MECHANICAL TOYS 385 



ing things about stamp collecting and other countries. 

 Sometimes you can have a stamp auction, or an exchange, 

 and thus make an evening pass very pleasantly indeed. 

 Be sure, if you have been given an old collection by some 

 relative or friend collected years ago, that you do not give 

 away or sell cheaply the one or two valuable stamps that 

 may be contained in the collection. The best way to keep 

 a collection is to buy a cheap blank book with places for 

 the stamps and to have a catalog. In this way one can 

 insert the stamps where they belong. 



Mechanical toys. Not all of us can afford some of 

 the expensive mechanical railroad trains, boats, sub- 

 marines, and airplanes that we see nowadays, but almost 

 any boy can make a start by purchasing one of the 

 many erecting devices found in the stores to-day, such 

 as Meccano and Erecto. These are instructive as well 

 as interesting as toys, because we can actually build some 

 of the things that we see planned or read about, and if we 

 cannot afford such toys, a few simple tools and a tool box 

 will give us more real enjoyment than almost anything 

 else, for who does not like to make things. It is for this 

 reason that we played with blocks when we were younger, 

 and boys and girls twelve to fifteen years old like to make 

 things, too. Perhaps it is dolls' dresses, or it may be a 

 model airplane and mechanical engines and boats ; these 

 are interesting because through the use of them we learn 

 something about the real machines we shall meet in later 

 life. Some boys have given to them year after year the 

 various parts of a toy railroad, and in time will have tracks, 

 stations, bridges, and turn tables, block signals, and 

 switches, and models of steam and electric locomotives. 

 These boys will study and understand the working and the 



H.-WHIT. CIV. SCI. IN THE HOME 2$ 



