Mother Nature's Toy-Shop

table house in summer, and it is always summer in the Philippines, but we never see that kind of houses here. One reason is because in most of our country a grass house would

since you cannot have a real one you can have the fun of making a little doll Filipino house, and of making it exactly as the

trees, but often they are built on stilts to lift them high from the ground. Our little house (Fig. 50) shall be on s

Fl

cut six and a half inches long, then two sticks of the same kind five inches long; after that

eir houses; they bind and tie the parts together with rattan, and as we are going to build just as t

ttle Grass Hous

distance below the top with a five-inch-round stick (letter K, Fig. 51). The distance from the top of the uprig

in binding t

ia over and between the

hem. This will lash them firmly together. Now turn this beginning of your floor around so that the short stick will be upright and the long one extend from side to side. Do not let the binding loosen; hold it tight and cross the long stick with one of the split five-inch

icks, bringing J in

raffia over

g raffia across fr

bind the other six-and-a-half-inch long stick under the opposite ends of the crosspieces in the same way, and just as carefully (Fig. 56). This makes the floor and we must lash it to the stilts, which are four upright sticks, each seven and one half inches long. Fit the st

Wa

two sticks, each six and a half inches long, one stick on each side. Across these

ke the floo

e

and these sticks must be bound and tied to the middle of the end sticks of t

h the floor

r more poles making

out seven inches long, and it is to be tied to the uprights lettered L and L that you have just fastened on the two ends of the house. (See Fig. 59, L and L.) Four other sticks, M and M and N and N, long enou

Po

much larger than the one you make of an acorn. I have never seen him on his porch, but I have seen him smoke and afterward tuck his pi

es are added to

the way the house

the porch, and let the roof cover that as well as the house. To do this we must separate the house part from the porch part by putting up two more uprights, one on each side, a little way back from the front of the house, and these uprights will

s instead of palms

wood to bind down

tch

had to use small sticks for the framework instead of bamboo

. Have the stem ends inside the house hang down as long as the tip ends on the outside, and let the outside ends hang down below the edge of the floor; then take a flat strip of wood and place it near the top of the grass-covered wall, bend the ends a little and slide them back of the uprights (Fig. 62). Sm

after being tha

exactly how the

grass over rid

fia to bind it; hang more grass over the stick or rafter, and tie it into another tassel, and with the same piece of raffia tie a third tassel (Fig.

g the side wall of the house, and tie the ends securely to the slanting sticks of the roof. Thatch another rafter and fasten it on the opposite side of the roof, t

tirely fill up the ends of the roof made by the peak. Now hang grass over the ridge-pole at the top of the roof as you would hang your doll's little sheets on your toy clothes-line (Fig. 65), and bring the ends down over the thatc

ht do, or should all else fail, take fine broom-straws softened in hot water for the thatch, and use loosely twisted string for binding an

La

ad of stairs to reach their living-room, so

adder will be

d be one and three-quarter inches long. Bind and tie the ends of the rungs to the side sticks (Fig. 66), placing them about three-quarters of an inch apart

worth admiring, for the house will be a perfect miniature Filipino home, and you may imagine you can see tall cocoanut-palms and many other strange

s can represent water not far from the house, and here you should have a crocodile sunning himself on the bank. Let a wild boar be plunging out of the jungle, and deep in the bamboo grove you might hide the tremendously large snake calle

ard you bringing small snakes which they had caught to sell in the towns for rat-catchers. And near the house there would be

ere the queer water-buffalo, called a carabao, would be drawing a strange-looking plough,

s striking with his big club in slow, heavy blows on one of its immense, wall-like roots. The

Filipin

ite waist with flowing sleeves, a light-colored skirt, a large gay handkerchief, called a pa?uelo, folded around the doll's neck, and an overskirt made of a square of dark c