“O, but I want you to help me make them.”
Then Jonas asked Rollo what made him think of a beetle and wedge; and Rollo told him of the conversation he had held with the farmer’s boy. Then Jonas talked a long time about it, giving him particular advice and direction about the plan, though he said he could not himself go and help him then, for he could not leave his harnesses.
The advice which Jonas gave him was, substantially, this:—
“The boy was right in what he said about the necessity of having iron wedges, to split up large logs of hard wood; but you had better have short pieces of pine boards for your logs, and then wedges of hard wood will do instead of iron; for hard wood is so much more solid than pine, that I think wedges of it will answer very well. There are some pieces of walnut under the bench, which will do finely, and I will give you one of them.”
“I’ll go, now, and get it,” said Rollo.
“No,” said Jonas, “not yet; let me tell you about making the beetle.”
So Rollo stood in the door way, waiting to hear what Jonas had to say about the beetle, but evidently quite impatient to go.
“If you make your wedges of hard wood, it will not be necessary to have iron rings to your beetle, because it will not get battered much, in driving wooden wedges. Now you must go to the wood pile, and look out a piece of round wood, about as large round as my arm, and bore a hole in it.”
“A hole in it!” said Rollo.