ALL kinds of things can be made from cigar boxes, but the toy described next is one I used to make for some of the smaller boys about birthday time, and it always gave them a great-deal of amusement. It is better shown in the drawing, Figure I.

This is a "walking" horse, whose body is nothing but a cigar box, so arranged, with pivoted wooden legs and a string to work it by, that when you pull on this string or thread back of the toy, it will walk away from you. It is very easy to see how this toy works.

In the first place, the head and tail are cut from cigar-box wood and are fastened in place by small nails or even pins. The front legs are cut out of cigar-box wood and are fastened rigidly to the body of the toy by small nails, so that there is no pivoting.

The hind legs are pivoted on a wire P at the lower corner of the box, while about half an inch above a cross wire C connects these two pieces, running through slots H instead of holes, so that the hind legs are free to move backward and forward on the lower wire as a pivot.

A spacer of wire having a loop in the middle connects the front legs near the bottom. The hind legs are connected in the same way, the wire running through holes in the wood near the feet.

A rubber band inside the body of the toy, shown at R, pulls forward on the upper cross wire of the hind legs, so that normally this rubber band keeps them pushing backward as far as the lever action of these side pieces is allowed by the slot H, Figure 2.

A string or thread runs through the loop in the lower foot wire of the hind leg pieces, runs forward through the loop in the front wire, and back, as shown in Figure 1.

You can very easily see that when this string is pulled, it will move the hind legs forward, thus stretching the rubber band R, and that when the string is released, the rubber band R will pull them back again.

Through the feet of the horse are driven pins at an angle as shown in Figure 2, pointing backward and projecting about one-eighth of an inch. These are slanted at an angle of forty-five degrees at least, so that they may slide forward, but will not slide backward without sticking into the carpet.

Set this toy on the floor, and pull on the thread or operating string. The hind feet are drawn forward toward the front feet, since the pins in the front feet hold the toy from sliding backward on the carpet, while the pins in the rear feet slide forward over the nap of the carpet without difficulty. On releasing the string, the rubber band R immediately tends to push the rear feet back. This forces the pins in the hind feet into the carpet and causes them to thrust the whole toy forward. The front feet then slide forward, the pins in the front feet being automatically withdrawn from the carpet to allow the toy to move. Thus the alternate pulling and releasing of the string causes the feet to come together and push apart.

You can make this toy with nothing but a jacknife, some nails, and a hairpin, if you have to, - I mean with a very small equipment, - but if you have some shop tools, it will help, of course, in cutting out your patterns.

In Figure 3 are shown the patterns for the head and tail pieces of the toy. Figure 4 shows patterns for the legs. You can enlarge these to any size to lit the cigar box which you are going to use.

You would do well to lay the cigar box on its side first on a piece of paper and mark around it so as to get a rectangle just its size. On this paper sketch out the head and tail and legs in proportion to the size of your cigar-box body.

When the final pattern is made on paper, cut out the shapes and paste them on cigar-box wood. Then with a fret saw or even your knife cut around the pattern carefully.

The front legs can be fastened to the cigar-box body with small nails, although in the drawing I have shown cross wires, since, as I said before, the front legs are fastened rigidly to the box.

Make the pivot point on the hind legs three quarters of an inch or an inch below the top of the pattern. Through the holes punched at this point fit hairpin wire as a pivot running through small holes in the cigar box near the lower corner as at P. These holes in the cigar box should not be too loose, but should be large enough so that the wire can turn freely without binding.

Bore a hole in the hind legs half an inch above this pivoting wire and connect through the body of the toy by another wire having a loop in its center, as do the wires which are attached at the feet of the toy. This wire does not run through a mere hole in the body, but through a slot H which allows it to move back and forth for a short space, say about three-eighths of an inch. Stretch a rubber band from the loop in the center of this wire to the cross wire between the front legs, or to a nail in the other end of the box.

This rubber band must be strong enough to push the toy across the carpet and yet should not be too strong, or the pull required on the string to stretch it will be too great.

You will need to experiment with the tension of this rubber band.

The cross wires at the feet are made of hairpin wire bent as shown and fitting tightly through holes in the foot pieces. If these are too loose, the wire may be wrapped around the ankle of the pattern to hold it tight.

The drawings show how the operating string runs forward through the loop in the wire connecting the front feet, so that when you pull on the string, the front bar merely acts as a pulley to draw the front and hind feet together.

When the hind feet have moved as far as the length of the slots H allows, release the string, and the rubber band R will push the feet back again and thus thrust the toy forward by catching the pins in the carpet. This toy will not work on a smooth floor.