New-York tribune., 1912-07-14
Playing with Clay
By Natalie Thomas.

| co,e Nav and Bess and Nell, call the
.Aovs and let us all go out under the trees
Il have a surprise for you to-day-solne-
.n,nq nice and. oh, so cool TO handle. NO.
st isn't ice and il isn't water. so You may
:,s we'll ssop guessing and wait until
come back.
60 all six of US went TO sit under our
ssvorite tree on the lawn. BY this ume
SJohn and Ned had Joined us. There on the
Ground was q piece Of oiEloth spread out,
Tand we took our places about IT, "hiie
s8sa q bir stone crock standing In front CT
me. When the lid was lifted there was
srnuch excitensent, but. alas. all that could
FSe seen was a damp cloth
"Now. John. what,do you think Is In this
crock?"
'T don't know"
"Cone and give it poke, and maybe
, you can guess what it isNby feeling H.
John got UP and gave It little poke
, with his finger, and then, as ne was no
/ wiser. he gaze it a good hard punch ouii
tAe couldn't guess what was under the
iSeIoth well. anyway, it's cool. whatever
In u.s." he said as he took his seat
"1,.t me try! Let me try! and 30
/ Zach in turn had a chance TO try TO md out
twhat was in the crock
! last came Ned, and. besides giving 1t
sasarty thud with his fist. ne leaned down
n nd shifted at the jar. why, know what
fThat is" he cried. excstedly. that's clay
And sure enough. when the cloth was
sHfted there lay a huge lump OF plain clay
fk,bich 7 had got at an art store "Each
/ s,n,e when we finish playing with it," /
fkold them. I'VE Will put IT back in the jar
f.nd cover il with a damp cloth to keep II
koois1 30 Il will be ready for use the next
Eaime When IL gets too dry we will add
Eettle water and mix IT together. Now let
Ess each take piece 10 play with
So we all fell 10 poking and punching
and patting and squeezing it and having
| fhe best time. Pretty soon we saw that we
tDould do anything that we liked with It, l
held up. rubber ball
~ cts see If we can each make ball
nke this one. Yes, Johp, that's the right
= way TO 10 IT, See. John Is rolling his clay
i around in the palm OF his hand. Let's all
Ar ours that way and then we will be sure
.o have an almost perfect sphere.
"Now, think that looks pretty vel
F. aon't your" questioned Bess.
"What about that spot? The rubber bail
a perfectly round; better roll 1t about
Httle longer" suggested May
When had all ndue n Huhoei o'
spheres Nell took her finger and poked a
uttle hole in the top of one OF them
"ouick, somebody. give me speck more
aiay." And while we all sat and watched
her she rolled 1t into a stem. stuck II INTO
4he hole and held up an apple for us TO ad-
I mire Each OF us made an apple just Ike
I NelTs. and then John took another one OF
J his spheres, and we saw him patting 1t with
the palm of his hand. carefully on the top
+ and then on the bottom.
Now. you gee. / have made tomato
+ ne announced proudly. But Ned wanted TO
know where the creases were in the SIDES
every tomato has some creases run
ming from the top 10 the bottom. and
between them the tomato is fatter and
3uicier than ever" he said SO all Of US
fattened our spheres as John had done
and were careful to put Sin the creases
with our little fingers Not too deep and
not too many or close together-in fact,
we saw that Neds was the best and he
only made five. Then he picked up stick
and made a little rough spot at the top
TO show where the small green leaves had
been pulled off. and we all did the same.
May had completed her tomato before
l the rest OF us and was rolling a sphere
between her two hands and making II ,