for the first cut, which was
always the hardest, and that they'd all better rest and smoke a little,
as his mind was quite tired with thinking. But in a few minutes he said
they might try now to make a wheel, and see if they could do that as
well; and Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow went at it again, and after a while got
a slice of the tree cut off, quite smooth and about an inch thick, and
Mr. 'Possum said it would make a very good wheel, but that they would be
likely to improve with each slice, and that they must be very careful to
hold the saw just as he told them.

So then they rested and cut off another slice, and rested some more, and
cut off another slice, until they had four slices, and were nearly ready
to drop from being tired and hot, and were saying how fine it was to
have that job done, when Mr. 'Possum said that he had just remembered
they would need one more slice, for his steering-wheel.

Well, Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow thought they would surely die before they
got the last slice off, and Mr. 'Possum brought some water and sprinkled
a little on their foreheads, and at last that wheel was done, too, and
they were all quite exhausted and lay in the shade a while to rest and
talk about it. Mr. 'Possum said it might take a little longer than he
thought, to finish the automobile, and that it was better not to hurry
so, as new thoughts were coming to him all the time. He said that next
year they would make another and probably change the style a good deal.

Then when they were rested he showed them some nice straight limbs of
the tree that they could saw off for the axles, and when they got those
sawed off, which was easier to do, of course, he measured them and
showed them how to shave the ends nice and smooth with Mr. Man's
drawing-knife, and how to cut out of a strong piece of board some things
he called brackets for the back axle to turn in, because the back axle
had to turn, and how to bore holes with Mr. Man's auger, in the back
wheels, and drive them on tight, and how to bore holes in the front
wheels and put them on loose with pegs to hold them on, because the
front wheels have to turn, and how to bore a hole in the middle of the
front axle and in the bottom of the big wood-box, for the steering-rod,
because the wood-box was going to be used for the body, and the
steering-rod would turn the front axle and hold it to the body at the
same time.

Mr. 'Possum said that he had noticed that on Mr. Man's car the
ste