Chapter XI: Roof Picnic with Brook to Cross and Flowers to Pick

INVITE your friends to an afternoon picnic, and in the morning prepare the grounds for the frolic. Have a lot of growing flowers and growing fruit to give the place an attractive and festive appearance. The fruit must be real, not make-believe; it must be ripe and ready to pick; but the flowers may be of tissue paper, cheerfully bright and large in size. The aim should be more for general effect than detail in making these outdoor decorations.

=Sunflowers=

can be fashioned rapidly by cutting orange-colored tissue paper into strips twenty-five inches long and six inches wide, pointing the strips into petals three inches deep and two and a half inches wide at the base (Fig. 132), ten petals to each strip; then creasing each petal lengthwise through its centre to give stiffness (Fig. 133), and gathering each strip separately along its straight edge with needle and thread (Fig. 134); in this way forming the two strips into two pointed circles (Fig. 135). These circles, together with a brown centre, make one sunflower.

Cut a strip of brown tissue paper nine inches long and two inches wide for the centre, gather the paper tightly along one lengthwise edge and tie it close up under and against the head of a slender nail (Fig. 136). Around the nail under the brown centre, slide on first one, then the other, circle of gathered yellow petals, taking care to have the petal points of the lower circle lie between and not over those of the top circle. Finish by driving the nail which runs through the sunflower, into one side of a stick or broom-handle, with the lower end sharpened (Fig. 137).

=Hollyhocks=

of every color can be made of circles of tissue paper five and a half inches in diameter, held at the centre, two circles one inside of the other, and the centre pushed and squeezed together, causing the edges to fold and turn until they resemble the real flower (Fig. 138). Smaller circles, crimped by drawing the paper through the partially closed hand (Fig. 139), can be made into pinks, and you may have brilliant, nodding poppies in the same way, only these are of smooth, uncrimped circles (Fig. 140), placed one inside the other, with a small circle of dark-green paper for the centre, and all three layers pinched together at the extreme centre (Fig. 141). Large peonies are similar in construction to some of the flowers you have made, so try to work these out yourself.

A simple way to make

=Roses=

is to cut tissue paper into strips two and a half inches deep; cut the square-cornered slashes two inches wide, then with knife or scissors blade curl the sharp corners of each separate division, making the slashes into rose petals. Curl the corners of the petals along half of the strip inward, and those along the other half, outward. Fold two or three plaits in the straight bottom edge of each petal; then begin with the half where the petals curl inward and wind the strip around the end of a slender stick. The first petals form the central group and are curled inward; the remainder, curled outward, form the outward circle of petals (Fig. 142). Make a generous supply of blossoms and tie them on bushes. Let each bush bear but one kind, that the flowers may appear natural and as if actually growing.

=Get a Variety of Fruit, Peaches, Plums, Apples=

or any other sort you may prefer. Tie the fruit to those bushes which have no blossoms, allowing each fruit bush to bear only one kind of fruit.

In case there are no bushes, or if the bushes are too few in number, use branches or sticks with natural foliage, or leaves made of green tissue paper; make the latter of paper in several layers, that a number may be cut at a time like the pattern (Fig. 143). Crimp through the centre by folding lengthwise over a hat-pin and pushing the folded centre together (Fig. 144). The method is quick and gives satisfactory leaves (Fig. 145). Cut leaves in different sizes as you will need some larger than others.

The sticks used as bushes should be of varying heights sharpened at the lower end and driven into the ground.

Pretend the sticks are fruit trees and flower bushes and plant them where they will appear to best advantage.

If your yard happens to be

=On the Roof=

of the house, as often occurs in large cities, there will probably be no earth in which to plant things; then you must fill flower pots and deep boxes with earth, sand, or gravel, and plant your make-believe trees and shrubs in them; such a garden will be entirely different from all others.

Build a wooden fence over which the girls and boys climb to enter the picnic grounds; even though the improvised fence may not closely resemble the real article, it will help to render the feeling of being in the open country more realistic.

