books people had were slowly written with a pen, and many of these are preserved to this day as examples of the beautiful art of hand-lettering. If you could do something of this sort yourselves, what uses could you put it to? Some answers to this question are given below.

a. Lettering Christmas cards. Cards are easily obtained; and as for thoughts to letter, you could either draw on your own ideas about Christmas, or get quotations from such books as you may have at home or in the school library.

b. Lettering cards to accompany Christmas gifts. On these should be lettered the names of the persons to whom the gifts are made, your own names, and any message that you may choose to add. c. Lettering New Year's cards. It is an old and happy custom to wish our friends all the happiness and prosperity possible at the beginning of the new

year.

d. Lettering valentines. But it is to be hoped that you will not send the "comic" kind. Such anonymous messages, that is, messages without names signed to them, are rather cowardly. Besides, the beautiful letters that are given farther on in this book are too good to be used for unworthy purposes.

e. Lettering your names in your books. When you have once lettered your names, and perhaps your addresses, in the books, do not disfigure them with scribbling; keep them clean and beautiful.

f. Lettering the titles beneath your drawings. Also your

names.

g. Lettering the program on the school blackboard. You

PLANNING A CHRISTMAS CARD·

will have to use crayon for this, and you must
try to make all the strokes of a letter of the
same width. The best workman in the room
should be selected to do this.

h. Lettering school announcements. These should be
made on the blackboard, or perhaps on sheets
of paper to be hung somewhere in the room.
i. Lettering cover-sheets for your compositions. You
should take a piece of manila paper a little more
than twice the size of the paper you use for com-
positions, fold it once, so that it will contain the
composition sheets and protect their edges, and
on the outside letter your names and the list of
compositions within. The top line of one would
be, perhaps, "John Ashton's Compositions," or
perhaps "Mary Wood's Works," or perhaps
"The Writings of Thomas Dodge," or perhaps
"Helen Moore: Her Compositions.' Under such
a title should appear, in smaller letters, the names
of the compositions inside.

j. Lettering the cover for your school paper. You will be able to see what such a cover would look like by examining the cut on page 16.

THE ALPHABET

17. One of the cuts that accompany this explanation shows all the characters that you are to use capital letters, small letters, numerals, and punctuation marks. The capital letters are grouped according to their width. Some letters, like the T and those before it, are wide; others are narrow, like the B and those that follow it. You should try to make them just like those given as models. In

OQCGD M WHNUVA

TBPRS EFL KXYZ IJ?!

u

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t v w x y z 1234 567890+ &

the small-letter alphabet you will see that the t is of an unusual size. It is just a little taller than the o or the m, and shorter than the l or the d.

The letters in this alphabet are like those which the ancient Romans placed on their buildings and arches. Those old letters have always been thought to be the easiest to read and the most beautiful in appearance of any letters that have ever been made. If your letters are to be readable and beautiful, you must be very careful to make each letter the proper width for its height, and each part the proper size for the whole letter.

INSTRUCTIONS

18. Here are some instructions that you should follow carefully:

1. Make a stylus from a piece of soft wood. This piece of wood should be about five inches long, one half an inch wide, and about one quarter of an inch thick. Whittle the end to the shape of the one in the drawing. Smooth it with a piece of very fine sandpaper. Be sure that it has a flat circular surface like the unsharpened end of a lead pencil, or smaller, so that when you dip it into the ink and press it down on the paper it will make a round. dot. When you make the strokes of the letter with it you must hold the stick vertical to the paper. The end may be made as small as you wish.

2. Before beginning to letter, rule straight lines into the paper with the back of a knife blade or some other dull edge. These lines should be very