Compare the drawers, and if one is slightly wider than the rest, use it to guide you in making the measurements for the case.

The sides and back of the case are cut out of a single piece.  The sides should be a quarter of an inch deeper than the drawers to allow some overlap; the back slightly wider than the drawer.

As each drawer will be separated from that above it by a shelf, allowance must be made for the shelves, and also for a twentieth of an inch or so of “play” to each drawer.  To keep on the safe side leave a little extra stuff to be removed later on.

Cut out the bottom to fit inside the back and sides exactly, and a sufficient number of shelves of precisely the same size as the bottom.  Attach the bottom to the sides and back with internal and external strips.  When the glue has set, place the guide drawer in position, and lay on it a piece of thin card to cover it over.  This card is merely a removable “spacer.”  Along the side and back edges of the shelf stick projecting strips of stout paper.  When the adhesive is dry, turn the strips round the end at right angles to the division, glue them outside, and lay the division in position on top of the “spacer.”

Place the second drawer and shelf in like manner, and continue till the top of the cabinet is reached.  Then mark off and cut away any superfluous card.  Glue the top edges, and stand the cabinet head downwards on a piece of cardboard.  Trim off the edges of this, and the top is completed, except for binding the corners.

Then attend to the outside back corners of the case, and paste strips in the angles under the shelves.  The strips should be forced well into the angles.

For handles use brass rings let sufficiently far through the fronts of the drawers for a wedge of card to be slipped through them and stuck in position.  The appearance of the cabinet will be enhanced by a neatly applied covering of paper.

A Cigar-box Cabinet.

At the rate of a halfpenny or less apiece one may buy the cigar boxes made to hold twenty-five cigars.  These boxes, being fashioned by machinery, are all—­at any rate all those devoted to a particular “brand”—­of the same dimensions; they are neatly constructed, and their wood is well seasoned.  Anyone who wishes to make a useful little cabinet may well employ the boxes as drawers in the said cabinet (Fig. 29).

Each box should be prepared as follows:-Remove the lid and paper lining, and rub all the paper binding off the outside angles with a piece of coarse glass paper.  This is a safer method than soaking-off, which may cause warping and swelling of the wood.  Then plane down the tops of the two sides till they are flush with the back and front, and glue into the corners small pieces of wood of right-angled-triangle section to hold the sides together and the bottom to the sides.  To secure the parts further cut a number of large pins down to 3/4 inch, and drive these into the sides through holes carefully drilled in the bottom.  Finally, rub the outside of the drawer well with fine glass paper or emery cloth till the surface is smooth all over.