Girls are always trying to find something which they can make to
delight their papas, and a gay little pen-wiper with fresh uninked
leaves rarely comes amiss to a man who likes an orderly writing-table.
Here is a pretty one which is easily made. For the pattern you may
borrow a moderately large beech-leaf from the nearest tree (or
botanical work); lay it down on paper, pencil the outline and cut it
out neatly. Repeat this six or eight times in black cloth or velvet,
and sew the leaves round a small oval or circle of black cloth. Knit
and ravel out a quantity of yellow worsted or floss silk, and with it
construct a nest in the center of the oval, putting a hen into the
nest. This hen may be made of canton flannel, stuffed with cotton-wool
and painted in water color, with a comb of red flannel, two black
beads for eyes, and a tuft of feathers by way of tail. But better
still and much easier, buy one of the droll little Japanese chicks
which can be had at the shops now for twenty or twenty-five cents, and
fasten it in the middle of the nest. Three plain circles of cloth are
fastened underneath for wiping the pens.