ERIES 

 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 TUE CAMP-FIKK P. oo.
 
 MARY GAY; OK, WORK FOR GIRLS 
 BY JACOB ABBOTT. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY H. W. HERRICK. 
 
 WORK FOR WINTER. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON, 
 : ilttenffir* 
 1876.
 
 THE MARY GAY SERIES. 
 
 I. WORK FOR WINTER. 
 II. WORK FOR SPRING. 
 HI. WORK FOR SUMMER. 
 IV. WORK FOR AUTUMN. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 IICRD AND HOCGHTON, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 RIYERSIDB, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 ITIKKOTYPED AND PRINTED BT 
 H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANT.
 
 TZIO 
 
 q 
 
 .- 
 
 \ ' i i 
 
 TO THE PARENT. 
 
 THE object of this series is to assist girla 
 to occupy themselves, and to aid the par- 
 ent in finding amusement and employment 
 for them, by explaining to them the nature 
 of various operations of a more or less 
 mechanical nature, which they can safely 
 and properly perform with the assistance 
 of the instructions here given. 
 
 Many of the readers of the books will 
 perhaps actually undertake some of the op- 
 erations here described, and so reduce the 
 instructions to practice. Others will not do 
 this ; but the author hopes that these also 
 may derive pleasure and advantage from 
 the perusal of the books, through the knowl- 
 edge which they may acquire from them 
 of the properties of various substances in 
 
 622769
 
 4 TO THE PARENT. 
 
 common use, and the principles involved in 
 many ordinary processes such as their years 
 and their state of mental development ena- 
 ble them to comprehend and appreciate, 
 and which the incidents narrated in the 
 several volumes, and the conversations ac- 
 companying them, are intended to eluci- 
 date and explain.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. I 
 
 I. ABOUT KNITTING ... 7 
 
 II. ABOUT TEACHING . i3 
 
 III. THE SLEIGH-RIDE ... 20 
 
 IV. BAKING-DAY .... 30 
 
 V. JOTHAM JONES ... 39 
 
 VI. THE CAMP-FIRE ... 50 
 
 VII. TOM JINGO ... .63 
 
 VIII. THE JUNK-STORE . . 74 
 
 IX. THE GLASS BELLS . .87 
 
 X. THE ART OF TEACHING . 98 
 
 XL PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE . 108 
 
 XII. ABOUT HOT WATER ... 118 
 
 XTTI. THE BOXES 127 
 
 XIV. AnouT DRYING .... 141 
 
 XV. A JANUARY THAW . . . .157 
 
 XVI. EQUAL PARTITION ... 168 
 
 XVII. MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS . .178 
 
 XVIII. CONCLUDING ADVICE . 190
 
 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 PAQI 
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE Frontispiece. 
 
 THE GAME OF TOM JINGO 63 
 
 COVERING THE BOXES 132
 
 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ABOUT KNITTING. 
 
 ONE pleasant morning in December, 
 Mary Gay and her sister Luly, having just 
 come in from play, were warming them- 
 selves by the fire. Their mother was sit- 
 ting near a window at the back side of the 
 room. 
 
 Luly took off her things and put them 
 away, but Mary sat still, with her cloak and 
 her bonnet and mittens still on, and seemed 
 lost in thought. Her mother, on looking at 
 her, observed that her countenance wore a 
 disappointed and sorrowful expression. 
 
 " Well, Mary," said her mother, "what is 
 the trouble now ? " 
 
 "Why, nothing, mother," said Mary, 
 " only I can't think of anything I can do for 
 cousin John to pay him for making a sled 
 for me."
 
 8 MARY GAY'S WOI!K IX WINTER. 
 
 Then, after a pause, she added, speaking 
 in a disconsolate and sorrowful tone, 
 
 " There is not anything at all that girls 
 can do. 
 
 " Now, John," she continued, after a mo- 
 ment's pause, " has got a nice shop and 
 tools, and he can make a thousand things 
 that are very useful. But girls can't have 
 a shop, and if they could, they could not 
 use the tools; and there is not anything 
 that we can do but make silly little book- 
 marks and such things, that are of no real 
 use at all." 
 
 " I should think that John would be will- 
 ing to make you a sled without any pay," 
 said Mrs. Gay. 
 
 " He is willing," replied Mary. " He says 
 he does not wish for any pay at all. But I 
 want to pay. I do not like to have him all 
 the time doing things for me, while I never 
 do anything for him." 
 
 " Could you not knit him a pair of mit- 
 tens ? " asked Mrs. Gay. 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Mary, eagerly, " I could 
 do that, I verily believe. I could knit him 
 a pair of mittens. Boys are always losing 
 their mittens or wearing them out in slid- 
 ing, and so they want new ones."
 
 ABOUT KNITTING. 9 
 
 "Perhaps you might mend the mittens 
 he has now," said Mrs. Gay. " There is 
 a difficulty about knitting new mittens, and 
 that is, you have to buy the yarn." 
 
 " Does it cost a great deal to buy the 
 yarn ? " asked Mary. 
 
 " Yes," said her mother, " almost as much 
 as the mittens are worth when they are 
 done" 
 
 Mary said that she did not see how this 
 could be, for people who knit mittens must 
 certainly have some pay for knitting them. 
 
 Her mother explained to her how it hap- 
 pened that there was so little profit in buy- 
 ing yarn and knitting mittens and stock- 
 ings. When you buy yarn you have to pay 
 not only the cost of producing the wool and 
 spinning the yarn, but also the profit which 
 the farmer himself wishes to make on the 
 produce of his farm, and also that of the 
 merchant or storekeeper who sells it to 
 you. This last makes the yam cost you a 
 good deal more than it does the farmer's 
 wife or daughter, who knits the yarn that 
 she has spun herself out of wool which has 
 grown on the backs of the sheep on her hus- 
 band's or father's land.
 
 10 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 Then, besides this, the farmers' wives and 
 daughters have a great deal of spare time 
 that they can spend in knitting, which 
 would otherwise be entirely lost, and they 
 are glad to have the knitting to do even if 
 they get very little for it. And the number 
 of farmers' wives and daughters is so vast 
 in the country at large, that a great quan- 
 tity of coarse mittens and stockings are 
 produced, which can be bought for but lit- 
 tle more than you would have to give for 
 the yarn to knit them from, if you were to 
 buy the yarn with a view of doing the knit- 
 ting yourself. 
 
 When Mary heard this explanation she 
 was convinced that it was the true one, and 
 she felt quite discouraged about earning 
 any money in that way. 
 
 " You might mend Johnny's mittens, at 
 any rate," said Mrs. Gay, "when he gets 
 holes in them." 
 
 " Yes," said Mary, eagerly, " I can do 
 that. He and Benny are always getting 
 holes in their mittens." 
 
 So Mary very wisely determined that her 
 first work in the way of being useful to 
 John should be in mending his mittens.
 
 ABOUT KNITTING. 11 
 
 She had learned to darn very well. She 
 liked to do it. It amused her to watch the 
 progress of the work, as she first laid a 
 series of threads parallel to each other over 
 the hole in one direction, and then crossed 
 them with others at right angles. 
 
 Luly used to sit by her and watch her 
 while she was doing this, and often wished 
 that she could do so too. 
 
 " Mary," she would say, " I wish you 
 would teach me to darn." 
 
 " I will," Mary would reply ; " I will some 
 day, when you get a little bigger." 
 
 " Oh, dear me ! " Luly would exclaim, 
 with a disconsolate sigh, " I wish I could 
 only get bigger. When shall I get bigger, 
 Mary ? " 
 
 The next time that Mary's cousin John 
 came to the house, the first thing that Mary 
 did was to make an inspection of his mit- 
 tens. She found, to her great joy, a small 
 hole in each of the thumbs. 
 
 " Now, John," said she, " I have found 
 something I can do for you to pay for mak- 
 ing my sled. I can mend your mittens." 
 
 " Yes," replied John, " I should like to 
 have my mittens mended very much."
 
 12 MARY GAY'T WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Then take them right off and give them 
 to me. I will have them all mended nicely 
 by the time that you come to-morrow." 
 
 " But what shall I have to wear in the 
 meantime ? " said John. " I can't go a whole 
 day without any mittens." 
 
 " Have n't you got any other pair ? " asked 
 Mary. 
 
 " No," said John, " only these." 
 
 " Has n't Benny got a pair that he could 
 lend you ? " asked Mary. 
 
 " Hoh ! " exclaimed John, " Benny's mit- 
 tens are not half big enough for me." 
 
 " I wish you had two pairs of mittens," 
 said Mary, " and then while I was mending 
 one pair you could wear the other." 
 
 " Yes," said John, " I wish I had ; but I 
 have not." 
 
 Here was a difficulty. Mary could mend 
 the mittens well enough, but John could not 
 do without them long enough to allow her 
 time. 
 
 So, after making his visit and doing his 
 errand, John went away again, wearing 
 his mittens back with the holes in the 
 thumbs, just as he came.
 
 ABOUT TEACHING. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ABOUT TEACHING. 
 
 MARY soon after this told her mother that 
 she could not manage to mend John's mit- 
 tens, for he could not spare them long 
 enough to give her time, inasmuch as he 
 only had one pair. So she asked her moth- 
 er if she could not think of something else 
 that she could do for him to pay for the 
 sled. 
 
 " No," said her mother, " I do not think 
 of anything but mending and knitting; but 
 I have thought of a way by which you can 
 earn some yarn and so knit him a new pair 
 of mittens, and that is by teaching Luly to 
 darn. She is six or seven years old now, 
 and is old enough to learn to darn ; and 
 you might teach her." * 
 
 * In the books entitled, "John Gay; or, Work for Boys," 
 Mary and her sister Luly are often spoken of, but Luly was 
 then only about four years old. That was two years before 
 the present time, and of course Luly was now two years older. 
 So were Mary and John ; and John was much stronger and 
 more capable, and could now easily make a good many things 
 that he was then only just learning to make.
 
 14 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Mary said she was perfectly willing to 
 teach Luly to darn, if she was only willing 
 to learn. 
 
 "That is just the difficulty," said her 
 mother. " Luly will be ready enough to 
 begin to learn, but she will not be inclined 
 to persevere ; and what you will have to do 
 is by skilful management to encourage her, 
 and draw her on from step to step, until she 
 has learned. I will consider that she has 
 learned as soon as you can show me two 
 holes as big as a postage-stamp that she 
 has darned neatly, and woven the cross 
 threads in all right. And then I will give 
 you yarn enough to knit a pair of mittens 
 for John." 
 
 Mary was quite pleased with this plan. 
 She thought that she should earn the money 
 very easily, but her mother told her that she 
 would not earn it easily, by any means. 
 
 " If Luly was really willing to learn," said 
 her mother, " and had all the necessary pa- 
 tience and perseverance, so that you had 
 nothing to do but to show her how to man- 
 age her needle and weave the threads in 
 properly by carrying each one of the second 
 set of threads alternately above and below
 
 ABOUT TEACHING. 15 
 
 those of the first set, then, instead of earn- 
 ing yarn enough to knit a pair of mittens 
 by teaching her, you would hardly earn 
 enough to pay for one needleful to mend 
 them with." 
 
 Mary looked quite serious and thought- 
 ful while her mother was saying these 
 things. 
 
 " Luly will begin very zealously, no 
 doubt," continued Mrs. Gay, " but she will 
 get tired very soon ; and as soon as she 
 conies to any difficulty, or makes mistakes 
 or failures, she will be discouraged, and 
 it will require a great deal of skill and 
 good management on your part to induce 
 her to go on. And it will be by the ex- 
 ercise of this skill and good management 
 that you will earn your pay." 
 
 " But, mother," said Mary, " I will tell you 
 what I think would be a good plan. Sup- 
 pose you make a rule that Luly must come 
 to me for a certain time every day, and work 
 diligently in darning, or learning to darn. 
 It might be for half an hour, or for a quar- 
 ter of an hour if you think half an hour 
 would be too long." 
 
 " That would be a pretty good plan," said
 
 16 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Mrs. Gay, " I suppose. There would have 
 to be a punishment, or penalty of some sort, 
 in case Luly at any time would not obey 
 the rule. A rule without a punishment or 
 penalty is nothing at all." 
 
 " Why you see, mother, if Luly would 
 not come when I called her," said Mary, 
 " or would not attend to her work, then I 
 could tell you, and you could make her go 
 and sit in the corner, or something like 
 that." 
 
 " Yes," said Mrs. Gay, " that would be 
 a very good way ; but then that is throwing 
 the most disagreeable and difficult part of 
 the business of teaching Luly to darn upon 
 me, instead of providing for you to do it 
 yourself. I was trying to contrive some 
 way for you to earn the yarn by taking 
 charge of Luly's learning to darn ; but your 
 plan, though very good in itself, puts the 
 chief part of the work upon me, so that 1 
 should earn the yarn in fact, and not you."- 
 
 " But, mother, I should do all the teach- 
 ing." 
 
 " True," replied her mother. " You would 
 the actual teaching, and so I was wrong in 
 saying that I should earn the yarn and not
 
 ABOUT TEACHING. 17 
 
 you. But I should earn a large part of 
 it." 
 
 " I don't think you would earn a very 
 large part of it, mother," said Mary, " for it 
 would not be much that you would do. 
 You would only make the rule, and then 
 when I told you that Luly would not work, 
 you would only have to call her to come 
 and sit in the corner." 
 
 " That seems not to be a great deal, I ad- 
 mit," said Mrs. Gay ; but it is a great deal 
 after all, not on account of the time it 
 would take, but on account of the disagree- 
 ableness and painfulness of it. Perhaps I 
 should be busy in some way, it might be 
 in reading, or writing a letter,- and you 
 come to me to complain that Luly won't 
 attend to her work. This of itself, of course, 
 not only interrupts me, but it disturbs and 
 troubles me. I can't really blame such a 
 little thing as Luly for preferring play to 
 learning to darn, or for getting easily tired 
 and perplexed in learning such a difficult 
 thing as darning must be to her. But yet 
 it is necessary, if I have made a rule, that 
 she should obey it ; so I have to call her to 
 me, and send her into the corner for punish-
 
 18 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 rnent. All the time that she is there I can- 
 not help pitying her. Even if she did not 
 cry, she would look so distressed and un- 
 happy that I could not go on with my writ- 
 ing, or my work, whatever it might be, with 
 any peace or comfort. Indeed, I think that 
 of the two I would much rather attend to 
 the whole business of teaching her to darn 
 myself, than to force her to attend to an- 
 other person's teaching." 
 
 Mary perceived that what her mother said 
 was clearly reasonable, and she was silent. 
 
 " I am perfectly willing to give you the 
 money to buy yarn to knit the mittens with, 
 if you like that way," said Mrs. Gay. But 
 I supposed that you were setting your 
 heart on earning it yourself." 
 
 " Yes, mother, I am," said Mary. 
 
 " And on really earning it, and not merely 
 making believe earn it ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Mary. " I want to earn 
 it myself, really and truly." 
 
 " Very well, then," said her mother; "try 
 and see if you can devise easy and pleas- 
 ant ways of teaching Luly to darn, without 
 giving me any trouble or concern about it. 
 If you can, you will have fully earned the
 
 ABOUT TEACHING. 19 
 
 yarn. I would gladly give any one the 
 value of the yarn required to make a pair 
 of mittens for doing that. But I would not 
 give anybody the value of the yarn to knit 
 even one thumb for just showing Luly how 
 to take the stitches in learning to darn, if I 
 must have the trouble of forcing her to go 
 to her work every day, and to pay attention 
 to the instructions." 
 
 Mary sat silent and thoughtful a few 
 minutes after her mother had finished 
 speaking, and then looking up, with a 
 cheerful and animated countenance, she 
 said, 
 
 Well, mother, I '11 try."
 
 20 MAIIY GAY'S WORK IN WIXTKR. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDE. 
 
 MARY would have liked to ask her mother 
 to give her some advice or directions in re- 
 gard to the best way of managing with 
 Luly, to keep up her interest in learning to 
 darn, and inducing her to per-evrre patient- 
 ly until she had learned, but she thought 
 she must not do this, a* it was a part of the 
 agreement that she was to do the whole 
 work herself, and that her mother was to 
 have no trouble about it. 
 
 She was, however, mistaken in this sup- 
 position. . It was indeed the agreement 
 that she was not to give her mother any 
 trouble in managing the affair, but it would 
 not have caused Mrs. G. any trouble, but 
 pleasure rather, to have given her daugh- 
 ter some general advice beforehand, in re- 
 spect to the way in which she was to pro- 
 ceed. A mother generally likes very much 
 to give her daughter advice or instruction
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDE. 21 
 
 of any kind, when she asks for it at a 
 proper time and in a proper way, and not 
 in connection with any difficulty, or quarrel, 
 or wrong-doing of any kind. To have Mary 
 begin to teach Luly, and get into difficulty 
 with her, and then come to her mother to 
 settle the dispute, and perhaps punish Luly 
 for breaking some rule, would be a very 
 disagreeable thing; but to have Mary ask 
 beforehand for such advice and instruction 
 as she required for her guidance, would not 
 have been disagreeable at all. It would 
 rather have been a source of gratification 
 to her mother. 
 
 The agreement, moreover, which Mary 
 made did not at all require that she should 
 do the work entirely alone, without any 
 help from her mother, but only that she 
 should not ask of her mother anything that 
 would give her pain, or tend to impose upon 
 her any of the burden or care. 
 
 Mary thought, however, that she must not 
 ask her mother's advice or consult her at all. 
 But she concluded to think well of the sub- 
 ject, and to form a good plan before she 
 commenced her operations. 
 
 " I might ask Uncle Edward about it, I
 
 22 MARY GAl'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 suppose," she said to herself, "and 1 will, 
 the very next time I see him." 
 
 Mr. Edward her uncle as she called 
 him was not really her uncle. He was 
 her cousin John's uncle ; but Mary and 
 Luly, following John's example, almost al- 
 ways called him Uncle Edward. 
 
 Mary had an opportunity to ask Mr. Ed- 
 ward sooner than she expected, for that 
 evening just about sunset it began to snow, 
 and the next morning when Mary and Luly 
 looked out at the window they found the 
 ground covered everywhere nearly a foot 
 deep, which, as the ground had previously 
 been frozen quite hard, made it excellent 
 sleighing ; and the consequence was that 
 soon after breakfast Mr. Edward came, as 
 he often did on similar occasions, to give 
 Mary and Luly a sleigh -ride. 
 
 They heard the jingling of the sleigh- 
 bells coming up to the door very soon after 
 breakfast. They ran to one of the front 
 windows, one that opened upon a piazza 
 near one end of the house, where the sun 
 shone in very pleasantly in the morning. 
 The sleigh was there with two horses. 
 There were two seats in the sleigh. The
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDE. 23 
 
 forward seat was higher than the back one, 
 for convenience in driving. John was on 
 the front seat, and Mr. Edward on the 
 back seat, both well enveloped in buffa- 
 loes. 
 
 " Come, children," said John, " come and 
 take a sleigh-ride. I 'm going to drive." 
 
 " Well," said Mary, " we will come. Only 
 I don't think you need call us children. We 
 are no more children than you are." 
 
 " That 's a fact," said John ; " but never 
 mind that. Go and put your things on, and 
 come quick and take a ride. Never mind 
 about warming your feet, for Uncle Ed- 
 ward has got a hot plank in the sleigh for 
 you to put your feet upon. Come quick, 
 before the plank gets cold." 
 
 Mary and Luly w^ent in immediately to 
 report the invitation which they had re- 
 ceived to their mother, and to get ready. 
 In a short time they came back both well 
 muffled up in coats and furs. 
 
 Luly wished to sit on the front seat with 
 John, where she could be near the horses, 
 and see John drive, notwithstanding John's 
 telling her that by so doing she would lose 
 all the benefit of the hot plank.
 
 24 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 So Luly took the forward seat by the side 
 of John, while Mary stepped in upon the 
 hot plank, Edward making an opening 
 among the buffaloes for her. The hot plank 
 was well enveloped in a horse-blanket, so 
 that she did not feel the heat of it at 
 first. 
 
 Mary's cousin, John, was a very good 
 driver, and as soon as all were ready he set 
 the horses off on a good round trot. Be- 
 fore they had gone far, Mary began to tell 
 Mr. Edward of the arrangement which her 
 mother had made with her for teaching 
 Luly to darn, and said that she was to do 
 it without giving her mother any trouble 
 about it at all. 
 
 Luly hearing that her sister was talking 
 about her, turned her head a little to listen. 
 John listened too. 
 
 u Mother thinks," said Mary, " that Luly 
 will begin well enough, but that she will 
 get tired pretty soon, and won't persevere; 
 and then the difficulty will be for me to 
 know what to do. For I can't go to mother 
 about it at all." 
 
 No," said Luly, I shall not get tired, I 
 am sure, and you will not have any trouble,
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDE. 25 
 
 I want to learn to darn very much, and 1 
 am sure I shall persevere." 
 
 "Yes," said -Edward, "I think she will 
 persevere, though that will depend a great 
 deal upon how you manage." 
 
 " And how must I manage ? " asked 
 Mary. 
 
 " That is rather hard to say," answered 
 Edward. " It is difficult to describe any 
 right way. It is much easier to tell of 
 wrong ones. I can tell you how you must 
 not manage. You must not do as Ninny 
 did." 
 
 " Ninny ! " repeated Mary. " Who is she ? " 
 " Did not you ever hear of Ninny? " asked 
 Edward. 
 
 " No," said Mary. 
 
 " Her real name was Nina," said Edward ; 
 " but she was such a silly child that they 
 always called her Ninny. I am sure you 
 must have heard of her doings some- 
 times." 
 
 " I rather think," said John, " she must 
 be a cousin or some relative of Bill Booby, 
 that Ebenezer tells me so much about." 
 
 Ebenezer was a farmer's son whom John 
 used to go and see, and who often enter-
 
 26 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 tained him with accounts of the blunders 
 and mismanagement of one Bill^ Booby. 
 
 " And how did Ninny manage ? " asked 
 Mary. 
 
 " Her mother proposed to her," said John, 
 " to teach something or other, I have forgot- 
 ten what, to her little sister Jane, and if she 
 succeeded in doing it she was to receive a 
 certain little shawl-pin with a yellow stone 
 in it, which her mother had, as a reward. But 
 when she commenced her teaching she gave 
 her mother unceasing trouble by continu- 
 ally getting into difficulty with little Jane. 
 She would call her suddenly away from 
 some play that she was very much inter- 
 ested in, without giving her any warning 
 or time to prepare. One time, just as Jane 
 had taken out her blocks and spread them 
 upon the carpet, and was beginning to 
 build a tower, Ninny all at once conceived 
 the idea of giving her a lesson. So she 
 called out suddenly, 
 
 " ' Now, Jane, put your blocks right away 
 again, and come to me and take a lesson. 
 I am going to give you a lesson.' 
 
 " ' No,' said Jane, and she went on build- 
 ing her tower.
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDE. 27 
 
 "'Jane!' said Ninny, speaking in a very 
 stern voice, ' come to me this instant.' 
 
