THE .RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1415 
Things for the Baby 
Baby Comforts in the Sandwich Islands. 
The Packing-box Crib.—The packing- 
box is 36 inches long, 19 inches wide and 
eight inches deep. The legs and top 
frames arc made from door “rabbit 
strips.” which lumber yards sell, smooth 
on all four sides, inches. The 
legs are 36 inches long, nailed to the 
ends of the box at the corners. They 
extend up to the top of the box and thus 
Packing-Box Crib. 
hold the top frame in place. The short 
legs of the top frame are not nailed at 
the corners of the frame, but just enough 
in from the corner to slide down the 
end of the box inside the box legs. This 
holds it very securely. The top of the 
frame is seven inches above the top of 
the box. The frame lifts on and off, and 
serves to hold the netting when the baby 
sleeps, and to keep the baby from falling 
out when it is old enough to pull itself 
up in the crib. The sharp edges of the 
lumber are rounded a little with sand¬ 
paper, a plane or a file. 
The Crib Bed.—The bed is a woven 
wire bed spring on a wood frame, the 
size for a single bed, 3x6 feet. It is 
mounted on short legs which bring the 
top of the mattress 18 inches from the 
flooi\ The slats are door “rabbit strips,” 
y 2 xiy 2 inches, 36 inches long and 
spaced six inches apart, center to center. 
The top rail is %x3 inches, smooth on 
all four sides (as are the slats also) 
The bottom rail of the sides is the same 
as the top, but there is no bottom rail 
at the ends—the slats are nailed to the 
bed springs. The center partition lifts 
out, and both sides lift off. It is only 
the work of a moment, therefore, to con¬ 
vert the crib into a single bed with the 
two slatted ends sticking up for head- 
board and footboard. One side or the 
other is lifted off, too, in making the 
bed and attending to the children. The 
picture in fourth column shows where 
side fastens to end when the side is in 
place. At each of its ends the lower half 
of the top rail of the sides is cut away 
to fit onto the end of the top rail of the 
end pieces, which is cut away to receive 
it. A nail in the top rail of the end 
piece fits into a hole in the top rail of 
the side and thus holds the side in place. 
At the bottom a block is nailed to the 
bed spring, and a nail in the top of this 
slips into a hole in the bottom of the 
bottom rail of the side. 
No special bedding is required, the 
regular bedding for a single bed does 
very well, running under the center parti¬ 
tion. The children sleep with their feet 
toward the center, and a head out at 
each end. The sharp edges of the lumber 
are rounded a little with sand paper, a 
plane or a file. reader. 
A Baby Pen. 
The problem of how to keep the creep¬ 
ing babe from taking cold on the floor 
in Winter was satisfactorily solved by 
one young mother in the manner illus¬ 
trated. The box was carefully smoothed 
wherever the tender little hands might 
come in contact. The better parts of old 
confortables, cut to fit and covered with 
strong material, make easily laundered 
pads for the bottom that add to the com¬ 
fort and warmth of the little pen. Casters 
at the corners would make it more easily 
moved about, and the slight elevation 
gained thereby would add to the warmth 
where a room is heated by a stove. The 
more expensive baby pens handled by 
furniture dealers might be more satis¬ 
factory, because baby can see what is 
going on around him or play peep with 
mother while sitting down, but they do 
not afford as good protection from drafts. 
“Oh, it’s cruel to keep a baby penned 
up like that,” I once heard a woman 
say. I lost no time in explaining to her 
that she was wasting her sympathy. If 
baby has never had the range of the 
house, lie will be happier in his box, sur¬ 
rounded by his playthings, than any¬ 
where else you can put him. Moreover, 
he is safe. How often we hear of a little 
one toddling or creeping to the fire, 
clutching the corner of a table cloth and 
pulling a coffee pot or in some other 
manner bringing upon itself painful, if 
not fatal injuries. It is not cruelty to 
protect a child from things like this 
until it is old enough to understand the 
meaning of danger. MARY caldwell. 
Ohio. 
School Lunches. 
