Chapter XIII: A Back-Yard Club-House

For many years there stood in a city back-yard a shanty in which the boys of the neighborhood gathered after school and during vacation, to hold their club-meetings. Many a pleasant hour was spent within the walls of this little building, and it had to be enlarged year after year to hold the ever-increasing number of members.

If, during the week of school preceding the summer vacation, the boys were seen making plans and talking seriously about something evidently in connection with the house, it might well be imagined that the annual alterations were about to begin. At the close of school the neighbors were made aware of it by the appearance of half a dozen boys upon the roof of the shanty, who, with hammers and hatchets in their hands, were easily recognized as the wrecking crew.

Perhaps the roof was to be raised a foot or given a different pitch, a window changed here or a door placed there, a side extended or a partition built through the centre; but no matter whether the alterations bettered the building or not, they gave the owners a chance to use their ingenuity in working out their schemes, and practice in carpenter work.

The boys' greatest difficulty was found in obtaining large enough material with which to build. The woodshed was the lumber-yard, and as this contained only a few old boards, several packing-cases, and kindling-wood, a great deal of splicing was required and many pounds of nails were necessary to fasten the many small pieces in place.

After remodelling the club-house one year, the members in way of a joke placed a "For Rent" sign upon the door, and were greatly surprised to receive the following mysterious letter:--

MISTER AGENT: i sea u hev a house Fur rent what u want
furit im a wider with 12 children six pigs 5 chickens a mule
three dogs 7 cats and ten ducks i hop the house is big enuff
it dont matter bout the children but i wont crowd the pigs.
i soppose will paint outside an in and put awnins at the frunt
winders i'd like terry cotty shades and a stun sidewalk iF
u'll put a piassie on and reduce the rent till after wurlds
Fair i'll take it what you want furit please let me know soon
iF u dont find me hum im like to be at mis whatnots if u
dont know the way to her house just ask mis jones next door
but one to me she'll tell u Good by.

MARY JANE JOHNSTONE.

The letter was answered immediately and sent to the general delivery but was returned from the Dead Letter Office, and no trace of the large family could be found.

Knowing that many boys who would like to build themselves a club-house have not the money in their treasury with which to buy new lumber, this chapter will describe the manner in which a rough-and-ready house may be built. It will not be attempted to show the correct methods of putting up a framework, such as would be built if the right-sized lumber were obtainable, but the simplest way in which boys can make use of the material at hand.

=Draw the Plan= of the building upon a piece of paper, and before commencing work figure out exactly what material will be required. If you haven't enough lumber you will find it a great deal easier to alter the plans at first than when the work is half completed. It is best first to place in one pile all

=The Material= you can find; then, after drawing the plans, sort out the boards according to their lengths. Use the short boards whenever possible, so that the long pieces may be kept for places requiring long boards. Several two-by-fours should be secured for the framework. If you do not happen to have these, you can easily get what you want at some alteration job or where some frame structure is being torn down. Short two-by-fours may be spliced, or, more correctly speaking, "fished." This is very often resorted to in building when studding of a sufficient length cannot be procured. Figure 183 shows the method of

=Fishing Studs=.--Two fish-plates, _A_ and _B_, are nailed to the sides of the studs, covering the joints, while the face _OD_ remains on a level to receive the siding.

By building the club-house in a corner of the yard, against the fence, house, or barn, it is necessary to build but two walls. Less material is required, and a much firmer structure obtained by doing this.

=Stake out= the length and width of the house upon the ground, and sink a stone or a couple of bricks at the corner to support the corner post. Then cut two two-by-fours the length of the greatest inside height of the house. Set one upon the corner stone, bracing it temporarily with boards run from it to the fence, and spike the other to the fence on a line with the corner post (see _A_ and _B_ in Fig. 184). Cut the end-plate _C_ the correct length and spike it to _A_ and _B_, after which cut a two-by-four the length of the shortest inside height, and spike it to the fence rails at _D_. Nail the boards _E_, _F_, _G_, _H_, and _I_ to the places shown in Fig. 184.