 " Jane did not move, but sat still, hold- 
 ing one of the blocks in her hand and look- 
 ing down, and at the same time begin- 
 ning to sing in a low and scarcely audible 
 tone. 
 
 " ' Jane,' said Ninny, ' are you not going 
 to mind me? Mother said that I was to 
 teach you, and so you must come when- 
 ever I call you. If you don't come imme- 
 diately, I shall go and tell mother.' 
 
 " But Jane did not come, and so Ninny 
 went and complained to her mother. Her 
 mother was, of course, much perplexed to 
 know what to do. She had not given Jane 
 any direction to come immediately when- 
 ever Nina was ready to give a lesson, and 
 so it would be wrong to punish her, or even 
 to find fault with her much for not coming. 
 But then, on the other hand, since she had 
 commissioned Nina to teach her, it did not 
 seem quite right not to do something to 
 remedy the difficulty when she refused to 
 go and be taught. But what to do was the 
 difficulty. Her mother was greatly per- 
 plexed and troubled, and very much inter-
 
 28 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 rupted in her work by having such a ques- 
 tion to decide." 
 
 "And what did she decide ? " asked Mary 
 
 " Why, she told Jane that she thought she 
 had better go and take her lesson. Jane 
 said she would, as soon as she had finished 
 her tower. So her mother gave her leave 
 to finish her tower. 
 
 " This she did. She built her tower, 
 though she built it very slowly in order to 
 take up as much time as possible. When 
 she had done it, she put her blocks away 
 and went to take her lesson. But Ninny 
 was out of humor because Jane had been 
 allowed to finish her tower, and Jane was 
 out of humor because she had been com- 
 pelled to go so soon ; so the lesson did no 
 good. Jane did not learn anything by it at 
 all." 
 
 On hearing this story, Mary resolved that 
 she would be more careful when she wished 
 to give Luly a lesson ; not to call her away 
 too suddenly from any play or other occu- 
 pation in which she was interested, but 
 would always choose times when she was 
 not particularly engaged ; or if, in any case, 
 she was obliged to call her away from her
 
 THE SLEIGH-RIDK. 29 
 
 play, she would not do it too abruptly, but 
 would give her some little notice, and some 
 time to finish what she was actually for the 
 moment doing. 
 
 It is very probable that Mary and her 
 Uncle Edward would have had some fur- 
 ther conversation on this subject, were it 
 not for a circumstance which occurred at 
 this time, and which turned the thoughts of 
 the whole company into another channel. 
 The circumstance was their coming in sight 
 of another party of sleigh -riders, going along 
 the road at a short distance before them. 
 John whipped up his horses and soon over- 
 took the other sleigh ; and as the road at 
 this place was very wide, they rode along for 
 some time together, side by side, the chil- 
 dren in the two sleighs talking and laugh- 
 ing together very merrily. 
 
 The two sleighs kept company with 
 each other after this during the whole ride, 
 though they were not all the time side by 
 side. At length, after about an hour, they 
 arrived at home again, and Mr. Edward left 
 Mary and Luly upon the piazza where he 
 had taken them, and he and John drove 
 away.
 
 MARY GAY'S WOIJK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 BAKING-DAY. 
 
 BY the side of the house where Mary 
 Gay lived was a sort of lane which led 
 past the barns and sheds, and thence along 
 just outside the garden-fence toward the 
 pasture and the wood-lot. The wood-lot, 
 so called, was a forest of trees which occu- 
 pied one part of the pasture. Every year 
 in the fall a number of the trees were felled, 
 and cut up into suitable lengths to be 
 hauled home on sleds ; and then in the 
 winter, as soon as the ground was covered 
 with snow, Mrs. Gay's man whose name 
 was Jotham Jones used to go with the 
 oxen and haul the wood to the house. Here 
 he would pile it up in a long pile, adding 
 to the pile every day as much as he could 
 haul in three or four loads. Then, in the 
 latter part of the winter, when the snow 
 became too deep to haul any more, he 
 would saw and split the wood, and pile il
 
 BAKING-DAY. 31 
 
 in the sheds, where it would remain ready 
 to be used for the fires in the house the 
 next winter. 
 
 Thus the fuel for the house was obtained 
 every year from the forest in the pasture, 
 and that was the reason why that portion 
 of the pasture was called the wood-lot. 
 
 The lane leading to the pasture and the 
 wood-lot was a very pretty place in sum- 
 mer. It had the garden on one side, and 
 an orchard on the other. The garden-fence 
 was close and high, and very difficult to 
 get over ; but there was a gate, or rather 
 a door, in it, at one place, where the chil- 
 dren could go through, when they wished 
 to go out of the garden into the lane, in 
 order to go to the pasture, or into the woods 
 of the wood-lot, for the purpose of gather- 
 ing flowers in the spring, or nuts and acorns 
 in the fall. 
 
 The space between the roadway in the 
 lane and the garden-fence was filled with 
 wild raspberry and blackberry bushes, and 
 the children used often to go there in sum- 
 mer to gather berries. 
 
 In winter too the road along the lane was 
 very pleasant, for it was sheltered from the 
 wind by the high garden-fence.
 
 32 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Mary's cousin, John, with very commend- 
 able foresight, had made the sled for her 
 during the fall, in order that it might be 
 ready, and the paint all dry, when the first 
 snow should come. It so happened that 
 he came to bring it home on the morning 
 of the day after the sleigh-ride described in 
 the last chapter. He came to the piazza- 
 door with the sled, having tied it to the end 
 of his own sled, so as thus to draw them 
 both along together. Benny came with his 
 sled, too. 
 
 The boys left the three sleds at the door, 
 and went into the house. They asked Mrs. 
 Gay where Mary was. 
 
 " She and Luly are in the kitchen," said 
 Mrs. Gay. " It is baking-day." 
 
 " Good ! Benny," said John, in a tone 
 of great satisfaction, "we will have one 
 of Luly's little pies." 
 
 So the boys went on through the back 
 parlor where Mrs. Gay was sitting, out 
 through a wide hall, and thence into the 
 kitchen. Here they found Mary and Luly 
 both busy at work, in company with 
 Sophronia, Mrs. Gay's girl, making pies. 
 Sophronia and Mary were at work at a
 
 BAKIXG-DAY. 33 
 
 large table near a window, and Luly at a 
 small one with short legs, which made it 
 just high enough for her to work at when 
 standing on the floor. 
 
 Mary herself was standing on a little 
 platform or step which John had made for 
 her, and which raised her from the floor 
 enough to bring her to the right height to 
 work at the same table with Sophronia, 
 who was much taller than she was. 
 
 Mary and Luly had both learned to make 
 pies very well. The way in which they 
 had learned was by imitating Sophronia. 
 Mary, when she first began to learn, would 
 take her stand upon her little platform at 
 the end of Sophronia's table, where she was 
 provided with the same materials and im- 
 plements that Sophronia herself was to use, 
 only on a much smaller scale ; and then, 
 watching attentively all of Sophronia's 
 movements and operations, she would do 
 the same things herself, imitating all that 
 Sophronia did, step by step ; and thus while 
 Sophronia made large pies, Mary would 
 make little ones. 
 
 Of course she did not attempt to keep 
 up with Sophronia in the work, so as to
 
 34 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 finish her small pie as soon as Sophronia 
 finished the great one. She went much 
 more slowly, so that while Sophronia was 
 making half a dozen pies, she would only 
 make two or three. 
 
 For some time after this system was 
 commenced, Luly watched the proceedings 
 every baking-day with great interest, until 
 at last she began to feel a desire to try to 
 make pies too. 
 
 " Why, Luly," said Mary, " you are not 
 big enough." 
 
 " But I don't mean to make such big 
 pies as you and Sophronia do. I only 
 want to make very little pies." 
 
 " But you are not tall enough to stand 
 at the table and work upon it as I do." 
 
 " I could stand upon your platform," said 
 Luly. 
 
 " You would not be high enough then," 
 said Mary. 
 
 " I could stand up in a chair," said 
 Luly. 
 
 " Then you would be too high," said 
 Mary. 
 
 Luly paused a moment, apparently 
 somewhat perplexed, when at length, as
 
 BAKING-DAY. 35 
 
 if a new idea had suddenly come into her 
 mind, she said, " I know what I can do." 
 And so saying, she immediately ran off 
 into the other room, shutting the door after 
 her. 
 
 In a few minutes Mary heard her at the 
 door again, calling out " Open the door." 
 Mary went to respond to the call, and on 
 opening the door she found Luly there 
 bringing her table with her. It was a small 
 square table, very light, and just of the right 
 height for her. It was made of pine, but it 
 was painted of a dark color in imitation of 
 rosewood. It was in fact quite a pretty 
 table. 
 
 " I have brought my table," said Luly, 
 " and I can work at my table very well, if 
 you will only give me the things, and a 
 very little plate." 
 
 " So Sophronia gave her the things that 
 were necessary, and also a very small plate ; 
 and Luly made a pie, though it must be 
 confessed that in doing it she received a 
 good deal of assistance from Mary, who, 
 instead of finding fault with her and calling 
 her troublesome, aided and encouraged her 
 as much as she could, as she knew that hsr
 
 36 MARY GAY'Y WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 mother wished Luly to be encouraged to 
 learn as many useful things as possible. 
 
 Luly's pie, when finished, was put into 
 the oven with the rest; and when it was 
 baked, Luly carried it with great pride and 
 pleasure to show to her mother. 
 
 After this, John made Luly a roller to roll 
 out the paste for her pies ; and almost every 
 baking-day she used to go -into the kitchen 
 with her little table, and work there very 
 diligently, while Sophronia and Mary were 
 employed at the great table, in making 
 little pies and turnovers, and other such 
 things, all of which were put in the oven 
 by Sophronia on a sheet of tin by them- 
 selves, to be baked with the great pies. 
 
 She was employed in this way on the 
 day when John and Benny came to bring 
 home Mary's sled. She had made two little 
 pies, and was just finishing a turnover when 
 John and Benny came in. 
 
 John went at once to Mary's table, and 
 Benny to Luly's. 
 
 " Mary," said John, " I have brought 
 home your sled, and we want you and 
 Luly to go with us a-coasting. Jotham is 
 yoking up the oxen, and we can go along 
 with him."
 
 BAKING-DAY. 37 
 
 " Well," said Mary, " as soon as we have 
 got the pies into the oven." 
 
 " Ah, Luly," said Benny, " what nice 
 little pies ! You will give me one of them 
 when they are baked ? " 
 
 " No," said Luly, I can't do that. I 've 
 only made three to-day, and I want them 
 all for myself." 
 
 " Oh, Luly ! " said Benny, " you can't 
 eat three pies all yourself. It would make 
 you sick." 
 
 " It is not three pies," said Luly. " There 
 are only two pies and a turnover," 
 
 " That is just the same thing," said 
 Benny. 
 
 " No," said Luly, " a pie and a turnover 
 are very different things." 
 
 " I mean," rejoined Benny, " they are just 
 the same about making you sick." 
 
 " But I am not going to eat them all in 
 one day," said Luly. " I want one for to- 
 day, one; for to-morrow, and one for day 
 after to-morrow." 
 
 " If you will give me the turnover," said 
 Benny, " I will draw you on my sled all 
 the way to the coast." 
 
 The coast was a long descent in the cart-
 
 38 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 road leading through the open part of the 
 pasture to the wood-lot, where the children 
 used to go to slide. The wood-sled in 
 going up and down opened the road for 
 them after every storm, and their sleds soon 
 wore it smooth ; and as the wood-sled only 
 went back and forth two or three times in 
 the day, the children had the road most of 
 the time all to themselves. 
 
 Luly was very much tempted by Benny's 
 offer to draw her all the way to the coast. 
 After some hesitation she concluded to ac- 
 cept it, and she finally promised to give him 
 the turnover on the condition proposed. 
 
 In a few minutes after this the pies were 
 put in the oven, and then, Mary and Luly 
 having first put on their winter outside 
 clothing, they all went out by the piazza- 
 door to get the sleds, and thence round into 
 the barn-yard, where they found Jotham 
 just getting ready with his wood-sled and 
 his oxen.
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 89 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 
 
 THE sled which John had made for Mary 
 was what may be called a girl's sled, being 
 constructed with a sort of back-piece, fast- 
 ened behind, for the girl sitting upon it to 
 lean against a little for a support, and also 
 to keep her from slipping off behind in being 
 drawn up-hill. For boys, such a protection 
 in going up-hill is unnecessary, inasmuch 
 as it is of no consequence if they do slip 
 off. They can easily scramble up and jump 
 on again, and such an accident only makes 
 more fun. But girls are encumbered by 
 their dress, and cannot well perform sudden 
 evolutions of that kind, and consequently a 
 little support behind is a great convenience 
 to them. 
 
 As soon as the children reached the yard 
 where Jotham was preparing the ox-sled. 
 John immediately began to attach the hand- 
 sleds to the ox-sled by fastening the cords
 
 40 MARY GAY'S WORK 1\ WINTER. 
 
 to the stakes and to the cross-bar at the 
 end. Jotham seemed to take this as a 
 matter of course, as indeed well he might, 
 inasmuch as the boys had always been 
 accustomed to ride behind his sled in this 
 way in previous years. Jotham was a very 
 taciturn young man, that is to say, he talked 
 very little, and seemed to have no particular 
 fancy for children. He, however, had no 
 objection to children going with him, pro- 
 vided they behaved well, and did not hinder 
 his work. If they troubled him at all in 
 any way, he always sent them off in a very 
 peremptory manner. 
 
 John fastened the cord of Mary's sled to 
 the middle of the cross-bar at the end of 
 the ox-sled, and that of his own sled to one 
 of the stakes, leaving the other stake for 
 Benny. But Benny said he was going to 
 hold the cord of his sled in his hand, and 
 sit on the end of the cross-bar. 
 
 At length the arrangements were all made. 
 John's and Mary's sleds were fastened to 
 the ox-sled, and John had taken his seat on 
 his sled, and Mary on hers. Lilly was also 
 seated on Benny's sled, while Benny, seated 
 on the cross-bar of the ox-sled, at one side.
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 41 
 
 held the cord in his hand. Thus, as they 
 thought, they were all ready for a start. 
 
 " John," said Jotham, " you have forgot- 
 ten your board." 
 
 The board which Jotham referred to was 
 one which he had prepared to fit in between 
 the two back cross-bars of the sled, to close 
 the space there, in order to prevent the 
 children, when riding on the sled, from 
 slipping through. For, as probably most of 
 my readers are aware, an ox-sled, such as 
 is used in the country for hauling wood, 
 has commonly no flooring of boards, but 
 only cross-bars extending across from one 
 runner to another, about a foot or fifteen 
 inches apart. The wood with which the 
 sled is to be loaded, consisting of sticks 
 usually four feet long, rests very well on 
 these bars, while yet children attempting 
 to ride on the sled would be in danger of 
 falling through. 
 
 So Jotham had made a board just wide 
 enough and long enough to fit in between 
 the two cross-bars nearest the end of the 
 sled, so as to close up the last space, and 
 make a sort of floor there wide enough for 
 the children to stand upon when they were 
 riding on the sled.
 
 42 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 This board was kept in a certain place 
 in the barn, and John was required to put 
 it on whenever he and Benny went with 
 the sled. When only Mary and Luly went, 
 Jotham had the politeness to put the board 
 on for them. 
 
 Jotham now called upon John to put on 
 the board. 
 
 " Oh, Jotham," replied John, " we don't 
 need any board. We are all riding on 
 our sleds except Benny, and he is sitting 
 down." 
 
 " Put on the board," said Jotham, per- 
 emptorily. 
 
 So John got off from his sled and went 
 into the barn to get the board. Before he 
 got back, Jotham had started. John ran, 
 and hastily fitting the board irito its place, 
 scrambled back upon bis sled again ; and 
 then the whole party were drawn slowly on 
 by the oxen along the lane. Jotham was 
 seated in the forward part of the sled, upon 
 an iron chain which he had passed across 
 there from one stake to another. 
 
 Thus the whole party were nicely accom- 
 modated. 
 
 You must remember that Benny did not
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 43 
 
 fasten the string of his sled to the stake, 
 but sat upon the cross-bar and held the 
 string in his hand, and by this means Luly 
 was drawn along. 
 
 After going on in this way for some time, 
 John jumped off from his sled, and running 
 forward, climbed up upon the ox-sled, by 
 means of one of the stakes, and stood upon 
 the little flooring made by the board and 
 the two cross-bars at each side of it. Pres- 
 ently he began to walk along toward the 
 front of the sled, where Jotham was sitting 
 upon the chain. In passing forward in this 
 way he stepped from one cross-bar to an- 
 other, steadying himself all the way by the 
 stakes at the sides. 
 
 " Jotham," said he, " what is it that you 
 always make us put that board on the sled 
 for, when we go out into the woods with 
 you?" 
 
 " Because," replied Jotham, " I don't want 
 to have any boys or girls with broken legs 
 to haul home on the top of my load. Ha' 
 Bright ! Ha' Golden ! " 
 
 These last words, it is scarcely necessary 
 to say, were addressed to the oxen. 
 
 " We don't need any board to keep us 
 from falling through," said John.
 
 44 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Ha' Bright ! " said Jotham. 
 
 " I can go all over this sled," continued 
 John, " without falling through." 
 
 Jotham did not answer. 
 
 " I could do it," said John, " if the bars 
 were twice as far apart." 
 
 Gee a little, Bright ! " said Jotham. 
 
 " Besides," said John, " if you have a 
 board anywhere, you should have one be- 
 tween every pair of cross-bars, for we might 
 fall through when we come forward to 
 speak to you." 
 
 " That 's none of my business," said 
 Jotham. " If I floor over your part of the 
 sled, and make it safe, and you choose to 
 leave your own place and come forward to 
 mine, and so fall through and break your 
 legs, it 's none of my business. I should 
 not care anything about it." 
 
 " You would have to haul us home," said 
 John. 
 
 " Yes," said Jotham. " I should haul you 
 home, but I should not care. It is no great 
 thing for a boy to break his leg." 
 
 " Oh, Jotham ! " exclaimed John. 
 
 " Getting it set hurts him some," said 
 Jotham ; " but after that, it is only lying on
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 45 
 
 his back for a month or so, and his leg is 
 as good as ever. In the mean time he has 
 been kept out of a month's mischief, which 
 is so much clear gain. Ha' Bright! Ha' 
 Golden ! " 
 
 Jotham said this with the tone and air of 
 one finishing the conversation ; so John went 
 back to the other end of the sled. What 
 Jotham had said, however, in respect to the 
 insignificance of the injury caused by a 
 broken leg, did not seem to have had any 
 effect in making him disposed to underrate 
 the danger, for in going back he appeared 
 to take great care to keep a good footing, 
 and always held on well to one stake until 
 he had secured a firm hold upon another. 
 
 After a short time the oxen came to the 
 end of the lane, where there were a pair of 
 bars, now open, which led to the pasture. 
 They passed through these bars, and after 
 going on a short distance beyond, they came 
 to the commencement of the descent which 
 formed what they called the coast. 
 
 In a little opening among some groves 
 of trees which grew near the top of the 
 descent there stood an old and somewhat 
 rude-looking building, made of logs, and
 
 46 MARY GAY'S WORK ix WINTER. 
 
 open entirely toward the south. This build- 
 ing was called the old sugar-house. It was 
 built many years before to contain the boil- 
 ers and other apparatus used fof making 
 maple sugar, but it had been abandoned, 
 and the boilers had been taken away, in 
 order to be placed in a new and better 
 sugar-house, which had been built farther 
 in the woods, at a place which was more 
 convenient for gathering the sap from the 
 maple-trees. 
 
 This building was very useful to the chil- 
 dren on cold and windy days, especially if 
 the sun was shining ; for, as it stood very 
 near the top of their hill, they used to go 
 in there sometimes to rest a few minutes 
 and enjoy the warmth of the sun and 
 the shelter from the wind which the hut 
 afforded, before they commenced a new 
 slide: 
 
 It was not windy at all, however, on this 
 occasion, nor was it very cold, and so the 
 children had no occasion to stop at the 
 sugar-house. Besides, as the road was not 
 yet broken, they concluded to go right on 
 down the hill, drawn by the great sled, in 
 order that their small sleds might help the
 
 JCTHAM JONES. 47 
 
 great one as much as possible to make a 
 good track through the snow. 
 
 So they went on down the hill ; and when 
 they reached the bottom of it, they cast off 
 the cords from the big sled, and leaving 
 Jotham to go on after his load of wood, 
 they turned and began to walk up the hill 
 again. On their way up, a serious question 
 arose between Benny and Luly about the 
 turnover. It began by Benny's saying to 
 Luly that he wondered whether his turn- 
 over was baked yet. 
 
 " It is not your turnover," said Luly. " It 
 is mine." 
 
 " No," said Benny ; " you promised it to 
 me." 
 
 " No," retorted Luly ; " I promised it to 
 you if you would haul me to the pasture. 
 But you did not haul me. It was the great 
 sled that hauled me. You only held the 
 string. You did not haul me yourself at 
 all." 
 
 But Benny insisted that he did really 
 haul her, and was entitled to the turnover. 
 
 " You see, Luly," said he, " the great sled 
 did not haul you, because the cord was not 
 fastened to it at all. How could the great
 
 48 MAKY GAY'S WORK IN W-IXTER. 
 
 sled haul you when the cord was not fast- 
 ened to it ? The great sled hauled me, and 
 I held the cord of your sied, and so hauled 
 you. That is the way it was." 
 
 But Luly was not convinced, and so the 
 'two children appealed to John and Mary, 
 who were walking a little before them. But 
 John and Mary, after hearing the question, 
 fell into what is called a tie in coming to a 
 decision, that is, they were equally divided, 
 one taking one side and the other the other. 
 Mary thought that Benny did haul Luly, 
 and that he ought to have the turnover; 
 while John thought that he did not haul 
 her, and ought not to have it. 
 
 A tie like this is a difficulty that is very 
 likely to happen when a question in dis- 
 pute is referred to an even number of per- 
 sons, such as two or four. Hence, among 
 men, where questions in dispute are refer- 
 red to other persons for decision, the parties 
 always take care to have an odd number 
 of referees, such as one, or three, or five, 
 and then there can never be a tie. 
 
 By this time the whole party had reached 
 the top of the hill and were ready for an- 
 other slide. After taking two or three more
 
 JOTHAM JONES. 49 
 
 turns they at length, when they came to 
 the bottom of the hill, saw Jotham coining 
 out of the woods with his sled loaded. So 
 they waited for him, in order to attach their 
 sleds behind the ox-sled and get drawn up 
 the hill. On the way up it occurred to 
 Benny that it would be a good plan to 
 refer the unsettled question to him, and so 
 they stated the case. Jotham turned round 
 and walked backward long enough to hear 
 the question stated, and then he turned to- 
 ward his oxen again, saying, 
 
 " Oh, you must settle your disputes among 
 yourselves, and not come bothering me with 
 them. Ha' Bright ! Ha' Golden ! " 
 
 The oxen, on hearing his voice, began to 
 step a little quicker, and so they all went 
 on up the hill.
 