(1) Brown bread and butter sandwich, 
ham sandwich, apples and water or milk. 
(2) Cottage cheese sandwich, bread and 
butter sandwich, apple sauce, and a bot¬ 
tle of lemonade. (3) Deviled eggs, 
stewed prunes, nuts, bread and butter 
sandwiches, and a bottle of milk. (4) 
Chicken sandwich and jam sandwich, a 
small slice of pickle, an apple, and a 
small piece of cake with some crackers 
and apples thrown in for recesses. (5) 
Beef stew, cookies, -apples, lettuce or 
{Jain bread and butter sandwich. Meat 
substitutes are used instead of meat in 
some of these lunches, and celery or 
other similar appetizing food may be 
added if it is available. bab bell. 
Missouri College of Agriculture. 
Playing Doctor. 
Living out here on the farm where 
a doctor’s visit means so much a mile, 
it has behooved me to learn to recognize 
sickness in its earliest stage. I believe 
that I have saved our little family from 
several severe illnesses, and I am sure 
that I have saved the family purse from 
many a drain. I believe in doctering well 
children; that is, often during the time 
I spend with the children during their 
hour in the evening, we play “doctor.” 
Usually I am the doctor and I prescribe 
all sorts of remedies after taking their 
temperatures and having examined their 
throats by the aid of my electric “push” 
light. I find that it is advisable for them 
to swallow several large-sized sugar pills, 
and they must do so at one sv'allow, so 
that when they really are obliged to take 
a bittersweet pill they will know how to 
get it down quickly. 
Their noses are sprayed with a vapor 
spray and each night they gargle their 
throats with a simple solution of water 
and salt or listerine or glyco-thymoline. 
By the aid of a dental mouth mirror I 
keep good track of the defects in their 
teeth. 
In just this “play doctor” way I have 
once or twice run across a suspicious- 
looking throat, and often have I come to 
know that one of them had a higher tem¬ 
perature than was right. Besides pre¬ 
tending illness, the chlidren, on the very 
few occasions when they have really re¬ 
quired the services of a physician, have 
met him more than half way in his treat¬ 
ment of them and in no way did they 
counteract the good he was trying to do 
them by getting excited or running up 
an abnormal temperature because they 
had to have the doctor. 
Iowa. MRS. c. A. RIIOADS. 
Two Uses for Corks. 
My kitchen table stands in a place 
conveniently near the stove, and by a 
window, but the outside door, when open, 
strikes the end of the table, which mars 
the door. A rubber cork nailed to the 
table at the point of contact corrects 
the trouble. 
A writing table in my den is of the 
right size and shape, but the legs were 
too short. It needs to be stable and is 
seldom moved about. The ends of the 
legs, moreover, were too small to admit 
of casters, so a big cork, l 1 /^ inches long, 
was nailed to the bottom of each leg. 
The table now stands firmly, and is of 
the desired height. E. F. M. 
Organizing Woman’s Work. 
I was reading Mrs. D. B. P.’s letter 
on page 1250, regarding her work, and 
as she asks for a remedy, I thought per¬ 
haps I could help her from my experi¬ 
ence. My husband also is busy with 
field work, and the children (boys) are 
in school, except the youngest, so we 
are situated alike in that respect, but 
she says she trots to the potato patch, 
I don’t; the seven-year-old boy goes down 
and digs a pail of potatoes for me when 
he gets home from school, and his father 
carries them up when he comes from the 
field. She brings her own wood; my 
boys have a cart and draw the wood from 
the wood pile to the house, and then 
altogether make short work of getting 
it into the wood box, even little three- 
year-old proudly marching in with two 
or three sticks in his little arms. My 
nine-year-old boy takes all the care of 
the hens, and of the chickens after they 
get well started. He has some for his 
very own also, which helps to keep him 
interested. And as for gathering the 
nuts, they think it is jolly good fun on 
Saturdays to take their pails and sacks 
and gather the nuts, then Daddy hitches 
up the horse and goes after them and 
brings back the well-filled sacks and the 
happy boys, who know that when the 
extra ones are sold they will have their 
share of the money. 
