y. One of these was
laid on an iron table, with its two ends resting against an iron plate.
A man approached and measured it exactly. Then a hydraulic ram was
applied; and there was something quite impressive in the easy quiet way,
in which the ram shoved a spring, which the weight of a locomotive can
scarcely affect, _quite_ _flat_ against the iron plate, and held it
there a moment or two! Being released, the spring resumed its proper
form. It was then re-measured; found not to have expanded a
hair's-breadth, and, therefore,--as Will Garvie took care to explain,--
was passed as a sound well-tempered spring; whereat Bob remarked that it
would need to be a good-tempered spring, to suffer such treatment
without grumbling.

It seemed to Mrs Marrot now as if her capacity for surprise had reached
its limit; but she little knew the wealth of capacity for creating
surprise that lay in these amazing "works" of the Grand National Trunk
Railway.

The next place she was ushered into was a vast apartment where iron in
every shape, size, and form was being planed and turned and cut. The
ceiling of the building, or rather the place where a ceiling ought in
ordinary circumstances to have been, was alive with moving bands and
whirling wheels. The first thing she was called on to contemplate was
the turning of the tyre or rim of one of the driving-wheels of a
locomotive. Often had Mrs Marrot heard her husband talk of tyres and
driving-wheels, and many a time had she seen these wheels whirling,
half-concealed, in their appropriate places, but never till that day had
she seen the iron hoop, eight feet in diameter, elevated in bare
simplicity on a turning-lathe, where its size impressed her so much that
she declared, "she never _could_ 'ave imagined engine-wheels was so
big," and asked, "'ow did they ever manage to get 'em lifted up to w'ere
they was?"

To which an overseer kindly replied by pointing out a neat little crane
fitted on a tail, which, when required, ran along the apartment like a
strong obedient little domestic servant, lifting wheels, etcetera, that
a man could scarcely move, and placing them wherever they were wanted.
Mrs Marrot was then directed to observe the rim of the wheel, where she
saw a small chisel cutting iron curls off it just as easily, to all
appearance, as a turner cuts shavings off wood--and these iron curls
were not delicate; they were thick, solid, unpliant ringlets, that would
have formed a suit