NITURE

A HANDFUL of straws, such as are used for lemonade and soda-water,
several large sheets of writing-paper, and some small-sized pins--these
are your materials. A pair of sharp scissors, a ruler marked off into
whole, half, and quarter inches, and a lead pencil--these are your
tools.

[Illustration: FIG. 17--The old-fashioned bedstead.]

We will begin with the old-fashioned four-post bedstead with its canopy
and valances (Fig. 17). It is easily put together, but you must be
careful to cut the straws for the posts all exactly the same length,
making them about seven inches long, and to have your measurements for
the other parts quite correct, in order that the bedstead may stand
perfectly upright. Select four straight straws for the posts--sound and
whole. Split straws will not do.

The mattress and canopy are exactly alike; each has its valance, and
they are just the same size; so directions for one will answer for both.
Cut an oblong of writing-paper eight and a half inches long and six and
a half inches wide. Be sure that the ends and side edges form perfect
right angles; if they do not, the bed will be crooked. The edges of your
sheet of writing-paper are at right angles to one another, and if you
use the top edge of your paper for the top edge of your oblong, and the
side edge of the paper for one side edge of your oblong, the rest will
come out all right.

[Illustration: FIG. 18--The mattress and canopy.]

Now draw perfectly straight lines across your oblong from top to bottom,
just one and a half inches from each edge (Fig. 18). Then from side to
side draw two more straight lines; the first one and a half inches below
the top edge and the other one and a half inches above the bottom edge.
This gives the mattress with a border all around. In each corner of the
mattress, a little more than a quarter of an inch from the end and side
lines, draw a small cross as shown in Fig. 18. Be sure these crosses are
placed correctly, and are exactly alike in mattress and canopy. Now cut
out the four squares at the corners of the oblong, as indicated by the
heavy lines in Fig. 18, and insert the point of your scissors in the
centre of each little cross and snip along each line of the cross. Do
not make the slashes too deep.

Cut the edges of the border, or valance, into small points, as in Fig.
17; then bend the valance down at the sides and ends of the mattress.
The dotted lines in the diagrams show where to bend