 60 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 
 
 WHEN the children reached the top of 
 the hill, they all went into the sugar-house ; 
 not because they were cold, but only to see 
 the place again and vary their amusement 
 by resting there a little from their sliding 
 and playing. 
 
 The front of this little hut, which faced 
 the south, was entirely open, as I believe 
 has already been said. In the back part 
 were the remains of an old chimney. The 
 chimney itself, that is, all the upper portion 
 of the masonry, was in very good order ; but 
 the lower part, where the fireplace ought 
 to be, was all broken away. The truth 
 is, that there never had been any fireplace 
 there, but only two great boilers to boil the 
 sap in. These boilers had been connected 
 with the chimney by means of sheet-iron 
 flues; and when these were removed, the 
 brick-work, where they entered, had been 
 broken away and left in ruins.
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 51 
 
 There were two seats across the ends of 
 the hut, made for persons to sit upon when 
 engaged in boiling sap. These seats still 
 remained in their places. One of them, of 
 course, as the hut opened toward the south, 
 took the sun in the morning, and the other 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 The children all went into the hut and 
 took seats in the sunniest corner. 
 
 " I wish we had a fireplace here," said 
 Mary ; " for then we might go and get some 
 wood and build a fire. There is almost a 
 fireplace." 
 
 John said that perhaps he could make 
 the opening of the chimney into a fireplace, 
 if it was only warm weather, and if he had 
 some bricks and mortar. 
 
 " Next summer we will do it," said Mary. 
 " But could not we build a fire here now, 
 on the ground before the chimney ? Would 
 not the smoke go up through that hole ? " 
 
 " No," said John, not all of it. Enough 
 of it would come out to make the sugar- 
 house so smoky that we could not stay in 
 it." 
 
 On a careful examination, John found 
 that it would be very difficult to make a
 
 52 MARY GAY'S WOHK IN WINTER. 
 
 fireplace there, for the chimney was bnilt 
 up solid for about two feet from the ground, 
 or rather from a very large flat stone laid 
 upon the ground for a foundation. It only 
 bogan to be hollow at the height where the 
 flues from the sugar-boilers were to come 
 in. 
 
 " But we can have a fire outside the 
 sugar-house," said John, " as they do when 
 they camp out. They always make the 
 fire outside when they make a camp." 
 
 John had heard of persons having to 
 "camp out," as they call it, for a night 
 or two, in the woods ; in which case they 
 usually make a large fire of logs of wood, 
 and then build upon one side of it, and 
 very near, a shelter formed of boughs and 
 branches of trees, to keep off the wind, or 
 to protect them from the rain or snow if 
 there should be a storm in the night. 
 
 The children immediately determined to 
 adopt this plan for the sugar-house. 
 
 " We will take another slide down the 
 hill," said John, " and when we come up, 
 we will bring all our sleds up loaded with 
 wood, and so have a good fire." 
 
 So they took their slide down the hill,
 
 THE CAMP-FIKK. 53 
 
 and when they reached the bottom they 
 turned off by the sled-road into the woods, 
 until they came to the place where Jotham 
 was at work. He had come back from the 
 house, and was now loading his sled again. 
 
 The children began to look about for dry 
 sticks and other light wood, such as they 
 imagined they could load upon their smt.ll 
 sleds ; but for a time they were very unsuc- 
 cessful, for the snow covered the ground, 
 and all the dry and loose sticks were hid- 
 den from view. 
 
 At last, however, they found some large 
 fallen trees, the branches of which were 
 dead and dry, and were moreover so far 
 decayed that they could be easily broken 
 off. John immediately went to work break- 
 ing off these limbs and giving them to the 
 other children, who at once proceeded to 
 drag them out to the roadside near where 
 they had left the small sleds. These they 
 had placed close behind the large sled, in a 
 situation convenient to be attached to it by 
 the cords when they were loaded, so that 
 the oxen in drawing their big load out of 
 the woods and up the hill might draw their 
 supplies of fuel too.
 
 54 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 But when they came to putting the wood 
 which they had gathered upon the small 
 sleds and securing it there, they encoun- 
 tered great difficulty. The limbs which 
 they had broken off from the dead tree 
 were so irregular in form, and some of 
 them were so large and branching, that it 
 was impossible to pack them on such small 
 sleds ; and even if they had been able to 
 stow them compactly, they had no rope 
 nor any other means of binding them on. 
 
 What made the matter worse was, that 
 Jotham had by this time got his load al- 
 most made up, and the children were afraid 
 that he would finish it and set off before 
 they were ready ; so they hurried as much 
 as they could, and tried every possible way 
 to make their wood stay upon their sleds; 
 but at last they found that Jotham was 
 ready to start, while they were yet all in 
 confusion. John was ready to give up in 
 despair, and, dropping a monstrous branch 
 which he had in his hands, he exclaimed, 
 
 Oh, dear me ! We can't do it." 
 
 Just at this moment Jotham, with his 
 goad-stick in his hand, came round behind 
 the sled, as if to see what was going on
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 55 
 
 there. He stood a moment and looked 
 upon the heaps of sticks and branches that 
 were lying on the small sleds, and on the 
 snow around, with a very contemptuous 
 expression of countenance, and then speak- 
 ing to John, 
 
 " What are you trying to do with all this 
 rubbish ? " he asked. 
 
 " Kubbish ! " repeated John. " It is our 
 wood. We want to get it up to the sugar- 
 house to make a fire." 
 
 There was pause for a moment after this, 
 and then Jotham, handing John his goacl- 
 sti^.k, said, 
 
 " Here, take this goad -stick and stand 
 out of the way." 
 
 When John had taken the goad-stick and 
 had fallen back, Jotham began at once to 
 take up the biggest of the branches and 
 throw them up upon the top of his load. 
 Being large and strong, he could do this 
 with great ease. After throwing up all the 
 largest ones, he gathered up the small ones 
 and threw them up too, and in a few min- 
 utes had the ground entirely cleared, while 
 all the rubbish, as he called it, lay piled up 
 high upon the top of his wood.
 
 56 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Then, without saying a word to John, he 
 took the goad-stick out of his hand and 
 went round to the oxen, beginning to call 
 out at the same time, 
 
 "Ha' Bright! Ha' Golden!" 
 
 The children had previously attached the 
 cords of their sleds to the cross - bar and 
 stakes of the big sled ; so that when the 
 oxen began to move, all they had to do 
 was to scramble to their places upon the 
 little sleds and be drawn along up the hill. 
 
 It is true that there were but three sleds, 
 while there were four persons to ride. But 
 John had the politeness to take Luly on 
 with him, and to hold her safely before him 
 on his sled, all the way up. 
 
 When they reached the top, Jotham 
 turned aside a little so as to bring his load 
 up pretty near to the sugar -house, and, 
 stopping the oxen there, he threw off the 
 children's wood to the ground; and then, 
 starting his oxen again, he drove on toward 
 the house with his load of wood without 
 saying a word. 
 
 " Thank ye," said Benny, calling out 
 after him very loud. 
 
 " It does not do any good to thank him," 
 said Mary.
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 57 
 
 Why not ? " asked Benny. 
 
 " Because he don't care anything about 
 it. When he does anything for us, he does 
 not care whether we thank him or not." 
 
 By this time John had taken a match- 
 box from his pocket, and was now gather- 
 ing together some of the small, dry sticks 
 in order to kindle a fire. 
 
 He very sbon had his sticks blazing, and 
 by piling on more and more, and packing 
 them down as closely as possible, there 
 was soon a very good fire. Mary and the 
 other children helped to put on the wood, 
 taking good care not to go so near the 
 blaze as to set their clothes on fire. 
 
 After the fire became pretty hot, John 
 proposed that they should all go into 
 the thickets near by, and break off some 
 branches from the hemlock trees and 
 bushes, and pile them on the fire to make 
 it blaze and crackle. This they did. They 
 all went wallowing on through the snow 
 into the thicket, and presently came out 
 loaded with hemlock branches. These 
 they laid down near the fire, and then 
 went into the thicket again for another 
 'oad When they had at length accumu-
 
 58 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 lated a sufficient quantity, John began to 
 put the branches upon the fire, while the 
 other children looked on to witness the 
 effect. At first there came up a dense 
 smoke, which rolled upward in prodigious 
 volumes, high into the air, and then floated 
 away among the tops of the Irees. But 
 very soon the flame began to burst through 
 with a roaring and crackling which Luly 
 would haVe considered quite terrifying if 
 she had not believed that the whole op- 
 eration was completely under John's con- 
 trol.* 
 
 The children continued to play about 
 their fire for some time, and then con- 
 cluded that they would not slide any more, 
 but that the next time that Jotham came 
 up with his sled they would go home. 
 
 This they did ; but before they reached 
 the house where Mary and Luly lived, 
 John and Benny turned off another way. 
 Benny said it was of no use for him to go 
 into the house, since Luly would not give 
 him his turnover. 
 
 The end of the turnover story was some- 
 what curious, for Benny gave up all claim 
 
 * See frontispiece.
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 59 
 
 to it, and yet he received it after all. It 
 happened thus : 
 
 When Luly got home she found that 
 her pies and her turnover were baked, and 
 were lying all ready for her on the kitchen- 
 table. She did not, however, feel quite 
 satisfied with herself about the turnover, 
 and so she began to complain to Sophronia 
 about Benny's injustice in claiming it. It 
 often happens that when people are dissat- 
 isfied with themselves, they show a special 
 disposition to complain of other people, 
 Luly, in finding fault with Benny, explained 
 to Sophronia the whole case. But So- 
 phronia, instead of taking Luly's part de- 
 cidedly, as Luly had expected, said, 
 
 " Ah ! you ought to let him have it. It 
 was just the same thing to you as if he 
 had really drawn you himself, and it was 
 his sled that you rode upon. So I would 
 have given it to him, especially as you 
 have two little pies besides, to say noth- 
 ing about the slices of big ones that your 
 mother will always give you." 
 
 " But I don't like the slices of big ones 
 so well as I do my little ones," said 
 Luly.
 
 60 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 tt Very well," said Sophronia. " Do as 
 you please." 
 
 Luly, however, was not quite satisfied ; 
 and after remaining silent and thoughtful 
 for some minutes, she said, 
 
 " I wish I had given him the turn- 
 over." 
 
 " You can send it to him now, if you 
 please," said Sophronia. u I am going 
 over there this afternoon, and I can carry 
 it over." 
 
 Luly was much pleased with this sug- 
 gestion, and determined at once that she 
 would adopt it. So she wrapped up the 
 turnover very carefully in a paper and gave 
 it to Sophronia, and Sophrouia carried it 
 to Benny that afternoon. 
 
 In the mean time Benny, when he got 
 home, happened to find his Uncle Edward 
 there ; and his head being full of the turn- 
 over question, he stated the case to Mr. 
 Edward, and asked him whether he did 
 not think that he really drew Luly to the 
 pasture by holding the string of the sled 
 she rode upon, while he himself was drawn 
 upon the large sled. 
 
 tt Why, that is a very knotty question,"
 
 THE CAMP-FIRE. 61 
 
 said Edward, " and very hard to answer. 
 But one thing is clear, and that is that you 
 ought not to have insisted on having the 
 turnover. You broke two rules by doing 
 so." 
 
 What rules ? " asked Benny. 
 
 " First," said Edward, " that it was a 
 doubtful claim ; and we ought never to 
 insist upon doubtful claims against any- 
 body." 
 
 And what is the other rule ? " asked 
 Benny. 
 
 " Why, that Luly is a lady," said Ed- 
 ward ; " and a gentleman in dealing with a 
 lady ought never to insist upon any claim 
 at all. 
 
 " At least," he added, after a moment's 
 pause, " that is the proper rule for girls and 
 boys, especially in dealing with sisters and 
 cousins, and so I advise you to send word 
 to Luly that you give up your claim to the 
 turnover." 
 
 Well, I will," said Benny. 
 
 And so h? sent that message by Mr. Ed- 
 .ward, who said he was going to Mary's 
 that very afternoon, and would tell her, if 
 Benny wished it. Benny did wish it, and
 
 62 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Mr. Edward took the message ; and thus 
 it happened that he, carrying Benny's re- 
 nunciation of the claim, and Sophronia, 
 bringing the turnover itself, passed each 
 other on the way.
 
 iiilllliu,,, 
 
 TOM JINGO P
 
 TOM JINGO. 63 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 TOM JINGO. 
 
 ONE day pretty early in the winter Luly 
 had a party. The party consisted of four 
 or five children from the neighborhood, 
 whom Luly invited. Mary wrote the invi- ' 
 tations for her. Some of the children were 
 girls and some were boys. 
 
 The party was in the afternoon, but the 
 shutters were closed and the lamps were 
 lighted, so as to make it look like evening. 
 
 The children, when they came together, 
 had quite a good time for a while in run- 
 ning and jumping about from mere ^glad- 
 ness of heart and fancying that it was in 
 the evening, though they had just come 
 from the broad daylight outside. After a 
 while, however, they wanted to play, and 
 Luly went out into the other room to find 
 Mary and ask her if she would not come 
 and tell them something to play. So Mary 
 came in, and after playing common plays
 
 64 MARY GAY'S WOIiK IX WINTER. 
 
 with them for a short time, she invented a 
 new play for them, which she called Tom 
 Jingo. The way that she and the children 
 played it was this : 
 
 Mary first called the children all around 
 her, to give them the preliminary instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 " We are going to play the play of Tom 
 Jingo," said she. u I am going to be an 
 old woman that keeps a candy-store, and 
 you must all come to me in turn, one after 
 another, to buy candy. When you 'come 
 1 shall ask you what your name is, and 
 you must all say it is Tom Jingo. You 
 must say you have not got any money, 
 and that you want me to trust you for the 
 pay. So I shall sell you some candy, and 
 you must take it, and go away and eat it. 
 
 " Then by and by I shall corne after you 
 to make you pay me what you owe me ; 
 and you must all run away and hide, or 
 keep out of my way as well as you can ; 
 and if I catch any of you, you must say 
 that you are not Tom Jingo, and must 
 show me somebody else that you will say 
 is Tom Jingo, and then I shall go and try 
 to catch him or her."
 
 TOM JINGO. 65 
 
 The children thought that they should 
 like this play very much, especially as there 
 was to be some candy to eat in the course 
 of it ; and they began clapping their hands 
 and capering about the room, while Mary 
 went out to make her preparations. 
 
 She went first to the china closet, and 
 there took from the sugar bowl having 
 first obtained her mother's permission 
 four or five lumps of white sugar. She 
 wrapped these lumps one at a time in 
 a piece of paper, and then struck upon 
 them gently with the pestle, which she took 
 out of the mortar for the purpose, so as 
 to crack them up into rather small pieces. 
 She took care to strike very gently, so as 
 only to crack up the sugar, and not to 
 crush it to powder. 
 
 The paper in which the lump was wrapped 
 prevented the pieces from flying away. 
 
 When she had thus provided herself with 
 a sufficient number of small lumps, about 
 enough, as she supposed, to give each of the 
 children two, she put them into a saucer, 
 and then went to dress herself up as an old 
 woman. She put on one of Benny's straw 
 hats, and tied down the sides of it, so as to 
 5
 
 66 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 make it look like a bonnet. She also put 
 on a big shawl, wrong side out. 
 
 Then she went to her mother and bor- 
 rowed an old pair of spectacles, which she 
 put on. She found, however, that she could 
 not see very well if she looked through the 
 spectacles, and besides they made her eyes 
 ache. So she slipped them forward, down 
 near the end of her nose, and looked over 
 them. 
 
 When the spectacles were thus properly 
 adjusted, she took an umbrella which she 
 found in the hall, and thus equipped she 
 went back into the room where she had 
 left the children, who were all waiting, 
 anxiously expecting her. There was a great 
 shout of laughter when she came in. 
 
 Mary walked across the room, bending 
 forward very much and sustaining herself 
 by her umbrella, which she used as a cane, 
 as if she were very old and infirm. 
 
 She began talking to herself as she walked 
 thus across the room, speaking, however, 
 in a feeble and drawling manner, which the 
 children thought was very funny. 
 
 " I have got me a new supply of candy," 
 said she, " and I am going to open my shop.
 
 TOM JINGO. 67 
 
 I hope I shall have some good customers. 
 But the trouble is, suppose I sell my candy 
 to people that won't pay. Ah, dear me! 
 what shall I do then ? If they don't pay 
 me, I '11 catch them and put them into 
 prison, as sure as my name is Ma'am 
 Taffy." 
 
 While talking to herself in this way, 
 Ma'am Taffy, as she called herself, had 
 drawn a table up in front of the sofa, and 
 then had taken her seat on the sofa, with 
 the table before her, and was now taking 
 out the lumps of sugar from the saucer, 
 and arranging them regularly in rows along 
 a small sheet of white paper, which she 
 had brought with her for the purpose. 
 
 The children thought that the shop was 
 now open ; and at length, after some little 
 hesitation and delay to determine who 
 should go first, Benny went forward and 
 said he wanted to buy some candy. 
 
 " Well, my dear," said Ma'am Taffy, 
 " and where is your money ? " 
 
 " I have not got any money," said Benny. 
 " I want you to trust me." 
 
 " Trust you ? " repeated Ma'am Taffy. 
 " What is your name ? "
 
 68 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Tom Jingo," said Benny. 
 
 " Oh, Tom Jingo ! " repeated Ma'am Taf- 
 fy, in a tone of great satisfaction. " Oh, I 
 did not know you, Tommy. I am getting 
 old and can't see very well, and did not 
 know you. I 'm willing to trust Tom Jin- 
 go, for he always pays me. Here is some 
 candy for you. The price of it is two 
 cents." 
 
 So saying, she gave Benny one of the 
 little lumps of sugar, and he, putting it into 
 his mouth, went away, cutting an extraor- 
 dinary caper at the same time, with joy at 
 having accomplished the business of mak- 
 ing a purchase so successfully. 
 
 Next, another child came, a girl, 
 who wanted also to buy some candy, and, 
 on being questioned, said her name was 
 Tom Jingo. 
 
 " Oh, Tom Jingo ! " said Ma'am Taffy. 
 " I have not seen you this long time. Let 
 me see, have n't I seen you lately? I 
 'most forget. I 'm getting very forgetful. 
 But I 'm glad you have come to buy some 
 of my candy. There 's a piece, two 
 cents. Give me the money." 
 
 " Oh, I have n't got any money to-
 
 TOM JINGO. 69 
 
 day," said the girl. " I want you to trust 
 me." 
 
 " Trust you ? " asked Ma'am Taffy. " I 
 don't like to trust out my candy much, if I 
 can help it ; but I can trust you, for you 
 always pay me very well. There 's the 
 candy." 
 
 So the girl took a lump of the sugar, put 
 it in her mouth, and went away, and imme- 
 diately another one came. 
 
 This went on for some time, Ma'am 
 Taffy talking all the time, partly to herself 
 and partly to her customers, and varying 
 her conversation with each one so as 
 to keep all the children entertained and 
 amused She seemed to forget how often 
 Tom Jingo came, though sometimes she 
 half remembered it, and thanked him for 
 being such a good customer. 
 
 One of the customers was a lively little 
 girl named Fanny. In talking with Fanny, 
 Ma'am Taffy said that she had been very 
 unlucky lately, especially the evening be- 
 fore, when she had some candy on the fire, 
 and only went out a minute to get some 
 more wood, and when she came back the 
 candy was all burned.
 
 70 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " It seems to me that this candy is a little 
 burned," said Fanny. " Is n't it ? " 
 
 " Oh, no," exclaimed Ma'am Taffy. " It 
 is not burned a bit. It was burned a little 
 when I first took it off the fire ; but when 
 I put it away I laid some cotton over it 
 and left it so all night ; and that took the 
 fire all out of it. Cotton is excellent for 
 all kinds of burns." 
 
 Some of the children laughed very loud 
 at this ; but others, who were too young 
 to perceive the absurdity of such an idea, 
 looked very sober, and wondered what the 
 others were laughing at. 
 
 Things went on in this way until, at 
 length, all the lumps of sugar were sold 
 and eaten ; and then the children, accord- 
 ing to the instructions which thev had re- 
 ceived, began to scamper away and hide 
 in nooks and corners. Ma'am Taffy, at 
 the same time, began talking to herself as 
 follows : 
 
 "There! I've sold all my candy nicely 
 
 to-day. But it seems to me where 's 
 
 my money ? (feeling in her pockets). 
 Where can all the money be ? Oh ! now 
 I remember. Tom Jingo bought the candy,
 
 TOM JINGO. 71 
 
 and is going to pay me. I wonder why 
 he don't come. I wonder where he is. 
 1 must go and find him, and make him 
 pay me." 
 
 Here the children began to crowd closer 
 into their hiding-places, and to keep as 
 still as possible, though everywhere there 
 was to be heard the sound of whisperings 
 and suppressed laughter. 
 
 Ma'am Taffy left her seat, and began 
 going about the room to find Torn Jingo. 
 She soon discovered and laid hold of Ben- 
 ny, and began at once pulling him out 
 with gentle and playful violence, at the 
 same time squeezing and tickling him, as 
 if she were trying to pinch him. 
 
 " You little rogue," said she, " I have 
 caught you. I know you. You are Tom 
 Jingo, and you owe me two cents for the 
 candy you. bought of me. Give me my 
 money ! " 
 
 So, under pretence of getting the money 
 out of Benny's pocket, she tickled him 
 under the arms and in the sides, Benny 
 protesting all the time, as well as he could, 
 though he could hardly speak on ac- 
 count of his laughing, that he was not 
 Tom Jingo.
 
 72 MARY GAT'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Then, where is Tom Jingo ? " said 
 Ma'am Taffy. 
 
 " He 's over there," said Benny, pointing 
 to one of the hiding-places. 
 
 Ma'am Taffy went at once in the direc- 
 tion indicated, whereupon the children in 
 that place started out and ran away. She 
 caught one of them, however, and treated 
 him much as she had treated Benny, and 
 began dragging him off to jail. Upon his 
 repeated protestations, however, that he 
 was not Tom Jingo, but that somebody 
 else was, she soon let go of him and seized 
 another child ; and while she was attempt- 
 ing to get the money from him, some other 
 children came out from their hiding-places, 
 and said that they were Tom Jingo, and 
 danced around her, as if in defiance. So 
 she would let go of one and make a rush 
 at another, in rapid succession, until the 
 whole room was full of noise, confusion, 
 and uncontrollable peals of laughter. 
 
 At length, after continuing this tumult 
 for some time, Mary suddenly stopped, 
 said " No play," took off her spectacles 
 and her bonnet and shawl, and laid them 
 all down upon the table, and then went
 
 TOM JINGO. 73 
 
 and took her seat in the corner of the sofa, 
 in her own proper character. 
 
