Chapter IX: The Pin-Wheels, Birds, Butterflies

THE next morning bright and early before breakfast, Henry was downstairs in The Happy Shop busy with the finishing of last night’s scrapbook. It had a handsome cover of dark wall paper with a design of large and splendid flowers and leaves colored purple and red and green and dull blue. To tie the cover on, Henry was using strands of raffia of the same shades. Aunt Phoebe did basketry and had quite a big basket full. The children were always welcome to use it. He was so interested that he just said, “Oh, hello, Jimsi!” when Jimsi came down later, just before the breakfast hour. She had come as soon as she was dressed for she wanted to look in the mail-box and see if there was a crow letter there. Henry had quite forgotten to look. He thought of nothing at all but his grand scrapbook.

Jimsi reached for the crow mail-box. Sure enough, there _was_ a letter in it. Hurrah! “Oh, _look_, Henry!” she exclaimed. “See!”

Henry jumped up and came to examine the mail-box, and he took the little blue envelope out. Oh, it was for baby Katherine this time! Nothing for Jimsi! Nothing for Henry!

They dropped the letter back into the box again. “Won’t it be fun to see her when she finds it?” laughed Jimsi. “I wonder what’s in Katherine’s letter?”

“Katherine can’t use scissors very well,” Henry suggested doubtfully. “She can cut some, but not _very_ well. She’s learned some things in kindergarten. I hope the crow has told her something that you and I can do, too. I have made enough scrapbooks for now and I can’t begin to stick my stamps and things in till I go home, Monday. What are you going to use _your_ scrapbook for, Jimsi?”

Jimsi thought. “Oh, I’m going to have more than one,” she answered. “The scrapbooks don’t cost anything and I can have as many as I like. _I_ like them better than the ones that are sold in shops. They are prettier and they have more leaves. Once I wanted to buy a scrapbook and when I priced it, it cost two dollars! It was a big scrapbook like the one you are making. Of course, I didn’t buy it. I couldn’t, for there wasn’t that amount of money in my bunny-bank on the mantel-shelf at home.”

“I’ve one dollar and seventy-three cents saved in _my_ bank,” Henry volunteered. “I’ve earned twenty-eight cents just lately. Once it was for doing errands for the lady next door and once I swept the snow off the walk for her, too. She said I did it well and asked me to come next time it snowed.”

“Boys can always earn money,” sighed Jimsi. “It’s different with girls. Nobody asks _them_ to shovel snow or do errands, if there is a boy anywhere around. _I_ could sweep snow!”

“I know,” agreed Henry. “But there are things girls _can_ do.”

“_What?_”

“Oh, girls can amuse little babies and take them riding in a go-cart and see that they are happy while the babies’ mother goes away out-doors for an hour. Mrs. Brown said she wanted a little girl who was a good responsible girl to do _that_ for her. And once when Birdie Smith hurt her eyes studying with the sun shining on her book and the doctor wouldn’t let her use them, Mrs. Smith said she would be glad to pay some boy or girl to come and read aloud to Birdie—because Birdie was always asking to be read to and _she_ had work to do and couldn’t read to her all the time.”

“I could take care of babies,” Jimsi thought. “Having Katherine helps ever so much. I’d love to wheel a baby in a carriage out-doors, if its mother would trust me—I’d like it so well I’d do it without money.”

“That’s the way with girls. They aren’t businesslike,” sniffed Henry. “It’s business to pay for errands and shoveling snow and it’s business to be paid for taking care of babies, _I_ think.” He tied the raffia that bound his scrapbook at the back of the cover and held it up. “I’ve finished,” he smiled. “See!”

“But if one likes to do things, one hates to be paid for doing them,” Jimsi protested. “I love to play with little bits of children, I do.”

“Well, I’m only telling you how girls _can_ earn money,” said Henry. “You don’t need to take it, if you don’t want to. My, but I’m hungry! Isn’t it most time for pancakes? Aunt Phoebe said we were going to have pancakes this morning.”

“And real maple syrup—yum-yum!”

“Who said _yum-yum_,” called Aunt Phoebe’s voice. “Breakfast’s ready! Henry, will you get the big dictionary in my study and put it in Katherine’s chair for her to sit on. There isn’t any high chair in our house. Crow doesn’t need one.”

Off went Henry and Jimsi to do the errand between them. Mother and Aunt Phoebe and Katherine were waiting when the children brought the dictionary for Katherine to sit on.

“Nobody looked in the mail-box,” suggested Jimsi. “Somebody ought to.”

“Shall I go?” asked Mother.

“Shall I?” inquired Aunt Phoebe innocently.

“Me?” squealed Katherine joyously. “_Me!_”

“I’ll get the box,” volunteered Henry, the man of the household. “You wait.” And up he darted—off to The Happy Shop. He came panting back and put the box on the table.

“Who’s the letter _for_?” everybody asked at once.

Henry waved his hand majestically toward the baby. Everybody laughed. Katherine chuckled. She reached for the little cardboard box and extricated the tiny envelope. “Ou!” she squealed delightedly. “Mamma, read it.”

