These little Mayers are sometimes pursued, but few are ever caught, for the recipients of the baskets know that to capture a child, carry her into the house and treat her to sweetmeats, usually dear to the youthful palate, will not compensate the little prisoner for being held captive and thereby missing the fun going on among the other children.
The dainty little baskets which are used by the Mayers are generally of home manufacture. They are made of almost any material, and in a variety of shapes. Some, constructed of card-board, are covered with crimped tissue-paper, or with gilt, silver, or colored paper. They are never large unless flowers are plentiful, and even in that case a small basket is prettier.
Our first illustration represents a May-basket made of straws. Fig. 33 shows the frame of this basket, for which three straws seven inches long are required; these are sewed together, two and one-half inches from the bottom, forming a tripod. For the sides eighteen straws are necessary, six on each side, of graduating lengths; the three top straws being five inches long and the lowest ones three and one-half inches. These are sewed to the frame, log-cabin fashion, one upon another.
The bottom of the basket is made of a three-cornered piece of card-board cut to fit; three straws, two and one-half inches long, hold the base of the frame in position. A handle formed of three ribbons finishes off this May-basket very prettily; a ribbon is tied to each corner of the basket; the other ends meeting form a bow, as shown in the illustration.
are quite appropriate for wild flowers, and one in the shape of a canoe can be made from a strip of bark six and one-half inches long and four inches wide. Fig. 34 gives the pattern of this basket. The dotted lines show where the ends are to be sewed together; a ribbon sewed to each end of the canoe serves for a handle.
cut after the pattern Fig. 35, can be covered with gilt, silver, or crimped tissue-paper as desired; paper lace or fringe is sometimes placed around the edges of baskets of this kind, as a border to rest the flowers upon. The card-board basket shown in illustration is joined together by button-hole stitching of colored-silk floss; slits are cut in two sides and a ribbon slipped through, the ends of which are tied in bow-knots to hold them in place.