, and the
slot B of the hind legs fits into the slot B in the body. D is the
pattern of the ears. The ears are to be put through the slit D in the
head and then bent back, as in Figure 1. C is the pattern of the queer
horns, the points on the ends represent the bristles. The horns are to
be slipped through the slit C at the top of the head, and then bent in
the middle to make them stand upright.
“He is just fascinating, Donald,” exclaimed the ever enthusiastic Polly.
“Don’t you think it is quite as easy to make wild animals as farm
animals?”
“Polly, you do ask a lot of questions. Go on and make the elephant now
and let me read about him.”
“All right,” said Polly, quite ready to change occupations. “Where is
that picture I saved? There, that is about the right size, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it will do. Here we are,” Donald continued, bending over his book.
“‘The elephant belongs to the order of Proboscidea—’”
“Now, Donald,” Polly interrupted, “I don’t want to hear that.” “Yes you
do; it means creatures with long noses, and the elephant has the longest
nose on record.”
“How long?”
[Illustration: “Isn’t he a dear old fellow?” said Polly]
“It says here: ‘They are from six to eight feet long, and almost wholly
composed of muscles, numbering nearly forty thousand.’”
“Forty thousand muscles in the poor thing’s nose! Why, it makes me want
to sneeze just to think of it. What else does it say?”
But Donald was watching Polly’s scissors. “Don’t make the hind legs so
big, Polly; they don’t look right.”
“An elephant’s legs are big, Donald.”
“Not like that. Let me trim them off for you. His back must slope more,
too. Don’t you remember how most elephants look, as though they were
just going to sit down?”
“I think I will make the ears and tusks of writing paper instead of
cardboard,” Polly ventured, “they will be easier to manage.”
“That’s a good scheme. Have the ears large, for this elephant comes from
Africa; and they can flop or stand out straight, and if you cut the
tusks crescent shape they will turn up at the points.”
“Isn’t he a dear old fellow?” said Polly, standing her elephant on the
table beside the giraffe. (Figure 3.)
[Illustration: There are just five parts to the elephant]
The different parts of the elephant are given in Figure 4. They are
lettered, and by putting the corresponding letters together the parts
will fit perfectly. E fits E, F fits F. The ears G slip through the slit
G, and the tusks H through the slit H.
The kangaroo (Figure 5) was the next animal the children made, and they
were both delighted with its absurdly unequal legs and immense tail,
which takes the place of another leg. Polly giggled a good deal over its
great, long feet, and persisted in calling its fore legs arms.
“See how short they are, and since it doesn’t use them for walking, they
must be arms,” she argued.
“Whatever they are, we will make them of writing paper and hitch them on
as we did the elephant’s tusks,” said Donald.
Figure 6 gives the patterns for the kangaroo as Polly and Donald made
it. They put the parts together according to the letters and bent the
hind legs at the dotted lines for the feet, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 7 is the camel, “whose legs are as humpy as its back,” Polly
said. Then she looked it up in the natural history and found out why it
had such peculiar legs, and also many more interesting things about this
patient traveler. Figure 8 shows the various parts of the camel.
[Illustration: These are the parts of the kangaroo]
Donald made the rhinoceros (Figure 9.) Polly said she liked either
pretty or funny animals. “I think the old duffer is funny,” Donald
returned. “See the horn on the end of his nose; doesn’t it look just as
though it had slipped down his head and he had caught it there?” Figure
10 gives all the parts of the rhinoceros.
“The lion is a handsome fellow. You can make him, Polly, and I will see
what I can do with the polar bear.”
Polly made the lion (Figure 11.)
[Illustration: The children thought the kangaroo very funny]
“He is switching his tail very angrily. Be careful not to get too near
him, Donald,” she laughed. Figure 12 gives the four parts of the lion.
Figure 13 is Donald’s polar bear, and Figure 14 gives his body, legs and
ears.
[Illustration: “The camel, whose legs are as humpy as its back”]
[Illustration: A vintage stylized line illustration of a completed toy
bookcase or shelving unit built from flat craft components. The
structure is rendered with a pale pink color block fill and features
five horizontal shelves enclosed by a tall backing and two side panels.
On the exterior of the right side panel, the rectangular interlocking
tabs of the shelves are visible projecting through vertical slots. Fine
cross-hatched lines create shading inside the right corners of each
shelf and along the ground beneath the unit.]
“He is a clumsy-looking creature, isn’t he?” Polly remarked, “but I
would love to see him roll up in a ball and tumble about in the water
just for the fun of it, as your book says he does, sometimes.”
[Illustration: Here is the funny rhinoceros Donald made]
[Illustration: The rhinoceros takes but four parts]
[Illustration: Polly made the lion]
[Illustration: The lion is easily made in this way]
[Illustration: The polar bear was left for Donald]
[Illustration: The body, ears, fore and hind legs of the polar bear]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● This book was printed in landscape format.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
● Enclosed bold or blackletter font in =equals=.
● Images without captions use the HTML alt text supplied by the
transcriber in place of a caption.