868 



Popular Science Monthly 



Straw bottle-casings and a tack-hammer 

 made this pleasant thatched garden-house 



A Summer-House from Straw 

 Bottle- Casings 



SHE was the thrifty wife of a restau- 

 rateur in a CaHfornia suburb and 

 the gardens about the establishment 

 made it a point of interest for motorists 

 from the city. The ambitious little lady 

 thought that a summer-house among 

 the palms and acacias would improve the 

 grounds, but building material was ex- 

 pensive and so was expert carpenter 

 hire. She was determined and practical. 

 "If I will furnish half the building ma- 

 terial, and half the labor, will you 

 furnish the other half?" she asked her 

 husband, and he agreed willingly to the 

 plan and thought nothing more of it 

 until he saw carpenters at work erecting 

 a very light skeleton of a summer-house. 

 It was a frame of the lightest and cheap- 

 est wood — a few slender uprights on a 

 circular ground plan and flexible half- 

 inch boards which could be bent about 

 them in a circle, the posts spaced four 

 inches with an allowance for a door and 

 a small window. It was a 

 half-day's work for two 

 men. "But that is no sum- 

 mer house!" the husband 

 exclaimed. "There is no shel- 

 ter there from wind or 

 sun. It's no better than 

 an onion crate!" 



"Wait and see," rejoined 

 his good wife. "My share 

 of t-he summer house has 

 not been contributed." She 



went down into the cellar. Presently she 

 emerged, bearing an armload of what 

 every one would call rubbish. The 

 straw casings of wine bottles had been 

 accumulating below for years, and her 

 husband had planned to burn them some 

 day. The straw was a nuisance, a fire 

 menace, and a possible hiding place for 

 rats. It proved to be anything but 

 rubbish. 



It was not damp or dirty, except for a 

 bit of dust that could be shaken off. 

 That clever wife immediately set about 

 tacking the straw casings upon the 

 frame of the summer-house. It was the 

 lightest sort of work, just a tap with 

 a tack hammer and the wisp of straw, 

 bound by its strands of twine, was in 

 place. The casings were overlapped 

 like shingles, so as to shed a light rain- 

 fall, and the roof was treated in the same 

 way, the peak being topped with half 

 a dozen casings bound into a conelike 

 ornament. When a round table and a 

 few chairs were set inside the summer 

 house, it turned out to be one of the 

 most popular corners of the place. 



A Water-Wagon in Actual Use 



A REAL water wagon, with passen- 

 gers, may be seen in the accompany- 

 ing illustration. These men are not on 

 the water wagon for moral purposes, 

 but are engaged in towing huge rafts 

 of lumber through the shallow water at 

 Carleton Point, Prince Edward Island. 

 One raft is visible at the extreme right 

 of the picture. The great weight of 

 lumber necessitates the employment of 

 six horses, which have become accus- 

 tomed to wading and seem to like it, 

 especially in hot weather. 



By means of this water wagon men and horses huge lumber 

 rafts are towed through the waters of Prince Edward Island 



