[Illustration:  A FALCHION-SHAPED PAPER-CUTTER.]

A WALL LETTER-HOLDER.

This is something which quite a little boy could make.  Cut out three pieces of thin wood, a foot long by six inches wide; smooth and sand-paper two of them, bore a hole in each corner and in the middle of one side, and fasten them together with fine wire, cord, ribbon, or the small brass pins which are used for holding manuscripts.  The pieces should be held a little apart.  Cut one end of the third piece into some ornamental shape, glue it firmly to the back of one of the others, and suspend it from the wall by a hole bored in the top.  It will be found a useful thing to hold letters or pamphlets.  A clever boy could make this much handsomer by cutting a pattern over the front, or an initial, or monogram, or name in the middle.  The wood should be oiled or shellacked.

[Illustration:  A WALL LETTER-HOLDER FOR PAPA.]

SHOE-CASES.

These cases are meant to take the place of paper when shoes are to be wrapped up to go in a trunk.  They are made of brown crash, bound with red worsted braid.  One end is pointed so as to turn over and button down, or the top has strings over the braid to tie the mouth up.  There should be three or four made at a time, as each holds but one pair of shoes; and you will find that mamma or your unmarried aunts will like them very much.

[Illustration:  A SHOE-CASE FOR TRAVELING.]

SKATE-BAGS.

A nice present for a skating boy—­and what boy does not skate?—­is a bag made much after the pattern of the shoe-case just described, only larger and wider, and of stouter material.  Water-proof cloth or cassimere is best.  Sew it very strongly, and attach a string of wide braid, or a strong elastic strap, that the bag may be swung over the shoulders.  A big initial letter cut out in red flannel and button-holed on will make a pretty effect.

A SCALLOP-SHELL ALBUM.

Young folks who are fortunate enough to have a pair of good-sized scallop-shells (picked up, perhaps, at the sea-side during the last summer vacation), can make a very pretty little autograph album in this way: 

[Illustration:  A SCALLOP-SHELL ALBUM.]

Take a pair of well-mated scallop-shells.  Clean them with brush and soap.  When dry, paint them with the white of egg to bring out the colors, and let them dry again.  Now insert between the shells a dozen or more pages of writing-paper, cut of the same shape and size as the shells, and very neatly scalloped around the edges.  Then secure the whole loosely, as shown in the picture, by means of a narrow ribbon passed through two holes previously bored in the shells.  Of course, holes also must be pierced in the sheets of paper to correspond with those in the shells.