mother. "When you brought both ends of the magnet, one
after the other, to the nail, they both attracted it."

"And so they did the needle which hung down by the thread," said Jonas.

"Yes," said Rollo's mother; "but now this needle, that is floating upon
the water, is half attracted, and half repelled."

"The reason is," said Rollo's father, "that the needle, that is floating
upon the water, is a magnet itself, and has two magnetic poles; but the
sand, and the nail and the needle that Jonas held up by the thread, were
not magnets. They were only common pieces of iron and steel."

"Why, father," said Rollo, "that was the very same needle; you laid it
away upon the corner of the table."

"Yes," said his father; "but it was not a magnet _then_."

"When?" asked Rollo.

"Why, when Jonas held it up by the thread."

"And is it a magnet now?"

"Yes," said his father. "We will see if it is not."

So he took the needle off from the float, and put it upon the paper. He
then sprinkled a little sand over it, from the sand-box, and, upon
taking it up, they all saw that there was a little tuft of black sand
both upon the point and at the eye, showing that it was magnetic at both
ends.

"It became magnetic," said Rollo's father, "only by being touched by the
bar magnet; and that was the reason why I put it away by itself as soon
as it had touched the bar. I did not want to have it mixed with the
other needles, which had not been touched, and which, of course, were
not magnetic. Now, if I take one of the needles which has not been
touched, and put it upon the float, you will see that both ends of it
will be attracted by both ends of the bar."

So he placed away the magnetized needle upon the corner of the table
again, and took another one, and placed it very carefully upon the
float. Then he brought down one end of Jonas's magnet very near the
point of the needle. It attracted it. Then he brought it down very near
the eye of the needle. It attracted the eye too. Then he turned the
magnet, and tried the other end, and he found that that end also would
attract both the eye and the point of the needle.

"Try the magnetized needle, and see if that will attract it too," said
Rollo's mother.

Then Rollo's father took the magnetized needle from the corner again,
and brought the two ends of that, one after another, near to the ends of
the needle upon the float. It attracted them just as Jonas's magnet had
done, only a great d