My brother and I wanted a house. We had once had a wigwam of cut boughs, where we could live all day and give parties; but nobody volunteered to make us another, so we planned a house that we could make for ourselves, and that you can make for yourselves. He was eleven and I was thirteen. The only indispensable requisites are two or three large balls of strong string (strong cotton string will do), a quantity of morning-glory seed, a few tacks and small nails, some hempen cord or rope, and the use of spade, garden-fork, trowel, scissors, a penknife, an old table-knife, a tape-line, and perhaps a yard-stick, wheelbarrow, watering-pot, and

existence of this house that at no time in the summer are cows or horses to be let in upon it.

The plan grew as we worked, but I will give it to you complete.

The first thing to do, after getting the morningglory seeds, is to plant some in a box in the house, early in April or as soon after that as possible unless it is already warm weather in May, and time to plant corn; if so, plant them out-of-doors, according to directions, which will be given further on.

We found in a far-off corner of the yard, a tree, the lower boughs of which spread out horizontally eight or ten feet from the ground. The central peak of our main building was to be fastened on a firm part

dropped a plummet to find C, the middle point of its back-wall ground-line. From C to A, the floor-center of the main building, we stretched a string along the ground (A C, Fig. 6), fastening it at the ends, for the moment, with sticks. About two and one-half feet from this string, and parallel to it on the ground, we stretched and fastened two other strings, kx and d z, and another, xz, through C at right angles with them. Taking away string A C, we now had the three sides, k x, x z, and z d. We marked them out with sticks, and then took away the strings. We made another thirty-inch door-space at i (Fig. 7).

C

Also at o, about opposite the tree trunk, we made a door-space

Fig. 8.

we laid out a circle, marking it

closely with sticks stuck in the

ground (see Fig. 4).

We found another good point, on a bough (T, Fig. 13, 14, or 15), at which to fasten the peak of our second, smaller, circular room, and drove in there a second pair of tacks. Between these two tack-marked points on the boughs (see R and T, Fig. 13), we stretched a large hemp cord very tight and fastened it, nailing it firm when tying proved not sufficient. Dropping the plummet from T, we found our second center, B (Fig. 5). Drawing a straight line between A and B, we marked e on the big circle, and pulled up the row of sticks for fifteen inches on cach side of e,

thirty-six inches wide.

Our line of marking sticks now stood as in Fig. 7, H being the tree trunk.

The shape of our tree decided somewhat the plan of our house, and the plan of yours may be settled likewise; but the remaining directions can prob

ably be followed very closely.

Two inches outside of the row of sticks, mark another line all around by cutting through the sod, and eight inches beyond that still another. (Sharpen your knife on any stone if it does not cut the sod easily.) Then take spade and trowel and remove the sod entirely from between these two outer lines, carefully squaring at each side of the front door space the ends of this long winding flower-bed,—or vine-bed, as we now may call it (see Fig. 8); also, at each of the four square dots, s, m, n, u, Fig. 7, inside the doors of the lesser rooms, cut out a patch of sod about eight inches long and six inches wide; the shape of the walls making these little beds necessary, as you will find out when the vines grow up. Now spade up your beds, and fill them with some rich earth and whatever fertilizer the gardener advises, used in just the quantity and way that he advises. This is the stage at which seeds should be planted. (See directions, page 547.)

Next get about one hundred small, strong, forked sticks, one end of the fork being perhaps six inches long, and the other only one or two. The

Fig. 81⁄2

2 IN.

bough between the tacks at R, letting the knot come underneath. Then extend the string to the first pebble, c, on the side of door-space e, wind it securely around the fork placed at that point, but without cutting it, and then let it be put first under the bough and then over (see Fig. 3) at R, between the tacks again; then extend it to the first pebble, s (of Fig. 9), on the side of door-space i, fork it in, hand it up again, let it be put over the bough in the same place, always crossing underneath in the same way; fork it in at pebble v, put it over the bough again; then to pebble v, and so on till you complete this small section of wall between the two doors. Now, with a pin, fasten your string to the mass of strings on the bough; you would better not cut it, especially as you must find out, by experimenting on this small section of wall, how tightly to pull the upright strings. They will answer for a wall if left straight as they are, and, being double, will be quite strong (see Fig. 10). Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 have only one door each, that you may better see the styles of wall; but, tied together, two and two alternately, into diamonds, as shown in Fig.

