wood pile."

So the boy went to another side of the wood pile, and brought a large
beetle and an iron wedge. When he got back to his log, he started out
the axe which he had left sticking into it. Then Rollo saw that the axe
had made a little indentation, or cleft, in the wood. He put the point
of the wedge into this cleft, and drove it in a very little, with a few
light blows with the axe. Then he took the great heavy beetle, and began
driving the wedge in, with very heavy blows.

Presently, Rollo saw a little crack beginning to extend out each side
from the wedge. The crack ran along across the end of the log, and
thence down the side, and grew wider and wider every moment. At last,
the wedge was driven in as far as it would go, and still the log was not
split open.

"Now stop," said Rollo; "I will put a stick in, and keep the crack open,
while you drive the wedge in, in another place."

"O, that won't do," said the boy; "a stick would not keep it open."

"Why not?" said Rollo.

"Because it is not solid enough; the sides of the cleft draw together
very hard. They would crush the stick."

Here Rollo put his hand into his pocket, and drew out a walnut, and he
asked the boy if it would crack a walnut.

"Try it," said the boy.

So Rollo put the walnut into the crack. He slipped it along until he got
it to a place where the crack was just wide enough to receive it, and
hold it steady. He left it there, and then the boy began to knock out
the wedge.

He struck it first upon one side, and then upon the other, and thus
gradually worked it out. The walnut was crushed all to pieces. The boy
then drove in the wedge again, so as to open the log as it was before.
He then went to the place where he had got the beetle and wedge at
first, and brought a large wooden wedge which he had made before, and
began to put that into the crack, not very far from the iron wedge.

"This will keep it open," said he.

"Yes, I think it will," said Rollo. "But put it up close to the iron
wedge."

"No," said the boy; "for then I can't knock the iron wedge out."

So the boy put the large wooden wedge in, at a little distance from the
iron one, and drove it in rather gently with the beetle. This opened the
cleft a little more, so that the iron wedge came out pretty easily.

"I don't see what makes the sides of the logs draw together so hard,"
said Rollo.

"O, they can't help it," said the boy.

"That is no reason," rejoined Rollo.