“Be sure your spools are all the same size,” Donald said.

Polly begged two hatpins of her mother. One was long, the other short. The shortest was just the right length for her axle, so, using a pair of nippers, she broke the longer pin off at the point to match the short one. Then she pushed one pin in on one side of the box a quarter of an inch from the edge and one inch and a quarter from the end. On this pin, inside of the box, she strung a large spool, then a small cork, then another large spool and finally pushed the point of the pin through the other side of the box exactly opposite to where it entered the first side. On the point of the pin she stuck a small cork for a hub. The round head of the pin answered for the other hub. (Figure 8.) The other two spool wheels were adjusted in the same manner and the last pin was inserted in the box the same distance from the back end and edge as the first pin was from the front end and edge.

Donald cut both of his sails like Figure 9, making them eight inches wide at the bottom, four inches wide at the top and six and one-quarter inches high. He drew a line directly through the middle of each sail from top to bottom, and on this line he cut four small points at equal distances apart for openings to admit the masts. He made two braces at the bottom of each sail, four inches apart, to hold them steady. (C and D, Figure 9.) Each brace is half an inch wide, half an inch high, and has a lap at the bottom one inch long.

When the sails were ready he erected his masts. These were slender, straight twigs, nine inches long, sharpened to a point at each end. The front mast he placed half an inch from the front edge of the wagon, the back mast one inch and a half from the back edge of the wagon, and both directly on a line drawn lengthwise through the center of the box. Donald first punctured small holes in the box at these points, then forcing a half-inch cork up one inch on the lower end of the front mast (E, Figure 10), he covered the bottom of the cork with glue, and inserted the end of the mast in the hole at the front of the box where it was a tight fit.

When he had pushed the mast down until the glue on the cork held it fast, he covered the top of another cork with glue (F, Figure 10), and forced the last cork up on the mast from the under side of the wagon until it stuck to the top. When the glue dried the mast was firm and steady.

The sail Donald slipped onto the mast from the top, running the mast in and out of the holes, as shown in Figure 7. He bent the laps back at the dotted lines and glued them to the top of the box. Then to make the sail still more secure he pasted oblongs of paper over the masts where they ran through the sails at the back. The dotted inclosures, G and H, show the positions of the oblongs on the sail.

When the second mast and sail were erected and adjusted in the same way as the first, Donald cut two narrow strips of blue tissue paper, four and a half inches long, for pennants. (Figure 7.)

“She is done now,” said Donald.

Making an Automobile

By Adelia Belle Beard

One of the Authors of Things Worth Doing

“Donald,” said Polly, “don’t you think we could make a cunning little automobile if we tried ever so hard?”

“Y-e-s, we might if we could manage the wheels. They must be heavy and turn easily. It won’t be a real auto unless it can go whizzing.”

“Spools, spools!” she cried joyfully. “They will go as fast as lightning. See?” and jumping up she seized her workbasket, turned it upside down, found an empty spool, then dropped on her knees and sent the spool rolling across the hardwood floor.

“Spools are all right,” said Donald. “Now, can we make our motor car?”

“Well, here is the bristleboard, but I should think it would be best to make a paper pattern first, then we can alter it as much as we like. Donald, do you remember just how an automobile looks?” Polly inquired, with a giggle, for Donald’s hobby was to know all about automobiles, and he was sure he could drive one as well as an experienced chauffeur if he had the opportunity.

Donald disdained a reply. “Where is the brown wrapping paper for the patterns? Oh, here it is,” he said. “Now we will begin. Get the very largest spools you can find, Polly; two will be enough, but they must be the same size. Yes, these will do.”

The spools Polly selected were two inches high, an inch and a quarter across the ends and had quite slender shafts.

“But, after all,” objected Polly, “the spools don’t look like auto wheels.”

“That doesn’t matter; we will put the spools under the car and make show wheels for the outside. No one will notice, when we speed the car, that her outside wheels are not turning, They’ll appear to be.”