As for ironing why does she try to 
iron so much? If sheets are hung 
straight and smooth on the line they will 
not need ironing; pillow cases, towels and 
underwear can be folded smooth and run 
through the wringer after they are taken 
from the line, and will be just as good 
as if she had spent hours ironing them. 
She says “cheap, shoddy goods keep 
her chained to the sewing machine.” Why 
does she buy that kind, then? The bet¬ 
ter grade is far cheaper in the end. One 
gingham apron will out-wear three calico 
ones, and there is but a few cents dif¬ 
ference in the price. When tempted to 
buy the cheaper goods stop and ask your¬ 
self, will this last as long according to 
the price as a better quality would? It 
takes just as much work to make a dress 
or apron from five-cent calico as from 
nine-cent gingham, and when the calico 
dress is worn out the gingham would 
still be whole and good. She says she 
trots to the hog lot and the calf lot. 
What for? Surely if her children are in 
school they are big enough to feed the 
calves and hogs, but don’t, I beg, ask 
them to carry old wooden pails to feed 
from. Get some 12-quart galvanized 
water pails and then fill them only part 
full. Then they are light enough for 
them to handle, and if they have a calf 
or pig for their very own just see how 
willingly they will feed yours in return 
for the feed their calf and pig eats. Then 
when their calf or pig is sold be sure 
that they have the money. c. II. 
My Home Kindergarten. 
We live on a homestead in the north 
of Montana, three miles from school and 
half a mile from the nearest neighbor. 
My little boys of five and three years 
are enjoying a course of kindergarten 
work at home with mother for the teacher. 
Having been a primary teacher before 
my marriage I realized that their active 
minds and busy fingers would delight in 
the tasks which the tots back East found 
in the kindergarten. We have a pro¬ 
gramme of work which is as follows to 
be covered during the Winter: 
Literature and expression : 
Stories, old fables and tales and Bible. 
.Tingles and poems and Bible verses. 
Songs, story plays. 
Hand work : 
Sewing cards. 
Paper cutting and pasting. 
Drawing and coloring. 
Bead stringing, weaving. 
Writing figures and letters. 
Paper folding. 
Industries: 
Farming operations, gardening. 
Household tasks. 
Helping father and mother. 
Caring for animal pets, etc. 
Nature study : 
Air, sun, sky, birds, animals. 
Pets, seeds, fruit, flowers. 
It is necessary to do without buying, 
so the only expenses have been pads and 
pencils and some colors, either crayons 
or water colors. The sewing cards are 
easily made from pasteboard and ordi¬ 
nary needles and yarn are used to sew 
them. Only simple outline designs are 
needed, such as fruit, houses, figures, 
etc. 
I save all smooth brown or colored 
papers for cutting and mounting and past¬ 
ing. How they do love to muss in paste! 
I let them use trimmed feathers for paste 
brushes. For beads the children gath¬ 
ered wild rose berries and made beauti¬ 
ful necklaces. I also made some starch 
beads, but they are not very substan¬ 
tial. 
In the industries I am guided by their 
interest; when they want to learn I teach 
the thing they want to know. Little 
three-year-old wanted to take out the 
ashes so I showed him how to do it with¬ 
out making dust, and let him do it. Five 
wanted to wash with the washboard, so 
I gave him real water, real soap and 
real clothes to use, and taught him how. 
Of course, all this takes a mother’s 
time, but I am obliged to direct their 
small activities anyway and have found 
it no more trouble than providing amuse¬ 
ment and settling quarrels. They amuse 
Baby’s Crib Bed. 
themselves much easier, and repeat each 
new lesson in their play. 
We do not have set sessions; an hour 
here, half an hour there, a story while 
I am mending, a song while I am work¬ 
ing and the amount of work covered by 
my outline will be accomplished. Per¬ 
haps this will encourage many other 
mothers to attempt a home kindergarten 
MRS. LOIS ¥•- COOK. 
A Handy Pen for the Baby. 
