VERY many amusing contrivances can be made of the most simple materials. I have seen boys pluck a blade of grass, and, by simply stretching it edgewise between their thumbs, make a musical instrument with which they could imitate the notes of a singing bird so closely as to perfectly deceive persons not in the secret. After placing the blade of grass, as shown by the illustration, put your lips to your thumbs at the hollow between the joints and blow. The result will be a shrill noise which, with very little practice, can be made to resemble the notes of different wild birds.
The Block Bird Singer.
The illustration (Fig. 118) shows an instrument made upon the same principle as the “bird singer” just described. The “block bird singer” consists of two blocks of pine small enough to fit between the front teeth of the operator. The blocks are hollowed out in the middle, as shown by A, Fig. 118.
Stretch a blade of grass across the hollow of one of the blocks and place the other block on top of it, as shown by B, Fig. 118. Place the blocks between your teeth, and by drawing in and expelling your breath you can produce a series of shrill noises which, with practice, may be made to imitate the notes of a singing bird. A thin strip of writing-paper may be substituted for the blade of grass where the latter is hard to procure.
The Corn-stalk Fiddle.
The writing of the above title has sent me back to my boyhood with one great leap over the intervening years. In imagination I am again a barefooted youngster, with straw hat, short pants, and checked apron. Again I can experience the feeling of pride and importance as from my pocket comes the well-remembered jackknife, with a great shining blade that opens, like any man’s knife, with a snap! If I were this moment placed in a particular barn-yard in company with my reader, I could take him to the exact spot where a pile of corn-stalks used always to be heaped up in the corner of the fence. Let us suppose we are there. Select a good straight corn-stalk, and with the “shiny” blade of the jack-knife cut four slits from joint to joint, as shown by the top diagram, Fig. 119. Now out of that chip at your feet make a wooden bridge like the one shown by A, Fig. 119. With the point of the jack-knife lift up the three strings of the fiddle and slide the bridge under them edgewise; then gently, but firmly, raise it to an upright position and spread the strings apart, allowing them to fit into the notches cut for the purpose in the bridge (see lower diagram, Fig. 119). Make the bow of a smaller cornstalk than that used for the fiddle. No tune can be played upon this instrument, but a funny squeaking noise can be produced.
The squeak of the corn-stalk fiddle brings to my mind another rustic instrument.
The Pumpkin-vine Fife.
Cut a good thick, straight pumpkin-stem and make holes in it like those in a fife. If you know how to blow on a fife you may not only produce a noise with the pumpkin-stem, but a tune may be played upon this simple instrument which, even if only partially successful, will amuse your hearers to that degree that you will feel yourself amply repaid for the trouble.
A Pumpkin-vine Flute.
Cut off a long leaf-stem like the one shown in the illustration (Fig. 120). With the blade of your knife make a slit (A, B) through both sides of the stem. Then at the base of the leaf, in the solid part just beyond the end of the hollow in the stem, cut off the stem at C, D. By putting this end in the mouth and blowing, a noise will be produced, deep and sonorous, sounding like a distant steam-boat’s whistle. Holes may be cut for the fingers similar to those just described for the fife.
If one stem fails to work, cut another and try it until you succeed. The pumpkin-vine flute, like the corn-stalk fiddle, will amuse small boys, but if my reader does not belong to that class he may make of a piece of fishing-cane a first-rate fife.
Cane Fife.
The fishing-pole being much harder material than the succulent pumpkin-vine stem, is proportionally more difficult to cut. If you can, borrow a real fife; select a piece of cane of about the same size, and cut the holes in one side of the cane, at the same distance apart as those in the real fife. Any hollow stick of the proper size will answer as a substitute for the piece of fishing-pole.
The Voice Disguiser
is made of a piece of corn-stalk about three inches long. After removing the pith cut a notch near each end, as shown in the illustration, upon opposite sides of the corn-stalk; upon the ends stretch a piece of fish-bladder, or any thin membrane; a piece of thin tracing-paper will answer. With a large pin make a hole in each piece of membrane, as shown at A in the illustration. Now cover the notch, cut into the corn-stalk, with your mouth and laugh; the noise you produce will set you laughing in earnest. By placing your mouth over either of the notches and talking or singing, the voice is so changed as to be perfectly disguised, and if you sing a song through this instrument it sounds like some one playing on a comb covered with paper. The voice disguiser is very handy in Punch and Judy or puppet shows.
The Locust Singer.
This little instrument, simple as it is, is calculated to afford considerable amusement.
With one of these toys can be made not only a loud noise, which in itself pleases most boys, but it reproduces exactly the sound of the cicada, or “locust,” as the harvest-fly is commonly but improperly called. The “locust singer,” as may be seen by reference to the illustration, consists of a horse-hair with a loop at one end and a weight attached to the other end. A pine stick, with a groove cut around it near the top, is thrust through the loop of horse-hair, and the groove in the stick thickly covered with powdered rosin.
When the weight is swung rapidly around, the horse-hair, in sliding over the rosined stick, produces a noise which closely resembles the well-known song of the harvest-fly. If a tin pillbox is used for a weight and the hair run through a hole in the lid and fastened by a knot upon the inside, the lid of the box acts as a sort of sounding-board. A piece of parchment or paper is sometimes pasted over the box tightly, like a drum-head, and the hair attached to this; but a little stone wrapped in a piece of cloth answers every purpose.
A piece of kid, from a discarded glove, tied tightly over the top of a bottle-head, makes a loud-voiced locust singer. The head of the bottle may easily be removed, by striking repeated blows with a case-knife on the neck of the bottle, at the desired point of separation.
The Hummer.
This is somewhat similar to the toy just described, but even more simple in construction. It consists of a piece of shingle about an inch and one-half wide and five or six inches long, with a string attached to one end. When the hummer is swung around the head it makes a loud, buzzing noise.