Make the fence by sinking the legs of two strong kitchen chairs partially but firmly into the earth. Place the two chairs facing each other and a short distance apart; then run a large, strong pole or narrow board for a rail, across the chair seats, allowing the rail to extend out beyond the back of the chairs. Lash the rail securely to the chairs with the heaviest twine or slender rope, and place very heavy weights on the seat to keep the chair steady, and avoid all possibility of the rail slipping or chairs tipping.

If possible get either a swing, a teeter or a jogging board; all these will afford a lively time for your guests, as will also a wheelbarrow in which the girls and boys may take turns in riding and pushing or wheeling each other.

If you want to make the affair seem just like a regular

=Country Picnic=

let each guest bring his or her own little basket of lunch.

As your guests arrive, usher them into the house and do not let them even see the yard if it can be avoided; keep the grounds for a pleasant surprise a little later.

Form the girls and boys into a single file and lead them marching around the room while they join in singing some lively air. After winding in and out among the chairs and tables, open the door, let them look out into the pretty garden, and, while still singing,

=Climb Over the Fence=

and march among the flowers and fruit trees; end the procession by circling around the spot chosen for your dinner table, where all must deposit their lunch baskets. Of course you will not have an actual table, as the tablecloth must be spread on the ground and the girls and boys sit around it.

Mark the four corners of the space reserved as a table with sticks about forty-six inches high, decorated with bright flowers (Fig. 146), and the sharpened ends planted in the earth, or in flower pots.

=Spread the Tablecloth,=

bringing each corner to meet a garland pole; then let the guests take from their baskets the different articles. Reserve some space at the centre of the table for fruit, and let each boy and girl in turn walk about the grounds and select one piece of fruit, pick it, bring it to the table, and lay the chosen piece on the centre of the tablecloth. No person may pick more than one piece of fruit during one turn. Each player is privileged to place his fruit in any way he desires, remembering always that each piece goes to form the centre-piece, which should always be made as decorative as possible.

=Crossing the Brook=

is a lively game and great fun. Get a number of flat stones that will lie steady, and are large enough to step upon; arrange them about eighteen or twenty inches apart, in an irregular line, over a stretch of ground twenty or more feet across. Let the players in turn tip-toe on the stones just as though they were crossing a brook of running water, each girl and boy being obliged to pay a forfeit for every misstep into the make-believe water. If stones are not to be had, use blocks of wood, or, if need be, pieces of paper in place of stones. As each player crosses the brook, the rest of the party must call to her to be careful, not to fall, that she is going too fast, that she is going too slow, or make similar comments. They can cheer her, and in many harmless ways try to confuse the player with their calls, but it is against the rules to touch or even go nearer to her than two yards.

After all the girls and boys have taken their turn at crossing the brook, try

=Japanese Tag=

Each player must keep her hand on the spot where she was last tagged, making the game present a most laughable appearance, with all the young people dancing about in strange attitudes, holding a hand on the top of the head, on the knee, chest, back, or foot, as it happens. The players are not allowed to remove the hand until tagged in another spot. When tagged in the middle of the back or any spot difficult to reach, the player may hold a stick in his hand with one end resting on the spot where he was tagged.

In starting

=The Game=

any person who first shouts, “Pick her up and stone holder,” may hold both hands in front of her, each doubled up tight and one clasping a small stone, immediately some one calls out “First knock,” another player cries “Second knock,” another “Third knock,” and so on, according as they are able to get the call in after the preceding cry. The player calling

=“First Knock”=

taps one hand of the girl or boy holding the stone; if the hand touched contains the stone, the player knocking is “it,” and the game begins, but if the hand is empty, the player is free and the stone-holder puts her hand back of her while she does or does not change the stone to the other hand; again stretching her clinched hands forward, she allows the player calling “Second knock” to try her luck by tapping one of the outstretched hands. The trials are continued until a player taps the hand holding the stone and becomes “it,” then

=The Others Scatter=

and “it” endeavors to tag some one, who in turn becomes “it,” and so the game goes on.

After the players have grown tired of this game, there are many others which will suggest themselves to the young people, and it will be found a good plan to alternate the livelier kind with those of a more quiet nature.

When the picnic is over give each guest one of the pretty paper flowers to carry home, and your roof or back-yard picnic will have been an event long to be remembered.