 The children all liked this play very 
 much indeed. And well they might be 
 pleased with a play which began with eat- 
 ing lumps of sugar, and ended in a great 
 frolic and noise. There were many little 
 children there, too young to understand 
 the meaning of the play at all, but who, 
 nevertheless, liked it as well as any of the 
 rest. They saw Mary dressed up like an 
 old woman, and heard some funny talk, 
 and had some lumps of sugar to eat, and 
 finally had a great frolic of running about, 
 and of being caught and let go again, and 
 of shouts of laughter ; all of which they 
 enjoyed very highly, though they knew 
 very little what it all meant. They were, 
 however, unanimously of opinion that the 
 play of Tom Jingo was one of the very 
 best games they ever played.
 
 74 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 
 
 AT the house where Mary and Luly 
 lived there was a large unfinished room 
 over the kitchen and part of the shed, 
 which had in former years been used as a 
 shop. There were two windows facing 
 the south. In front of these windows was 
 a long bench, such as carpenters use. The 
 bench had been allowed to remain, but the 
 tools had been taken away, and the chil- 
 dren now used the room as a play-room, 
 especially in sunny days in the winter; for 
 then the sun shone in so pleasantly through 
 the two windows upon the bench, and 
 across the bench upon the floor, as to make 
 the place look warm, although it might 
 really be very cold. And even in cloudy 
 and stormy days the place had a snug and 
 comfortable look, which made it quite at- 
 tractive to the children as a place to go 
 and play in, especially as there was a swing
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 75 
 
 there and a rocking-boat, and other means 
 and appliances for exercise and amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 Of course, when the children went to 
 this room in the winter, they always wore 
 warm outside clothing, just as if they were 
 going out of doors. 
 
 One day in January, Mary and Luly 
 were playing in this room, in company with 
 a little boy who lived in one of the neigh- 
 boring houses. The boy's name was Rich- 
 ard, but they commonly called him Dickey. 
 
 The children amused themselves for 
 some time in rocking themselves in what 
 they called the rocking-boat, which was a 
 kind of box made somewhat in the form 
 of a boat, with seats like the thwarts of a 
 boat extending across it, one at each end, 
 arid one in the middle, and two long rock- 
 ers formed by the two sides. The children 
 used to rock in this boat, making believe 
 that they were out at sea, rocked and tossed 
 by the winds and waves. 
 
 Sometimes they would play that there 
 was a violent storm, and then they would 
 rock the boat to and fro with great vio- 
 lence ; and at length, when they were tired
 
 76 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 of the exertion which this occasioned them, 
 they would play that the storm was abat- 
 ing and the waves going down ; and final- 
 ly they would allow the motion of the 
 boat to die entirely away. Then they 
 would play that they had arrived at some 
 port, and would all get out and make be- 
 lieve run about on the land, and would 
 talk together in a very animated manner 
 about the strange sights which they saw 
 there, or hold conversations with imaginary 
 custom-house officers, hotel-keepers, and 
 others. 
 
 Then, after a time, they would conclude 
 to resume their voyage, and would all em- 
 bark again on board their vessel, and make 
 believe sail away, rocking themselves to 
 and fro as before. 
 
 The boat, when the children were rock- 
 ing it, especially if they rocked it fast, did 
 not remain always in the same place, but 
 seemed to work itself, as it were, about the 
 floor, so as to take the passengers pretend- 
 ing to sail in it to different parts of the 
 room, or, as they called it, to different coun- 
 tries. At one time it brought them up to 
 the bench ; and when they got out, in pre-
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 77 
 
 tending to land, Mary's eye fell upon a 
 box upon the bench, which contained a 
 number of pieces of old iron, such as rings, 
 odd castors, nails, screws, and broken tools. 
 
 " Let 's play that this is an iron-mer- 
 chant's," said Mary ; " and we will buy a 
 cargo of iron and put into our ship." 
 
 So she began to hold an imaginary con- 
 versation with the iron-merchant, making 
 bargains for particular pieces of iron, and 
 putting them, as fast as she purchased 
 them, into the ship. 
 
 All at once she stopped, as if a new idea 
 had suddenly come to her mind, and said : 
 
 " Luly, why could not we have a junk- 
 store, like John and Benny's, and then we 
 could keep store, and buy and sell things 
 whenever we pleased ? " 
 
 " Only," said Luly, " we have not got 
 any box." 
 
 " Mother would let us have a drawer," 
 said Mary. " If she would let us have the 
 lowest drawer in the secretary, or in one 
 of her bureaus, it would be just the thing. 
 Some of these very things would do for 
 the junk." 
 
 And here I must explain that the word
 
 78 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 junk means, strictly speaking, pieces of old 
 worn-out and broken ropes and cordage, 
 or ends of new ropes cut off as waste in 
 fitting the rigging of a ship. You might 
 suppose that such things would be" of no 
 value ; but they are in fact all carefully 
 saved and sold as junk to men who keep 
 stores for buying and taking care of this 
 kind of material. 
 
 If this book were written for boys, it 
 would hardly be necessary to explain what 
 is done with the junk thus collected and 
 saved, as boys generally know all about 
 this. But for girls it may be necessary to 
 explain that the junk is made into oakum 
 for calking the seams of vessels. The bits 
 of rope are all untwisted, and the strands 
 picked open, so as to separate the fibres. 
 The fibres thus separated form a substance 
 like tow, called oakum, which is afterward 
 to be driven into the seams of vessels, to 
 make the joints tight. 
 
 In all seaports where ships come in from 
 sea, there are men who keep little shops 
 along the streets which are near the wharves 
 and piers, and buy the junk that is offered 
 to them, in order to have it made into
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 79 
 
 oakum, when they sell it again at a great 
 profit. 
 
 But the men who keep these junk-stores 
 not only buy the junk that is brought to 
 them, but also often do a great business in 
 buying a variety of other things which are 
 useless when held singly by separate own- 
 ers, but which, when collected in large 
 quantities, become valuable. The things 
 that they buy in this way are rags, bottles, 
 old iron, brass, copper, lead, tin, and other 
 metals, old broken tools, old locks, odd 
 keys, and all such things. Some of these 
 things they sell to be used again, as, for 
 instance, locks and keys, which sometimes 
 accidentally fit together. Or, a man who 
 has lost his key may perhaps find a key 
 that will fit his lock at one of these junk- 
 stores. 
 
 In the same manner, if a boy has broken 
 one of his skates, he may perhaps find a 
 tolerable match to the other one among the 
 collection of odd skates which the junk- 
 man will have. 
 
 Now, John and Benny had a junk-store 
 in a long shallow box that they kept under 
 a secretary in the back hall at their house.
 
 80 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 There was a ring in the front of this box, 
 by means of which they could draw it out 
 when they wished to play with their store. 
 This was what Luly alluded to when she 
 spoke of their not having any box, as a 
 difficulty in the way of their having such a 
 store. 
 
 Mary's suggestion, however, of obtaining 
 the use of a drawer from her mother, 
 seemed to remove this difficulty; and so 
 the children, after putting the iron back 
 into the box from which they had taken it, 
 so as to leave the play-room in proper or- 
 der, went all together down-stairs, Mary 
 leading the way. 
 
 Mrs. Gay, after hearing their request, 
 made a number of inquiries before she 
 gave an answer. She perceived at once 
 that it might put her to some inconven- 
 ience to vacate one of her drawers, and 
 she was not willing to do it merely to grat- 
 ify a passing caprice of the children, and 
 furnish them with a means of amusement 
 which would last perhaps for only a single 
 occasion. She was, however, very willing 
 to do it, if the plan was of a kind to fur- 
 nish a permanent resource for occupation
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 81 
 
 and amusement on stormy days, and at 
 other times during the winter when Mary 
 and Luly could not go out of doors. 
 
 " How long have John and Benny had 
 their junk-store ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, a long time," said Mary. 
 
 " And do they play with it much ? " 
 
 " Yes, a great deal," said Mary. " At 
 least they have played with it a great deal ; 
 but John don't care so much about it now, 
 because he is getting too old to play keep 
 store. But he goes to the box very often 
 to get something that he wants to use in 
 his shop, about some of his works." 
 
 " How did they play keep store ? " asked 
 Mrs. Gay. 
 
 " They had two boards for counters," 
 said Mary. "John had one and Benny 
 had one. These boards were smooth, and 
 not very long; and they used to put two 
 chairs a little way apart, and lay the board 
 across from one to the other. And this, 
 you see, made a good counter." 
 
 " Yes, I see," said Mrs. Gay. And 
 when they get the counters placed, what 
 do they do then ? How do they play ? " 
 
 Why, they take the things out of the
 
 82 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 iunk-box, and put them on the counters. 
 John takes some of the things for his coun- 
 ter, and Benny takes some for his. Then 
 they go back and forth to each other's 
 stores to buy." 
 
 " What do they do for money ? " 
 
 " Oh, they have got plenty of money," 
 said Mary. " John made it. But I don't 
 know what we should do for money. Can 
 you think of anything, mother, that we 
 could have for money ? " 
 
 The first thing that Mrs. Gay thought of, 
 as a substitute for money, was buttons, and 
 the next thing, button-mow Ids, which come 
 of different sizes, and can be bought by the 
 dozen on strings for a very few cents. In- 
 deed she said she thought she had a sup- 
 ply of such button-moulds in one of her 
 drawers. 
 
 " If I find that I have some," said she, 
 " I will call my drawer the bank, and I 
 will lend you some money from it. Mer- 
 chants very often borrow money at the 
 bank when they begin their business." 
 
 The children were greatly pleased with 
 this suggestion, and Mary said, 
 
 " Then we may have one of the draw 
 ers ? "
 
 THE JUNK-STORK. 8& 
 
 Yes," replied Mrs. Gay. I will lei 
 you have a drawer, and I will give you 
 leave to look all over the house, in all the 
 closets and drawers ; and wherever you 
 find anything that is broken so as to be use 
 less, you may have it for your junk-shop, 
 provided that I may go to it at any time 
 and take out anything that I want." 
 
 This condition was agreed to, and the 
 children at once began to make their col 
 lection ; and a very odd collection it was, 
 when they got it together, I assure you. It 
 consisted of broken knob:-, odd castors that 
 had come off from furniture when a new 
 set had been put on, knife-handles from 
 which the blades had been broken off, 
 curtain -rings, spare keys, many of them 
 broken and useless except for playthings. 
 There was a carpet-hammer without any 
 handle, and a brad-awl handle without any 
 brad-awl, and several knobs, and brass 
 hooks of various kinds, arid odd knitting- 
 needles, and other such things too numer- 
 ous to mention. Indeed all the old broken 
 and useless things that had been lying 
 about the house and encumbering the clos- 
 ets and drawers for years had now sud
 
 84 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 denly acquired a special value ; and every- 
 thing, no matter what it might be, helped 
 to make up the assortment of goods required 
 to open the junk-store in a satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 There were two wine-glasses, with the 
 foot of each broken off', which Mary found 
 on an upper shelf of the china closet. These 
 wine-glasses were somewhat bowl-shaped, 
 instead of being conical, as wine-glasses 
 usually are, the sides being convex out- 
 ward, so that they looked like little bell- 
 glasses, with the stem still remaining to 
 serve for handles to take them up by ; for 
 the stems had been broken off close to the 
 foot. 
 
 When Mary and Luly brought these 
 wine-glasses to their mother to ask if they 
 might have them for their store, she at first 
 thought that they would not be safe play- 
 things, inasmuch as the ends of the stems, 
 where the fractures had taken place, pre- 
 sented sharp edges by which the children 
 might cut their fingers. 
 
 The children wished to have the glasses 
 very much, intending to use them for bells. 
 They found on holding them by the stem,
 
 THE JUNK-STORE. 85 
 
 and striking the margin of the glass gently 
 with the blade of a table-knife, that they 
 emitted a very pleasant sound. 
 
 " If we could only contrive to hang a 
 round button inside of them for a clapper," 
 said Mary, " they would make very good 
 bells." 
 
 " Only," said Mrs. Gay, " every time you 
 attempted to ring them you would be in 
 danger of cutting your fingers with the 
 edge of the glass where it is broken." 
 
 " Is n't there any way that we can smooth 
 the glass ? *' asked Mary. 
 
 " Perhaps Uncle Edward can tell you of 
 a way the next time he comes," said Mrs. 
 Gay. 
 
 " / know of a way," said Mary. " I can 
 put some sealing - wax on the place. I 
 can melt some sealing-wax and put it on, 
 and then round it over and make a little 
 knob." 
 
 " That would do, perhaps," said Mrs. 
 Gay. " Or possibly you might grind the 
 roughness off upon the grindstone." 
 
 There was a small grindstone in a back- 
 room of the house where Mary lived, which 
 was* used for grinding knives and other
 
 86 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 household implements, and also sometimes 
 by Jotham for grinding axes and scythes. 
 
 The children determined to adopt one or 
 the other of these plans on some future 
 day, and in the mean time went out and 
 found two boards to use as counters. They 
 made the boards serve this purpose by 
 supporting the two ends of each upon two 
 chairs placed at proper distances apart, and 
 then they commenced keeping store. Luly 
 had one store and Richard the other. They 
 were the retailers. Mary stationed herself 
 at the drawer which contained the junk, 
 playing that she was the wholesale mer- 
 chant, to sell them the goods which they 
 were to put into their stores. They paid 
 for them with the buttons which Mrs. Gay 
 had given them. The large buttons were 
 half dollars, the middle-sized ones ten-cent 
 pieces, and the small ones cents. 
 
 The children amused themselves in this 
 way a long time.
 
 fllE GLASS BELLS. 87 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 
 
 IN the course of a week or two after this 
 time, the children attempted two quite im- 
 portant mechanical operations in connec- 
 tion with the junk-store, one relating to 
 the bells which they undertook to make, 
 and the other the mending and re-covering 
 of certain paper boxes which their mother 
 gave them. 
 
 They succeeded in the end in both these 
 operations, though they encountered some 
 serious difficulties at the outset. 
 
 In respect to the glass bells, Mary tried 
 at first to cover the broken end of the stem 
 with sealing-wax, but she found that she 
 could not make the sealing-wax stick to 
 the glass. She succeeded pretty well in 
 melting the sealing-wax in the flame of a 
 lamp, and then in forming a sort of knob 
 or button with it on the end of the stem, 
 but she found that it would not stick there.
 
 88 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 When she took hold of it, and attempted 
 to lift the glass with it, the knob of sealing- 
 wax would peal off, leaving the sharp edges 
 of the glass as bare as before. 
 
 " Never mind, Luly," said she, when she 
 found that this plan would not succeed. 
 " We will try the other plan. We will 
 grind the glass smooth on the grind- 
 stone. That will be a great deal better 
 way." 
 
 So they put on some warm clothing, and 
 taking a tin mug full of water with them, 
 they went out to the grindstone. But this 
 plan failed as the other had done. As soon 
 as they poured the water upon the grind- 
 stone, the film of water which spread over 
 it was immediately frozen, and then of 
 course the whole surface was covered with 
 a thin coating of ice which caused the end 
 of the glass to slip along when the stone 
 was turned, without being ground away 
 at all. 
 
 When they came back into the kitchen, 
 bringing with them the mug and the two 
 glasses, Sophronia was there, and Mary 
 told her that they had been out to grind 
 some glasses smooth, but that they could
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 89 
 
 not do it, for the water turned into ice as 
 fast as they put it on the stone. 
 
 " Of course," said Sophronia, " if you 
 took cold water. Who would ever think 
 of grinding with cold water such sharp 
 weather as this. You ought to have taken 
 hot water." 
 
 " So we ought," said Mary. " Let us 
 go again, Luly." 
 
 So Mary poured out what remained of 
 the cold water from the rnug, and So- 
 phronia then filled the mug about two 
 thirds full of hot water, from the tea-kettle 
 on the stove. 
 
 "I must not fill it too full," said she, 
 " for fear that you may spill it over in car- 
 rying it, and so scald yourselves." 
 
 Mary took the mug with the hot water 
 contained in it, and went out again with 
 Luly to the back-room where the grind- 
 stone stood. She poured some of the hot 
 water on the stone, and then, while Luly 
 turned it, she held the stem of one of the 
 wine-glasses upon it in such a manner as 
 to grind off the sharp edges of the glass, 
 By turning the glass in her hand as she 
 held it on the stone, she succeeded in
 
 90 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 rounding over the end and in making it 
 smooth and true. 
 
 After having finished grinding the first 
 glass, Mary found that the water was be- 
 ginning to freeze upon the stone. So 
 she poured some more hot water upon 
 it, and then began with the second glass. 
 This she smoothed in the same manner, 
 and then she and Luly came into the 
 house. 
 
 " New," said Mary, " we have got two 
 bells, one for you and one for me, only 
 when we wish to ring them we shall have 
 to hold them up with one hand, and strike 
 them on the outside with something or 
 other, because you see our bells have not 
 any clappers. I wish they had some clap- 
 pers." 
 
 " Could not you make a clapper out of a 
 button ? " asked Luly. 
 
 " There is no way to fasten it in," said 
 Mary. 
 
 Their uncle Edward, however, told them 
 a few evenings afterward how they could 
 fasten the clappers in, and helped them do 
 it. He said it was to be done with sealing-
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 91 
 
 "But the sealing-wax won't stick to 
 glass," said Mary. " We tried it." 
 
 " That is because you did not heat the 
 glass as well as the sealing-wax," said Mr. 
 Edward. u For some reason or other I 
 don't know what sealing-wax will not 
 stick to anything that is not itself made as 
 hot as the melted wax is that you put on. 
 So if you wish to make sealing-wax stick 
 to iron, or marble, or glass, or anything of 
 that kind, you must heat the thing first hot 
 enough to melt the sealing-wax when it 
 is pressed against it. Then the wax will 
 stick." 
 
 " But sealing-wax will stick to paper," 
 said Mary, " without our heating the paper 
 beforehand." 
 
 This is true, and there is a curious rea- 
 son for it, which reason Edward explained 
 to Mary and Luly while they were talking 
 together on the subject, though I confess 
 I don't think that Luly understood it very 
 well. 
 
 The reason why sealing-wax will stick 
 to paper, pasteboard, wood, or anything of 
 that kind, by being merely dropped upon it 
 hot, is, that those substances are what are
 
 92 MARY GAY'S WOKK IN WINTER. 
 
 called bad conductors of heat. This is 
 a learned phrase, which means that heat 
 cannot pass away easily through them. 
 Thus when sealing-wax is dropped upon 
 a wooden table, for example, in conse- 
 quence of the wood being in this way a 
 bad conductor, the heat of the wax cannot 
 easily pass down into the substance of it, 
 but remains near the wax, so that that part 
 of the wood becomes nearly as hot as the 
 wax is, and then they both cool together, 
 and so firmly adhere to each other. 
 
 In respect to marble, or glass, or iron, the 
 case is different. These are all better con- 
 ductors of heat than wood or paper, and 
 consequently when a drop of melted wax 
 falls upon them, the heat passes very quick 
 down into the substance of them, and does 
 not remain to heat the part which the wax 
 touches. Thus the wax cools in contact 
 with a comparatively cold substance, and 
 does not adhere. 
 
 If, however, you heat the marble, or the 
 iron or the glass, beforehand, so as to make 
 it as hot as the melted wax will be, and 
 then drop the wax upon it and leave them 
 both to cool together, the wax will then
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 93 
 
 Edward explained all this to Mary, and 
 told her that in order to make the wax 
 stick to the end of the glass stem, the glass 
 should first have been heated. 
 
 " But that would break it," said Mary. 
 
 " No," replied Edward," not if you heated 
 it slowly. You may heat glass hot enough 
 to melt it without its breaking, if you heat 
 it slowly. It i.s only when you heat it too 
 suddenly that there is danger, for then one 
 part gets hot before another part, and thus 
 the glass swells unequally, and so is apt to 
 crack." 
 
 In further conversation about the bells, 
 Mary asked Edward in respect to clappers 
 for them, and Edward said that he thought 
 that clappers might be put in by means of 
 sealing-wax. 
 
 " I will see," said he, " if I cannot put a 
 clapper into one ; and you may see how 1 
 do it, and then you can try to put one in 
 the other." 
 
 So Edward sent Mary to her mother, to 
 borrow her box of buttons. Mary soon 
 returned, bringing a small pasteboard box. 
 Tt had a cover, though the corners of the 
 cover were all broken apart. On taking
 
 94 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 off the cover, the box was found to be 
 half full of buttons of all shapes and sizes. 
 From among these, Edward selected two, 
 one round one and one flat one. 
 
 He then took a short piece of fine but 
 strong twine, about two inches long, and 
 lied one end of it to the round button 
 and the other to the flat one. He meas- 
 ured as he did this, so as to make the 
 twine just long enough to bring the round 
 button in the right position to strike the 
 margin of the glass when the flat button 
 should be cemen'ed with sealing-wax into 
 the bottom of it inside. 
 
 Then he began to hold the glass near the 
 stove, in the kitchen, to get it warm. As it 
 gradually grew warm he held it nearer and 
 nearer, and when it began to bo quite hot 
 he put his gloves on, to prevent its burning 
 his fingers. At length, when it had become 
 very hot, he heated the end of the stick of 
 sealing-wax in a lamp which Mary held for 
 him, and carefully dropped five or six drops 
 of the wax into the bottom of the wine- 
 glass. 
 
 The glass being very hot, the wax re- 
 mained melted in the bottom of it, and
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 95 
 
 united itself intimately with the glass. 
 Mr. Edward then took the two buttons, 
 which, as has already been explained, were 
 united by a short piece of twine, and, hold- 
 ing the round one in his hand, he let the 
 flat one down gently upon the stove and al- 
 lowed it to remain there a moment until it 
 became hot, and then he lowered it down 
 carefully into the wine-glass until it reached 
 the wax and sank into it. He took care to 
 cause it to settle into the wax as nearly as 
 possible in the middle of- the glass, and 
 when it was thus adjusted he carried the 
 whole away toward the window, to let it all 
 cool. He held the round button in his hand 
 all the time, to prevent the string from fall- 
 ing down into the soft wax. 
 
 In a few minutes the wax was cool, and 
 then turning the bell over, with the open 
 part down, he found that the clapper was 
 kept in its place very well, and that the 
 bell would ring nicely. 
 
 " Let me take it," said Luly, eagerly, and 
 holding up both hands; " let me ring it." 
 
 No," said Mary ; " let me take it." 
 
 Luly shall have it first," said Mr. Ed- 
 ward, " for she is the youngest. It is a
 
 96 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 matter of indulgence. In matters of com 
 mand and duty the oldest takes precedence 
 in matters of indulgence, the youngest." 
 
 So Luly took the bell, and began run- 
 ning about and ringing it, apparently 
 greatly pleased with the result of the oper- 
 ation. 
 
