w edging. A short piece
of a pencil laid flat against the ribs and moved round, would perhaps
be the most convenient."

James proceeds dutifully to work, marks the edging, and then, after
removing the screw-cramps, roughly hews away the wood to near the line.

Much care and more delicate manipulation has to be exercised now, or
the precaution of the pencil line will prove to be next to useless.

Files of different degrees of tooth are employed until quite an even
contour is obtained and a precise line, the continuation of the pattern,
is seen.

The next proceeding will be to mark the thickness of the edging all
round. For this purpose a cut line is better than a mere mark, as the
cutting up to it is easier and safer. The purfling tool may be regulated
and adapted in this case, after which the table will be laid flat,
carefully considered, and the more detailed gouging commenced. A small
pair of calipers will prove handy for measuring the depth of the
channelling of the original parts and gouging down carefully until a
corresponding modelling has been effected.

If the original work is sharply defined and a distinctly shaped border
is present, then the work must be proceeded with as in the instance
of making a new copy of a violin.

Some little difficulty may appear when the question of matching the
purfling arises. The assistant opens a drawer close by, selects a
likely piece, compares it with that on the violin, and then shows it
to his chief, who examines it in a similar manner. "Yes," he says, "I
think that is sufficiently like, in fact, it will not be possible to
get nearer, it is a bit of that old stuff, is it not, that we have kept
by for an emergency? Have you got the groove cleanly cut and routed
out?"

"Yes, sir," is the answer; "I noticed about the depth that would be
wanted at that little part where the old stuff had been snapped short
at the fracture."

"Well, that will do, James. Be careful to cut the ragged end with a
clean angle, doing the same with the fresh stuff--fit the parts
accurately, and when you insert the purfling see that the end is pushed
home so that as little as possible is seen of the junction of the two
ends."

With these injunctions borne in mind, James proceeds to the work.
Having had some experience in this branch of the repairing art, and,
further, this being to him a more interesting part than others of the
proceedings, he at once sets to work.

Having roughly measured t