"Will not paper do?" said Rollo.
"Yes," said Jonas, "here is some brown paper, which will do." So Jonas rolled it up, and told Rollo to set it on fire, and then, when it was well burning, to step on it with his foot, and put the flame out.
Rollo did so, and the paper lay in a heap, making a great smoke upon the hearth, just before the fire.
"Now," said Jonas, "put the bellows upon its edge, by the side of the paper, so as to have the valve near the smoke, and then hold still a minute, until the smoke comes up steadily by the valve."
When this was done, Jonas told Nathan to take hold of the nose of the bellows, to steady it, so that Rollo could blow. He then directed Rollo to lean the bellows over a little towards the smoke, so that the moving side should not rub upon the hearth, when he began to blow.
"Now," he continued, "if you work the bellows, you will see that the smoke will be drawn in through the valve, and then will come out through the nose."
This experiment succeeded perfectly well, only just in the midst of the interest that they felt, in seeing the smoke come pouring out through the nose, they heard a bell ring at the house. They knew at once that this bell was for Rollo and Nathan; and so the two boys jumped up from the hearth, and ran out to see what was wanted. They went through the shed into the barn, and thence on till they came to the great barn door, where they had come in. There Rollo stopped,—for he did not like to go out into the snow,—and asked Dorothy, who was ringing the bell, what she wanted.
"Where's Nathan?" said Dorothy.
"He's here with me," said Rollo. Nathan was coming along, as fast as he could, through the barn.
"Do you want us?" said Rollo.