 Presently she gave it to Mary, who rang 
 it too, and examined it attentively in every 
 part, and then immediately undertook to 
 prepare the other glass in the same way. 
 Only her Uncle Edward advised her that 
 instead of melting the sealing-wax sepa- 
 rately, and dropping it into the bottom of 
 the glass, she should break off a small piece 
 and lay it in, and then melt it through the 
 glass, by slowly and carefully heating the 
 glass. 
 
 " In this way," said he, " you will avoid 
 the danger of dropping the hot sealing-wax 
 on the stove or on the floor." 
 
 Mary accordingly adopted this plan. She 
 selected two buttons, one round and one 
 flat one, and tied them together with a 
 piece of twine. Then she broke off a piece 
 of the sealing-wax and put it into the bot- 
 tom of the glass ; and finally, after heating
 
 THE GLASS BELLS. 97 
 
 the glass very carefully over the stove until 
 the wax was melted, she let the flat button 
 down into it, until it was well imbedded in 
 it, when she carried the whole to the win- 
 dow to let the wax cool. Her bell was 
 then complete, and it was as good as the 
 one which Mr. Edward had made. 
 
 Mary kept the bell which she made for 
 herself, and gave the other to Luly, and 
 they played with them a great deal, when 
 keeping store, and also at other times. 
 When playing store, each of the girls 
 would keep her bell on her counter, and 
 ring it when she opened the store, and also 
 again when she shut it up, to make believe 
 go to dinner, or for any other purpose. 
 Luly, in fact, used to open and shut her 
 store very often, for the first few days, just 
 for the purpose of having a pretext for 
 ringing her bell.
 
 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 
 
 MARY succeeded very well in teaching 
 Luly to darn. In fact, she managed the 
 business with a great deal of tact and skill. 
 She took care never to call her away ab- 
 ruptly from any work or play in which she 
 was interested. She also usually let Luly 
 darn when she was darning herself, because 
 she had observed that little children gen- 
 erally like to do what the older ones are 
 doing. It would accordingly have been 
 bad management, she knew, to have set 
 Luly at work to darn while she was mak- 
 ing pies, or doing anything else which Luly 
 would like to do too. 
 
 Another thing in which she showed her 
 dexterity was in allowing Luly to stand 
 and look over her while she was darning, 
 to see how the work was done, talking to 
 her all the time in a playful and amusing, 
 manner. When she was weaving in the
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 99 
 
 cross- threads she would address the needle 
 as if it was a living thing, calling it Sharp- 
 nose and little Rogue. 
 
 " Now, little Sharpnose," she would say, 
 " mind that you come up and go down in 
 the right places. Under the first over 
 the second under the third over the 
 fourth," and so she went on as the point 
 of the needle appeared and disappeared 
 among the threads. Then she would make 
 a mistake on purpose and bring the point 
 of the needle up in the wrong place, so as 
 to take up two threads instead of one, and 
 would say, " Ah, you little Rogue, what are 
 you coming up there for ? That is not 
 right. Go back, you little Rogue, and come 
 up right ! " 
 
 In this way Luly's imagination was en- 
 tertained, and her interest in watching the 
 progress of the needle was greatly in- 
 creased, and the proper way of managing 
 it was fixed strongly in her mind; and 
 when she went to work herself, she con- 
 ceived of the needle as a living thing, and 
 talked to it just as Mary had done. 
 
 Another thing that Mary did I think 
 was very wise, and that is, she did not
 
 100 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 find fault with Luly for making mistakes. 
 She did not even point out the mis- 
 takes when Luly made them, but let them 
 go, and only showed her when it was done 
 right. Some people think that you must 
 necessarily tell children when they have 
 done anything the wrong way, or else they 
 can never learn the right way ; and this is 
 true no doubt in some cases. But it is not 
 generally true, for if you say nothing 
 about the places where they have done the 
 work wrong, but only show them where 
 they have done it right, this will lead them 
 on into the right ways, and the wrong ways 
 will of course be left behind, and so pass 
 out of mind and be forgotten. 
 
 One of the greatest obstacles to the 
 success of older children in teaching their 
 younger brothers or sisters is their discour- 
 aging them by pointing out too particularly 
 the errors and imperfections of what they 
 do, when they have tried to do as well as 
 they could. If children do not try to do 
 as well as they can, or if they wilfully or 
 intentionally do what is wrong, then cer- 
 tainly they are to be censured or even pun- 
 ished. But when they have done as well
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 101 
 
 as they can, and the faults and errors that 
 they have fallen into only arise from their 
 ignorance or inexperience, or their want of 
 practice and skill, then the less we call 
 their attention to their faults and failures 
 the better. 
 
 There were once two cousins named 
 Susan and Jane, each of whom had a little 
 sister whom she called Tottie. Each of 
 them undertook to teach her sister to sew. 
 Both were very kind and considerate, and 
 were very gentle in their management, but 
 Susan went on the principle of pointing 
 out her Tottie's faults and mistakes, in 
 order that she might avoid them the next 
 time, while Jane's plan was to let the, faults 
 and mistakes be forgotten as soon as possi- 
 ble, and lead her scholar on into the right 
 way, by just showing her how far she was 
 right already, and explaining the right way 
 for what came next. 
 
 Each began by giving to her sister two 
 pieces of cloth to sew together, and both 
 the children succeeded very well, consid- 
 ering that it was the first time they had 
 attempted to use a needle. 
 
 When Susan's sister came to show hei
 
 102 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 the work which she had done, Susan took 
 it and looked at it, and seemed not quite 
 satisfied with it, though she determined not 
 to say anything to hurt little Tottie's feel- 
 ings. So she said, 
 
 " Well, Tottie, this is pretty well, consid- 
 ering ; but you ought to make the stitches 
 nearer together and make them all alike. 
 See T these stitches are too far apart, and 
 too coarse. And these too. These are very 
 coarse indeed. You must take smaller 
 stitches and make them closer together. 
 See. I '11 show you how." 
 
 So Susan took the work and made some 
 fine stitches as a pattern, making them as 
 fine and as close together as she could, 
 altogether too much so for Tottie to have 
 any reasonable hope of being able to imi- 
 tate them. 
 
 When Susan gave Tottie her work again 
 she went away with it, and threw it down 
 upon the sofa, saying she did not want to 
 sew any more. And the next day, when 
 Susan proposed to her to take another les- 
 son, she said that she could not sew, and it 
 was of no use to try. 
 
 But Jane, when her sister brought hei
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 103 
 
 the work which she had done, although it 
 was not done any better than the oth- 
 er, seemed entirely satisfied with it. She 
 was really satisfied with it, for it was a 
 very good first attempt very good in- 
 deed. 
 
 "Ah, yes," said she; "you have sewed 
 the pieces together the very first time. 
 See," said she, " see how tight together 
 they are." 
 
 So saying, she tried gently to pull the 
 'two pieces apart, to show Tottie that she 
 had actually sewed them together. 
 
 " The pieces were separate before, and 
 you have sewed them together pretty 
 strong, and made a seam. You made a 
 seam the very first time. I should not 
 wonder if you had even made some pretty 
 good stitches. Let us see." 
 
 So Jane began to examine the work to 
 find good stitches, and, selecting the best, 
 she showed them to Tottie. 
 
 " There," said she, " the next time very 
 likely you will make almost all the stitches 
 as good as these. To-morrow I will give 
 you two more pieces, and let you try
 
 104 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Give them to me now," said the child 
 " I should like to sew some more now. I 
 am not tired." 
 
 In a word, Jane's plan was to allure her 
 pupil onward by showing and commending 
 what was good ; while Susan's method was 
 that of driving her, as it were, though 
 very gently and kindly, by pointing out 
 and censuring what was bad. It is need- 
 less to say which was likely to be the most 
 successful way. 
 
 One day when Luly was going to put 
 her work away, she said^she wished that 
 she had a box or something to keep her 
 things in, her needle, her little ball of 
 yarn, and the work that she was doing. 
 Mary thought that this would be a very 
 good plan, and she went to ask her mother 
 to give her a box. 
 
 " Yes," said her mother, " I will give you 
 a box. You may go up-stairs and look in 
 the box-drawer and see if you can find one 
 there that you think will do." 
 
 The box-drawer, so called, was a pretty 
 large and deep drawer in the lower part of 
 a kind of wardrobe or clothes-press which 
 stood in a wide passage-way up-stairs, and
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 105 
 
 was used for containing linen, blankets, 
 and the like. The press had shelves and 
 doors above and drawers below. One of 
 these drawers was used as a place of stor- 
 age for paper and pasteboard boxes of all 
 kinds. 
 
 People often receive such boxes; they 
 come in various ways into a house, and 
 usually are knocked about till they get 
 broken up and destroyed. But Mary's 
 mother had this drawer to put them in, 
 and thus carefully preserved them, so that 
 if at any time she wished for a box of any 
 kind, she had only to go to this drawer, 
 and she was almost sure to find there very 
 nearly what she required. 
 
 So the children went up on this occasion 
 to the box-drawer, and on opening it they 
 saw a great variety of boxes within. On 
 one side were some very large ones, placed 
 one within the other to save space, thus 
 forming what is called a nest of boxes. 
 There were some round boxes and some 
 square ones, and some that were very small, 
 such as pill-boxes that had come from the 
 apothecary's, and several little square ones 
 that had contained articles of jewelry or
 
 106 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 other small objects of value. There was 
 one quite long and narrow one which had 
 contained a small gold pencil-case that 
 John had sent to his cousin Mary as a 
 present on her birthday. 
 
 The children looked over the assortment 
 of boxes, and finally chose one which had 
 formerly contained Rochelle powders, or 
 something of that kind. Luly was at first 
 inclined to take a much larger one, but 
 Mary told her that one just large enough 
 to contain her work would be most con- 
 venient. 
 
 One of the corners of the cover of this 
 box was broken open. Paper boxes are 
 very apt to break in this way unless they are 
 properly strengthened with cloth. Some- 
 times people sew the corners, but that is 
 not a good way to mend them. In the first 
 place it is not a strong mending, for the 
 stitches are likely to tear out again pretty 
 easily ; and then, besides, it does not look 
 well. Even if you cover the place with 
 paper pasted over, to conceal the stitches, 
 they are very likely to show through. 
 
 Thus this mode of mending is neither 
 strong nor pretty, and of course is not
 
 THE ART OF TEACHING. 107 
 
 to be recommended. The children, under 
 John's guidance and direction, adopted a 
 much better method for repairing and im- 
 proving the box which Luly chose. 
 
 What this method was will be explained 
 in the next chapter.
 
 108 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. 
 
 BEFORE describing the plan adopted by 
 John and Mary, in fitting up Lilly's box. 
 I must make some scientific explanations 
 which those children who do not care about 
 learning anything, but only read books for 
 the sake of being amused for the time 
 being, might as well skip perhaps. If they 
 do not skip it, however, but read it atten- 
 tively, it will teach them some things that 
 will be a great help to them when they are 
 making anything of paper or pasteboard, 
 as for example when they are mending 
 boxes or making kites. 
 
 There are three quite different substances 
 which are used to produce adhesion, that is 
 to make things adhere, or stick together, in 
 working in paper, pasteboard, and such 
 things, namely, paste, gum, and glue. 
 Paste is the easiest to use, but glue sticks
 
 PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. 109 
 
 the best, and gum comes half-way between 
 the other two in both respects. 
 
 First, paste is the easiest to use. It is 
 very cheap, being made of flour, which is 
 always at hand, and can be put on with a 
 big brush over a great surface very fast. 
 So people always use paste when a great 
 deal of work is to be done, as for instance 
 making a kite, or covering a large box, or 
 papering a room. 
 
 Nobody would ever think of papering a 
 room by means of gum ; because, in the first 
 place, it would be very difficult to put on 
 such a large quantity of gum smoothly and 
 evenly; and then, in the next place, it would 
 cost so much, on account of the gum being 
 so much more expensive than the flour. 
 
 But if you wish only to fasten some small 
 thing, as for instance to seal a letter, or to 
 fasten a picture by the corners into a scrap- 
 book, then gum is very good. It holds a 
 great deal better than paste for such small 
 things, and for small quantities the cost 
 does not amount to anything worth con- 
 sidering. 
 
 Gum must, however, be very thick to 
 hold well. If it is thin, it will scarcely
 
 110 MART GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 hold at all, unless the two things that are 
 to be gummed together are put into some 
 kind of press and kept pressed together 
 very tight until the gum is entirely dry. 
 
 Gum holds better than paste, but glue 
 holds very much better than gum. Thus 
 glue is used to unite two pieces of wood 
 together, and if the work is done properly, 
 when you attempt to pull the two pieces 
 apart by great force, the fibres of the wood 
 itself will be torn apart, along the sides 
 of the place where it was glued, rather 
 than the glue itself give way. 
 
 But then glue> though it holds so well, is 
 somewhat troublesome to use, unless you 
 have the proper conveniences for it. In 
 the first place it must be used hot. Gum 
 can be dissolved in cold water, and when 
 it is intended to be kept on hand it always 
 ought to be dissolved in cold water, which 
 can be done by putting it into a bottle and 
 pouring in enough cold water to cover it, 
 the day before you wish to use it. 
 
 But if you put glue into cold water in 
 this way, it will only swell and form a sort 
 of stiff jelly. If, then, you heat this jelly, 
 it becomes liquid, and in that state can 
 be used.
 
 PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. Ill 
 
 But it must be used while it is hot; for 
 if you let it get cool, either in the vessel 
 that you dissolve it in, or on th^ work be- 
 fore you put the parts together, it turns intc 
 a jelly again, and so will not hold at all 
 To make glue hold well it must be hot 
 when it is put on, and then the parts of the 
 work must be put together while it remains 
 hot, and held tight together until it has 
 time to get dry, or at least to cool and 
 consolidate firmly. All this requires so 
 much care and attention that it is much 
 more difficult to use glue than to use gum 
 or paste. 
 
 Mary and Luly did not understand these 
 things very well, but John understood them, 
 and so they determined to wait until he 
 could help them before they undertook to 
 mend Luly's box. Accordingly one day 
 about midwinter, when they were at their 
 aunt's, they asked John to come the next 
 Saturday afternoon and help them repair 
 the box and cover it anew, and he said he 
 would. 
 
 " And bring some glue with you," sard 
 Mary. 
 
 " Very well," said John.
 
 112 MART GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " And some pretty paper to cover the box 
 with," said Luly. 
 
 " Very well," said John. 
 
 " And a picture for the top," added Luly. 
 
 " Very well," said John. " I will bring 
 all that is necessary. But how big is the 
 box ? " 
 
 " So big," said Luly, measuring with her 
 hands. 
 
 " Very well," said John. 
 
 When Saturday came it brought with it 
 a great snow-storm. The storm began in 
 the morning, and by noon the roads were 
 so blocked up that Mary and Luly thought 
 that John would not come. When the 
 time drew near they went to the window 
 to look out for him ; but the air was so 
 thick with the driving snow, and the glass 
 of the window was so obscured by the 
 flakes which struck upon them outside, and 
 were melted and made to trickle down by 
 the heat from within, that scarcely anything 
 could be seen. 
 
 At one time they heard sleigh-bells, and 
 they thought that John was coming in the 
 sleigh. So they ran to the window to see. 
 The sound of the bells stopped as soon aa
 
 PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. 113 
 
 they reached the window, and on looking 
 out they saw that it was a strange sleigh 
 drawn by two horses, that was going by, and 
 that the horses had got into a deep drift, 
 so deep that they could not get along. 
 
 The sleigh was loaded with boxes and 
 bags, and a man with a fur cap and a red 
 comforter about his neck was sitting upon 
 the top of the bags, driving. When the 
 children first came to the window he was 
 just preparing to get down from his seat to 
 help his horses. 
 
 When he slipped down off the sleigh he 
 sank into the snow up far above his knees. 
 He then went wallowing along till he had 
 got before his horses, and there began tram- 
 pling down the snow along the road to make 
 a way for them. When he had broken 
 through the drift in this way, he went back 
 and took his seat on the bags again, and 
 his horses went on. They moved slowly 
 and apparently with great difficulty, but 
 were soon out of sight and hearing. 
 
 The children then went away from the 
 window, but not long afterward their atten- 
 tion was attracted by the sound of a great 
 stamping of feet on the piazza.
 
 114 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " There is John," said Mary, running to 
 the window. 
 
 True enough. It was John ; he was 
 shaking and brushing the snow off from his 
 cap and clothes, and stamping it from his 
 boots. Pretty soon he opened the door and 
 came into the entry. Then he opened the 
 inner door, but instead of coming in he 
 reached in his hand with a roll in it and 
 said, 
 
 " Take this roll and bring me a clothes- 
 brush as quick as you can." 
 
 He then immediately shut the door again ; 
 and when Mary brought him the clothes- 
 brush he opened the door just wide enough 
 to receive it, and then went back out upon 
 the piazza. 
 
 The reason why he did this was to keep 
 the snow cold and dry, so that he might 
 brush it off easily, instead of coming with 
 it into a warm room, and letting it melt and 
 wet his clothes. 
 
 "John," said Luly, when he at length 
 came in, " why did n't you ride here in the 
 sleigh ? The snow is too deep for you to 
 walk." 
 
 " Hoh !" said John, " a big boy like me
 
 PASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. 115 
 
 can get through deep snow a great deal 
 better than a horse can." 
 
 "What is there in this roll?" asked 
 Luly. 
 
 " Some pretty paper," said John, " to 
 cover our boxes." 
 
 " Let me see it," said Luly. 
 
 " No," replied John, " not till we have 
 got our shop ready. The first thing is to 
 make our shop." 
 
 So saying, John began to lead the way 
 toward the kitchen. The kitchen was all 
 in nice order, there was a good fire in the 
 stove, and Sophronia was seated at a win- 
 dow, sewing. 
 
 " Sophronia," said John, " will you lend 
 us your ironing-board for a bench ? We 
 are going to have a bookbinder's shop." 
 
 " Yes," said Sophronia. 
 
 So John and Mary went out into a back 
 room where they knew the ironing-board 
 was kept, and brought it in. One lifted at 
 one end and the other at the other, Luly 
 running along by the side, trying to help. 
 When they had brought the ironing-board 
 into the kitchen, John placed two chairs 
 facing each other, and at a proper distance
 
 116 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 apart, and then laid the ironing-board down 
 upon them, one end upon each chair, so as 
 to make a long low table. Then he and 
 Mary brought three little benches or stools, 
 of the kind sometimes called crickets, and 
 the shop was complete. 
 
 " Now," said John, " I. will unroll my 
 roll of paper, and let you see what I have 
 got." 
 
 So John unrolled the roll, and brought to 
 view a number of sheets of paper of various 
 colors, and of different shapes and sizes. 
 They were of the kind called fancy papers, 
 being ornamented with pretty patterns of 
 various kinds. One sheet was entirely red, 
 of a very bright and pretty hue. 
 
 There was a small sheet of gilt paper, 
 and several colored pictures, not quite so 
 large as the top of Luly's box. 
 
 All these sheets came out very smooth, 
 being not at all tumbled, for they had been 
 rolled upon a round stick, part of a broom- 
 handle which John had sawed off for the 
 purpose. By rolling his fancy paper and 
 pictures upon this round bar, he had effect 
 ually prevented them from getting crushed 
 and the paper broken, in the rough hand-
 
 TASTE, GUM, AND GLUE. 117 
 
 ling which the roll would be likely to get 
 in being brought so far in his hand, through 
 a driving snow-storm. 
 
 " Now, Mary," said John, " have you got 
 a glue-pot in the house ?" 
 
 " No," replied Mary, " but I have got a 
 gum-bottle." 
 
 " Well, bring your gum-bottle," said John. 
 " But we shall need a glue-pot too. I must 
 make a glue-pot." 
 
 Won't a little cup do ?" asked Mary. 
 
 " A cup will do for part of it," said John ; 
 " but there must be something else besides. 
 It must be double, glue-pots are always 
 double."
 
 118 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ABOUT HOT WATER. 
 
 WHAT John meant by saying that glue- 
 pots were always double was this, that they 
 always consist of two vessels, one of which 
 is set within the other. The inner one con- 
 tains the glue, and the outer one water, 
 which serves to prevent the glue from burn- 
 ing when it is over the fire. 
 
 The reason why the water in the outer 
 vessel prevents the glue from burning is, 
 that only a certain quantity of heat can 
 pass through water, and that is not enough 
 to burn glue, or candy, or sugar, or anything 
 else of that kind that is put over the fire. 
 Accordingly, if you wish to keep anything 
 from the possibility of burning when you 
 are boiling it over a fire, you have only so 
 to arrange it as to have a stratum of water 
 between it and the fire. 
 
 This is done in the case of glue by hav- 
 ing the vessel double. The inner one con-
 
 ABOUT HOT WATER. 119 
 
 tains the glue. The outer one is filled with 
 water ; and thus there is a stratum of water 
 between the melted glue and the fire, which 
 prevents the glue from ever becoming too 
 hot, however hot the fire may be. 
 
 Water will keep anything from becoming 
 hot above a certain degree, however hot the 
 fire may be under it. If for example you 
 should put some lead into a kettle or a 
 skillet that had water in it, and then put 
 the skillet over the hottest possible fire, you 
 could not melt the lead in the water, for 
 the lead could not get hotter than the water 
 was that was around it, and that would 
 not be hot enough to melt the lead. 
 
 The greatest heat that water can ever 
 have in ordinary cases is two hundred and 
 twelve degrees by the thermometer. But 
 lead will not melt until it becomes as hot 
 as six hundred and twelve degrees. 
 
 There is a very curious reason why water 
 will not become hotter than two hundred 
 and twelve, or rather a very curious oper- 
 ation takes place which prevents it. It is 
 this. Suppose a kettle with cold water in 
 it is put over a hot fire. The heat from the 
 fire immediately begins to go into the iron
 
 120 MARY GAT'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 which forms the bottom of the kettle, and 
 through the iron up into the water above. 
 The water begins to grow first warm and 
 then warmer. When it gets as high as one 
 hundred by the thermometer, it would feel 
 quite warm to your hand, but not hot. 
 When it gets to one hundred and fifty, it 
 would be scalding hot ; and when it reached 
 to just about two hundred and twelve, it 
 would be as hot as it could be. No matter 
 how hot the fire was under it, or how long 
 the heat should be continued, the water 
 would never become any hotter than two 
 hundred and twelve degrees.* 
 
 And yet all the time the heat would be 
 going up from the fire through the bottom 
 of the kettle into the water. What then can 
 be the reason that the water does not get any 
 hotter ? Where does all the heat go to ? 
 
 It goes to making steam, and the steam 
 goes off up the chimney, carrying the heat 
 with it. 
 
 The way it operates is this. As fast as 
 any portion of the bottom of the kettle gets 
 above the heat of 212,* the water that 
 
 * The usual way of expressing the degrees of the thermom- 
 eter is by putting the little figure after the number. This 
 figure means degrees. Thus 212 means 212 degrees.
 
 ABOUT HOT WATER. 121 
 
 touches it is turned into steam, and in 
 turning takes up a great deal of heat, for 
 steam has the power of taking up a great 
 deal more heat than water. 
 
