dimensions are: Head, 5 feet; foot, 13 feet; foreleach, 10
feet; afterleach, 14-1/2 feet. Make these measurements on a floor, and
mark the outlines with a chalk-line. Cut the after-breadth first, and
the others to match. Lap the breadths 1 inch. Allow an inch all around
for a hem. The breadths should be basted before stitching. Put two rows
of stitching where the breadths lap. Look out for puckering. Put a
narrow hem clear around the sail. Then stitch a 3/8-inch rope around the
hem. Make a loop at the peak to put the end of sprit into. Draw the
rope tight along the boom, and fasten it through a hole in the end.
Fasten the throat of sail tight to the top of the mast. Cut a number of
short pieces of heavy twine, and lace the sail, at intervals of a foot,
to the boom and mast. Fasten a becket or loop of rope at a suitable
position on the mast, to set the heel of the sprit into. Rig main-sheet
over two sheaves, as shown; it brings less strain on the boom, and
clears the skipper's head in tacking. Make a good, large wooden cleat to
belay it to.

The cost of materials will be about as follows:

Boards, plank and mast $5.00
Iron work 6.00
Twenty yards Drilling 2.75
Four single-sheave galvanized
pulley-blocks at 35 c 1.40
(May be omitted by using leather straps.)
Ropes, etc. 85
______
Total $16.00

A boat built as above will sail nearly as close to the wind as a good
cat-boat. It is managed much the same. Don't turn too short in coming
about. Jibe when you like without fear of capsizing. Your boat will
carry three persons in a light wind,--more if it blows fresh. Rig it
neatly, and try to make a finished thing all through. Your ice-boat will
then be more than a boy's plaything, and will be admired by old and young.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

There once was a man with a child
Who, the neighbors said, never had smiled;
But the father said, "See!
Smile in this way, like me,
And then folks will know when you've smiled."

DEBBY'S CHRISTMAS.

BY ELLA A. DRINKWATER.

Most young people's Christmas commences the night before; so did
Debby's. She had just settled down in Blanket street, and fallen into
the sleep of tire