MACARONI BEADS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 880, 25 January 1930, Page 31

MACARONI BEADS

“Mother, could I help you?” asked Carleen, coming- Into the kitchen where her mother was preparing- dinner. “Suppose you try breaking up this macaroni,” said mother, opening the box. “It’s brittle and will break easily.” Carleen climbed up on a stool, and snap! went a long stick of macaroni. “This is fun!” cried the little girl. “Mother, may I have all the little pieces that are left over to play with?” “Yes, dear, only don’t stop to play now. Go on with your work.” Snap, snap, snap! went the sticks in Carleen’s hands. It wasn’t long before mother said there was enough broken up. And then she let Carleen take several long pieces up the playroom with her. It was fun to blow through them for a while, and then it was fun to make believe they were canes for her dolls. But the most fun came when Carleen broke them up and made beads out of them. She could’nt break them quite small enough so she got the scissors and snip! went a piece of macaroni. And snip, snip! went other pieces. They flew all over the room, and Carleen had to hunt for them. But when she got all those long pieces snipped up, she had quite a lap full of beads. She got the needle and thread out of her bead box and set to work to string them. ' Of course, these beads were all different sizes, but that was rather nice, since all those in the bead box were the same. The string was finally finished. “Lovely, lovely!” exclaimed Carleen. “But I think I would like them better if they were coloured. I wonder if I could paint them?”

She got out her paint box. She moistened the little blocks and dipped her brush into a brilliant red. She painted red dots all over one bead. Then followed blue beads. Then came a yellow striped one. That didn’t show up well, so she splashed some black dots on it. Of course, there were green and pink and purple ones. Oh, it was a brilliant necklace, when it was finished. Carleen hung it around her neck and hurried downstairs to show her mother. “Mother, just look at my necklace!” she cried. “You can’t guess what it is made of?” Mother smiled at the gorgeous collection of beads. “It surely is a mystery,” she said, admiring them. “ I knew you couldn’t guess, mother, so I’ll tell you. I made them out of macaroni!”