Evening star., 1898-03-04
A FARM IN THE WINDOW.
The Pleasure of Little Play
House.

lhe treasure of Little Play.
House.
From the Chicago Record.
Fronting one Of the busiest streets of
Chicago, and surrounded by store BUILD
ings and the noisy incidents of city life, is
complete farm. which is looked after by
sixty girls and boys. While the snow and
cold declare that winter is present the
farm crops flourish, for the farm is under
cover. 1t fills one of the large windows of
storeroom in Southport avenue, the store
being used as a class room by a branch of
the Prescott school,
When Mrs f. H. Reed, director of the
class OF sixty that owns the agricultural
property. proposed to the girls and boys
that the big window recess be used
Tor farming purposes the plan was enthu-
slastically adopted. First a thick LAYER of
dirt was spread over the window SILL which
IS several feet square. OF course the next
thing to do was to build house and a sta
Die Thls was begun when peaches were
ripe, and good many peach baskets were
taken apart to provide shingles and clap
boards for the house and barn.
A brick foundation was made for the
house. which is . feet long and IL. feet
wide and is two stories high Inside the
brick foundation wall a cellar was dug and
pIastered with mud, the girls mixing the
mud plaster Then the framework of the
mouse was made from dry-goods box
boards, the peach-basket clapboards and
shingles were nailed into place and work
was begun on the barn.
While the boys were making the barn
much after the fashion of the house con-
struction, the girls completed the house.
Ihey painted 1t yellow outside and papered
1t with red and orange strips inside. They
made hail wood carpet Of walnut and of
maple pieces of thin boards each about an
inch square. They put the finishing touch
es to the house on the outside, and after
the -four up and down stairs rooms had
peen completed the girls furnished the
house for Farmer Brown" and his wife
who were expected. Parlor furniture was
made OF pasteboard, a bed room set was
folded out of stiff paper. and a kitchen set
was made of peas and wood toothpicks.
For instance, the peas were soaked till they
were soft; then the toothpicks We're whit
tled TIL they were slender enough to be
pushed through the peas without splitting
them; After that 1t was an easy matter
TO split the peas to hold the framework of
the chairs together. You will be sur
prised to see how many pretty pieces of
furniture can be made in this way. Try it.
After the house was furnished and the
barn was completed Farmer Brown, his
family and his farm animals We're INSTALL
ed. 1t SO happened that these all came out
of an ark. and were not over two inches
high. OF course they were made of painted
wood, and some had provoking way of
shedding their painted clothes whenever
they got wet, for Noahs ark colors will
run, you know.
IAieoi al Hier bFoWH Hau taken posses
sion the boys and girls turned their atten-
tion to farming. Flowers were planted in
the dooryard, grass seed was sown and
corn and wheat were planted. Climbing
FlEes were planted by the house and soon
covered 1t prettily in spots. All the other
plants ffourished. and the corn grew till 1t
became nearly twice as high as the house
and had ears as fat and large as the best
In fact, the farm became so valuable that
IT was found necessary to build a fence
around 1t. Again the peach baskets were
used. They were cut into thin strips, and
these were woven into a fine fence.
Hundreds of visitors go to look at the
farm and see the crops that are now grow
ing 1t makes pretty sight through the
window, and the boys and girls are ever
SO proud Of their work. i don't wonder at
1t, do you?