By using several sets of Tangrams at the same time we may construct more ambitious pictures.  I was advised by a friend not to send my picture, “A Game of Billiards” (9), to the Academy.  He assured me that it would not be accepted because the “judges are so hide-bound by convention.”  Perhaps he was right, and it will be more appreciated by Post-impressionists and Cubists.  The players are considering a very delicate stroke at the top of the table.  Of course, the two men, the table, and the clock are formed from four sets of Tangrams.  My second picture is named “The Orchestra” (10), and it was designed for the decoration of a large hall of music.  Here we have the conductor, the pianist, the fat little cornet-player, the left-handed player of the double-bass, whose attitude is life-like, though he does stand at an unusual distance from his instrument, and the drummer-boy, with his imposing music-stand.  The dog at the back of the pianoforte is not howling:  he is an appreciative listener.

[Illustration:  9]

[Illustration:  10]

One remarkable thing about these Tangram pictures is that they suggest to the imagination such a lot that is not really there.  Who, for example, can look for a few minutes at Lady Belinda (11) and the Dutch girl (12) without soon feeling the haughty expression in the one case and the arch look in the other?  Then look again at the stork (13), and see how it is suggested to the mind that the leg is actually much more slender than any one of the pieces employed.  It is really an optical illusion.  Again, notice in the case of the yacht (14) how, by leaving that little angular point at the top, a complete mast is suggested.  If you place your Tangrams together on white paper so that they do not quite touch one another, in some cases the effect is improved by the white lines; in other cases it is almost destroyed.

[Illustration:  11]

[Illustration:  12]

Finally, I give an example from the many curious paradoxes that one happens upon in manipulating Tangrams.  I show designs of two dignified individuals (15 and 16) who appear to be exactly alike, except for the fact that one has a foot and the other has not.  Now, both of these figures are made from the same seven Tangrams.  Where does the second man get his foot from?

[Illustration:  13]

[Illustration:  14]

[Illustration:  15]

[Illustration:  16]

PATCHWORK PUZZLES.

“Of shreds and patches.”—­Hamlet, iii. 4.

170.—­THE CUSHION COVERS.

[Illustration]

The above represents a square of brocade.  A lady wishes to cut it in four pieces so that two pieces will form one perfectly square cushion top, and the remaining two pieces another square cushion top.  How is she to do it?  Of course, she can only cut along the lines that divide the twenty-five squares, and the pattern must “match” properly without any irregularity whatever in the design of the material.  There is only one way of doing it.  Can you find it?