touch it to. How, then, could
it take fire?

_Mother._ Hold this piece of paper up to the blaze of the lamp, my dear,
but be careful not to touch the fire or flame of the lamp; only hold it
close to the blaze.

_Daughter._ Why, mother, it has taken fire!

_Mother._ You see, then, that a thing will sometimes take fire when it
does not touch the fire.

_Daughter._ Yes, mother; but I do not understand where the fire comes
from.

_Mother._ The fire comes from the heat, my dear. Now, you know that heat
is produced by rubbing two things together; and that some things, like
the spirits of turpentine, take fire very easily, or with very little
heat; and others, like the hard wood, require to be heated some
time,--or, in other words, require much heat,--to make them take fire,
or to burn. Some things require only as much heat to make them take fire
as can be obtained by rubbing them together very quickly, like the wood
which Robinson Crusoe's man Friday used.

_Daughter._ But, mother, the match is made of wood,--why does that take
fire so easily?

_Mother._ It is true, Caroline, that the match is made of wood; but it
has something at the end of it, which takes fire much more easily than
the spirits of turpentine. Indeed, so easily does it take fire, that it
requires only so much heat to set it on fire as can be obtained by
drawing the match once across the sand-paper.

_Daughter._ But, mother, matches do not always take fire. I have seen
Alice rub several across the sand-paper, before she could set one on
fire.

_Mother._ That is true, and the reason of this is, that the matches are
not all well made. Now, if I should take several pieces of hard wood and
tie them together, and dip their ends into the spirits of turpentine,
what would happen, if the ends of some of the pieces did not touch the
spirits of turpentine, because I had not tied them together with their
points all even?

_Daughter._ Why, mother, some of them would take fire easily, because
the points had the spirits of turpentine on them; while those which did
not touch the spirits could not be lighted so easily.

_Mother._ So it is, my dear, with the matches. They are all dipped into
the substance which takes fire so easily; but some of the ends do not
reach the substance, and do not become coated with it, and therefore
they will not light more easily than the pine wood of which they are
made.

LESSON XVIII.

_The same subject, concluded._