necessary is such as the lumber-pile, the farm-yard, wood-shed or forest will supply, and the necessary tools consist of some mauls, a saw, auger, and hatchet. Make your own mauls, by sawing off the ends of hardwood posts and fitting handles in holes bored in the pieces of hardwood for that purpose. Fig. 84 shows a boy using a home-made maul. [Illustration: FIG. 84.--Using a Home-made Maul.] Should you be so fortunate as to be able to locate your house over A Soft Bottom, make the corner piers by driving a number of stakes in a circle (Fig. 84), over which slip a barrel (Fig. 85) which has previously had both its heads removed. If you have no barrels a box, similarly treated, will answer the purpose, and in case you have no boxes, cribs, made in the form of boxes open at the top and bottom, may be used. Should you be ambitious to build in [Illustration: FIG. 85.--Placing the Barrel.] True Robinson Crusoe Style, drive a number of long stakes securely, in the form of a circle, in the bottom of the pond, as in Fig. 84, and then with grape-vines and other creepers weave a basket (Fig. 86). “Crusoe” should know how to do all these things. “The Parrot” should have charge of the transportation of material, and “The Goat” collect the lumber, cobblestones, stakes, and vines. All kinds of vines and creepers are good for basket-work, and almost any sort of stakes will answer, but “The Goat” must see that neither poison-sumac nor poison-ivy is used. Both of these plants must be avoided in any work of this kind, as they are extremely dangerous to comfort, and may cause an amount of irritation which will confine the victim to his bed for days. [Illustration: FIG. 86.--The Basket.] Where vines are scarce, almost any sort of green branches may be made to answer the purpose, willow being especially adapted for basket-work; but all the larger branches should be split in half to make them pliable enough to bend without breaking. You may now Weave a Basket by passing the vine alternately inside and outside of the stakes in the circle (Fig. 86), and when the end of the first piece in hand is reached you must duck your head under water and push the vine to the bottom of the stakes. Beginning where the last piece ended, weave a second piece of vine and push it down to the bottom, and so on until the top of the water is reached. It is great fun to make these cribs, and not at all difficult work, and when they are done and filled with cobblestones they make fine piers for a club-house or an artificial island. [Illustration: FIG. 87.--The Foundation.] The Foundation Posts of the club-house should be four or five inches in diameter and sharpened at their lower ends, but even then you will probably find that the united strength of several boys is not sufficient to force them far enough into the bottom to prevent swaying. Drive your foundation posts in the middle of the basket-crib and then Fill the Crib with Stones.