The boys soon returned with a board about twenty inches long and a little over a foot wide. It was sawed into six pieces, planed and squared to the exact size required. While the boys were
thus employed, the carpenter made a pattern of a single bracket out of a piece of quarter-inch board. As soon as one of the square boards was ready, he applied the pattern to it, and marked the ogee line with a sharp-pointed pencil.
The instructor then distributed the keyhole-saws, and explained how to use them. The square boards were put into the vises, after they had been marked from the pattern. The saws were narrowest near the points. If the pupils found any difficulty in turning the saw, they were required to take short strokes, using the tip end, until they got over the difficulty. The narrower the saw, the more easily it could be turned from a straight line.
“Turn the bottom piece up-side-down, and it will exactly correspond with the upper piece, if you have sawed all the way on the line,” said the carpenter, when some of the boys had finished the first piece.
“Mine don’t,” added Lick Milton. “I kept close to the line all the way.”
“Another blunder of mine!” exclaimed Mr. Brookbine, “for which I tender my apology. I told you to saw on the right of the mark. This
is always to be done when practicable; but I neglected to say that it is not always convenient, or even possible, to do it in that way. In this instance the line ought to have been sawed out, and then the cut would have been precisely in the middle of the piece. Sometimes, too, when you cannot shift the work end to end, it becomes necessary to saw on the left of the line. In cutting the next one, saw out the line, and see how it comes out then.”
The result verified the statement of the teacher, for the two pieces almost coincided. The workmen were directed to apply the spokeshave to the curves on the bracket, and they were soon ready.
“Now we will proceed to put the shelves up,” continued Mr. Brookbine.
“Not this afternoon,” interposed Captain Gildrock. “It is four o’clock now, and we must be as punctual in closing the sessions of the school as in beginning them. I must say, my lads, that I have been very much pleased with your attention and general good conduct on the first day of the Beech-Hill Industrial School.”