The Wren-box should be about four or five inches wide and six inches
high inside, with a hole exactly seven eighths inch wide. If any bigger,
the Wren does not like it so well, and other birds may drive the Wren
away. Many Wren-boxes are made of tomato tins, but these are hard to cut
a hole in. The Wren-box should be hung where the sun never shines on it
all summer, as that would make it too hot inside.
TALE 81
A Hunter's Lamp
[Illustration: A Hunter's Lamp]
In the old pioneer days, every hunter used to make himself a lamp, for
it was much easier to make than a candle. It is a good stunt in
Woodcraft to make one. Each woodcrafter should have one of his own
handiwork. There are four things needed in it: The bowl, the wick, the
wick-holder and some fat, grease, or oil.
For the bowl a big clam shell does well.
For wick a strip of cotton rag rolled into a cord as thick as a slate
pencil, and about two inches long; a cotton cord will do, or perhaps the
fibrous bark of milkweed or other native stuff is the truly woodcraft
thing.
For wick-holder get a piece of brick, stone, or a small clam shell about
as big as a half dollar. Bore a hole through the middle to hold the
wick. It is not easy to get the hole through without splitting the
stone, but sometimes one can find a flat pebble already bored. Sometimes
one can make a disc of clay with a hole in it, then burn this hard in a
fierce fire, but the most primitive way is to rub the bump of a small
clam shell on a flat stone till it is worn through.
For oil use the fat, grease, lard, or butter of any animal, if it is
fresh, that is without salt in it.
Fill the bowl with the grease, soak the wick in grease and set it in the
holder so that half an inch sticks up; the rest is in the grease. The
holder rests on the bottom of the bowl.
Light the end that sticks up. It will burn with a clear, steady light
till all the oil is used up.
To have made a lamp that will burn for half an hour is counted an
"honour" in Woodcraft, and may win you a badge if you belong to a
Woodcraft Tribe.
TALE 82
The Coon Hunt
Take a little bundle of white rags, or paper, as large as a walnut; call
this the "Coon." While all the young folks hide their eyes or go out of
the room, the Guide puts the Coon on some place, high or low, but in
plain view; then, going away from it, shouts "Coon!"
Now the young scouts have to find that Coon, each looking about for
himself. As soon as one sees it, he says nothing, but sits down. Each
must find it for himself, then sit down silently, until all are down.
Last down is the "booby"; first down is the winner; and the winner has
the right to place the Coon the second time, if the Guide does not wish
to do it.
This is often played indoors and sometimes a thimble is used for the
Coon.
TALE 83
The Indian Pot
This is something everyone can make, no matter how young, and each,
including the Guide, should make one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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