nd this game is called
'Recondite Forms' because-- But you will understand it better after you
have played it. I want pencils and some rather thin paper."

Bob and Mamie collected the pencils, I brought a supply of French
note-paper from my desk, and we all drew our chairs about the table,
ready for work.

[Illustration]

Papa took a pencil, and made a kind of wiggle, like No. 1 in the
picture; then he laid over that another sheet of paper, which was thin
enough to allow the pencil mark to show through; this he carefully
traced, so as to have an exact copy, and did the same with two other
sheets; then gave us each one, and told us to see what kind of a picture
we could make out of it; we might add to the line as much as we pleased,
but we must not alter nor cross it.

"Oh," said Bob, "I don't know what to make!"

"Hush!" said Mamie; "I want to think."

Then silence reigned--at first puzzled, but afterward busy.

"I've got it!" shouted Bob, dropping his pencil.

"So've I," echoed Mamie.

"Now for a grand exhibition!" said papa, collecting the papers, and
laying them in a row on the table.

Bob had made a parrot out of his "wiggle," papa a graceful floating
figure, Mamie a high-heeled shoe, and I a fool with cap and bells.

"Now," said papa, "do you see why this is called 'Recondite Forms'? In
this first line all the other figures were hidden, and it took only a
few pencil strokes to bring them out."

"Yes, I see," said Bob. "Now let's try some more wiggles."

"Wiggles!" said papa; "I don't know but that's a better name than the
other."

"Oh yes; re-con-dite is awful hard," said Mamie.

"Wiggles it is, then," said papa.

And "wiggles" it has been ever since. I will add, for the benefit of
those outside my own small circle, that instead of French note-paper,
the common white wrapping-paper, such as grocers use in tying up parcels
of tea, is just as good for the purpose, and a great deal cheaper. With
several sheets of this, and two or three lead-pencils, "wiggles" may be
played for a whole evening.

In the picture No. 6 is a new "wiggle" for _you_ to try your hand upon.
See what you can make of it, and in the next number I will give you _my_
idea.

* * * * *

=Hats.=--The felt hat is as old as Homer. The Greeks made them in
skull-caps, conical, truncated, narrow, or broad-brimmed. The Phrygian
bonnet was an elevated cap without a brim, the apex turned over in
front.