Near Jollyplay in Boxland, on Boxcraft Road to Fun, There lies a children’s village—a very happy one. Its buildings are all boxes—the hotel and the store, The school-house and the station, and many others more! The name of it is Boxville. Its villagers are toys, And those who build in Boxville are merry girls and boys. You, too, may go to Boxland to make a house for play— Look! Here, you’ll see the guide-post! Before you lies the way. Take cardboard boxes with you—maybe, some paste or glue, A pencil, and a paint-box,—and take your scissors too. I’ll tell you all about it. We’ll start—the turning’s here— It was a fairy told me about this village, dear! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE JOLLY BOOK OF BOXCRAFT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Jolly Book of Boxcraft BOXCRAFT =Material Required to Make Boxcraft=: cardboard boxes, paste, scissors, crayons or water-color paints; perhaps a ruler, and pencil will help. Do you believe in fairies? I do. I know three of them, and they are quite as wonderful as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. She could make a coach and pair out of nothing at all but a pumpkin and some mice, but the fairies that I know can do even better than that! They can make a whole toy shop full of toys from nothing at all but some cardboard boxes. The fairies that I know are called Happy Thought, Nimblefingers, and Play. They have so much magic that they can transform even dull days and make them jolly ones. All three of them came to see me one very rainy day, and each of them sat upon a cardboard box while they all told me in chorus about the fairy art of boxcraft. “Have you ever noticed how much an ordinary shoe-box looks like a little building with a flat roof?” Happy Thought inquired. “All you have to do to make it a house,” Nimblefingers put in, “is to cut doors and windows in its sides.” “And then, when you have made the house, you have all kinds of fun with it,” laughed Play. “Boxes will make chimneys for your house,” Happy Thought pursued. “Boxes will make furniture—beds, tables, chairs, mantels, pianos, benches—everything!” “You need only to cut the box rims to make them,” Nimblefingers interrupted. “And when they are made—oh, _think_ of the things you can use them for!” chuckled Play. “A whole village can be made—cottages, school, store, church, railway station, bridges, tunnels—everything,” Happy Thought went on. “And _all_ that you need to do it will be a pair of scissors, a pencil, some paints, and maybe some paste. I’ll show you how,” Nimblefingers volunteered. “When the village is made, all your toys can play in it! Haven’t you some roly-poly tumble toys, and some penny dolls, and toy animals?” Play demanded. “I know you must have.”