CHAPTER III.
BURNING IRON.
When Rollo went out into the kitchen that evening to get his safety lamp,—the one which he usually took to go to bed,—he found Jonas sitting at the kitchen table reading; and while he was lighting his lamp, he asked Jonas if he would not get him some iron filings the next time he went near any blacksmith’s shop. Jonas asked him what he wanted of iron filings, and he said he wanted them to burn. He then repeated to him what his father had said in respect to the combustibility of iron.
“I can make iron filings enough for that experiment in five minutes,” said Jonas.
“How?” said Rollo.
“With a file,” replied Jonas.
“Well,” said Rollo; and without waiting to hear anything further, he ran back to the parlor to ask his mother to let him sit up long enough to see Jonas make a few iron filings to try the experiment.
“Won’t it do as well to-morrow morning?” asked his mother.
“The scintillations will look brighter in the evening,” said Mr. Holiday.
“Very well, then,” added his mother, “go, and, if Jonas succeeds in his experiment, ask him to send some filings in to us.”
So Rollo went out to find Jonas again. Jonas was gone. Dorothy said that he had gone after a file. In a few minutes he returned, with a file in one hand, and a large iron spike in the other.