“Well, suppose you hunt again. Look everywhere. If you find any I might lend you the others. You might look in my lumber room.” Tommy ran off and soon returned with a hammer and some nails which he had found, and a few minutes later his father brought a saw and a hatchet, and they selected a good box, which Tommy could drag out, and put it in the back hall.
“Now,” said Tommy, “what shall we do next?”
“That is for you to say,” said his father. “Johnny does not ask that question. He thinks for himself.”
“Well, we must knock this box to pieces,” said Tommy.
“I think so, too,” assented his father. “Very carefully, so as not to split the boards.”
“Yes, very carefully,” said Tommy, and he began to hammer. The nails, however, were in very tight and there was a strip of iron along each of the edges, through which they were driven, so it was hard work; but when Tommy really tried and could not get the boards off, his father helped him, and soon the strips were off and the boards quickly followed.
“Now what shall we do?” asked his father.
“Why, we must make the sled.”
“Why, we must have runners and then the top to sit on. That’s all.”