So Mother broke open the wee envelope with its crow stamp on it, just as crow always wrote his letters and she read:

“DEAR KATHERINE,

Jimsi and Henry have found lots of nice things to do in
The Happy Shop’s Magic Book of wall paper. I am going
to tell _you_ some jolly things to play with the papers
too. I wonder if you wouldn’t like to make pin-wheels,
first of all. Wall paper makes wonderfully lovely
pin-wheels. (Maybe Jimsi and Henry know how to make
pin-wheels—)”

“No, we don’t,” interrupted Jimsi and Henry. But Mother went on:

“To make pin-wheels, just cut out a square of wall
paper about seven inches square. Cut each corner upward
toward the centre of the square till within a half inch
of it. Then fold every other corner of the cut paper
over toward the centre and run a pin through. Fasten
the end of the pin point in a rubber at the end of some
pencil or little stick and the pin-wheel is done. If
you hold the pin-wheel out straight and run along fast
as you can, the pin-wheel will turn like the arms of a
wind-mill. It’s fun. Try it.

After you make one pin-wheel and see how it goes, take
two differently colored squares of fancy papers—red
and blue or green and yellow or plain and flowered
and put these together, color _outside_. Then fold the
pin-wheel and see what lovely play-things you can make.
It might be nice to make a pin-wheel store.”

DIAGRAM 2]

“Ou!” chuckled Katherine. “_Store!_”

“We’ll cut round disks for money—yellow paper for gold, silver striped paper for nickles, dimes, quarters and fifty-cent pieces. We’ll make green paper bills—”

“And write on each how much each is—”

“We can do it with crayon—”

“Hush!” sighed Mother. “I want to read Katherine’s crow letter. Listen!”

“There are other things beside pin-wheels that you can
make—how about bright-colored butterflies? The papers
that are yellow, blue, green, red, purple make lovely
butterflies. You cut them like this. Fold your paper
double and cut. And then unfold it and you will have a
butterfly! Tie a dark thread to the upper part of the
butterfly’s body and run with the end of the thread in
your hand. The butterfly will fly behind you, if you
trot as fast as feet can go. It is nice to play this
outdoors in the garden for you can make your butterfly
alight on shrubs and bushes.”

“Oh,” interrupted Jimsi, “we can make _some_ butterflies for Katherine out of the wall papers that have plain patterns on them. Just keep the patterns even and cut. _That_ will make lovely wings! I want to try it—”

“Shoo!” cried Mother. “I want to finish the letter. My coffee is growing cold. Shoo!” Again she read:

“I’ll tell you another toy little girls and big girls
and even boys can make. It’s a bird with wings—”

“A crow!” chuckled Henry. “Only one would need black paper—”

“Take dark paper and crayon it black,” cried Jimsi.

“Hush!” Mother began again. “If anybody interrupts again, we’ll wait and finish the letter after breakfast,” said she. So everybody hushed right up and waited, of course.

“The birds are cut from pieces of paper that are cut
oblong and folded corner to corner. Draw the bird’s
side outline with crayon on the white part of the paper
and cut the bird out with scissors. This gives the body
without wings.

To make wings for the bird, fold a paper somewhat
smaller than the first and cut wings, leaving the
folding of the paper forward instead of at top.

Cut a slit in this forward part of the wings and slip
them over the bird’s body. Tie a thread to the top of
the bird’s body and see how well you can make it fly.

I think you’ll have enough play now to last a long
long time, Katherine dear. I must stop. Goody-bye.

With a hug from
_Crow._

P. S.

Why don’t you all go over to the little lame girl’s
home this morning and have Katherine’s store there.
I think she’d like it.

_C. C._”

Mother put the crow’s long letter on the table beside Katherine’s plate. She took up her coffee-cup and breakfast started. All the splendid pancakes had been getting cold! Aunt Phoebe had to send them out and get _hot_ ones. And all because of Crow’s letter!

“I’ll make that money. I can do it,” Henry declared. “While I’m making the money, you and Joyce and Katherine can make the birds and pin-wheels and butterflies. I’m going to make splendid paper money—whole bags full! Oh! I can keep some to carry home to play store, too!”

“I don’t want any more breakfast,” sighed Jimsi. “I want to begin right away.” But, nevertheless, she did eat more hot pancakes and more than just two.

“Where’s crow?” asked baby Katherine, pointing to the shelf where Aunt Phoebe’s crow stood last night. “Where’s crow?”

“Oh, he flies away during the day,” volunteered Jimsi. “He pretends fly away. Ask Aunt Phoebe where he is!”

But Aunt Phoebe was making-believe about crow and she wouldn’t tell at all—no, not at all.

They tried to tease her—(It isn’t at all nice to tease, but boys will do it.) “Aunt Phoebe, how could the crow hug Katherine?” giggled Henry. “I’d like to see crow do it!”

“He could pretend to in a crow letter,” answered Aunt Phoebe demurely. “Henry, if you don’t look out, _you_ won’t get any new crow letters. If you don’t want to believe in my nice, old, stuffed black crow, Caw Caw, give me back all your splendid scrapbooks that he told you how to make.”

“Oh, I believe in make-believe,” Henry laughed. “But, Aunt Phoebe, it’s so funny! The idea of crow’s hugging Katherine with his two claws! Oh, oh! How could he stand?”

“He might sit on his tail and do it,” answered Aunt Phoebe. “Crows don’t _usually_ sit on their tail, but Caw Caw might. He’s pretend.”

“Caw Caw’s all right,” declared Jimsi. “I think he can do most anything. He’s the cleverest crow that ever, ever was. There never could be another like him, _I know_!”

“Think of The Happy Shop and all the fun of the Magic Book!” smiled Mother.

“Dear Aunt Phoebe,” beamed Henry. “Please, I do want another crow letter. Tell crow to write _soon_!”

But Aunt Phoebe shook her finger at Henry. “Naughty,” said she. “The next crow letter shall go to somebody else, not you!” She smiled.

By that time breakfast was over and the children rushed off to The Happy Shop to find the Magic Book and try the new crow play for little Katherine.