NEEDLES. PART 2.

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points un´-cle ham´-mer watched
heads block al-lowed´ piece
eyes heav´-y laugh´-ing sharp

1. The next thing that the children saw was a grindstone turning round very, very fast.

2. A man put the bits of wire into a thing which was fixed just over the grindstone, and both ends were quickly rubbed sharp.

3. 'Now you see the points of the needles,' said the man, as the wire came out again.

'But there are no heads yet!' said Harry.

'And no eyes!' said Dora.

'Well, come along to the stamping-room,' said their uncle.

4. In this room they found a block of stone that had iron on the top of it. Over it hung a heavy hammer. A man who stood there took one of the wires, put it on the block, and made the hammer come down upon it.

5. The moment the hammer went up again the wire fell into a pan, and the children were allowed to look at it.

6. Still there were no eyes or heads! All that could be seen were two little dents, one on each side of the middle of the wire.

7. 'But, look again!' said uncle. 'Don't you see a tiny dot in each dent? That is where the eye is going to be.'

8. In the next room they found a great number of boys at work.

'Oh, uncle,' said Harry, 'do you think I could come here and help to make needles?'

'You would soon be tired of it,' said his uncle, laughing.

9. They went up to one of the boys, and watched him for some time. He took some wires that had come from the stamping-room, and laid them on a piece of iron, but held the two ends in his hands.

10. Then a heavy thing with two hard, sharp, steel points under it came down on the middle part of the wires, and made two holes just where the dots had been.

'Now we see the eyes, at last!' cried Dora.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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