 The steam when it is formed, being a 
 great deal lighter than water, rises in a 
 bubble up to the top, and then breaks out 
 and goes up the chimney, carrying the heat 
 up with it. This process goes on all the 
 time, and of course prevents the bottom of 
 the kettle from ever becoming much hotter 
 than 212. 
 
 This is the reason why water will put 
 out fire. It takes all the heat out of the 
 fire by changing itself into steam, and car- 
 rying the heat off up into the air, and then 
 of course the fire goes out. 
 
 When a house is on fire and the engines 
 come and pour on water, the heat of the 
 fire is all taken off into the water and car 
 ried up in the air in steam, and there floats 
 away among the clouds. 
 
 There is a possible way of making water 
 hotter than 212, but not by putting it in 
 an open vessel over a hot fire, or pouring it 
 upon burning coals. The way is to shut it 
 up in a very tight and strong vessel, so that
 
 122 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 no steam can get out to carry away the 
 heat If the water is open and free, then 
 as soon as it gets to 212 the steam will 
 form and carry away the heat as fast as it 
 comes in, and the water will never get any 
 hotter. 
 
 When people wish to make water hotter 
 than 212, as the philosophers do some- 
 times in making their experiments, it is 
 necessary to make the vessel that they shut 
 it up in very tight and strong indeed, or 
 else they will not succeed. It must be very 
 tight, for the smallest crevice is sufficient 
 to let the steam escape and carry off the 
 heat. And if it is made perfectly tight it 
 must then be made very strong, or the 
 stearn will burst it open, in order to make 
 its escape. 
 
 When a tea-kettle is on the fire, and is 
 boiling, the steam that carries off the heat 
 gets out, some of it through the nose of the 
 kettle, and the rest through the small crack 
 around and under the cover. 
 
 It follows from this circumstance, namely, 
 that water when open and free can never 
 be made hotter than 212, that nothing 
 at least no common substance can burn
 
 ABOUT HOT WATER. 123 
 
 when there is water around it, between 
 it and the fire, no matter how hot the 
 fire may be. For no common substance 
 can burn until it gets hotter than 212 ; 
 and no heat greater than that can be made 
 to pass through the water. 
 
 Accordingly, to make a glue-pot that shall 
 always be safe, even when the carpenter 
 places it on a hot stove, and goes away and 
 leaves it there for a long time, while he is 
 at work on something else, they put the 
 glue in one vessel, and then sefr this vessel 
 in another which is partly filled with water. 
 Thus the water rises all around the vessel 
 that holds the glue, and keeps it from ever 
 getting above 212. 
 
 But if the carpenter forgets his glue en- 
 tirely, and leaves it on the hot stove too 
 long, so that all the water in the outer 
 vessel has time to boil away, then the pro- 
 tection for the glue is gone, the heat comes 
 up through both vessels, and the glue soon 
 begins to burn. 
 
 Once I knew a boy, whom I will call 
 Samuel, that bought a little glue-pot made 
 of tin. There was an inner vessel for the 
 glue, and an outer one for the water, and 
 they fitted very nicely together.
 
 124 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Both vessels were soldered, as tin things 
 usually are, with a kind of solder which 
 melts at about 360 of the thermometer. 
 This you see is much hotter than the hot- 
 test water, but not nearly so hot as the 
 melting of lead, which is 612. 
 
 Of course so long as any vessel the joints 
 of which are formed of a solder that melts 
 at 360, has water in it, the joints will not 
 melt, no matter how hot the fire is that is 
 under it. 
 
 Samuel's glue-pot was accordingly as 
 good as any for the use intended, so long as 
 he took pains to keep water. in the outer 
 vessel. But one day, when he had set his 
 glue-pot on the stove in order to melt some 
 glue for certain work that he was going to 
 do, he thought he would go out and slide 
 a little while it was melting. There was 
 nobody in the kitchen at the time, for it 
 was the middle of the afternoon, and the 
 girl had gone away. He took care, how- 
 ever, to fill the outside vessel full of water, 
 which he thought made it all safe. % 
 
 It was safe in fact for an hour or two, 
 but Samuel found a number of other boys 
 at the slid ing-place, and he became so much
 
 ABOUT HOT WATER. 125 
 
 interested in sliding that he stayed out 
 longer than he expected, and when he came 
 in and opened the kitchen-door, he found 
 the room full of smoke, a kind of smoke, 
 moreover, which had a most horrible smell. 
 He ran to the stove, and there he found his 
 glue-pot all in ruins on the stove, and the 
 parts of it lying in the midst of a black 
 mass, like pitch, hissing and bubbling, and 
 sending up fresh volumes of smoke as it 
 burnt away. 
 
 The truth was that the water in the outer 
 vessel remained faithful, and protected the 
 glue, until it was all expended in carrying 
 off the heat by changing it into steam, in 
 other words, until it had all boiled away. 
 Then when it was all gone, the heat com- 
 ing up from the stove had now nothing to 
 oppose it. It first melted away the solder 
 from the outer vessel, and made it fall to 
 pieces. The inner vessel with the glue in 
 it then fell down upon the hot iron, and the 
 solder of that was soon melted too ; then 
 all the glue ran down over the tin pieces, 
 and upon the stove, and began to burn, and 
 things were in this condition when Samuel 
 came in.
 
 126 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 Glue-pots are generally made of copper 
 or of iron, without any solder, so that if 
 at any time the water gets out, the worst 
 that can happen is that the glue gets burnt 
 to a cinder, and you then have the trouble 
 of scraping it all out before you can use 
 the glue-pot again ; but the glue-pot itself 
 is safe. 
 
 This is the philosophy of glue-pots and 
 glue, a philosophy which all children, 
 girls as well as boys, ought to understand. 
 You must try to remember too at what 
 degree of the thermometer water boils, and 
 also at what degree lead melts, though this 
 last is not so important. It is very im- 
 portant to remember at what degree water 
 boils, and also at what degree it freezes 
 It freezes at 32 ; and that is also the degree 
 at which ice or snow melts : that is, when 
 the weather is cold and is growing warmer 
 the ice begins to melt when the mercury 
 in the thermometer passes 32 in going up; 
 and when the weather is warm and is 
 growing colder, ice begins to form when 
 the mercury passes 32 in going down. 
 
 Thus 32 is the freezing, and 212 the 
 boiling point of water. Try to remember 
 both of them.
 
 THE BOXES. 127 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BOXES. 
 
 AFTER looking about for some little time 
 in the kitchen-closets, Mary and John found 
 a small mug, of brown ware, and also an 
 old tea-cup without a handle, of just such a 
 size, relatively to each other, that the cup 
 would set in the top of the mug, and go 
 down into it so low that only the rim of it 
 was above the rim of the mug. 
 
 When it was in this position there was 
 of course a considerable space beneath the 
 cup, and around the sides of it, within the 
 mug, for holding water which was to keep 
 the glue from burning, while the glue itself, 
 and the water in which it was to be dis- 
 solved, could be put in the cup. 
 
 " There !" said John. " That is just what 
 we want for a glue-pot, the cup to hold 
 the glue, and the mug to hold the water 
 around it, if auntie will onlv let us have 
 these things."
 
 128 MARY GAY'S WORK IN 7 WINTER. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Mary. " She will let us 
 have them, I am sure." 
 
 " You must go and ask her," said John. 
 " The best rale is not to begin to use any- 
 thing till we are sure we have a right 
 to it." 
 
 So Mary went into the parlor, and soon 
 returned and reported that her mother said 
 she would give them the cup and the mug 
 to do anything they pleased with them. 
 
 Mary also brought out 'her gum-bottle; 
 but it was not in very good condition; 
 the mouth of it was so incrusted with 
 gum which had dried on, that the cork 
 would not go in very well ; and the brush, 
 which was fastened to the cork so as to go 
 down from it on the under side into the 
 bottle, did not reach quite to the gum, and 
 so was dry and hard. 
 
 " Now," said John, " the first thing is to 
 put the glue on the fire, and the next thing 
 will be to put your gum-bottle in good con- 
 dition." 
 
 In order that the glue might dissolve 
 quick, it was necessary that it should be 
 broken in pieces; and in order to prevent 
 the pieces from flying about under the ham-
 
 THE BOXES. 129 
 
 mer, John wrapped the glue first up loosely 
 in a paper, and then struck it with the 
 hammer through the paper. 
 
 "Why did not you take the mortar?" 
 asked Mary. 
 
 "Ah," said John, I did not think of the 
 mortar. That would have been better ; but 
 this way will do." 
 
 He put the small fragments of glue in 
 the cup, and then poured some hot water 
 over them from the tea-kettle. Then he 
 filled the mug two-thirds full of water, and 
 set the cup in its place in the top of it, and 
 finally set the whole upon the stove to keep 
 it hot until it should be dissolved. 
 
 While the glue was dissolving, John put 
 the gum-bottle in order. He took out the 
 cork, separated the brush from it, put both 
 into a basin of warm water to soak, and 
 then with his knife peeled off all the dried 
 and indurated gum from around the mouth 
 of the bottle, both inside and outside, 
 and put what he thus obtained down into 
 the bottle, where it might be dissolved 
 again. 
 
 " And now," said he, " I must put in a 
 little more water to make your gum thinner. 
 
 9
 
 130 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 Generally, the gum in bottles is too thin, 
 but yours is too thick." 
 
 Mary's gum was very thick indeed ; in 
 fact, it was almost dried up. 
 
 Leaving the gum and the glue to dissolve, 
 and the brushes to soak, John now pro- 
 ceeded to lay out the work on the ironing- 
 board. 
 
 " Now," said John, "if we only had two 
 boxes, you could cover one, Mary, while I 
 am covering the other." 
 
 Well," said Mary, there are plenty 
 more up in the box-drawer." 
 
 " And one for me too," said Luly. 
 
 " Yes," replied John. " We will find one 
 for you too." 
 
 So the children all went up-stairs, and 
 there from the stores in the box-drawer they 
 selected two boxes, one of the same size 
 with the one which had already been chosen 
 for Luly's work-box, and another much 
 smaller one for Luly herself to cover. With 
 these boxes in their hands they went to 
 Mrs. Gay to ask if they might have them, 
 and then returned to the kitchen, bringing 
 with them also three pairs of scissors, which 
 Mrs. Gay lent them.
 
 THE BOXES. 131 
 
 There were several other things that John 
 said would be required for their work, and 
 these he said must all be got ready before 
 the work was begun. 
 
 " It is a sign of a bad workman," said 
 he, " to have to be jumping up and going 
 away to get things that you want for your 
 work, after you have begun to do it. The 
 rule is, get everything ready before you 
 begin." 
 
 So John went on with the work of getting 
 things ready. Mary was surprised to find 
 how many things were required. Among 
 others was a ruler and a pencil, three 
 brushes, a newspaper, which John care- 
 fully divided by folding it repeatedly and 
 cutting through at the fold with a paper- 
 cutter, until he had divided it into oblong 
 pieces, a little larger than a side of the 
 largest boxes, and also a suucer to pour 
 out the gum into. 
 
 Mary also procured three towels, one for 
 each of the company. These were to wipe 
 their fingers upon, when they should acci- 
 dentally get any gum or glue upon them. 
 
 It took so much time to get all these 
 things ready that Mary began to be some- 
 what impatient.
 
 132 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " If it takes us so long to get ready," said 
 she, " we shall be forever in really doing 
 the work." 
 
 " No," said John. " To be a good while 
 in getting ready is a sign that we shall do 
 the work quick when we really begin." 
 
 At length all was ready, and the children 
 took their seats. John and Mary sat upqn 
 one side of the board, and Luly on the 
 other. 
 
 " Now, Luly," said John, " all the ques- 
 tions you ask me you must ask with your 
 eyes." 
 
 " I don't know what you mean," said 
 Luly. 
 
 " Or with your ears," said John. 
 
 " I don't know any better now than I did 
 before," said Luly. 
 
 " I mean you may look and listen as 
 much as .you please, but talk very little. 
 See what I do, and hear what I say, and 
 act accordingly." 
 
 So saying, John began the work, and went 
 on with it step by step, explaining what he 
 did as he went along, and giving Mary and 
 Luly the necessary directions for doing with 
 their boxes what he did with his. He first
 
 '',, 
 
 TI1K BOXES P 132.
 
 THE BOXES. 133 
 
 cut out some pieces of linen cloth, which 
 he had provided for mending the corners of 
 the boxes where they had been broken, and 
 for strengthening them where they were still 
 whole. These he put on with glue, taking 
 care to have the piece that was put on large 
 enough to lap over about half an inch each 
 side of the joint. He did this to all the 
 corners of his box, both those of the cover 
 and those of the box itself. 
 
 He used one precaution, however, in put- 
 ting on these corner-strengtheners, which I 
 advise all children to adopt who may ever 
 attempt to cover boxes in this way ; and 
 that is, that in putting on each piece he 
 only glued it upon one side of the corner 
 at first, and waited till that was nearly dry 
 before he brought it over and glued it to 
 the other side. Thus he went all around 
 his box, and glued a little piece of cloth 
 upon one side of each corner, leaving half 
 of the cloth free, until the first gluing should 
 be dry. By the time that he had got round, 
 the first one was ready to be finished, for 
 the cloth was now quite firm on one side 
 of the corner, so that by putting some 
 glue with his brush on the box at the other
 
 134 MARY GAY'S WOIJK IX WINTER. 
 
 side he could carry the end of the cloth 
 over and draw in the parts to their places, 
 and confine them there much better, on 
 account of half of the work being already 
 dry and strong. 
 
 There was another thing that I must 
 mention. He did not attempt to cut out 
 these corner-pieces of exactly the right size 
 before he put them on, for if he had done 
 so it would have been necessary for him to 
 take great pains to get them on exactly 
 right, which is a troublesome thing to do 
 with anything that is glued. All he did in 
 the first instance was to be sure to have 
 the pieces long enough, and thus in putting 
 them on he had only to see that the joint 
 was well covered, and then when they were 
 dry he trimmed off the surplus cloth, where 
 it projected, with the scissors. 
 
 " There," said he, when the joints of all 
 the boxes were well covered in this way, 
 " now the boxes are strong. The corners 
 won't break open again, as they did be- 
 fore." 
 
 " They may be strong," said Luly, " but 
 I don't think that they are pretty." 
 
 " Ah," said John, " they are not pretty
 
 THE BOXES. 135 
 
 now, because they are not finished. You 
 will see how much prettier they will be 
 when they are finished." 
 
 John then proceeded to cut out some 
 strips of green paper, about half an inch 
 wide, and as long as the boxes. After he 
 had cut out several of these, he made some 
 more of red paper, and finally a third set, 
 though these last were shorter, of gilt paper. 
 
 " What are you going to do with all 
 those little ribbons that you are making?'' 
 asked Luly. 
 
 "Ah," said John, "you must ask your 
 questions with your eyes. Wait and you 
 will see. The gilt ribbons are for you, and 
 the green and red ones are for Mary and 
 me." 
 
 " Let rne have the green ones," said 
 Mary. 
 
 "Very well," said John ; "you shall have 
 the green ones ; I will take the red ones." 
 
 John then proceeded to gum one of his 
 red strips, laying it down first, with the red 
 side down, upon one of the pieces of news- 
 paper, which he had previously placed in a 
 oroper position before him on the table. 
 By this arrangement the brush, when it
 
 136 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 passed beyond the edge of the strip, went 
 only upon the newspaper, and so did not 
 soil the table. 
 
 Mary and Luly did the same with their 
 strips. 
 
 " We don't gum the strip quite out to 
 the ends," said John. " We leave a little 
 place to take hold of." 
 
 Then taking up the strip by the two ends 
 thus left dry, John proceeded to lay it down 
 along the angle formed by the top of the 
 cover of the box and the front side, and 
 then to pat it down all along with his 
 towel. 
 
 The strips had all been made a little 
 longer than the boxes, so that, when they 
 were put on, the ends, which had not been 
 gummed, projected a little. These ends 
 John now trimmed off with the scissors. 
 
 The children did the same with the ends 
 of their strips. 
 
 John observed that Luly had not put her 
 strip on perfectly straight. Indeed Luly 
 perceived it too, and was beginning to look 
 troubled about it when John said, 
 
 " It is no matter if we do not get these 
 strips on perfectly straight. If the corner
 
 THE BOXES. 137 
 
 is covered all along, that is all that is neces- 
 sary. No matter if the strip comes over a 
 little farther on one side than the other, for 
 the side-pieces that we shall put on by and 
 by will cover the edges of the strip, and 
 leave just as much of it to show, along the 
 corner, as we wish." 
 
 " Oh!" said Luly, in a tone of satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 In the same manner John proceeded in 
 applying the other strips to all the other 
 corners of the box. Some of the strips re- 
 quired were very short, as for example those 
 that went up and down ; but John cut pieces 
 of the right length for these places, making 
 allowance for the ends that were not to be 
 gummed, in order that there might be dry 
 places to take hold of. 
 
 The children did the same with their 
 boxes, until at length all the corner-edges 
 were covered, John's with strips of red 
 paper, Mary's with green, and Luly's with 
 gilt. Of course Luly's strips were not put 
 on very well; but as they were of gilt 
 paper, they looked so bright and gay that 
 she was very much pleased with them. 
 
 After having covered all the edges of the
 
 138 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 boxes in this way, John said they must now 
 cut out pieces to cover the tops of the boxes, 
 and also the sides and ends. 
 
 " We are going to have pictures for the 
 top," said Mary. 
 
 " So we are," said John ; "and we only 
 want paper for the front and back, and for 
 the ends." 
 
 So they all began to look over the dif- 
 ferent kinds of fancy paper which John had 
 brought, in order to select what they sever- 
 ally preferred for their boxes. In choosing 
 the papers they not only looked for what 
 would be pretty in itself, but also for what 
 would contrast well with the s'rips which 
 they had put on along the edges. When 
 they had all chosen what they liked best, 
 they cut out pieces of the right size, and 
 gummed them on, John leading the way 
 and showing the others, step by step, how 
 the work was to be done. 
 
 Of course these pieces were made some- 
 what smaller each way than the side or end 
 of the box which they were to cover, so as 
 not to come quite out to the edge, but to 
 leave a proper width of the binding which 
 they had put on along the edges, to show.
 
 THE BOXES. 139 
 
 The last thing was to put the pictures 
 upon the top. The colored engravings 
 which John had brought were of very nearly 
 the right size for his box and for Mary's, 
 but they were too large for Luly's. This, 
 however, made but little difficulty. 
 
 " Because," said John, " I can cut one of 
 them down." 
 
 " But that will spoil the picture," said 
 Mary. 
 
 " No," said John. " It will cut away a 
 part of it, but what is left will make a 
 pretty picture of itself for Luly's box." 
 
 " But then it will look unfinished when 
 you have cut it," said Mary. 
 
 " No," said John, " for we shall put a 
 little border of gilt paper around the margin 
 of every picture, close to the color, and then 
 they will all look like painted pictures in 
 gilt frames. Painted pictures almost always 
 come out to the edge of the frame." 
 
 So they put the pictures on, and finally 
 gummed a very narrow gilt border around 
 each one of them, and then the boxes ap- 
 peared to be done. 
 
 "Now are they all finished ?" asked 
 Luly.
 
 140 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " All except drying," said John. " They 
 have got to dry." 
 
 " But they will dry of themselves, won't 
 they?" asked Mary. 
 
 " They won't dry in the right shape, of 
 themselves," said John. " We shall have 
 to attend to that a little."
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 
 
 THERE is something curious about dry- 
 ing that it is important that all children 
 should understand. 
 
 The drying of a thing is only the going 
 away of the water from .it, or out of it. 
 The water goes away into the air. It 
 turns first into vapor and then goes away. 
 The reason why you cannot see it go 
 away is, because it goes away as vapor, 
 and vapor is generally invisible. 
 
 Sometimes you can see the water go 
 away into the air, as, for example, when a 
 tea-pot full of hot water is put upon the 
 table in a cold winter morning, and the 
 steam rises from it in a visible form. 
 
 When wood or paper is wet, the water 
 soaks into it and swells it to a larger size, 
 and makes it softer than it was when it 
 Was dry. 
 
 When the wet wood or paper is left a
 
 14:2 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 long time in dry air, the water from it goes 
 away, and then the wood or paper shrinks, 
 so as to become smaller than it was when 
 it was wet, and also becomes harder and 
 stiffer. 
 
 You can prove this easily by experi- 
 ment. Drop a drop of water upon a sheet 
 of paper, and leave it so a few minutes, 
 and it will produce a kind of blister on the 
 paper. This is because it swells the paper 
 and makes it bulge out on one side or the 
 other. It makes it soft too, as you will see 
 by pushing your finger against it, and ob- 
 serving how easily you can break through. 
 
 Wood too, as well as paper, swells when 
 there is water soaked into the pores of it, 
 and also becomes softer. When trees are 
 growing they are full of sap, and then the 
 wood is quite soft comparatively, that is, 
 the axe will go into it much more easily 
 than it will when the wood is dry. 
 
 If you were to go into the woods in the 
 winter, when the lumber-men are at work 
 cutting down the immense pine-trees that 
 grow there, you would be surprised to see 
 how easily they do it. You would think 
 it strange to see how far the axe goes in at
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 143 
 
 every stroke, and how fast the large chips 
 come out. This is partly because the 
 wood is full of sap, which is almost all 
 water, and this water makes it compara- 
 tively very soft. 
 
 When the tree is cut down, and the 
 wood has had time to become dry, it is 
 much harder and stiffer than when it was 
 green, that is, when the pores were full of 
 sap. 
 
 They can, however, soften" it again, if 
 they wish to bend it for any purpose, by 
 filling the pores with water again. This 
 they often do by putting the piece of wood 
 which they wish to bend, in hot water or 
 hot steam. That is the method by which 
 the workmen bend the wood round to 
 make boy's hoops, or the runners of sleds. 
 
 When wood, or pasteboard, or any other 
 such substance, has been thoroughly wet, 
 so that the pores are filled with water, and 
 is then dried, it shrinks in its size as well 
 as hardens in its substance ; and if it 
 dries too fast, it is very apt to shrink un- 
 equally, and this does mischief in two 
 ways. The two kinds of mischief thus 
 produced are cracking and warping.
 
 144 MARY GAY'S WOUK IN WINTER. 
 
 When the wood is very thick, and one 
 part dries before the rest, it shrinks away 
 from the rest, and this opens a crack. If 
 you look at the ends of the sticks of wood 
 in a wood-pile, or any stick brought to put 
 upon a fire, you will almost always see 
 cracks in the wood which were produced 
 in this way. There will always be cracks, 
 in fact, if the wood was cut for the fire 
 when it was green, and so the ends left to 
 dry afterward. If the wood was perfectly 
 dry before it was cut, then it would not 
 shrink afterward, and there would be no 
 cracks. 
 
