"Every owner has his particular mark," said the millman.
"Whose mark is that?" asked Marco.
"I don't know," said the man, "but they know at the mill. They have a register of them all at the mill."
"I wish I could turn over a log, standing on it, in that way," said Marco.
"You couldn't," said the millman. "The only way by which you can sail safely on logs, would be to put two together, and make a sort of raft."
"How?" asked Marco.
"By nailing short pieces of boards across from one log to another. Then they would not roll."
"Well," said Marco, "if I could only get a hammer and some nails."
The millman told him that perhaps they would let him have a hammer and some nails at the mill; and Marco, accordingly, went up to inquire. They told him they had a hammer, but they had no nails to spare. So Marco failed of getting the means of making a raft. He forgot to go back to the millman to get the rest of his story, but, instead of it, he rambled down the bank of the river, until he came to a place where there was an old fence, which had fallen down, and the nails were sticking out of the boards. He now wished that he had borrowed the hammer at the mill, and he tried to persuade a boy, who was standing there, to go and borrow it for him.