Lady Hollyhock and her Friends

The letter said, also, that in making her dolls this little girl always soaked the husks to soften them and to keep them from tearing while the dolls were being made.

In looking about for a name for the new visitor the children decided upon “Cornelia” as the name best suited to one of her nature and general makeup.

When Papa was asked to suggest a last name for the young lady from Nebraska he said he thought “Shucks” would probably be as appropriate as any other, so Cornelia Shucks she was called.

On the very day the young lady arrived the children hunted up some nice clean corn husks and put them to soak in warm water. There were thin white pieces which came next to the corn, and butter colored strips, and deep brown ones—variety enough for any doll’s wardrobe. After an hour or two of soaking, the husks were taken from the water and wiped as dry as possible and then they were ready.

After much examination of the fair Cornelia’s form and style of dress the little Wests were able to make quite respectable looking husk dolls. Of course, the first ones were a trifle clumsy, but after a while these children were able to make and dress lady dolls as fine as Cornelia Shucks herself.

The Corn Cob Baby

THE corn cob doll is a hardy little thing, able to endure the hardest usage.

It has no features, to speak of, and a dreadfully pock-marked face—yet no play baby is dearer to the heart of its owner than the corn cob baby.

Baby Bunnie gave her corn cob child a little more style than such babies usually have, by wrapping it about as babies are sometimes wrapped in foreign countries.

Red cobs were made into Indian babies, and bound into bark cradles, and hung up in the trees, like real papooses.

Apple Jack

FROM the Orchard came Apple Jack, a most agreeable gentleman.

Lady Hollyhock was not the only person who was proud to receive him. Everybody liked him, not alone for his engaging smile and pleasant manner but because of his goodness.

Then he could always be depended upon to stand by his friends, and the advice he gave was always of the best.

But we will let him tell his own story.

APPLE JACK’S STORY

Apple Jack is the name I bearAnd it suits me well, I ween;My home was once in an apple treeAmong the leaves so green.My head and body were separate thenWith never a stick between.Though both are now of the richest red,When young, like the leaves they were green.Each part of me swung on a separate boughThe whole long summer through—My color was changed by the sun’s warm raysI was washed by the rain and the dew.When the autumn came I had a great fallWhich was the making of me,For a boy chanced that way and took me upAnd made me the man you see.Though I never can do any work for this friendWho helped me to be what I am,I’ll stand by him through trouble and joyAnd always prove loyal and calm.If he should choose to take me inI would cause him never an ache,For, since he was the making of me,I’d go down for friendship’s sake.As long as on the earth I stayI will try to give him joy,With a beaming smile upon my faceI will always greet this boy.The world looks so funny through apple-seed eyes,To laugh is all I can do;And when I go, “Greet your friends with a smile”Is the message I leave to you.

The Peanut Man

THE Peanut Chinese man was made of eight peanuts—one for the head, one for the body, one for each arm and two for each leg. All had double kernels, except the one forming the head.

These peanuts were fastened together by heavy thread. The needle was run crosswise through the end of one nut; then through the end of the nut joining it, and the thread tied in a hard knot.

The face was drawn with a pen and ink. The back of the head and bottoms of the feet were solidly inked for hair and shoes and the cue was of braided black silk thread, sewed to the top of the head. Over the place where the cue was fastened, a disk of stiff paper was glued for a hat.

When crinkled tissue paper was gathered around the neck and arms to form a loose jacket and around the legs for wide trousers, the Peanut Chinese man was complete.

The Peanut Chinese Woman

THE Peanut Chinese woman was not dressed like a real Chinese woman. Living in America, she was beginning to like skirt-like gowns better than the baggy trousers of her own people. Her sleeves, too, had just a little of the American look.

But when it came to dressing her hair the real Chinese style suited her best. The heavy black silky loops were caught up and held in place by long pins such as she had used in her native land.

Her garments, like those of the Peanut Chinese man, were of crinkled tissue paper, though the little Wests pretended they were of silk.

They wanted these dolls to have silk clothing like real Chinese people, but as they did not have the goods, they just imagined that the paper was silk and were happy in the make-believe.

