Before you girls put on your thimbles, thread your needles, and puzzle
your brains about something to make for Christmas, let me tell you of a
beautiful present I once received, and how it was made.
It was an old woman who lived in a shoe, with so many children she
didn't know what to do.
[Illustration]
The only part at all difficult to make is the shoe or boot itself. My
boot was ten inches high, and eight from the toe to the heel, and it was
composed of five pieces of very stiff pasteboard, the two sides shaped
like No. 1, enlarged, the back like No. 2, and the sole like No. 3. No.
4 is the little strip in front of the heel. Each piece must be covered
with black velvet or cloth, all the pieces sewed strongly together, and
the top of the boot lined with green silk for three or four inches down.
Then bind the top and sides of the front with red braid, and tack a
strip of black velvet in the sides of the front for a tongue. Then take
a piece of the red braid, and catch it back and forth, like ordinary
shoe lacing.
As the boot is so long and narrow, it would be apt to tip over, so, to
steady it, put a bag of shot in the toe, and fill the rest with paper.
Now you have the house, and for the garden get a square pasteboard box
cover, and spread over it green silk to represent grass. As no ordinary
doll's face would be wrinkled and care-worn enough for this poor lady,
get one of the long-nosed, long-chinned, old women who sometimes come in
Jack-in-the-boxes. Cut her out, springs and all, and cover the springs
with a dark calico dress. Put a white kerchief round her neck, a white
cap on her head, and a bundle of switches in her hand.
You want as many children as you have the patience to dress; the more
the merrier. Get the little china dolls that come for a penny apiece,
and the larger wooden dolls that come, I think, for the same price. If
you can get two or three very small woolly dogs, they will look cunning
standing in the "garden." Dress the dolls in all the bright colors you
can find, and put them anywhere and everywhere, on the box cover,
climbing up the shoe lacing, in the mother's lap, and behind her back.
A very pretty addition to the whole is a small ladder leaning against
the side of the boot, with a doll on each round.