Fig. 10.

R

and be patient in selecting the best. Long hairpins might be made to answer. Make the main building first. Lay pebbles or some such easy markers, six inches apart, around the big circle, except in the door-spaces. A trifling increasing or lessening of the door spaces will make the pebbles come evenly. (See Fig. 9.) (You need not regard the number of dots or strings in any of these diagrams. They vary, and are necessarily less than they need be in the house. But pay attention to the measurements here given.) Now stand upon a step-ladder or chair, or, if there are two of you, one may be able to sit upon the bough itself and tie the end of the string over the

VOL. XII.-35.

11, the strings make a much firmer and much prettier house. If you mean to tie yours so, the upright strings will need to be pulled less tightly than if they were to be left straight. Try the tying upon this section (using one of the other balls of cord) till you learn how to do it and just how tight to make the upright strings. Don't begrudge altering this little piece of wall till you get it right. If you can not understand by Fig. 12 how to do the tying, your mother can explain it to you. Make the first tying seven inches above the ground, the next one seven inches above that, and so up, as near to the peak as is possible. Do not by any means draw your tying-string too tightly between

When the small section is finished, extend your string, which was left pinned, down to pebble w (Fig. 9), up again to R, then down to pebbler, up again, then down to pebble z, then up, then to pebble k, and so on till you have made the last upright, tied the string, and cut it off; having been very careful all the time to pull it only as tightly as you found by your experimenting would be right.

When the main building is finished, lay your pebble markers around the small circle, letting the side strings of the door e, now in place, be the

ing all these strings into the two last intervals, at each side of the door (see dotted lines, Fig. 15). For the square room (Fig. 16), in placing the pebble markers, begin at the two back corners, xand z, Fig. 7, and arrange the pebbles proportionately in x, C, z, by altering their distances apart, if necessary, but not by altering the corners; then place them from r and z, along the two sides, 6 inches apart, not caring as to the distance of the last ones from the main building walls.

The strings of the back wall of the square room, Fig. 17, all pass over the bough above at G (Fig. 16 or 18), between the tacks. Tie your string there, extend it down to u, Fig. 17, then up, then to v, then up, then to x, and so on. When the back wall is done and the string has been finally put over the bough, carry it along the bough 6 inches and tie, then down to the first pebble of one side, then up, then down on the other side, and so proceed (Fig. 18 or 16), as was done in the part last made of the small circular room, until this square room is finished.

If you wish a square room, and have no bough suitable for a ridge-pole, you can doubtless stretch a hempen cord or rope from R to some bough, or wall, or post, so as to answer for one. It improves the house greatly to break, in some such way, the sameness of its architecture.

When the whole house is made, and the dia

C

the hempen cord and tie it to the cord at a point n, six inches from T (see Fig. 13). Then extend it down to the next pebble on one side, g (Fig. 14), fork it in, and carry it back over the hempen cord at the same point, n, to the corresponding pebble, u, on the other side; then carry it up and tie it at the same point, n. If this puzzles you, have some one show you how to tie it so as to hold in place the two double strings which meet here. Then go six inches further out along the hempen cord to m, and tie; and then down-and so on till all the pebble places are used up. Continue going out along the hempen cord six inches at a

monds tied, one stout string very tightly drawn should be put at the sides of each door, passing, crossed like the others, over the bough above, between the tacks, and fastened very firmly in the ground, as close to the original side strings as possible. Rope would be even better than string, especially for the front door; or perhaps two fishing rods, if you do not mind the expense. To these new lintels tie or secure the original sides of the doors, in some neat way, (e. g. Fig. 19.) Finally, lace a string across the top of each door (as a shoe is laced) for a short distance (see Fig. 19), making the door six and a half feet high.