The Acorn Family

IN the autumn when the acorns began to fall the children found no end of amusement in making them up into all sorts of people and animals.

Some were converted into soldiers—Japanese, with blue kimonos and Russians with long fur overcoats—and often they were lined up for battle. Ruthlessly the children shot them down with bean shooters. Since their sympathies were with the Japs, of course the Russians suffered most, yet there were losses on both sides.

While the brown of the acorns suggested Japs and Filipenos, it was equally suggestive of our own negro people, so numbers of these were made with their blue checked gowns and red bandanas.

Then there were just ordinary acorn men and women, with acorn heads on toothpick necks, and bodies of twisted paper.

One attractive pair was dressed in corn-colored crinkled tissue paper. A round disk of the paper was pasted to the top of the head of each for the brim of a hat, and the cup of the acorn pasted over that for a crown. No prettier doll hats could be imagined.

The shoes these little people wore were of ink.

Everything the acorn family had was made, like themselves, of acorns. Their cups and saucers, their plates, their baskets, their tops, and their pigs, even, were of acorns.

Tom enjoyed the tops most. These were made by running slender toothpicks, or shoepegs, about halfway through the acorns which spun on their own points. Games were often played with these tops.

When any one wanted to know which army would be victorious in battle two tops were set spinning on a plate and each named for an opposing army. The one falling over first was defeated, of course. Sometimes one spun itself off the plate. That meant a retreat.

Disks of bright colored paper were often placed above the top on the toothpick or shoepeg. When red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet were used and all the tops set spinning at the same time, this meant that a rainbow had gone to pieces and each color was doing its best to get back into its proper place.

The Haws

THE members of the Haw family were not very different from those of the Acorn family. Why should they be? They had lived side by side in the same wood all their lives, and had grown up together under the same circumstances.

Their complexions were different, to be sure, but aside from this and the difference in the shape of their heads, they were built on exactly the same lines—round bodies, slender arms and legs.

Like the Acorn family some had perfectly stiff limbs, while others were provided with joints. The first were supposed to have rheumatism.

The only wonder is that they did not all have it, going about as they did, without any clothes, in all sorts of weather.

The Gourds

The little Wests each fancied a different style of doll. Eugenie liked dressed up visiting dolls, Florence played mother to baby dolls in long dresses, Tom liked what he called “funny fellows” and Indians, while baby Bunnie always insisted on her children keeping house.

Tom’s favorites, the funny fellows, came from the squash patch and gourd vines. It was not necessary to even dress these. All one had to do was to dip a match in ink and mark out faces on them.

These faces could be made either sunny and cheerful or sour and sad by changing the directions of the lines. Lines turning upward made the happy faces and those turning downward made the troubled ones.

The oval yellow gourds were made into fat men and Humpty Dumpties. These Tom used to make run races with each other by rolling them down hill. Which do you think always beat, the fattest and largest, or the smaller ones?

Because I had no arms and legsI used to grieve and cry.

Gourd Men

NONE of the Gourd men ever had the appearance of being either sensible or well behaved. But one ought not to expect sense and dignity from any of their race, for, all over the world, those who have neither are said to be as “green as a gourd.”

It was only the gourd babies who seemed to know anything at all about behaving properly. Strange as it may seem, the younger members of this awkward family were as sweet and quiet as any babies in the whole vegetable kingdom.

Some of these gourd children were made by using the large part for a head and putting a deep frill about the neck for a gown. This was held in place by a pin run through both gown and baby.

Others were made by using the slender part for a head and putting the same kind of a frill about the neck for a dress. The last kind could sit up as well as any real child.

It was the easiest thing in the world to make rhymes about these dolls—indeed the rhymes seemed to almost make themselves.

Now I’ve learned to roll about so wellI can pass all the peg-legs by.

What the Gourd Man Said

I’m as queer a fellowAs ever was seenWith face of yellowAnd hair of green.With seeds in the placeWhere my brain ought to be—You can’t expect muchFrom a fellow like me.

