Rollo's Experiments

“A hole in it!” said Rollo.

“Yes, a small auger hole, to put the handle into. Then you must put the wood into the saw-horse, and saw off the ends, at a little distance from the hole, so that, when the handle is put in, it will be like a mallet.”

“A mallet!” said Rollo. “But I wanted a beetle.”

“Well, a mallet is a small beetle, without rings.”

“Is it?” said Rollo, thoughtfully.

“Yes,” replied Jonas; “and if you work slowly and carefully, I think you can make a pretty good one yourself.”

Rollo thought so too, and away he ran to make the experiment. Under the great work bench, he found, among a quantity of boards and bits of wood, a number of long bars of walnut, which Jonas had split out from the wood pile to keep for handles. He took one of these, and carried it off to the shed, to look for the saw and the hatchet.

The first thing was, as he supposed, to saw off a piece of the wood just long enough for a wedge. But in this he was mistaken. In doing any piece of work of this kind, it is always very important to consider which part it is best to do first. Rollo did not think of this, and so he marked off a piece of the walnut wood about long enough for a wedge, and then sawed it off.

“Now,” said he, “I must make the sides smooth, and sharpen it.”

So he took the piece of wood in his hand, and put one end of it down upon a large log of wood, and then attempted to smooth and sharpen it, as he had seen Jonas sharpen a stake. But he could not succeed very well. The wood was very hard, and he could not cut it. Then it was so short that it was almost impossible to hold it. At almost every blow of the hatchet it slipped out of his hand; and then, besides, he was very much afraid of cutting his fingers; so that, after working laboriously for some time, he came back to Jonas in despair, holding his wedge in his hands, which, however, instead of being properly sharpened, was only rounded off a little at the corners.

“O dear me!” said he to Jonas, as he came up to him with the intended wedge in his hands, “I can’t make a wedge at all. It’s no use to try.” Then he explained to Jonas the difficulties that he had met with.

“True,” said Jonas; “I see. I advise you to give it up.”

“Yes,” said Rollo, “the wood is so hard.”

“O, no,” said Jonas; “that is no great trouble—you could easily manage that.”

“But then I can’t hold it.”

“That is of no consequence either. I could tell you a way to hold it well enough.”

“What is the reason, then, why you think I had better give up?”

“Because you have not patience enough.”

Rollo stood silent and thoughtful as Jonas said this, with his piece of wood in one hand, and his hatchet in the other.

“It takes a great deal of patience to make a thing which we never made before.”

“Why?” said Rollo.

“O, because there are always unforeseen difficulties. We don’t know exactly how to do it, and are apt to make mistakes; and so we spoil some of our work, and this makes us impatient and fretful.”

“But I could not help coming to you,” said Rollo, “when I found I could not sharpen my wedge.”

“I did not blame you for coming to me,” said Jonas.

“But you said I was impatient.”

“Yes, but not for coming to me—I judged by your looks and tone of voice. Now if you can keep good-natured and pleasant, so as to go on steadily and patiently, difficulties or no difficulties, I will help you by my advice; otherwise, I think you had better give up the plan.”

Rollo stood a few minutes leaning on the door, and swinging it back and forth a little. He seemed to be in doubt whether to be good-natured or not. At length, the better feelings triumphed, and he said,

“Well, Jonas I will try. How can I hold my wedge while I sharpen it?”

“You must not saw it off until it is all sharpened and smoothed. By that means, you see, the long end of the stick, that you make it from, will serve for a handle.”

“So it will,” said Rollo; “I never thought of that.”

So Rollo went off in pursuit of the stick from which he had sawed off his first wedge, intending to make another upon the end of it, and then saw it off when it was all ready.

He found that now he could hold his wood very easily, and there was no danger of cutting his fingers. So he could strike much heavier blows. He soon sharpened his wedge, and then carried it to Jonas to ask him if he thought it would do.

“No,” said Jonas, “I don’t think it will do, very well.”

“Won’t it?” asked Rollo, looking somewhat disappointed.

“Why, you see the sides are not smooth; and then you have not sharpened it uniformly. You have cut away more at the corners than you have in the middle, so that it is thicker in the middle. That is the way that boys always sharpen wedges.”

“Why do they?” asked Rollo.

“I suppose it is because it is easier to cut away at the edges, and so they get more off there. Now you had better get your wedge as true, and perfect, and smooth as you can, before you saw it off. It will be a great deal pleasanter to work with a good wedge than with a poor one, and so you had better take pains with it, and make as perfect a one as you can, if you make any.”

“But, Jonas,” said Rollo, “I can smooth it and finish it, after I get it sawed off.”

“Not half as easily as you can now,” said Jonas.

During all this time Jonas kept on with his own work; and now he said no more, and seemed disposed to leave Rollo to his own decision.

Rollo walked slowly back to the shed. He longed to have his wedge done; but then Jonas had often told him before, that if he was attempting to make any thing, it was best to take pains with it, and make it as complete and perfect as possible, and then he would prize it more, and take more pleasure in it, when it was done. Rollo knew that this was good advice, though, like almost all other boys, he was always in such a hurry to finish any thing that he undertook, and to have it ready for use, that he did not like to take the necessary pains.

On reflection, however, he concluded to take Jonas’s advice; and he accordingly began to smooth the sides of his wedge again with the hatchet. He did it slowly and carefully; and after some time he found that he had got the wedge into a much more perfect shape than before. He then carried it to Jonas again.

Now Jonas approved it very much, but told him that he had better smooth it a little more with his knife before sawing it off. Rollo did so; and then he carried it back to the horse, and sawed it off at the right distance, and it made an excellent wedge. The edges, at the head of the wedge, were left somewhat rough by the saw. These, however, he trimmed off with his knife, and then carried the wedge to Jonas.

“Very well,” said Jonas; “now you want one more.”

“One more?” said Rollo. “No, I want my beetle next.”

“No,” said Jonas, “one more wedge. Make all your wedges first.”

“Why, Jonas, you see, if I make my beetle next, I can try it with this wedge, and then I can make another, if I want it, afterwards.”

“No,” replied Jonas, “that is not a good way. You ought to finish up your apparatus all complete, before you try it at all. Then you will take a great deal more pleasure in trying it. Besides, if you get to work splitting up your wood, you will not want to leave it, and go to making a new wedge then. Now is the time to do it.”

Rollo felt very desirous to make his beetle first, so as “just to try it a little,” as he said. Still, he had so often found, when he had not followed Jonas’s advice, that he was sorry for it afterwards, that he concluded to make another wedge now. He accordingly went to work again, and having learned how to do it by his practice upon the first one, he succeeded very easily, and finished it much quicker than he did before.

Then he went to work upon his beetle. He selected a round stick of wood, of about the right size, and then examined it carefully to find the part which was most uniform and regular in its shape; and he bored a hole for the handle in the middle of this part. He made his handle of pine wood, for this was much easier to cut, and Jonas told him he thought it would do nearly as well. When the handle was finished, he drove it into the hole, and then he sawed off the ends of the stick of wood at the right distances from the hole. He first took pains to measure on each side, so as to have the distances exactly the same.