BUCKEYE HORSE AND BUCKEYE RIDER
All children love the clean, glossy, brown horse-chestnuts or buckeyes.
There are so many buckeye-trees in Ohio that it is called the Buckeye
State, and many villages of Long Island are full of them. They are
used for shade-trees and often line the streets, where they send
down showers of their nuts, pretty but not good to eat. Everywhere
the children gather basketfuls and take them home to play with, and
in other Beard books we have told of some things that can be made of
buckeyes, but the buckeye horse and rider which you see here have just
arrived.
He is a very remarkable-looking horse with his funny round head and
stiff legs and tail, though not more remarkable than the little man
who rides him. Both are made simply of buckeyes and slender twigs. The
head and body of the horse and of the man are buckeyes. The neck, ears,
tail, and legs of the horse are smooth, straight twigs; the neck, arms,
and legs of the man are also twigs.
The Buckeye Horse
When you make a horse let the light-colored part of the buckeye be his
face. This part usually has a dark spot on it which looks like an eye.
You will see it in Fig. 121. He will have only one eye unless you put
in another with lead-pencil or pen and ink, but very frequently horses
are blind in one eye, so it will not matter whether he has two eyes or
one.
Stick two short pieces of twigs in the head for ears and a longer
twig for the neck. You will have to sharpen the ends of the twigs
to a point so that they will go in easily. The neck twig will need
sharpening at both ends.
Before putting the head on the body of the horse, which should be as
large a buckeye as you can find, push in four twigs for the legs. The
front legs must slant forward, the hind legs slant backward. This will
make him stand firmly. Then choose a slender twig for the tail, and
split it several times at one end to show that it has hair on it, as
in Fig. 121. Fasten the tail on and then push in the neck twig. This
finishes the horse.
[Illustration: Fig.121 - He is a remarkable looking Horse.]
The Buckeye Man
For the body of the man who sits astride the horse, choose a buckeye
which is rather flat on one side. A round buckeye will roll off. Find a
small buckeye for the man's head and give him a twig neck (Fig. 122).
Do not make his twig arms stand out straight at his sides; push them in
slantingly so that he will hold them out in front. Put his twig legs in
far apart and slant them a little forward.
Now place the man on the horse, and if he does not fit, change the
position of his legs until he sits securely. Your buckeye man and
buckeye horse will then look like Fig. 122.
Pine-Cones. Pine-Cone Forest
Of course you like to gather the rich-brown pine-cones that lie
scattered on the ground under the pine-trees; we all do. Collect
a number of those which have loosened and opened out their little
leaf-like scales, then stand them up like trees in an open space on the
ground. They look so much like toy trees we immediately want to play we
are foresters, way off in the wild western lands, planting forest-trees
for Uncle Sam.
[Illustration: Fig.122 - The Buckeye Horse and Rider.]
We can make our forest as large as we want it and plant trees every day
if we like, or we can gather up our nice, clean, dry cones and take
them into the house to use in some other way. They make nice playthings.
A Fruit-and-Vegetable Market
If you find small, short cones, not fully opened out, notice how
much they look like little pineapples; you must save these for
our fruit-and-vegetable market, where we sell fat, short acorns
as hazelnuts, the long acorns as pecans, and the buckeyes, or
horse-chestnuts, all shiny, dark, and smooth, as eggplants, and
rose-haws as apples.
There are other things in our store, too. String-beans, which are
really locust-pods, and heads of white cauliflower made of bunches of
the wild carrot or Queen Anne's Lace blossoms, tied together so that
the pretty white flowers of the wide-spreading clusters lie evenly with
edges touching. A number of these clusters are used for one head of
cauliflower, and around each head are arranged green leaves with their
tops cut off just as you see them around the real vegetable.
Cone Card-Rack
Save one of your fine, large-sized, wide-open cones and make a
card-rack of it like the one shown in the photograph Fig. 123.
[Illustration: Fig.123 - Card rack and pin box combined.]
You must have a small, round or square wooden box for the base and glue
the flat bottom of the cone on the lid. The box can be filled with
small brass clips for holding sheets of paper together, or with pins,
and it will then make a fine birthday or Christmas present for some
one. The cone card-rack is very useful on a writing-desk.
If you make a number of these cone-racks they will be something new for
your next fair. Remember to stick some pretty cards in each rack.
Christmas-Tree Ornaments
Perhaps you would like to keep some of your cones for Christmas-tree
ornaments; they make very pretty ones.
Gild several until they shine like gold, then silver others, and they
will look as if covered with white frost. If you have collected any of
the prickly sweet-gum balls that look as if they were carved in little
starry patterns, gild and silver these, too, and let them dangle from
the tree on long gilt or silver cords.
These natural, outdoor ornaments are not easily broken, and may be kept
from year to year for your Christmas tree.