n she made a little book of white paper, because she thought
the colors and forms of these delicate petals would appear to better
advantage on a smooth, white ground. She then made a selection from all
which she had preserved, and arranged them upon the pages of her little
book, so as to bring a great variety both of form and color upon a page;
and yet forms and colors so selected that all that was upon one page
should be in keeping and harmony.

But it was not merely the botanical collections in the museum which
interested the children. They had some philosophical apparatus. There
was what the boys called a sucker, which consisted of a round piece of
sole leather, about as big as a dollar, with a string put through the
middle, and a stop-knot in the end of it, to keep the string from coming
entirely through; then, when the leather was wet, the boys could just
pat it down upon a smooth stone, and then lift the stone by the string;
the sucker appearing to stick to the stone very closely. Rollo did not
understand how the sucker could lift so well; his father said it was by
the pressure of the atmosphere, but in a way that Rollo was not old
enough to understand.

Then there was what the boys called a circular saw, made of a flat,
circular piece of lead, as large as the top of a tea cup. Jonas had
hammered it out of a bullet. There were saw-teeth cut all around the
circumference, and two holes bored through the lead, at a little
distance from the centre, one on each side. There was a string passed
through these holes, and then the ends were tied together; and to put
the circular saw in motion, this string was held over the two hands, as
the string is held when you first begin to play cat's-cradle. Then, by a
peculiar motion, this saw could be made to whirl very swiftly, by
pulling the two hands apart, and then letting them come together
again,--the string twisting and untwisting alternately, all the time.
There were various other articles of apparatus for performing
philosophical experiments; such as a prism, a magnet, pipes for blowing
soap bubbles, a syringe, or squirt-gun, as the boys called it, made of a
reed, which may be said to be a philosophical instrument.

Jonas made a collection of specimens of _wood_, which was, on the whole,
very curious, as well as somewhat useful. As he was at work sawing wood
from day to day, he laid aside small specimens of the different kinds;
as oak, maple, beech, ash, fir, cedar, &c. H