Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/24

10 Tying up a Parcel

The first duty of a parcel is to be neatly and strongly tied up so that it does not come unfastened, but, poor thing, it cannot do this for itself, so you have to do it a good turn by tying it up. Wrap it neatly in strong paper.

Just as you tuck in the corners of the blankets on your bed to keep you warm and snug, so the corners of the paper should be tidily folded at the ends of a parcel and doubled over flat.

The string should be drawn quite tight, and have only small knots which won't slip. It is therefore most important that you should learn, as Scouts do, how to tie knots properly.

When a parcel is going by post it gets thrown around a good deal and has to stand a lot of banging about, so bear that in mind when you are tying it up.

It is always wisest to write the name and address of the person to whom you are sending the parcel on the parcel itself. Very often people write this only on labels which they tie on, and then if this label gets torn off at all, away goes the parcel to the dead letter office or gets quite lost.

Hemming a Handkerchief

Double the edges twice, so that the rough edge of the square of linen or muslin are well inside the turning. Then baste all around so as to hold the turned edges in place, and so that they are the same width all round.

Then hem it with neat, small stitches.