“What is the spike for?” asked Rollo.
“Only for a piece of iron to file,” replied Jonas. So saying, he took a small piece of paper out of a drawer, and laid it upon the table. Then he rested one end of the spike upon the paper, and, holding the other end in his hand, he filed it several times in such a way, that the filings fell down upon the paper.
“What fine filings!” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “the file is almost worn out, and it does not cut very well.”
Rollo looked upon the paper. There were quite a number of small, black points upon it like grains of very fine sand. Jonas then took up the paper carefully by the two sides, bending the two sides upward at the same time, to keep the filings in the middle of the paper. In this way he raised the paper above the lamp, which was upon the table before him, and then holding it in an inclined position, he let the sand slide down into the flame of the lamp. To Rollo’s surprise and delight, it produced a column of sparkles rising up from the flame, which were of the greatest brilliancy and beauty.
“Yes,” said Rollo, “they burn, they burn most beautifully. File me some more, Jonas, and let me carry them in and show them to my mother.”
Jonas accordingly filed some more filings, and Rollo went in with them very eagerly, to show to his mother.
“Just look,” said Rollo; and so saying, he held the paper over the lamp in such a manner as to let the filings slide down into the flame just as Jonas had done. The experiment succeeded perfectly well, as it had done before.
“So you see that it will burn,” said Mr. Holiday, “if you heat it hot enough.”
“If you make it small enough, you mean,” said Rollo.