 If the wood, instead of being thick like 
 a log, is thin like a board, and one part 
 dries before the rest, it will shrink; but now 
 instead of opening a crack it will pull the 
 board out of shape, which it can do, as 
 the wood when in the shape of a board is 
 comparatively thin, and can easily be bent. 
 This is called warping, and it is quite a 
 curious process. 
 
 The way to prevent wood from cracking 
 is to make it dry very slowly ; and to pre- 
 vent it from warping, it must be put under 
 pressure, and held perfectly flat until it is
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 145 
 
 dry. In this way the part that dries first 
 cannot pull the other out of shape. 
 
 And as a general rule, if anything that is 
 wet is held firmly in any position while it 
 is drying, and is kept in that position until 
 it is dry, it will remain permanently in that 
 position after it is dry. 
 
 If you have a book with the leaves all 
 curled up or doubled over at the corner, 
 making what are called dog's ears, and 
 you dampen the corners by holding them 
 over the steam of a tea-kettle, pr by put- 
 ting damp pieces of newspaper between 
 the leaves, and then put them under a 
 weight, and leave them so until they are 
 dry, they will retain the form that they 
 were held in while they were drying, and 
 so remain flat, as they ought to be. 
 
 Sometimes children try to smooth out 
 the dog's ears from their books by putting 
 them in press without damping them ; but 
 this does comparatively very little good. 
 They must be made damp, and then held 
 in the position you wish them to retain 
 while they are drying, and that will fix 
 them. 
 
 Pressing them without first making them 
 10
 
 146 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 damp is like ironing clothes when they are 
 dry, which never makes them smooth. 
 
 Now Mary did not understand all these 
 things about the philosophy of drying 
 things; and so when the boxes were fin- 
 ished, and John said there was nothing to 
 be done but to dry them, she proposed that 
 they should put them down before the fire, 
 where they would dry quick. 
 
 " We don't want them to dry quick," 
 said John : " we want them to dry slowly. 
 If they dry^quick they will be apt to warp 
 all out of shape." 
 
 " I don't see why that should be," said 
 Mary. 
 
 Why, the philosophy of it is this," said 
 John : " When wood or paper or pasteboard, 
 that is wet through, dries, it shrinks. Now 
 if we put our boxes down before the fire, 
 the corners and sides that come nearest the 
 fire will shrink faster than the other parts 
 do, and so pull the whole box out of 
 
 Is that the philosophy of it ? " asked 
 Luly. 
 
 " Yes," said John, " that is the philoso- 
 phy of it."
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 147 
 
 Luly had not understood John's expla- 
 nation at all. She asked the question only 
 for the sake of the pleasure of repeating 
 such a hard word as philosophy. 
 
 " Children," said Sophronia, " have n't 
 you almost finished your work ? I want 
 the ironing-board pretty soon. I have got 
 a little ironing to do." 
 
 " Yes,'' said John, " we will clear our 
 things away at once." 
 
 So they began to put the things to- 
 gether. They laid what was left of the 
 fancy paper in a pile, and Mary brought a 
 portfolio to put it in, so as to keep it 
 smooth for another time. According to 
 directions which John gave her, she washed 
 the cork of the gum-bottle, and also the 
 mouth of the bottle, clean, and then wiped 
 them both dry. She next rubbed a little 
 tallow around the cork to prevent its stick- 
 ing to the glass, and then put the cork 
 in. She also washed and wiped all the 
 brushes. 
 
 " If it is worth while to have a gum- 
 bottle and brushes," said John, " it is worth 
 while to keep them in order." 
 
 "As for the glue," said Mary, " I mean
 
 148 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 to go in and ask mother if she will not let 
 us keep the cup and mug for our glue-pot, 
 and then we can let the glue that is left 
 remain in the cup, all ready for the next 
 time." 
 
 So she went into the parlor to make this 
 request, which was at once granted. On 
 her return she poured out the water from 
 the mug, and then put the cup back into 
 the top of it, leaving the glue in it, to be 
 ready there for the next time. 
 
 " It will all dry up, of course," said John ; 
 " but then when we wish to use it again, 
 we can put some water in and dissolve it 
 anew. The water that is there now will 
 all go off into the air, but the glue will re- 
 main." 
 
 " Why does not the glue go off into the 
 air too ? " asked Mary. 
 
 " I do not know," said John. " Particles 
 of some things will go off into the air in 
 this way, and some things will not. I 
 don't know why." 
 
 " What things will, and what things 
 won't?" asked Mary. 
 
 " Why, water will, and glue won't," said 
 John, " for two things ; and particles of
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 149 
 
 sugar will not. The sap which they get 
 from the maple-trees in the spring is al- 
 most all water, but. there is some sugary 
 substance dissolved in it, and when they 
 boil the sap the water all goes off into the 
 air, and the sugary substance stays behind 
 in the kettle." 
 
 " Let us make some sugar, some day, 
 in our sugar-house," said Mary. 
 
 " We can't get any sap at this time of 
 the year," said John, " but we might make 
 some candy, if there was only any way to 
 set a kettle. We can't make a fireplace 
 there, because the opening in the chimney 
 does not come down to the ground. But 
 we could set a stove there if we only had 
 one." 
 
 " I know where there is a stove," said 
 Mary. " Only it is cracked." 
 
 Where is it ? " asked John. 
 
 " Out in the back room," ^aid Mary. 
 
 " Let 's go and see it," said John. 
 " Though first we must shape our boxes a 
 little, and put them away to dry." 
 
 John then explained to Mary, that the 
 best way to keep their boxes in a good 
 shape while they were drying, would be
 
 150 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 for him to make some blocks of wood just 
 large enough to fill them, and then to shut 
 the covers down, and put them under 
 something heavy to press them. 
 
 " But I have not time to do that," said 
 he ; " and besides, my shop is not here, to 
 make the blocks. But we can do very 
 well by bending the boxes into a good 
 shape, and watching them from time to 
 time as they dry." 
 
 So John took his box, and after examin- 
 ing it attentively as he turned it over in 
 his hands, while yet he took pains to han- 
 dle it very carefully, he began gently to 
 press the sides and corners in different 
 places, until he had made it square and 
 straight in every part except the top, which 
 last he pressed upward so as to make it 
 bulge up a little. The pasting of the pic- 
 ture upon the top of the cover had swelled 
 the pasteboard somewhat, so as to occa- 
 sion a strong tendency in it to bulge, one 
 way or the other. It was naturally in- 
 clined to bulge downward, thus making 
 the top of the box concave. John said it 
 would be much better to have the bulge 
 up, so as to make the cover convex at the 
 top.
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 151 
 
 " A box looks much better," said he, "to 
 have the top rounding upwards, rather than 
 to have it sink down, so as to make a 
 hollow. 
 
 " If I had a block," said he, " that would 
 exactly fill the inside of the box, then 1 
 could put the block in, and put the cover 
 on the top, and set the whole under some 
 pressure, and then the top would dry per- 
 fectly flat. But I don't think that that 
 would be any better. A box looks quite 
 as well to have the top a little rounding. 
 People often make them so on purpose." 
 
 So saying, John put his hand on the 
 underside of his cover, and pushed the 
 pasteboard up, so as to make it convex 
 on the upper side. He also took care to 
 press out the corners and the sides where- 
 ever they needed it, so as to give both the 
 box and the cover the true form in every 
 part. 
 
 Mary and Luly did the same with their 
 boxes. 
 
 " Now," said John, " we will put them 
 away in some safe and cool place, where 
 they will dry slowly, and to-night before 
 you go to bed you may look at them
 
 152 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 again, and see if they are still in good 
 shape." 
 
 So all the three children went with the 
 boxes into the back hall, and there put 
 them into a closet, where they would be 
 safe. The closet was cool, but not cold 
 enough to freeze, for there was a stove in 
 the hall which kept all that part of the 
 house moderately warm. 
 
 " And now," said John, " let us go and 
 see the stove." 
 
 So Mary led the waj out into the back 
 room, and there showed John a pretty 
 large stove, of the kind called a Franklin 
 stove. It was of the shape of a fireplace, 
 being open in front. One of the jambs 
 had become cracked, and this disfigured 
 the stove so much that it had been con- 
 demned and set away, and another one 
 had been provided to put in its place in 
 the house. 
 
 John said that he thought they could 
 put up that stove very nicely in the old 
 sugar-house, if they could have it. There 
 was a short piece of pipe belonging to it, 
 which John said could go back into the 
 opening in the chimney, .and he could
 
 ABOUT DRYIXG. 153 
 
 mend up around it with bricks, provided 
 he could only get some rnortar. 
 
 But it was too cold for them to stand 
 out there talking about it at that time, and 
 so they went back into the kitchen again. 
 There they found that while they had been 
 gone, Sophronia had taken the ironing- 
 board and put it upon a table near the 
 window, and was now beginning her iron- 
 ing. They all went and stood by her a 
 little while, watching the process. It fur- 
 nished a striking illustration of the princi- 
 ple which John had been explaining to 
 them, namely, that damp substances, like 
 the fibres of cloth, when dried remained in 
 the form which they were made to assume 
 while drying ; for the flat-iron dried the 
 fibres of the cloth by its heat, and while it 
 was drying them held them flat and smooth 
 by its smoothness. 
 
 While the children were standing at the 
 table watching Sophronia's operations, a 
 gleam of sunshine suddenly came in through 
 the window upon the table. 
 
 " Look ! " exclaimed John. " There is 
 the sun. It is clearing away ! It is clear- 
 ing away ! "
 
 154 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 On looking out the window they all saw, 
 true enough, that the snowing had ceased 
 and the sun was breaking through the 
 clouds. 
 
 " Let us go out," said John, " and break 
 the paths." 
 
 Mary and Luly eagerly accepted this 
 proposal, and rushed into the other room 
 to procure what they called their snow-rig, 
 which consisted of warm clothing for their 
 necks and shoulders, and thick warm stock- 
 ings that came up over their pantalets 
 above their knees. With these means of 
 protection they could safely wallow about 
 in the deepest snows, and nothing pleased 
 them so much as to go out at the close 
 of such snow-storms as this, and break out 
 the paths. 
 
 By the time that they were ready, John 
 was ready too, and they all went out. 
 First they broke out the paths from all the 
 doors, through the yards, out into the street, 
 wading through the snow back and forth, 
 and filling the air with calls to each other 
 and shouts of laughter. When Mary or 
 Luly found the snow so deep that they 
 could not make their way through it, they
 
 ABOUT DRYING. 155 
 
 would sit down, as if giving up in despair, 
 but yet shouting with laughter. They 
 would sometimes sink so deep as almost 
 to be buried up ; while the deeper they 
 went the more they seemed to be filled 
 with joy and pleasure. 
 
 John would then soon come to the place 
 and trample the snow down before them 
 and around them, so that they could go on 
 again. 
 
 After a time the children made their 
 way through the snow round toward the 
 barn, and there they found Jotham bring- 
 ing out the oxen. 
 
 "There's Jotham," said John. "He is 
 going to break out the road, and we will 
 go and help him." 
 
 Jotham was in the act of attaching the 
 oxen to the sled, and when the team was 
 ready, John put the board on, between the 
 two end-bars, and then the children took 
 their stations upon the board, holding on 
 by the stakes at each side. Mary took 
 one stake and John and Luly the other. 
 John took care that Luly did not fall, 
 though he knew that it would have done 
 little harm if she were to fall, as the ground
 
 Io6 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 was covered everywhere so deep with soft 
 snow. 
 
 When the oxen were ready, Jptham drove 
 them out by the great gate into the road, 
 and then went along the road, first one 
 way and then the other, breaking through 
 all the big drifts and trampling down the 
 snow, so that horses and sleighs could pass 
 along. At length, when this work was 
 thoroughly done, Jotham came back again 
 with the sled, bringing Mary and Luly to 
 the house, and John went home.
 
 A JANUARY THAW. .157 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A JANUARY THAW. 
 
 SOMETIMES young farmers who are mak- 
 ing new farms in the woods, and there 
 comes some difficult work to do which one 
 cannot do alone, and there is nobody near 
 them that they can hire, or if they have 
 not any money to spare to pay a hired 
 man, get over the difficulty by helping 
 each other, on the plan of what they call 
 " changing works" 
 
 For example, once there were two young 
 farmers who had new farms in the woods, 
 not very far from each other. Their names 
 were Thomas and John. Thomas had 
 been upon his farm the longest time, and 
 he had a house built, but there was no 
 cellar under it. John's farm was entirely 
 new, and he had no house. 
 
 John had chosen a young woman to be 
 his wife, and he was in haste to be married, 
 and so he concluded to build a log house
 
 158 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 first, and live in that a few years until he 
 could build a better one of timbers and 
 boards. He accordingly felled a good many 
 straight trees, and cut the trunks of the 
 proper length to form logs for his house, 
 and hauled them by means of his oxen to 
 the place where his house was to be. But 
 he could not possibly build his house alone, 
 for alone he could not lift such large and 
 heavy logs up into their places. 
 
 In the same manner Thomas, in prepar- 
 ing to make his cellar, had no difficulty in 
 digging out the ground under his housje, 
 first, however, propping up the house at 
 the four corners to prevent its sinking into 
 the opening, nor in digging around a 
 large number of big stones in one of his 
 fields, and then putting a chain around 
 them and making the oxen pull them out 
 and then haul them on a drag to the house, 
 ready to be built into a wall. But he 
 could not actually build them into a wall 
 alone, for he could not by himself pry 
 such large and heavy stones into their 
 places. 
 
 So Thomas and John agreed to exchange 
 works. John said to Thomas, " If you will
 
 A JANUARY THAW. 15Q 
 
 come and work with me two days, and help 
 me build up these great logs into a house, 
 I will then come and work with you two 
 days, and help you build your big stones 
 into a wall." 
 
 So they did, and by exchanging works in 
 this way, in due time the house and cellar 
 were both completed. 
 
 Now John's and Mary's mothers adopted 
 a plan somewhat similar to this, though 
 what they exchanged was not work, but 
 children or perhaps I might say the care 
 of children. John's mother was saying 
 one day that she someiimes found it diffi- 
 cult to know what to do with Benny on 
 stormy days, when he could not go out to 
 play, and John was gone away to school. 
 
 " He gets tired of playing alone," said 
 she, " and comes continually to know what 
 he shall do next." 
 
 " Yes," said Mary's mother. " It is just 
 so with Luly when Mary is gone to 
 school." 
 
 At last the idea occurred to them of 
 making an exchange. The plan which 
 they devised was to have Benny sent over 
 one stormy day to play with Luly, and the
 
 160 MARY GAT'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 next stormy day to let Luly be sent to play 
 with Benny. 
 
 This plan was found on trial to work 
 admirably welL The mothers both liked 
 it very much indeed, and the children liked 
 it even better than the mothers. 
 
 One day toward the end of February 
 there came a thaw. It began to rain about 
 the middle of the afternoon ; and the next 
 morning the yards and all the grounds 
 around the house were filled with pools of 
 water and melting snow, and in the road 
 all the sleigh-tracks were filled with little 
 rivulets, trying to find their way down into 
 some brook or river. Of course there was 
 no such thing as going out to play at such 
 a time as this. 
 
 When Benny came down in the morn- 
 ing, just before breakfast, he went to the 
 window and looked out. Nothing was to 
 be seen but a deluge of melting suow and 
 water, and of rain pouring down from the 
 skies faster than the little brooks and rivers 
 could carry the water away. 
 
 "John," said Benny, "this is a good 
 day for me to go to Auntie's; and it is 
 my turn. Luly came here the last time,"
 
 A JAXl'ARY THAW. Id 
 
 " Yes," said John. " And I will go and 
 take you over there in the sleigh, as soon 
 as we have done breakfast" 
 
 Mrs. Gay, Benny's mother, acceded to 
 this proposal, and it was carried into effect. 
 Benny enjoyed the ride very much, the 
 melting snow and water in the road being 
 sometimes so deep that some of it almost 
 came into the sleigh, and it rained so hard 
 that he had to hold a large umbrella over 
 his head all the way. 
 
 He had a little package under his arm, 
 which he was very careful not to let get 
 wet. This package contained two small 
 scrap-books, one for himself and one for 
 Luly, which John had made for them. 
 
 These scrap-books were of about the 
 size of a piece of note-paper in length and 
 breadth, and in respect to thickness they 
 contained sixteen true leaves and about as 
 many false leaves. 
 
 This is a curious thing in respect to a 
 scrap-book, namely, that it must have false 
 leaves as well as true leaves, and about as 
 many of one kind as of the other. 
 
 Benny's attention was first called to this 
 peculiarity in the construction of a scrap- 
 11
 
 162 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 book by looking at one which John had 
 bought at a book-store, in order to put 
 some pictures in, which he had saved for 
 the purpose. Whenever he saw a picture 
 upon any waste piece of a pictorial paper, 
 or on any loose sheet, he would cut it out ; 
 and when he had nothing else to do he 
 would color it by means of the paints in 
 his paint-box. At last, when he had accu- 
 mulated a considerable number of these 
 pictures, he bought a scrap-book to put 
 them into. It was this scrap-book which 
 Benny saw when he brought it home. 
 
 He laid it down upon his desk, and went 
 to the fire to warm his hands. The scrap- 
 book was wrapped up in a paper, and tied 
 with a string. 
 
 "What have you got in this paper?" 
 asked Benny. 
 
 " A scrap-book," said John. 
 
 " May I open it ? " asked Benny. 
 
 " You may take off the string," said 
 John, " if you can untie the knot, and 
 then make it into a snug coil by winding 
 it round your fingers." 
 
 This Benny did. John had taught him 
 how to coil up strings neatly in this way 
 before.
 
 A JANUARY THAW. 163 
 
 " Now may I take off the paper ? " asked 
 Benny. 
 
 " Yes," said John, " take off the paper 
 carefully, and fold it up." 
 
 Benny did this also. 
 
 " Now may I open the book ? " asked 
 Benny. 
 
 " Yes," said John. 
 
 So Benny opened the book. 
 
 " What a thin book it is," said Benny. 
 " Only the back is pretty thick." 
 
 " Oh, Johnny," he said, after opening 
 the book and looking between the leaves, 
 " this is not a good book. A great many 
 of the leaves have been cut out." 
 
 So saying, Benny showed John the edges 
 of the false leaves where they came into 
 view, among the true ones. 
 
 "That's all right," said John. "They 
 make scrap-books so on purpose." 
 
 The truth is, that if scrap-books \vere 
 made in the usual way, with all the leaves 
 full, it would be bulged all out of shape 
 when the pictures were pasted in. For 
 when you come to paste pictures on each 
 side of each leaf, you make each leaf three 
 times as thick as it was before, and that
 
 164 MARY GAY'S \YORK IN WINTER. 
 
 would make the whole body of the book 
 three times as thick as the back, and it 
 would not shut well at all. In order to 
 make allowance for this increased thick- 
 ness of the body of the book when the 
 pictures are placed in, the back of the 
 book is made of double or triple thickness 
 at the beginning, by putting in false leaves 
 as they are called, that is, leaves that 
 come out only a little way, not so far as to 
 the inner edges of the pictures. This makes 
 the back of the book look thick and the 
 body of it thin, when it is first bought, but 
 afterward, when the pictures come to be 
 pasted in, it all comes right. The body of 
 the book now becomes as thick as the 
 back. 
 
 John explained this to Benny, and 
 Benny was much interested in the expla- 
 nation. He began moreover to wish that 
 he had a scrap-book. 
 
 " I wish you would make me a scrap- 
 book, John," said he, "a small one," he 
 added. " You need not make it so large 
 as this." 
 
 " How could you get any pictures to put 
 in it ? " asked John.
 
 A JANUARY THAW. 165 
 
 " Mary will give me some," said Benny. 
 " She saves all her pictures, and has got a 
 good many. She would give some of them 
 to Luly and me, if we only had a scrap- 
 book to put them in. I wish that you 
 would make two little scrap-books, one 
 for Luly and one for me." 
 
 " I think that would be a very good 
 plan," said John. 
 
 " Will you do it ? " asked Benny. 
 
 " I can't promise. I never like to make 
 promise?. All I can say is, I think it would 
 be a very good plan." 
 
 So John sat down to his work of gum- 
 ming his pictures into his book, Benny 
 looking on all the time and observing how 
 he did it. He saw that he took pains to 
 trim every picture square before he put it 
 in, and then was very careful to put it 
 square upon the page. He also gummed 
 the pictures only at the four corners, and 
 put on moreover only a very little gum at 
 each corner. This little however was very 
 thick, and it seemed to fasten the corner 
 down immediately, and to make it quite 
 strong. 
 
 A day or two after this, John made the
 
 166 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 two scrap-books for Benny and Luly. He 
 took one large sheet of smooth wrapping- 
 paper for each book, and folded it up again 
 and again un'il it formed pages of the proper 
 size. Then he cut the paper apart at the 
 foldings and inserted between each sheet 
 of two leaves a strip of the same kind of 
 paper, which he had previously cut out and 
 folded lengthwise, so as to make of each 
 strip two false leaves. 
 
 Having put all these leaves together 
 properly, the true and the false ones in 
 alternation, he sewed them together by 
 long stitches of strong thread through the 
 back. 
 
 He made two books in this way, and 
 when they were both sewed he opened 
 one of them, and spread it out upon the 
 table, and cut out two pieces of marble 
 paper just as large as the book was when 
 spread open. He then diluted his gum by 
 putting in more water, so as to make it 
 pretty thin ; for when you are going to 
 gum over a large surface, the gum must 
 be pretty thin. 
 
 He applied the gum \vith a brush to 
 one of the marble-papers, and having spread
 
 A JANUARY THAW. 167 
 
 open one of the books, he laid it flat 
 upon the sheet, the part intended for the 
 back down. He did the same with the 
 other book, and then placed the books to- 
 gether, with one or two thicknesses of 
 newspaper between and on each side of 
 them, and put them between two small 
 square boards, and screwed them up tight 
 in his carpenter's vice, in his shop, in order 
 that they might remain pressed perfectly 
 flat and smooth while they were drying. 
 
 He left them there all that day and 
 night. The next morning he took them 
 out, changed the newspapers, and put 
 them in again. .By the second day he 
 thought they were quite dry, so he took 
 them out again, and trimmed the edge of 
 them with a ruler and a sharp-pointed 
 knife upon a cutting-board. 
 
 Thus he made two very pretty little 
 scrap-books ; and it was these two scrap- 
 books that formed the little flat parcel 
 under Benny's arm, as he was riding along 
 with John on the way to his aunt's, through 
 the rain and melting snow, at the time of 
 the thaw.
 
 168 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 
 
 VERY soon after Benny arrived at his 
 aunt's, he showed Mary and Luly the two 
 scrap-books which John had made for him 
 and Luly. They were both very much 
 pleased with them. 
 
 " And I have got a great many little 
 pictures to give you to put in them," said 
 Mary. " By-and-by I will give them to 
 you and give you some colors to paint 
 them with, and then you can put them 
 into your scrap-books." 
 
