ion. It consists of a
hoard of wood, upon which a string is suspended, having a plummet at the
end of it, which falls along a straight line at a right angle with the
bottom of the level. To obtain a perfect perpendicular and perfect
horizontal, the level is placed on the work till the line falls
exactly over the nick at the top of the hole. The square is principally
applied to things made at the bench, and is used to bring everything
made to a _right angle_, so that a true level and perpendicular is thus
secured.

STUFF.

The young carpenter will find it very difficult to work without stuff.
He ought, therefore, to purchase a deal sawed into planks or boards,
consisting of one three quarters of an inch thick, another one inch
thick, and another half an inch thick. He ought, also, to obtain a slab
not sawed at all, to cut out as occasion may require. He will then be
provided with wood. He must also lay in a stock of various kinds of
nails, screws, rings, hasps, hinges, etc., and, above all, a good
substantial box to keep his tools and other matters in. This should be
divided into compartments, and everything should be arranged in it with
neatness and order.

LABOUR.

The young carpenter ought to be fond of work; and to feel a pleasure in
it. Should this be the case, there is scarcely an end to his labours. He
may make his hen-houses, his rabbit-hutches, his summer-houses, his
boxes, seats, rustic-chairs, lattice-work and palings for his garden,
build out-houses, and make book-shelves; in short, amuse himself with
the manufacture of a great variety of things, both for use and ornament,
and of which he may justly be a little proud.

Such an amusement is infinitely superior to feats of conjuring and
legerdemain, tricks with cards, and impositions of various kinds, which
are put in some books for the amusement of young people, and which are
highly pernicious both to their mental and moral progress.

PART IX.

KEEPING POULTRY.

Keeping poultry is an innocent amusement both for boys and girls.
Domesticated animals, unlike the free inhabitants of the country, do not
suffer from the loss of liberty, and when they are well housed, fed, and
attended to, they are as happy in their state of domestication as they
would be in their wild state of liberty; perhaps, more so, and therefore
it is quite right to keep them.

There is something very pleasant in watching the old hen as she sits so
patiently on her nest