said Rollo. And he stooped down by the side of Nathan,
and offered to take away the magnet.

But Nathan held it off upon one side, and said, "No, no; I must have it.
Jonas gave it to me."

"Well, Thanny," said Rollo, "I won't take it away; only you let me sit
here and see you play with it."

So Rollo sat still, and did not molest Nathan, but only looked on and
saw him touch the little nail to the bar, and leave it hanging there.
Rollo knew it was a magnet, for he had heard of magnets, though he had
never before had an opportunity of seeing one. As Nathan found that
Rollo was not going to take the magnet away from him, he soon ceased to
appear afraid of him, and presently he let Rollo have the magnet in his
hands. Rollo said he only wanted to look at it a moment, to see what
made the nail stick on.

He examined the steel bar carefully. It was not quite a foot long, and
was shaped like a common flat ruler; only, instead of being straight
from end to end, it was swelled out a little along in the middle. On
looking at the bar very attentively, Rollo observed some very fine,
hair-like lines, crossing each other, so as to produce the appearance of
fine net-work. Rollo supposed that this was what caused the magnet to
take up the nail. He observed that there was one place, near the middle
of the bar, where this net-work was more distinct and strong than in the
other parts of the bar, and so he put the nail there, expecting that it
would be attracted very strongly. But he was surprised at observing
that it was not attracted there at all. He then tried it at different
places, all along the bar, and he found that it was not attracted any
where in the middle, but only at the two ends.

While he was wondering what could be the cause of this, he heard the
front door open, and he knew that his father had come home. So he jumped
up and ran off into the entry, Nathan following him, to show his father
the magnet. His father was busy putting away his coat and hat, and told
the boys to go into the parlor, and he would come in, in a moment, and
see it. When he came in, he sat down before the fire, and took the
magnet, Rollo and Nathan standing by his side, and looking on with eager
curiosity.

Rollo's father examined the magnet from end to end, very carefully, for
some time, without speaking. At length, he said,

"It is an old file."

"An old file!" said Rollo.

"Yes," said his father. "Some of Jonas's work, I suppose."

"Yes,