the roof
marking the holes, and below is a larger view of one of these pegs
connected with the upper ones by dotted lines.

Sheet-Iron Shingles

To mend simple cracks or holes like these it is only necessary to bend up
bits of tin or sheet iron (Fig. 300) and drive the metal shingle up
underneath the shingle above the hole so that the "weather" part of the
tin covers the leak, or drive it under the leaking shingle itself, or
drive a new shingle up under or over the damaged one. Where there is a bad
place in the roof it may be necessary to make a patch of a number of
shingles like the one shown in the right-hand corner of Fig. 2951/2, but
even then it is not necessary to remove the old shingles unless the hole
is very large.

These patches of old tin or new shingles do not look handsome on an old
roof, but they serve their purpose in keeping out the rain and snow and
preventing moisture from rotting the timbers. The weather will soon tone
down the color of the new shingles so that they will not be noticeable and
you will have the satisfaction of having a dry roof over your head. There
is only one thing worse than a leaky roof and that is a leaky boat.

Practical Patching

In these days when everybody with a few hundred dollars in pocket is very
sensibly using it to buy a farm and farmhouse so as to be able for a part
of the year to return to the simple life of our ancestors it is very
necessary that we should also know something of the simple economies of
those days, for when one finds oneself out on a farm there is no plumber
around the corner and no tinsmith on the next block whom one may call upon
to repair breaks and the damage done by time and weather on an old
farmhouse. The ordinary man under these conditions is helpless, but some
are inspired by novel ideas, as, for instance, the man who mended the
leaking roof with porous plasters.

Fig. 295. Fig. 2951/2. Fig. 300. Fig. 301. Fig. 302. Fig. 303. Fig.
304.

Fig. 305. Fig. 306.

[Illustration: How to mend a shingle or tin roof.]

But for the benefit of those who are not supplied with a stock of porous
plasters I will tell how to do the plumbing and how to mend the tin roof
with old bits of tin, rags, and white lead; and to begin with I want to
impress upon the reader's mind that this will be no bungling, unsightly
piece of work, but much more durable and just as neat as any piece of work
which the professionals would do for him. In the first place,