The Mender

A   STRANGE creature made of spools, a thimble, and needles was called “The Mender.” But it was not because he ever really did any mending. He never did anything but stand where he was put, in the stiffest way imaginable.

Even though he never did do anything, he was of some use in the world, for his very presence seemed to say, “A stitch in time saves nine.”

Hickory-Nut People

HICKORY nuts were rather hard to make into dolls, for it was almost impossible to make their heads stay on. But by putting close fitting caps on them under their bonnets, and bringing the cloth down and tying it at the neck with a string, this extended cap made a very good foundation for a body.

It was found that bonnets and long capes were the most becoming garments for these dolls, as they seemed to harmonize best with the caps.

Since Nuns and Nurses both dress in this way, the greater number of the Hickory-nut family turned out to be Nuns and Nurses.

The Hickory-Nut Nurse

The hickory-nut nurse has a hard, hard faceBut a heart that is tender and true;She could not change her looks, you know,And neither can I, or you.But we can be helpful and kind and goodTo all whom we meet and know,So they never will think of our looks at all,But of the goodness that lies below.

The Kelp Maiden

IN August Uncle John came all the way from California to make a visit at Hollyhock Place. The little Wests never tired of hearing him tell of the wonderful things that grew in that western land—of trees higher than church spires—of sea-gulls and pelicans—and of the queer California Woodpecker that bores holes in the trunks of dead trees and pounds an acorn into each hole for future use.

As the family sat out under the trees this jolly old uncle of theirs seemed to take as much interest in the funny home-made dolls as the children themselves did. It was he who showed them how to make the great fat-faced Humpty Dumpties out of the oval yellow “darning gourds” as Mamma called them.

And what fun they had making jingles—Uncle John and the little Wests. Songs he called them, and they were, too, for a tune always came with the words when he made them.

When their uncle left to go back to his California home the children missed him greatly and watched eagerly for the letter he promised them when he reached home. Two whole weeks passed before the letter arrived. When it came there was a small package with it.

What was in the package? There is no need to tell, the letter will explain. Here is the letter which made the children laugh as much as if Uncle John himself had been there telling them what he had written. Charlotte played and sang the song for them till they all learned it. But as I said, here is the letter:

San Diego, Calif.,September 1st, 1906.

My Dear Nieces and Nephew:—

What do you think?

Your Uncle John is getting the doll habit! Since I visited you half the things I see turn into dolls as I look at them, and I immediately begin to make songs or jingles about them just as you do. As I sit at the table the dishes even, take doll form in my mind. The plates seem to have great moon faces, while the sugar bowl seems to stand with shoulders thrown up and arms akimbo like an awkward china washerwoman. The knives, forks and spoons are almost human with their shining faces.

This morning as I passed a bake-shop and glanced in at the window, the cakes and buns seemed to laugh and wink at me with the fat faces of their bakers.

The doll I send you today was made of kelp by a little California girl. Kelp is a heavy leathery sort of sea-weed that washes ashore about here. There are great beds of it off the coast of California. It grows so thickly that it gives the water a brown appearance and the long leathery leaves are strong enough to bear up pelicans and other sea-birds that one often sees apparently standing on the water. Visitors to California often take home beautiful baskets and other things woven from strips of this strong leathery weed, which is brown on the outside and creamy white inside.

This little kelp maiden I got for you several days ago and as I have watched her standing on the mantel-piece with that dissatisfied look on her face, she seemed to sing this song to me, and as I listened I seemed to hear the plash and feel the rolling of the waves which used to rock her to sleep out on the kelp beds at sea.

I wonder if it will seem the same to you? I know she will be a warning to you against discontent which is sure to spoil the pleasure of anyone if it is allowed to get into his life.

I am hoping that the little kelp maid may grow cheerful through associating with Lady Hollyhock and her friends. They all have happy faces as I remember them—as happy as those of three cheery little nieces and a jolly little nephew of

Your affectionate,Uncle John.

