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THINGS TO MAKE OF COMMON GRASSES

A Grasshopper-House

MAMMY, make me a grasshopper-house."

"Go 'long, chile, I done got 'nough to do 'thout makin' no hoppergrass-houses."

"Please, mammy, only one, and then I can make them for myself. I'll watch you just as close. Won't you, mammy?"

"Pick me some grasses, then; I 'low I has to, but don't yo' come pesterin' me no more after this time.

"Seed-top grasses, honey, seed-top grasses; don't git me none of them blade kind. Ketch hol' near the top and pull 'em up slow like, then they'll come out nice and smooth, an' leave they ole rough skins behind, just like a eel does when you skins him. That's it, you got 'nough now; bring 'em 'long here an' we'll make the hoppergrass-house.

"Hol' your own hand, honey, you'll learn best that-a-way. Can't forgit the feelin' of it once you build it on yo' fingers.

Fig. 62.—Put the grass around your middle finger with the end inside.	Fig. 63.—Lay the next grass across the first.
Fig. 64.—Bend back the ends of the first grass.	Fig. 65.—Put the next grass across your hand.

Fig. 66.—Bend back the second grass ends like the first.

"Take one piece o' grass an' put it round yo' middle finger with the ends inside like this (Fig. 62). Now lay the next piece right across the first (Fig. 63), an' bend back the ends of the first grass over the tother an' tuck 'em 'tween yo' fingers just like that (Fig. 64). Put the next grass across yo' hand (Fig. 65), an' take up the second grass-ends, bendin' 'em back to keep company with first grass-ends. That makes another bar (Fig. 66). Now yo' do it an' let mammy see how yo' git along. That's right, lay the grass across an' put the under ends back ev'ry time. How many bars has yo' got now? Six? That's 'nough fo' any hoppergrass, an' is as many as yo' little hand can hol' anyway.

"Now slip it offen yo' fingers, bring the ends together an' tie with a blade o' grass just above these here blossom ends (see illustration). There now, yo' done made a hoppergrass-house, an' don' yo' come askin' yo' ole mammy to stop her work no more."

That is the way the little girls and boys in the South are taught to make the grasshopper-houses, by the old colored "mammies." They are funny little cages, and, of course, will not hold a grasshopper or any other insect, but we like to imagine they will.

The grasshopper-house

There are other things to make of grasses, any one of them requiring only a few moments' work, and it is a pretty, quiet occupation for restless little fingers. Sitting in the orchard, nestling like little partridges amid the tall grasses, all your materials are close at hand. Reach out and gather some of the long-bladed grass, and we will make

A Doll's Hammock.

Fig. 67.—Tie them together at the root ends.

Fig. 68.—Lift two of the grasses and tie them together.

Fig. 69.—Tie them all in pairs.

Fig. 70.—Make the knots of the second row one inch below the first row.

The grass hammock.

Some of this grass measures twenty-five inches in length. It does not grow on stalks, but the blade appears to spring directly from the root, and it is smooth and pliable. You may find orchard-grass almost any where, generally in neglected corners and close to fences where the scythe does not reach.

Take eight or ten of the blades of this grass and tie them together at the root-ends as in Fig. 67, drawing the knot tight as in Fig. 68. Stick a pin through just below the knot and fasten to your knee; then lift two of the grasses at the right-hand side, and tie them together about one inch below the pin (Fig. 68). Tie the next two grasses together in the same manner, the next, and the next, until you have tied them all in pairs (Fig. 69). Make the second row by separating the pairs of the first and tying one grass of one pair to the neighboring grass of the next pair, making the knots one inch below the first row. This leaves the first and last grasses hanging loose (Fig. 70). On the third row the first and last grasses are tied in once more (Fig. 70). On the fourth they are left again, and so they alternate until the hammock is finished. Keep the rows of knots at even distances apart, and make the hammock as long as the length of the grass will allow. Leave about three inches of the grass below the last row of knots, and then tie the ends together as in the illustration. Swing the little hammock between the low-hanging branches of a tree; put your dolly in it and let the summer breezes rock her to sleep while you sing:

Rock-a-by baby in the tree-top.

A very pretty

Bouquet-Holder

can be made of seed-grasses and one long blade of grass. In this you may carry the most delicate wild flowers and ferns without wilting them by the warmth of your hand.

Bouquet-holder made of seed-grass.

Fig. 71.—Bunch together the seed-grass stalks.

Bunch together seven fine, strong seed-grass stalks and tie just below the blossoms, with the root-end of your long-blade grass (Fig. 71). The stems of the seed-grasses are the spokes, the long grass the weaver. Turn the blossom-ends down, the stem-ends up, and close to where it is tied, begin to weave the long grass in and out, under one spoke, over the next, under the third, over the fourth, going around and around spirally until the end of the weaver is reached, then tie it to one of the spokes. Keep forcing the spokes farther and farther apart as you weave until the holder is shaped like a cone. As you see in the illustration, the weaver never passes over one of the spokes twice in succession. In one row it goes over a spoke, in the next row under it, in the third over again, and so on. In order that it may always come this way you must have an uneven number of spokes. Four will not do, nor six, nor eight, but five, seven, or nine spokes will bring the weave out all right.