=The Studs= should be placed from two to three feet apart, according to the length of boards used for siding, and additional studding should be set in where it is necessary. Fasten the ends of the studs to the boards _E_, _F_, _G_, _H_, and _I_. Studding should be placed around the window and door openings, as shown in the illustration.

After completing the framework,

=Board up the Sides=, fitting the boards around openings and corners as neatly as possible.

=The Roof= is a very important factor in a building of any kind, and care should be taken to make it of water-proof material, for a leaky roof will not only ruin the interior but make it damp and thus unhealthy. Tar-paper will be found a good roofing material, inexpensive, and easily put on. First cover the roof with boards placed about one inch apart. Then cut the tar-paper into lengths equal to the width of the roof. Commencing at the lower edge of the roof tack one strip in place. Lap a second strip two inches over the first, a third two inches over the second, and so on until the entire roof is covered. Figure 185 shows a tin cap and nail made especially for this kind of work. The cap is punched to fit over the nail, and prevents water from running into the hole made by the latter. It will be unnecessary to coat the paper with tar, as there is sufficient in its preparation to keep it water proof a long time--probably longer than the house itself will be allowed to stand.

=The Floor= should not be laid directly upon the ground, but be supported upon four-inch sleepers set as shown in Fig. 186, with cinders rammed in between them. The bed of cinders should not be more than three inches thick, so there will be an inch of air space between them and the floor. This will help to keep the floor free from dampness. Four-inch boards stood on edge will do very well for the sleepers.

You can probably make a bargain with a carpenter for

=A Window-sash.=--They very often have a number taken from old buildings, which they will gladly sell for a small sum. There are two ways in which you can easily fasten the sash in place, either with hinges so it will swing in, as shown in Figs. 187 and 188, or in tracks, to slide as described for the dark-room window in Chapter XI and illustrated in Fig. 169. If the window is made in the front of the building, as shown in the sketch of the finished club-house, the sash will necessarily have to be hinged, as there would not be room for it to slide sideways. We will therefore hinge it to swing in as shown in Figs. 187 and 188. The studding which was placed around the window opening when you erected the framework of the house forms a frame for the sash to set in. The window-sill is made out of a seven-eighths-inch board cut the width of the opening, and should be nailed to the bottom piece of the frame so it pitches slightly outwards and its edges project a little beyond the wall inside and out (see Fig. 188). The pitch of the sill can be obtained by blocking the inner edge with a very thin strip of wood, as shown in the section drawing. The sash should fit the frame with but enough space around it to allow it to open freely. Place the sash in the opening with its inside surface on a line with the inside face of the two-by-four frame, as shown in Fig. 188, and nail a seven-eighths-inch window-stop around the frame outside of the sash to keep the rain and wind from entering.

By hinging the sash to the top of the frame as shown in the illustration, it can be swung up out of the way when opened. A spring-catch should be screwed to the bottom rail of the sash with the latch-pocket counter sunk in the window-sill, and from the knob of the catch a cord should be attached and run through a screw-eye placed in the wall near the ceiling. The sash can now be opened by pulling the cord, and may be held open by looping the end of the cord over a nail. Wooden buttons should be screwed to the inside edge of the jambs for additional locks (see Fig. 187).

A sill should be set in the bottom of the door frame, and a seven-eighths inch stop nailed to the top and to the jambs in the same way as you finished the window opening.

=Make a Batten Door=, fastening the boards together on the inside with battens as shown in Fig. 189, with the nails driven through from the outside face and clinched upon the battens. Hinge the door to the inside face of the jamb with strap-hinges, and either buy an iron latch for it or make the old-fashioned

=Wooden Latch= described and illustrated in the following chapter.

With the carpenter work of the house completed,

=Calk up the Cracks=, of which there will doubtless be a great number, unless matched boards have been used for the walls. This may be done by rolling pieces of newspapers into wads and wedging them into the cracks with a pointed stick. Several thicknesses of wrapping-paper tacked over the inside walls will help to prevent the wind from entering, and will also make a good foundation for wall-paper should it be placed upon the walls.

Earth should be banked up around the outside of the house to keep away the water. Vines trained over the outside will help to hide the roughness of the boards.

The club-house interior may be fitted up with furniture such as is described in Chapter IV, "Suggestions for a Boy's Room."