They were kept in till they were white-hot.

8.  When the needles came out, they were put into cold water!  What a hissing and steaming they made!  But they had to lie there till they were quite cool.

9.  Then they were taken out and dried.  The man said they were hard enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to bend well without breaking.

10.  They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about.  Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.

11.  They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her.  She laid a curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and then another, and another.

NEEDLES.

PART 4.

clean’-ing piece can’-vas soap oil em’-er-y pow’-der bun’-dle man’-gle a-fraid’ brok’-en sec’-ond Fri’-day points hun’-gry laugh’-ing

1.  The cleaning of the needles came next.

2.  A great many were laid side by side 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.