 Luly and Benny accordingly played with 
 the junk-store for about an hour, and then 
 Mary was ready to attend to the pictures. 
 She set out a table for them, and placed 
 them at it in high chairs, and gave each of 
 them a tumbler half full of water, a paint- 
 brush, a plate upon which she had rubbed 
 a great deal of paint of four bright colors, 
 namely, green, red, blue, and brown. She
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 169 
 
 also laid upon the table a number of little 
 pictures, such as she had cut out from 
 loose sheets, headings of bills, advertising 
 circulars, and from other similar sources. 
 She always saved in this way all the pic- 
 tures that she saw, even if they were not 
 very pretty ones. She knew that, whatever 
 they were, Luly would like to paint them. 
 
 Luly immediately put out her hand and 
 seized one of the pictures, saying, 
 
 " I speak for this one. It is the prettiest 
 one of all." 
 
 " No, Luly," said Mary, " put it back ; 
 you must divide them fairly." 
 
 Benny took up his paint-brush and 
 dipped it into the water in order at once 
 to take up some paint upon it, but Mary 
 directed him to put it down again. 
 
 " I am going to give you some direc- 
 tions," said she, " and you must not begin 
 your work until you get your directions. 
 
 " In the first place," said she, " you must 
 divide the pictures fairly. There are eight 
 of them in all, four for each, and you can 
 draw lots for them, if you can't agree in 
 any other way. 
 
 " Then when you have divided the pin-
 
 170 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 tures," continued Mary, " you can each 
 take one and begin to color it. I advise 
 you to begin with one of the smallest 
 ones. 
 
 " I have given each of you a plate with 
 colors upon it, green, red, blue, and 
 brown. The green is for the grass and the 
 leaves of the trees. The brown is for the 
 trunks of the trees and the roofs of the 
 houses. The red is for the chimneys, and 
 for the whole house if you wish to make 
 believe that it is built of brick. The dresses 
 of the girls and boys, and also of men and 
 women, if there are any in the picture, you 
 can paint in green, red, blue, or brown, ac- 
 cording lo your fancy. 
 
 " When any one of your colors is out," 
 said Mary, " you can come to me, and I 
 will rub you some more. That is the only 
 thing you will have to come to me for. I 
 am going to be at work in the other room, 
 doing my sums, and you must not inter-* 
 rupt me if you can possibly help it." 
 
 So saying, Mary left the children at their 
 work and went away. 
 
 They, however, very soon got into diffi- 
 culty. The difficulty was about dividing
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 171 
 
 the pictures. They both wanted the same 
 ones. 
 
 The reason why they both preferred the 
 same ones was not exactly because their 
 independent opinions and tastes were the 
 same, but becmse Luly followed Benny's 
 opinion and taste. Every picture that 
 Benny showed any disposition to prefer, 
 Luly thought at once must be the best. 
 In consequence of this interference they 
 soon became involved in quite serious dis- 
 putes, and in 1h<; end they both went to 
 Mary, complaining each of them that the 
 other would have all the prettiest pictures. 
 
 " You must divide them fairly," said 
 Mary. 
 
 " But I want the picture of the wind- 
 mill," said Benny, " because I want to paint 
 the sails red." 
 
 " And I want the picture of the wind- 
 mill too," said Luly. " / am going to 
 paint the sails red." 
 
 " You must divide them fairly," said 
 Mary. " There are several ways to do it. 
 I will go and show you how." 
 
 So Mary laid down her slate and pencil, 
 and went into the room where the children
 
 172 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 had been, in order to show them how to 
 divide the pictures fairly. 
 
 She began by saying that there were 
 four or five ways of dividing such things 
 fairly, so as to give to each one an equal 
 advantage, and added that she would show 
 them all the ways, and that then they could 
 take their choice. 
 
 " The first way," said she, " is to take 
 turns in choosing, and let the youngest 
 begin. I will show you how. We will 
 divide them in this way once, only the 
 division is not to go for anything, but only 
 to let you see the way. Put all the pic- 
 tures in a row on the table." 
 
 So the children put them all in a row. 
 
 " Now we will suppose that Benny is 
 willing to let Luly have her first choice." 
 
 " But then she will choose the wind- 
 mill," said Benny, with a complaining tone 
 of voice. 
 
 " No, I should not choose the windmill 
 either," said Luly. 
 
 " She might, at any rate," said Mary. 
 " She would have a right to do it. And 
 you have a right to object to giving her the 
 first choice on that account, if you ch:ose.
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 173 
 
 You can do as you please about it. It is 
 generous in such cases for the oldest to 
 give the youngest the first choice ; but if 
 they are not willing to do so, nobody has 
 any right to complain." 
 
 " Well," said Benny, "she may have her 
 first choice." 
 
 " It is not to go for anything," said 
 Mary, " but only to show how this plan 
 works." 
 
 So Luly chose a picture, not the wind- 
 mill. 
 
 " Now, Benny, it is your turn." 
 
 " And can I take the windmill ? " 
 
 " You can take anything you please," 
 said Mary. " Luly has had her choice, 
 and now it is your turn, and you can take 
 anything you please." 
 
 Benny decided to take the windmill. 
 
 Luly now took her turn again, and then 
 Benny his, and so on in rotation until all 
 the pictures had been taken, four for each. 
 
 " There ! " said Mary, " that is one way 
 to divide them, and it is a very good way 
 when the oldest is generous enough to be 
 willing to give the youngest the first choice. 
 If the oldest is not willing to do that, then
 
 174 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 you must draw lots to see who shall have 
 the first choice, and then go on choosing 
 in turn until all are taken. That is one 
 way." 
 
 " Now tell us another way," asked 
 Benny. 
 
 " The second way," said Mary, " is for 
 you both to join together in dividing the 
 pictures into two parcels, as nearly equal 
 as you can, putting just as many of the 
 prettiest ones into one parcel as you do in 
 the other, so as to make one set, oji the 
 whole, as nearly as possible as valuable as 
 the other. Then, when you have made 
 this division, you draw lots to see which 
 parcel each one shall have." 
 
 " That 's a good way," said Benny. 
 
 " Yes," said Mary, " it is a good way, 
 provided you can agree together in divid- 
 ing the pictures so as to make two equal 
 parcels. But sometimes children have so 
 little sense that they quarrel in trying to 
 do that. But you can try and see if you 
 can do it without quarrelling." 
 
 So the children began to divide the pic- 
 tures with a view of making two parcels 
 of equal value. At length, after making
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 175 
 
 several changes, they succeeded in effecting 
 the division, and then Mary said that the 
 next thing was to draw lots to see which 
 should have the choice of them. 
 
 " The easiest way to draw lots," said 
 Mary, " is for each one to open a book and 
 take the last letter on the right-hand page. 
 Then the one who gets the highest letter 
 of the alphabet has the choice. 
 
 " Sometimes one person opens the book 
 for all the persons," said Mary ; " only in 
 that case you must always say who you 
 are opening for, before you open. But it 
 is generally better to let each one open for 
 himself." 
 
 " Yes," said Luly, " let me open for my- 
 self." 
 
 So Mary gave Luly a book, and she 
 opened it at random, and then Mary pointed 
 to the last letter on the right-hand page. It 
 was the letter t. 
 
 " Now, Benny," said Mary, " it is your 
 turn." 
 
 So Benny took the book and opened it. 
 His letter was /. Luly thus got the highest 
 'etter, and had her choice of the two sets 
 into which the pictures had been divided, 
 and Benny had the other.
 
 176 MARY GAY'S WORK IX WINTER. 
 
 " That is the second way," said Mary. 
 " You make two equal parcels and draw 
 lots for the choice. But this division is 
 not to go for anything. It was only to 
 show you how to do it that way. Now 
 there is another way. First mix the pic- 
 tures all up together again." 
 
 So the children put the pictures together 
 again, and then Mary said that the next 
 way was for one to divide the pictures into 
 two sets and the other to take his choice. 
 Benny might divide them, she said, and 
 then let Luly take her choice, or Luly di- 
 vide them and let Benny take his choice. 
 It makes very little difference which. 
 
 Luly wished to divide them. Her only 
 reason however for this seemed to be, that 
 the dividing was the first thing to be done. 
 So she divided the pictures into two equal 
 parts, as nearly as possible, and let Benny 
 take his choice. After that, Benny divided 
 them and let Luly have the choice. 
 
 " So you see," said Mary, " how foolish 
 it is for children to quarrel about any things 
 they have in common when there are so 
 many ways of dividing them fairly. Now 
 I am going back to my work, and you
 
 EQUAL PARTITION. 177 
 
 must divide the pictures yourselves in some 
 one of the ways that I have shown. You 
 may take any one of them you like." 
 
 So Mary went away, leaving the children 
 to themselves. She expected that they 
 would now immediately divide the pictures 
 and at once begin to paint them, and that 
 they would come to her before long for a 
 fresh supply of color, as she supposed that 
 they would soon expend what she had 
 given them, especially the green, as it takes 
 so much green for the grass and trees. 
 
 But they did not come for a long time. 
 The truth was, that, when Mary wat* gone, 
 they began to try again the various modes 
 o'f dividing the pictures which Mary had 
 explained to them. They concluded not 
 to divide them in earnest at first, but only 
 for play, in order to see how it would come 
 out, and they became so much interested 
 in this that they went on dividing the pic- 
 tures over and over again, with a great 
 deal of talk and merry laughter, almost all 
 the forenoon. 
 12
 
 178 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 
 
 AT length, however, they concluded that 
 it was time for them to begin to paint their 
 pictures, and so they divided them in ear- 
 nest, and each one took their respective 
 shares. Then they commenced seriously 
 the work of coloring them. The green, as 
 Mary had expected, was soon exhausted, 
 and they both were obliged to go to her 
 for a fresh supply. They afterward had to 
 go for more of the red and of the other 
 colors, and Mary very readily gave them 
 what they required. 
 
 When they had finished coloring then 
 pictures they wished to begin at once to 
 gum them in the scrap-books ; but Mary 
 told them that they had been sitting still 
 long enough, and they had better run about 
 and play until dinner-time, and so wait til] 
 after dinner, before beginning the work of 
 gumming the pictures in.
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 179 
 
 When the time arrived, Mary gave them 
 all the necessary directions for the work. 
 These directions are very simple, but they 
 are very important. By carefully observing 
 them you can make very pretty picture- 
 books, if you will first only make the book 
 itself, by folding a sheet or half a sheet of 
 plain wrapping-paper properly, and then 
 sewing it and trimming the edges. It is 
 better to put in some false leaves, as John 
 did, but this is not at all necessary if the 
 book is thin. 
 
 To make the cover, it is a very good waj 
 to proceed as John did. if you have the 
 conveniences for gumming or pasting so 
 large a surface, and for afterward pressing 
 it while it is drying, to make it dry smooth. 
 But if you have not these conveniences, 
 any kind of stiff paper will do for a cover. 
 It will be better, however, to have it of a 
 different color from the sheets inside. 
 
 The first direction which Mary gave the 
 children was, that they must arrange the 
 pictures on the several pages before they 
 began to fasten any of them in. 
 
 " Because, you see," said she, " some of 
 the pictures will go together better than
 
 180 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 others, and when you have decided what 
 are to go upon any one page, you will find 
 that there are different ways of arranging 
 them, and some of these ways are much 
 better than some others. For instance, if 
 you have four small pictures and one large 
 one to go upon a page, it is better to put 
 the large one in the middle, and two of the 
 smaller ones above and two others below, 
 rather than to put the large one at the top 
 or bottom and all four of the small ones 
 above or below it. 
 
 " So you must determine how you are 
 going to place all the pictures upon one 
 page before you fasten any one of them 
 in." 
 
 Another direction which Mary gave was, 
 that they must not put any of the pictures 
 too near the edge of the page, but must 
 leave a margin all around. She told them 
 that this was always so in books. The 
 printing was never allowed to come quite 
 to the edge of the leaf, neither at the sides 
 nor at the top and bottom. She opened 
 two or three books and showed them that 
 this was so. 
 
 " There is a good reason for it, too," said
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 181 
 
 Mary. " Uncle Edward told me the reason. 
 He said that sometimes they had to trim 
 off the edges of a book after it was all put 
 together, and then, if the printing or the 
 pictures came out to the edge of the paper, 
 some portion would be cut off." 
 
 " But our books are trimmed already," 
 said Benny. 
 
 " Yes," said Mary, " but by-and-by, after 
 you have used them a long while, perhaps 
 they will come unsewed, and then, when 
 they are sewed again, the sheets will not 
 come together exactly as they did before, 
 and to make the books look nice the edges 
 must be trimmed again." 
 
 There is another reason, besides the one 
 mentioned by Mary, why the pictures in 
 such a book should not corns out quite to 
 the margin, and that is, that in turning over 
 the leaves of a book a great many times 
 the edges are rubbed more or less by the 
 fingers, and so get worn and perhaps soiled ; 
 and thus, if the pictures are brought out 
 quite to the edge, the margins of them will 
 become injured. 
 
 Remember therefore always, when you 
 make books of any kind, to leave a margin
 
 182 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 all around every page wide enough to pre- 
 vent the pictures or the reading from being 
 injured by the wearing of the edges, or by 
 the cutting away of the paper in case of 
 any new trimming of the book. 
 
 Another thing that Mary told the chil- 
 dren was, that the gum which they used to 
 gum their pictures in must be very thick, 
 and only a very little of it be used near 
 each corner of the picture. She gave them 
 each a brush to put the gum on with, and 
 showed them how very little they must 
 take. 
 
 Sometimes when people paste pictures, 
 or articles cut from a newspaper, into a 
 book, they paste the whole back side of the 
 picture, and of course, in order that the gum 
 or the paste may be easily spread over so 
 large a surface, it must be tolerably thin. 
 This wets the paper and swells it. Then 
 when the paper thus wet is laid down upon 
 the page where it is to go, the part of the 
 page which it covers is wet too, and that 
 swells. This produces a great bulge in the 
 paper, and when it dries it never comes 
 back exactly into its original condition, but 
 leaves the paper warped and drawn out of
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 183 
 
 shape, and it can never be made to look 
 smooth. 
 
 If, when pictures are put in in this man- 
 ner, the whole book could be wet, and the 
 pictures put in upon all the pages at the 
 same time, and then the whole put under 
 very heavy pressure until it was all dry, 
 then it would look very nice and smooth. 
 But this it is very inconvenient to do. 
 The best way is, therefore, in most cases, 
 to wet the pictures and the pages that they 
 are to be pasted upon, as little as possible, 
 so as not to swell them. This can be done 
 by using the gum very thick and then put- 
 ting on very litlle at the corners, and, if the 
 picture is large, a slight touch here and 
 there in the middle. 
 
 After giving the children all these in- 
 structions, Mary asked them if they wished 
 to have any reading in their books, as well 
 as pictures. They said they would like to 
 have some reading in them very much. 
 
 So Mary went away, but soon she re- 
 turned, bringing with her a small basket 
 which contained a great number of scraps 
 cut from newspapers, consisting of short 
 stories, funny anecdotes, conundrums, and
 
 184 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 other such things. She had long been in 
 the habit, when she saw such things in 
 waste newspapers, of cutting them out 
 and putting them away, with a view of 
 using them in scrap-books ; and now she 
 looked over her collection and selected 
 from it such as were most suitable to be 
 put into Benny's and Luly's books. She 
 read them to the children as she laid them 
 out, and gave half to Benny and half to 
 Luly. She also gave them directions about 
 putting them in between and among the 
 pictures, wherever there were vacant spaces 
 convenient to receive them, so as to make 
 an r.greeable variety upon every p-ige. 
 
 " You see," said she, " when you grow a 
 little older and can read well, it will be all 
 the more amusing to you, when you sit 
 down, to look over your books, to have 
 stories in them to read, and some riddles 
 to guess, as well as pictures to see." 
 
 So saying, Mary went away and left 
 Benny and Luly to go on with their work 
 after their own fashion. This was better 
 on some accounts than to have remained 
 for the purpose of watching them at the 
 work, to see that they did it right, and pre-
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 185 
 
 vent their making mistakes. It is true, if 
 she had remained and directed them in 
 every step, the work would of course have 
 been much better done, and the books 
 would have looked better ; but the chil- 
 dren would not have enjoyed themselves 
 so well, nor would they have improved so 
 much. And moreover, when the work was 
 done, the children would not have felt that 
 they made the books themselves, which 
 would have greatly diminished their satis- 
 faction in the result. 
 
 It is much better in such cases, after 
 providing children with all the required fa- 
 cilities, and giving them the necessary in- 
 struction, to leave them to exercise their 
 own judgment and skill in doing the work. 
 They learn thus to act independently and 
 with self-reliance. They make mistakes, 
 and the work when done shows many im- 
 perfections; but these must be expected in 
 all first attempts. It is better to let the 
 children commit these faults and see them 
 for themselves, so as to do better next time, 
 than to be always helping them and lead- 
 ing them. 
 
 After a while, Benny and Luly had
 
 186 MARY GAY'S VTOUK IS WISTEU. 
 
 gummed all their pictures in, and also 
 put in quite a number of the " reading 
 things," as they called them, and then they 
 brought the books to show them to Mary. 
 
 When Mary saw them coming, she de- 
 termined not to find any fault with the 
 work, unless she should observe some evi- 
 dence of gross carelessness or wilful wrong, 
 but only to notice and remark upon what 
 was right. 
 
 " If they have made any mistakes," she 
 said to herself, " or done anything wrong, 
 as no doubt they have, now is not the time 
 to tell them of it. The time for that will 
 be when they are going to work to make 
 picture-books again." 
 
 This was very correct reasoning. The 
 time for giving learners instruction how to 
 do work right is when they are going to 
 beg-in work, not when they are at the end 
 of it. 
 
 So Mary took the books in her hand, as 
 the children gave them to her. She opened 
 Benny's first. 
 
 " Look at mine first," said Luly. 
 
 " No," replied Mary. " We will look a1 
 Benny's first, because he is the company."
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 187 
 
 So Mary opened Benny's book and be- 
 gan to talk about the pictures and the 
 reading, and to look at them with great 
 apparent interest and pleasure. " These 
 are pretty pictures," said she, "all of 
 them. That boy's jacket is colored very 
 well. You have got all the trunks of the 
 trees brown, and that is just right. Here 
 is a riddle ; let me read it." 
 
 Then she read the riddle. 
 
 So she went on, turning over one leaf 
 after another, until she had looked at all 
 the pages which had been filled. She then 
 took Luly's book and examined it in the 
 same way, calling attention to everything 
 curious in the pictures, and stopping now 
 and then to read some anecdote, or conun- 
 drum, or little piece of poetry. Thus, 
 although she said nothing directly in com- 
 mendation of the books, she let the chil- 
 dren see that they were really pretty and 
 entertaining, by showing that she was her- 
 self pleased and entertained in looking 
 them over. 
 
 After she had finished this examination 
 she gave the books back into the children's 
 hands.
 
 188 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 " Put yours away carefully, Luly," said 
 she, " and some other rainy day I will give 
 you some more pictures to put in it, and 
 by-and-by you will get it full. 
 
 " And, Benny, I advise you to take yours 
 home, and show it to your mother." 
 
 " Yes," said Benny, " that is just what I 
 am going to do." 
 
 Toward evening, John came in the sleigh 
 to take Benny home. He looked at the 
 two picture-books as Mary had done, and 
 seemed much interested and quite pleased 
 in examining the contents of them. He 
 perceived that several of the pictures were 
 not. placed perfectly square upon the page, 
 and he also noticed other defects and 
 imperfections always incident to first at- 
 tempts of this kind by young children. 
 He however had the good sense not to say 
 anything about these things, and only 
 looked at the pictures and read some of 
 the riddles and conundrums. 
 
 One of those that, he read was this: 
 
 You always see me in the dark, 
 And hear me just by saying hark. 
 
 " Is not that a pretty riddle ? " said Luly.
 
 MAKING PICTURE-BOOKS. 189 
 
 " Yes," said John. " And here is the 
 answer under it : the letter R." 
 
 Yes," said Luly. Only I can't see 
 anything in the dark at all." 
 
 The truth was that Luly had no idea of 
 the meaning of the riddle, for as she had 
 not yet learned to read, she did not know 
 about the letter r being in the word dark. 
 What she meant by its being a pretty rid- 
 dle was, that it sounded pretty when it was 
 read to her, or when she repeated it, 
 with its spirited rhyme of dark and hark. 
 
 John took Benny home pretty soon, in 
 the sleigh, with his new picture-book safe 
 under his arrn. He did not have to hold 
 the umbrella up, however, for the storm was 
 over, the sky was clearing up, and it was 
 growing cold.
 
 190 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CONCLUDING ADVICE. 
 
 SHOULD any of the children who may 
 read this book feel a desire to attempt for 
 themselves some of the operations which 
 Mary Gay and Luly performed, I have 
 some advice to give them, which, if they 
 follow it, will make it much more probable 
 that they will succeed. 
 
 When you conclude to undertake any- 
 thing of this kind, you must plan your 
 work carefully, and make all the necessary 
 arrangements for it, before you begin. 
 Choose a good and convenient place for 
 the work, consider carefully all that you 
 are going to do from the beginning to the 
 end of the operation, and think of every- 
 thing that you will require, and see that all 
 that is^iecessary is provided, and arranged 
 in proper order upon the table beforehand ; 
 so that when you once begin, you can
 
 CONCLUDING ADVICE. 191 
 
 proceed regularly and systematically, and 
 without hindrance or interruption, to the 
 end. 
 
 While you are at work, proceed slowly 
 and cautiously with every operation, not 
 trying to see how quick you can do the 
 work, or how ranch you get done, but 
 how well you can do it. 
 
 Do not be in a hurry to have your work 
 finished. Perhaps the greatest cause of 
 the failures of children in their mechanical 
 undertakings is their impatience to have 
 what they are making finished. Do each 
 day as much as you can do well, without 
 paying regard to the time when the work 
 will be done. When it is done you will 
 like it all the better for having given plenty 
 of time to it. 
 
 Do not begin with great undertakings, 
 but try small ones first, and attempt greater 
 ones as you find that you improve in skill 
 and experience. All children, and boys 
 especially, are very apt to plan their first 
 work on too great a scale. It is much 
 better to be modest in beginnings, and 
 only attempt at the outset what you can 
 accomplish easily and well. You can after-
 
 192 MARY GAY'S WORK IN WINTER. 
 
 wards enlarge the sphere of your operations 
 as much as you please. 
 
 Finally, do not allow your works to be a 
 source of inconvenience or trouble to your 
 parents, or to any other persons in the 
 family. Take great care not to soil or in- 
 jure any books or furniture, or make dis- 
 order in a room, or leave scraps and litter 
 for others to remove. Be specially partic- 
 ular, when you have done your work, to 
 put everything back into its place, and to 
 leave the table and the room in the same 
 condition that you found it. 
 
 By following these rules, you will find 
 not only that you will be much more likely 
 to succeed in what you undertake, but 
 you will work with a much greater degree 
 of pleasure and satisfaction while you are 
 employed in the operation, and you also 
 will enjoy the result much more highly, 
 when it is at last attained.
 
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