The plan of arrangement which is followed is the natural one—to begin at home. The back yard lies immediately at hand. Let us see what can be done there. The aquarium, pet shelters, windmills, and many other contrivances are identified with the home.
Going farther afield we learn the making of coasters and skees, ice-boats and snow cannon, and all that enters into winter sports. There is the air, also, with its invitation to kites and aeroplanes, and there is water, with all the chances for the use of water-power and sport. Fishing itself is something best learned by experience, but the choice and management of tackle afford a most instructive theme. And water naturally has an importance which requires an entire division of the book wherein boat-building and boat-management of all kinds are thoroughly and practically explained.
Camping out, which appeals to every healthy boy, is treated from every point of view in the fourth division of the book, which includes also trapping, taxidermy, and tree huts and brush houses.
In all these general divisions the aim of the editors and author has been to show in the simplest and most accurate way how to do things which are amusing to do and valuable when done.
The principal contributor to this book is an amateur carpenter, boat-builder, and mechanician as well as an artist and writer. One editor has had a wide practical experience in almost everything that has to do with out-door amusements. Another has camped and fished in the four corners of our country and in Canada. All their experience has been combined to prepare a convenient out-door handy-book free from unnecessary words and details, and filled with the latest and best methods, which will be indispensable to every American boy who likes the fun of doing things for himself.
Since home is the natural centre of life, it will be most helpful if we find out what we can do just outside the house. In large cities there is usually no front yard, and even where such space exists its use as a play-ground is apt to be undesirable. But the back yard even in cities often affords some chances not only for gardening on a small scale but also for making and using a variety of things which will furnish constant amusement.