“Then what shall we use for show wheels?”

“Pill boxes will do. Look them up, Polly, while I make the auto frame to hold the spools. And, Polly,” he called, as she was leaving the room, “bring up some of those round, slender, little sticks I saw in the kitchen, will you?

“I guess you mean skewers. Jane uses them to pin meat together with. She got them from the butcher boy.”

“Whatever they are, I want them for axles.”

While Polly was gone Donald planned his auto frame, making it first of the wrapping paper, and without very accurate measurements. When she came back with the pill boxes and skewers, Donald slipped each of his two spools onto a skewer, fitted the skewer under the frame, rolled the frame on the table, and found his scheme would work. Then he took his pattern apart and spread it out in front of him.

“Queer looking thing, isn’t it?” remarked Polly. “Shall I draw it on the bristolboard and make it more exact?”

“Do,” said Donald, “and be sure you get both sides precisely alike and both ends precisely alike, else it won’t balance.”

Polly nodded. “I’ll begin with the oblong in the middle; that’s the floor, I suppose, then draw the sides and ends to fit.” So she fell to work while Donald perfected his pattern for the body of the car.

The center oblong Polly made seven and one-quarter inches long and two and three-quarters inches wide. (Fig. 1.)

“Be sure you make the sides and ends at right angles to one another,” cautioned Donald.

“Yes, dear,” said Polly, and she proceeded to draw the sides, making long oblongs one and one-half inches wide on either side of the large oblong, and for the ends she drew oblongs one and one-eighth inches wide across the entire width of the three long oblongs. “That simplifies things,” she explained, as she extended the side lines of the large oblong across the end oblongs. “Now I can cut it down where it needs cutting without losing the large proportions.”

Five-eighths of an inch from the outer edge of each of the sides she drew a horizontal line for the steps. (Figure 1.) This line is three and three-quarters inches long. It begins just one and three-quarters inches from one end of the side and ends one and three-quarters inches from the other end. Then Polly drew the short vertical lines from the edge to meet the ends of the horizontal line, which gave her the end of the steps. On either side of each step she drew an axle guard three-eighths of an inch high, with a base half an inch wide and top an inch and a quarter wide. “Now I will make the bend-over and the catch,” she said.

“That is a good name for it,” said Donald. “Half an inch will be wide enough for the ‘bend-over,’ and make the catch one-quarter of an inch wide after you have allowed a little space between it and the bend-over.”

“How much space?” inquired Polly.

“One-sixteenth of an inch will be wide enough, and don’t make the catch quite as long as the bend-over. Cut a little off at each end. (Figure 1.) Be careful about the slits in the ends of the frame, Polly. They must be just half an inch from each edge, because the bend-over is half an inch wide, and since you have made the necks of the catches half an inch wide the slits must be a little longer.”

“What are the slits on the steps for?”

“They are to hold the mud guards. Make them about three-eighths of an inch long and put a slit half an inch from end of each step.”

“That’s explicit,” commented Polly. “Shall I cut the frame out now?”

“Better first go over the lines you are to cut and make them quite heavy; then dot the lines to be bent, so that you won’t spoil it by cutting along the wrong lines.”

“Good advice; I’ll do that.”

When cut out the auto frame looked like Figure 1.

“I shall use my small scissors to cut the slits, Donald,” Polly said. “The knife is so apt to slip.”

Before bending the frame into shape Polly scored the dotted lines by drawing the blade of her knife lightly along their entire length, using a rule to keep the knife on the line. When the sides, ends and bend-overs were bent down Polly folded the ends of each catch inward, then lapped the bend-overs outside the ends, inserted each catch in its own particular slit, opened out the catches, and the ends and sides were held firmly and evenly in place. The catch A was put through the slit A, catch B through slit B, C through C and D through D. (Figure 1.) Then Polly bent the steps up to stand out at right angles from the sides. “I am ready for the spools,” she announced.