My uncle rubbed his head softly.
“It does look as if it would be a terrible job, Nat,” he said; “but it must be done, and I’m afraid if you made her look as well as she did when we found her, your aunt wouldn’t be satisfied.”
“I’m sure I couldn’t make her look as well as she did then, uncle,” I replied despairingly; “but I’ll try.”
“Yes, do, my boy. That’s right, try. And look here, Nat—I’ll help you.”
I was very glad to hear Uncle Joseph say that, though I did not think he would be able to help me much; and so as to lose no time we began at once to think the matter out, and uncle said yes to all I proposed to do, which was his idea of helping me; for he said I drove in the nails and he clinched them.
After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion that I have since learned was the very best one I could have arrived at, that the proper thing to do was to fix on Polly’s wire legs as neatly made a body as I could, and then to stick the feathers all over it in their proper places. But then what was the body to be made of? Clay or putty could be easily moulded into shape, but they would be too heavy. Papier-mâché would have been the thing, but I did not know how to make it, so at last I decided to cut out a body from a piece of wood.
“The very thing, Nat,” said my uncle. “Stop a minute, my boy, till I’ve lit my pipe, and then we’ll begin.”
I waited till my uncle said he was ready, and then we did begin, that is to say, he went on smoking while I sawed off a piece of wood that I thought would do.
I need not tell you all about that task; how laboriously I carved away day after day at that piece of wood with my pocket-knife, breaking one in the work; how I mounted the piece of wood at last on wires, and then proceeded, by the help of a little glue-pot that my uncle bought on purpose, to stick Polly’s feathers on again. By the way, I think I fastened on her wings with tin tacks. It was a very, very long job; but at every stage my uncle sat and expressed his approval, and every spare hour was spent in the tool-house, where I patiently worked away.
I grew very tired of my task, but felt that I must finish it, and I have often thought since what a splendid lesson it proved.