The Kelp Maid's Song

I’m a little kelp maid.In kelp all arrayed.And once lived on the billowy waveWhere from morning till nightThrough days long and brightI rode on the crest of the wave.The smooth rolling crest of the wave.On a kelp bed at night.In the soft moonlight.Sweet lullabies soothed me to sleep.And through nights beyond compareMermaids combing silken hairSang lullabies to sooth me to sleep,Tender lullabies to sooth me to sleep.But I yearned for the landWith its shores of yellow sandWith a restlessness born of the sea.As I watched the distant shoreI longed to go there more and moreWith that restlessness born of the sea,That awful restlessness born of the sea.Till one momentous dayA wave carried me awayTo the land where I had always longed to beTo the strip of yellow sandOn the border of the landThe dry land where I’d always longed to be,The dry land where I’d always longed to be.But I am not happy yet.Now I long for the wet.For the soft soothing dampness of the waves.My gown once soft and fair to seeIs now as dry as dry can beWhich makes me sigh for the dampness of the waves,The soft soothing dampness of the waves.On a bit of kelp I standEver reaching out my handToward the kelp beds so far out at seaAnd for the mermaids’ songI listen all night longFor the songs of the mermaids at sea.Round the kelp beds far out at sea.Though I am doom’d to stayOn this dry land far awayMy heart ever turns toward the seaFor my awful discontentMy life in dryness must be spentWhile my heart ever turns toward the sea,Turns longingly out toward the sea.

Morning-Glory Ladies

MORNING-GLORY ladies were made by slipping a flower cup upside down over the stem of a seed pod, leaving the pod for a head. Morning-glory ladies always died young. Indeed, they hardly lived at all.

The spirits of these lost flower children were not only seen in the sunset skies but in the rainbow, too. And when the little Wests saw the great, beautiful bow in the sky, they always repeated the words of old Nokomis to Hiawatha:

“’Tis the heaven of flowers you see there,All the wild flowers of the forest,All the lilies of the prairie,When on earth they fade and perishBlossom in that heaven above us.”

Jack O’Lanterns

THE children planted pumpkin seeds early in the season and hoed and cared for the vines themselves, that they might have their own pumpkins for Hallowe’en, and what fun they had with them! And how delightfully scarey they were, when made into Jack O’Lanterns! Some one said they were pumpkin ghosts.

Two dreadful ones were placed on the gate posts to frighten Papa when he came home after dark. He guessed right away who had put them there.

Others were carried about on poles with sheets hanging about them, in solemn procession.

Pumpkin Pies

NOT all of the pumpkins were used for Jack O’Lanterns, though. Some were given to Mamma to make into delicious pumpkin pies.

Poor little Tom ate too much of the pies, and his greediness made him have frightful dreams and a terrible pain in his stomach.

The verses Cousin Charlotte and the others made about his dream made greedy Tom feel very much ashamed.

Jack O’Lantern Dreams

Once a greedy little boyAte too much pumpkin pie at night,And the awful dreams he hadMade his hair stand up in fright.Dreadful grinning pumpkin facesCrowded all around his bed,And every grinning pumpkin faceShowed a fire inside the head.“We are ghosts,” the faces shouted,“Of the pumpkins in those pies,If you had not been so greedy,We would not before you rise.”Then the dreadful firelit facesFaded slowly out of sight,But the awful pain inside himLasted nearly all the night.

Rastus Prune

RASTUS was a peculiar looking negro, with wrinkled face and goggle eyes.

Paper teeth with a red lip line running around them were fitted into a wrinkle of his prune face and fastened by a touch of mucilage. His paper eyes were fastened on in the same way.

With a light paper vest neatly fitted over his prune body and a paper collar round his peg neck he was as neat a colored gentleman as could be found anywhere.

Then his chamois-skin suit with hat to match, gave him such style as any one might be pleased to copy.

His checked trousers were his special pride, for they never bagged at the knees or got out of shape in any way. On this account he was perfectly satisfied to be a peg-leg.

His feet, though, gave him some trouble. They were always getting out of shape. Being made of raisins, an ordinary step was likely to make them swing round and look as though they would prefer to take him the other way.

