"You'll do no good with that old lock," said the ironmonger when he saw what Jack wanted the spring for.
"Oh, yes, I shall. It's clumsy, but it's a good lock, and worth taking some trouble over."
The man turned it about, and looked at it again. "I tell you what," he said, "if you can make that lock answer, I'll give you work to-morrow."
"Thank you, I'll be glad of a day's work; and when I've finished this job, I'll bring it to you to look at it," said Jack.
He ran back with the spring he had bought, and very soon had the lock to pieces, and was busy cleaning the different parts of it. This sort of work he had often done for his father, and he did not mind the trouble of rubbing, and scrubbing, and scraping that was required to remove the rust. It took him a long time to clean the old thing thoroughly, and make it serviceable again; but the lock was a good one and worth the trouble, and when at last Jack had got it all fitted together again, he was delighted to find that it would work as easily as possible.
"Now, I want to show it to the man at the shop where I bought the spring," said Jack, as he looked at his work triumphantly. "He'll give me a job to-morrow, he says, if I make anything of this."
"All right! You shall show it to him; and you may tell him from me, he ain't got a lock in his shop like it," said the old man, who was very proud of his clumsy lock.
Jack carried it to the smith's, who was just putting up his shutters, and told Jack to wait in the shop until he had finished.
So Jack spread his arms on the counter, as he was in the habit of doing, and his eyes went roving round until they lighted on something he had not expected to see in a little smith's shop like this.
"I say, mister," called Jack, as soon as the man appeared, "where did you get that silver knife? It's a fruit knife, ain't it?"