on a piece of canvas, and covered
with paste.

'What is the paste made of?' Harry wanted to know.

'Soft soap, my lad,' said the workman, 'and oil, and emery-powder.'

3. He rolled them all up in the canvas, tied string round the bundle,
and put it between the rollers of a thing that looked like a mangle.

4. Dora and Harry opened their eyes wide. 'Think of needles being
mangled! This will be something to tell mother!'

5. When the bundle was unrolled, they were afraid that the needles would
be broken. But they were all right, and they were taken out and washed
in warm soap-suds.

6. 'Now they must be clean!' said Dora.

'Not yet,' said the man; 'they have to be rolled up again with more
paste, and put between those rollers again, and again, and again. It
takes eight days to clean the best needles.

7. 'And it takes six days to clean the second-best,' said the man.

'Then even the second-best won't be done till Friday!' said Harry.

8. 'But we can go and see some needles that have been cleaned,' said his
uncle. 'Let us go up-stairs again.'

9. And they went up into a room where many girls were sitting at a long
table with heaps of bright needles before them. They were putting them
in order, side by side, heads all one way, points another.

Dora was sure that she could not pick them out so quickly.

10. They were going on into another room to see the eyes of the needles
made smooth, when Dora said, 'Oh, uncle, I am so tired!'

'So am I,' said Harry, 'and hungry, too.'

11. 'Come along, then,' said uncle, laughing. 'We all want our dinners,
I think.' He took Dora's hand in his, and away they went.

THE KNIFE.

ro'-ley
po'-ley
thought
morn'-ing
knife
least
blade
han'-dle
aunt'-ie
edg'-es
rath'-er
clock

1. There was not much talking at dinner, till after the second helping
of roley-poley.

2. Then Dora and Harry felt happy again, and began to tell their aunt
all about the needle-making. She had seen it once, but it was a long
time ago, and she thought she should like to see it again.

3. 'But if I had gone this morning,' she said, 'you would not have had
your pudding.'

'That would have been sad,' said Dora.

4. 'What a lot of steel we have seen,' said Harry. 'I never knew there
was so much in the world.'

5. 'You can see some on this table now.'

'Where?'

'What have I cut the pudding with?'

[Illustration]

'Oh, the knife