e generally chose small,
round pieces, about as large round as a boy's arm, and sawed off a short
piece about three inches long. This he split into quarters, and reserved
one quarter for his specimen, throwing the others away. This quarter
had, of course, three sides; one was covered with bark, and the other
two were the split sides. As fast as Jonas got these specimens split out
in this manner, he put them in the barn, upon a shelf, near the bench;
and then, one day, he took them one by one, and planed one of the split
sides of each, and then smoothed it perfectly with sand paper.

Rollo, who was standing by at the time, asked him why he did not plane
them all around.

"O, because," said Jonas, "they are for specimens, and so we want them
to show the bark on one side, and the wood on the other side, in its
natural state; and the third side is enough to show its appearance when
it is manufactured."

"Manufactured!" said Rollo.

"Yes," said Jonas; "planed and varnished, as it is when it is made into
furniture."

"Are you going to varnish the sides that you plane?"

Jonas said he was; and he did so. He planed one side, and one end. He
varnished the planed side, and pasted a neat little label on the planed
end. On the label he wrote the name of the wood, and some very brief
account of its qualities and uses, when he knew what they were. For
instance, on the end of the specimen of walnut, was written in a very
close but plain hand--

Walnut, very tough and hard. Used for handles.

After Jonas had got as many specimens as he could, from the wood pile,
he used to cut others in the woods, when he happened to be there, of
kinds which are not commonly cut for fuel. In this way he got, after a
time, more than twenty different kinds, and when they were all neatly
varnished and labelled, it made a very curious collection; and it was
very useful, too, sometimes; for whenever the boys found any kind of a
tree in the woods which they did not know, all they had to do, was to
cut a branch of it off, and bring it to the museum, and compare it with
Jonas's specimens. In this way, before long, they learned the names of
nearly all the trees which grew in the woods about there.

There was a curious circumstance which happened in respect to Rollo's
hemlock-seed. It has already been said that this supposed hemlock-seed
was really a chrysalis. Now, a chrysalis is that form which all
caterpillars assume, before they change into b