Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/195

noises which, with practice, may be made to imitate the notes of a singing bird. A thin strip of writing-paper may be substituted for the blade of grass where the latter is hard to procure.

The writing of the above title has sent me back to my boyhood with one great leap over the intervening years. In imagination I am again a barefooted youngster, with straw hat, short pants, and checked apron. Again I can experience the feeling of pride and importance as from my pocket comes the well-remembered jack-knife, with a great shining blade that Image missingFig. 119.Cornstalk Fiddle. opens, like any man's knife, with a snap! If I were this moment placed in a particular barn-yard in company with my reader, I could take him to the exact spot where a pile of corn-stalks used always to be heaped up in the corner of the fence. Let us suppose we are there. Select a good straight corn-stalk, and with the "shiny" blade of the jack-knife cut four slits from joint to joint, as shown by the top diagram, Fig. 119. Now out of that chip at your feet make a wooden bridge like the one shown by A, Fig. 119. With the point of the jack-knife lift up the three strings of the fiddle and slide the bridge under them edgewise; then gently, but firmly, raise it to an upright position and spread the strings apart, allowing them to fit into the notches cut for the purpose in the bridge (see lower diagram, Fig. 119). Make the bow of a smaller corn-stalk than that used for the fiddle. No tune can be played