after less than a minute miss tick had crafted a shamble out of : one twelve-inch ruler one bootlace one piece of secondhand string some black thread one pencil one pencil sharpener a small stone with a hole in it a matchbox containing a mealworm called roger , along with a scrap of bread for him to eat , because every shamble must contain something living about half a packet of mrs. sheergold 's lubricated throat lozenges a button it looked like a cat 's cradle , or maybe the tangled strings of a very strange puppet .