THINGS YOU CAN MAKE OF LIMA BEANS
[Illustration: Fig.146 - The Lima Bean Fish will swim.]
[Illustration: Fig.147 - The pod for the fish must be open at the
bottom.]
VEGETABLES are good to eat, certainly, and you know what they are like
when cooked and on the dinner-table; but many are also good to play
with. You can make fine toys of them, toys that are entirely different
from any you have ever seen. Here is the
Swimming Fish Made of a Lima-Bean Pod
A fish that really swims, not on top of the water but in it, is the
little fish (Fig. 146). You won't find that in a shop or anywhere
else, for I have only just discovered how to make it myself.
A paper tail and two paper fins must be added, but that won't take
five minutes when you know how to do it. The tail and fins make it
wonderfully lifelike, for when the fish swims around in a big basin
or dish-pan, the tail sways this way and that, the fins move back and
forth exactly as they do on a living fish in a real lake or in the
great ocean.
[Illustration: Fig.148 - The fin of Bean-pod Fish.]
[Illustration: Fig.149 - Tail of Bean-pod Fish.]
Choose a good, firm bean-pod, one as flat and even as you can find,
open it carefully along the straight edge and take out the beans. Save
the beans, for you can make something of them too. Do not let the pod
close again after the beans are out. It must be open about half an
inch, or maybe a little more, at the middle. You can widen the opening
by pushing your finger in. Be careful not to split it along the upper
edge. It should be like Fig. 147, which shows the opening at the bottom.
With the small blade of a pocket-knife make a slit on each side of the
pod at the large end where it is marked C in Fig. 147.
[Illustration: Fig.150 - The Lima Bean Man will stand.]
These slits are to hold the fins. Directly on the curved edge of the
small end of the pod, at the place marked D, cut another short slit.
Don't let it reach the lower edge. This is to hold the tail.
From writing-paper, not the very heavy kind, cut two fins like Fig.
148. Double the paper and cut out both at once so that they may be
exactly alike. From the same kind of paper cut the tail like Fig. 149.
All you have to do now is to push the sharp point of one paper fin into
the slit on one side of the pod, the other fin into the slit on the
other side of the pod, and the sharp point of the tail into the slit
in the edge of the pod, and there is your fish. You see the fins and
tail are not pasted on and they really seem a living part of the fish.
Notice that the top of fins and tail are different from the bottom, and
be sure to have the top edge up when you put them in the slits.
[Illustration: Fig.151 - Parts of Lima Bean Man]
The way to make the lima-bean fish swim is to place it, open edge down,
in a large basin of water; then with a stick or spoon begin at the
centre to stir the water gently and gradually round and round until
it all moves faster and faster, and keeps on moving after you stop
stirring. Then your little green fish will swim. Round and round the
basin he will go, his tail waving and his fins moving so naturally you
will shout with delight.
If at first the fish insists upon turning over on his side and floating
about like a dead fish, don't give him up. He is only playing 'possum.
He _can_ swim and he _will_ if you are patient and keep setting him
upright until he gains his balance and becomes used to the water.
Remember to put the fish _in_ the water, not on top.
Don't let the beans, that you have taken out of the pod when making the
fish, get dry and hard. They can be turned into a
Lima-Bean Man
Three beans and several strong, straight broom-straws you will need for
making this comical little fellow, who, upright and independent, stands
squarely on his own feet. That is a good thing for any one to do, let
alone a little bean man (Fig. 150).
The beans should be of different sizes. A large one for the body, next
in size for the feet and a smaller one for the head. Some beans have a
little point that stands out on one edge and looks like a tiny nose,
while below it there is a round hollow that looks like a little open
mouth. That is the kind of bean to choose for the little man's head.
The broom-straw for Mr. Bean's arms should be quite four inches long,
if he is to be four inches tall. Cut one end of this broom-straw
slanting to a point like E in Fig. 151, and push the point through the
upper part of the body bean and out far enough on the other side to
make the arms of equal length; then bend one arm up at the middle where
the elbow should be, and the other arm down as you see them in the
drawing of the man (Fig. 150).
The broom-straws for the legs must be two and a half inches long and
cut pointed at both ends, for one end of the leg is pushed into the
lower part of the body bean and the other end into the half bean which
is the foot. Split the foot bean in half to make two feet and push the
leg straw into the rounded side. The flat side is the bottom of the
foot.
[Illustration: Fig.152 - The beans are not taken out of the pod for the
Lima Bean Pig.]
A short piece of broom-straw, hardly an inch long, is the neck. Cut
this straw pointed at each end, push one end into the top of the body
bean and the other end into the lower part of the head bean. Use
one-half of the outer skin, that comes off the foot bean when you split
it, for a hat. Being curved like a rose-petal, it fits the head very
nicely, but a drop of paste on the little man's head will make it more
secure.
Your lima-bean man may be a farmer and own
A Lima-Bean Pig
--a funny pig with fat sides and a turned-up snout (Fig. 152).
Look over all your bean-pods that still have beans in them, and select
the one shaped most like Fig. 153. Do not take the beans out of the
pod; they make the pig fat and solid. The stem end forms the snout and
the head.
[Illustration: Fig.153 - Choose a bean-pod shaped like this for your
pig.]
Cut four broom-straws about one and a half inches long for the legs.
Sharpen each of these straws at one end and push the pointed end into
the lower part of the body, two on each side, in the places shown by
small rings on Fig. 153.
From part of another bean-pod cut two ears like F, Fig. 154, and pin
them on the pig's head with a short straw as they are shown in the
picture of the pig. Run the straw through one ear near the bottom,
through the head and then through the other ear on the other side of
the head.
[Illustration: Fig.154 - Make these of a bean-pod or of paper.]
Pull a narrow strip from the edge of a bean-pod for the tail (G, Fig.
154). Curl it by drawing it lightly over the blade of the scissors.
Punch a small hole with the point of the scissors in the upper edge of
the pig's back at the place marked by the arrow on Fig. 153, and push
one end of the tail into the hole. Make small round dots with a pencil,
or pen and ink, for the eyes. The ears and tail may be made of paper if
you find that easier to use.