went into another room, where a machine was cutting a coil
of wire into bits.

'They are much too long for needles,' said Dora, softly, to her uncle;
but one of the workmen heard her, and said:

7. 'So they are! Each bit is going to be two needles. The two ends are
to be the points, and the heads lie in the middle of the wire.'

8. But no heads were to be seen yet. And the wire was not even straight,
for it had long been rolled up in a coil. As the machine went on
chopping, and the wire-strips dropped, a man picked them up and put them
on a shelf in a sort of oven.

9. There they were kept till they were red-hot, and then they were soft
enough to be made straight.

NEEDLES.

PART 2.

[Illustration: 'Now you see the points of the needles.']

points
heads
eyes
un'-cle
block
heav'-y
ham'-mer
al-lowed'
laugh'-ing
watched
piece
sharp

1. The next thing that the children saw was a grindstone turning round
very, very fast.

2. A man put the bits of wire into a thing which was fixed just over the
grindstone, and both ends were quickly rubbed sharp.

3. 'Now you see the points of the needles,' said the man, as the wire
came out again.

'But there are no heads yet!' said Harry.

'And no eyes!' said Dora.

'Well, come along to the stamping-room,' said their uncle.

4. In this room they found a block of stone that had iron on the top of
it. Over it hung a heavy hammer. A man who stood there took one of the
wires, put it on the block, and made the hammer come down upon it.

5. The moment the hammer went up again the wire fell into a pan, and the
children were allowed to look at it.

6. Still there were no eyes or heads! All that could be seen were two
little dents, one on each side of the middle of the wire.

7. 'But, look again!' said uncle. 'Don't you see a tiny dot in each
dent? That is where the eye is going to be.'

8. In the next room they found a great number of boys at work.

'Oh, uncle,' said Harry, 'do you think I could come here and help to
make needles?'

'You would soon be tired of it,' said his uncle, laughing.

9. They went up to one of the boys, and watched him for some time. He
took some wires that had come from the stamping-room, and laid them on a
piece of iron, but held the two ends in his hands.

10. Then a heavy thing with two hard, sharp, steel points under it came
down on the middle part of the wires, and made two h