“I have got beetle and wedges here, round behind the wood pile.”
So the boy went to another side of the wood pile, and brought a large beetle and an iron wedge. When he got back to his log, he started out the axe which he had left sticking into it. Then Rollo saw that the axe had made a little indentation, or cleft, in the wood. He put the point of the wedge into this cleft, and drove it in a very little, with a few light blows with the axe. Then he took the great heavy beetle, and began driving the wedge in, with very heavy blows.
Presently, Rollo saw a little crack beginning to extend out each side from the wedge. The crack ran along across the end of the log, and thence down the side, and grew wider and wider every moment. At last, the wedge was driven in as far as it would go, and still the log was not split open.
“Now stop,” said Rollo; “I will put a stick in, and keep the crack open, while you drive the wedge in, in another place.”
“O, that won’t do,” said the boy; “a stick would not keep it open.”
“Why not?” said Rollo.
“Because it is not solid enough; the sides of the cleft draw together very hard. They would crush the stick.”
Here Rollo put his hand into his pocket, and drew out a walnut, and he asked the boy if it would crack a walnut.
“Try it,” said the boy.
So Rollo put the walnut into the crack. He slipped it along until he got it to a place where the crack was just wide enough to receive it, and hold it steady. He left it there, and then the boy began to knock out the wedge.