But Rastus smiled on, thinking, no doubt, that this apparent deformity would prove a great convenience when it came to dancing a “backstep.”

Dinah Prune

DINAH, the mother of Rastus, was just a plain sensible colored woman, wearing a dark gown, and a bandana head dress.

Like most colored women of her age, she always wore a neat kerchief folded across her breast, and a large apron to protect her gown.

Though she was no beauty, she was good. All who knew her liked her, and the same might be said of her son.

Like him, she was made of prunes and toothpicks, and stood on raisin feet.

Pipe Dolls

Not all the dolls made by these children were of fruits, flowers and vegetables. In fact it was a poor scrap that they could not make into a satisfactory plaything. And not only the little Wests enjoyed them but Mamma was just as much interested in the making as were the children themselves.

One evening a little party of friends was gathered together at Hollyhock Place and for amusement Mamma gave each a clay pipe, a lead pencil, a square of white and a square of colored tissue paper and requested each guest to dress the pipe for a doll.

To some this, at first, seemed impossible. One or two gentlemen asked to be excused, but when they saw the others meeting with such success they, too, became interested and went to work. Nearly all used needles and thread, but a few were most successful with mucilage to hold their materials together.

It was funny to see the different expressions on those pipe faces. No two of them looked the least bit alike.

The minister’s wife did not use her colored paper at all, but from the white she made a long baby dress with a big bow in the back and a white cap with another big bow was made to cover the head. This baby had the tiniest little eyes, nose and mouth you could imagine.

Another lady made a clown of her pipe, using orange paper for his clown suit and pasting white circles all over it. This was a neater clown than one ever seeks in a circus, for he wore the freshest of white ruffles at his neck, wrists and ankles. The bump at the bottom of the pipe made the funniest of chin whiskers for this queer creature who could not keep from laughing at himself—and no wonder.

One of the ladies made her pipe into an old lady doll with folded kerchief and great tall cap. In this one the bump at the bottom of the pipe served as a nose—a large, ill shaped one to be sure, but a very good nose for all that.

A very dignified gentleman who was present said he always liked to see a lady wear a sun-bonnet, so he drew a face inside of his pipe and made lines outside for “slats” that used to be put in old fashioned sun-bonnets. A woman who would wear a sun-bonnet would, of course, wear an apron, so a large white apron was put on this doll. Her face was a pretty one, but her hands were large and clumsy, showing that she had done hard work in her day.

These last two dolls wore several full petticoats which enabled them to stand up like real people.

There were a number of other good ones, but why tell you about them, for I am sure you can make some just as good as the best of these.

Paper Dolls

THE paper dolls were more like real people than any of the others. They were made by cutting heads from colored picture cards or from magazines and pasting them on cardboard bodies. Then double dress patterns were folded and cut to slip over the heads of the dolls, and on these patterns were pasted gowns of tissue paper in all colors and styles.

The children were very particular about dressing their dolls in good taste, for they knew that by making neat, sensible doll clothes, they would learn how to dress themselves tastefully when they grew older.

The little girl dolls wore either plain gingham dresses with fresh white aprons, or simple white gowns. Their hats were plain, without feathers or flowers, as little girls’ hats should be.

Lady dolls wore dresses that were more elaborate. The colors in these always harmonized.

Pattern for paper doll’s dress and hat. The cut across the oval cardboard hat pattern fits over the top of the doll’s head.

Handkerchief Dolls

NO collection of make-believe would be complete without the handkerchief doll.

Surely she is a simple child, just an ordinary handkerchief rolled from each side toward the center, then the top turned down, and the corners pulled out and tied around the body for arms, leaving a stuffy little head at the top, and a long skirt at the bottom.

The handkerchief doll’s little brother is made to look a trifle different from her, by having the lower corners of the handkerchief, of which he is made, pulled out for feet.

Towel dolls are larger members of the same family.

Pill-Box Dolls

ONE of Baby Bunnie’s especial favorites was the handkerchief doll made over a round pill box. With a pencil a face was marked out on the box and around this a handkerchief was folded three-cornerwise and pinned under the chin.