“Why, father,” said Rollo, “what am I going to do with those old nails?”
“You are going to sort them. Here are a great many kinds, all together. I want them all picked over—those that are alike put by themselves. I will tell you exactly how to do it.”
Rollo put his hand into the box, and began to pick up some of the nails, and look them over, while his father was [pg 46]speaking; but his father told him to put them down, and not begin until he had got all his directions.
“You must listen,” said he, “and understand the directions now, for I cannot tell you twice.”
He then took a little wisp of straw, and brushed away a clean place upon the barn floor, and then poured down the nails upon it.
“O, how many nails!” said Rollo.
His father then took up a handful of them, and showed Rollo that there were several different sizes; and he placed them down upon the floor in little heaps, each size by itself. Those that were crooked also he laid away in a separate pile.
“Now, Rollo,” said he, “I want you to go to work sorting these nails, steadily and industriously, until they are all done. There are not more than three or four kinds of nails, and you can do them pretty fast if you work steadily, and do not get to playing with them. If you find any pieces of iron, or any thing else that you do not know what to do with, lay them aside, and go on with the nails. Do you understand it all?”
[pg 47]Rollo said he did, and so his father left him, and went into the house. Rollo sat down upon the clean barn floor, and began his task.
“I don't think this is any great thing,” said he; “I can do this easily enough;” and he took up some of the nails, and began to arrange them as his father had directed.