[Illustration]
Burdock leaves as well as the burs were used by the children in their
plays. Hats and shawls were made of them—but best of all were the
burdock leaf wigwams.
To make these twigs or tent poles were stuck in the ground and burdock
leaves folded round them in tent fashion. The points of the leaves were
torn off to make them the right shape.
Then there had to be Indians to live in the wigwams and these were made
of clothes-pins. Nothing could be easier to make than a clothes-pin
Indian.
First the features are marked out on the head of the pin, then a band
of paper pasted round the top and a feather stuck in at the back for a
war-bonnet; and a square of stiff paper folded around the clothes-pin,
for a blanket, and the Indian is finished.
The little Wests made whole villages of burdock wigwams with
clothes-pin braves standing guard at the doors.
Tom always liked stories of enchantment, so he made up one about these
wooden Indians.