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Whistles. |
248 What Shall We Do Now?
twist up again. If held just over a basin of water, the notches will send spray a great distance, but you must be careful to dip them only when the cut-water is revolving away from you, or you will be soaked.
With a sharp knife a very good whistle can be made of hazel or willow, cut in the spring or early summer. A piece of wood about three inches long should be used. Remember what an ordinary tin whistle is like, and cut the mouthpiece at a similar angle, and also cut a little nick out of the bark, in the place of the hole immediately beyond the mouthpiece in the metal instrument. Then cut all round the bark about an inch from the other end of the stick, hold the bark firmly with one hand clasped round it, and hold the inch at the opposite end firmly with the fingers of the other, and pull. The greater portion of bark should slide off quite easily. You will then have a tube of bark about two inches long, and a white stick about three inches long, with an inch of bark remaining on it. Cut from the mouthpiece end of this stick as much as exactly fits between the end and the little nick in the bark which you have already made. Shave the top until it is fiat (just as in an ordinary whistle), and place it inside the bark again. Then cut off from the white part of the stick all but a quarter of an inch : fit this into the other end of the bark tube, and you ought to get a good shrill whistle. It will be better if you keep a pea inside.
Christmas
Getting ready for Christmas is almost as good as Christmas itself. The decorations can be either natural or artificial, or a mixture of both. In using evergreens for ropes, it is best to have a foundation of real cord of the required length, and tie the pieces of shrub and ivy to it, either with string or floral wire. This prevents any chance of its breaking. For a garland or any device |
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Evergreen decorations. |
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